3

((israel: day 3))

we have arrived in jerusalem! hallelujah!

we arose bright and early to make our way north to jerusalem. northern and southern esrael have a completely different look. the north is exactly how i pictured the holy land – dry, barren, and rocky. a complete switcharoo from lush tiberias.

day three was a day of ruins. we started off in capernaum, the spot that is believed to be the house where peter was raised. then we moved on to a roman entertainment spot with baths, an amphitheater, spa, and market. clearly the hot spot of town. want to know something funny? the men and women shared bathrooms – definitely don’t think i would have made it back then.

 and all this stuff was discovered a mere 25 years ago! the bonus was that we could touch, pick up, and walk all over everything.

next we visited the spot on the jordan river where Jesus was baptized by john. it’s also a division line between israel and jordan. i felt semi-adventurous because the whole area was surrounded by mines. i wanted to give one rock a little toss to see what would blow up. talk about a cool picture!

after the mine area, we traveled up one of the same roads jesus would have walked to see what is described as the valley of the shadow of death in in psalms 23.

fun fact of the day: locust is another name for a carob tree. like one that makes those yummy carob chips. so john the baptist may have not had to eat those sick little bugs in the wilderness. he could have been chocohalic!

roman pottys.

i could eat a falafel a day. 

poking the jordan river.

had to.