Another early morning wake up for another adventure filled day! Today's quest took the group of MBA students to the City of David tour.   I honestly did not expect this part of the trip to be as fun as it was, but was pleasantly surprised.  First, Yael gave us a glimpse into life of the ancient settlers of Jerusalem and then we watched a 3-D movie which provided us with a tour of the surrounding area and a good amount of history.  The fun part came when we  climbed into the ancient aqueduct system, built to divert water into a fortified section of King David's city, and then trekked for nearly 45 min through the hand dug tunnels. It was so dark, but so much fun!!

After we dried our feet from the aqueduct tour, we promptly made our way for a tour of the Christian sites in Jerusalem.  We started with a nice hilltop view of Mt. Olives and the followed up with a walk downhill to the place where Jesus had his Last Supper.  We then trekked over to the Old City of Jerusalem and made our way to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  Along the way we stopp

Of all the days on this Israel MTrek adventure, I thought the first part of the day was more emotionally demanding than most for the group.  It started with a tour of the Yad Vashem Museum.  It's interesting to see how my new classmates reacted to this experience; some in the group were indifferent, most curious about the history, and a few were personally affected by the memory of the tragic event.  Having visited other Holocaust museums in the U.S. and even watching Schindler's list with my grandmother ( a survivor of Auschitwz), I felt the museum did an amazing job of taking the guest through the rise of the anti-semitism movement in Germany, the life or death struggle of the victims, and the relief of the end of WWII.  Every feature of the museum was built with a specific purpose in mind. For example, the triangle-shaped main corridor which let in a few rays of sunlight in order to simulate the feeling of being enclosed, the downward sloping floors at the start of the tour to recreate the feeling of falling and then the upward sloping floors that led to the light at the end of tunnel all helped to build a great experience. I only wish we had more time to tour the rest of the complex.  Overall, our group thoroughly enjoyed the museum.

This evening we arrived at a desert camp where we will all spend the night at. This was definately my favorite part of the trip! First because nowhere else I would be able to have this experience, and second because it was a lot more fun that I could have ever imagined! We stayed at the Spice Route Khan at Moshav Mitpe Zohar. The place was beautiful and very peaceful. We were warmly received by the locals with cool refreshments and delicious tea. We started by taking camel rides during the gorgeous sunset. After we were all settled, we had dinner as a group in a large table set in the middle of one of the tents. It was a bonding moment for the group, where we had the opportunity to share our impressions, drink some wine and enjoy amazing local food. After dinner we all hung out in some of the tents and later headed to the swimming pool, which was at a highlight of the camp. We stayed at the pool under a sky full of stars and ended this unforgetable day sleeping in the camp tents.  

Today, as part of our Mtrek trip, we went to visit Masada in the morning. It was amazing to see all those ruins, and even better to hear from Yael, our tour guide, the history behind all that. We learned about King Herod and his legacy and about great stories of Jewish soldiers and their fighting against the Romans. It was a sunny day, perfect to appreciate that beautifull view. After visiting the ruins of Herod's palace we ended our visit to Masada and headed to the Dead Sea, which we were all very excited about. We had fun floating in the Dead Sea water and enjoying the hot weather. My favourite part was to cover myself up in mud, which is known to have cosmetics properties! At the end of the day the group headed towards a desert camp, where we would spend the night.