The weather [this morning] was absolutely shocking: foggy, misty, drizzly; basically a very dreary day. Perfect for our first stop of the morning: Yad Vashem.
Yad Vashem is the National Holocaust Museum of Israel. It was opened in 1953, but the original memorials depicted all the Jews as either valiant resistors; or as lambs going to the slaughter. After the Adolf Eichmann trial in 1964, Israel's attitude to remembering the holocaust changed significantly: "Resisted we who survived".
The memorial itself was interesting: the Hall of Names, a record of every Jew killed in the holocaust, was quite moving. I was also able to search the database there [for family that was lost in the holocaust]: didn't find anyone I particularly recognised by name.
There was also a dark, candlelit room full of mirrors: the children's memorial. The candles represent their neshamas living on eternally, even though they were robbed of physical life prematurely. Also quite disturbing for me was the room with the names of all the concentration camps embossed in large letters.
I didn't take any photos the whole time, because I felt that the Holocaust is a memory to be preserved in dignity at a museum; not something to be glorified, masqueraded and remembered fondly in a tourist's photo album.
We spent the whole dreary morning at Yad Vashem; then we said goodbye to Jerusalem and began our long bus trip that would occupy most of the rest of the day.
The bus drove south for many hours, going through beautiful farmland for a long time, but eventually blazing into the bare hills and knolls of the Upper Negev. We had with us four IDF soldiers, of whom Ariel and Uri were the most lively. The soldiers taught Dave and Ari some more Israeli pickup lines (in particular for the Army Girls' arrival later in the day); they chatted about their lives; and hit on the girls a bit themselves.
We stopped for lunch at a Burger Ranch in the middle of nowhere, where we ate some package lunches and had some chips. Then, back on the road, headed for the Air Force Base where the IDF girls were waiting.
After at least another two hours on the bus, we arrived at the base. It's a really legend place, but even more legend was "Dikla" [one of the 4 girls]: "Einat's on the street", Ari said [when he saw her].
We had a seminar from this Air Force Colonel who spoke really bad English; who explained the base's main function, 'ASP' (Air Situation Picturing); and whose answer to most questions was either "no comment", "that's a very good question", or "that's classified".
He took us on a tour of the facility, where we saw the ATC room in operation (it's basically a whole lot of rader screens and guys with headsets - just like in the movies); and where we saw a simulated response to the presence of an "unknown aircraft", which was pretty cool.
We were on our way out of the facility, when Ronnie, our incredibly skilled bus driver, managed to reverse almost over a cliff, and blew a tyre on a huge, sharp rock. So we had to all get out of the bus. While we were waiting for the tyre to get replaced, we ate dinner at the Air Force Cheder Ochel, then went to a hall and played some really cool games.
We played "come on introduce yourself". We had a serious teams-based "scissors, paper, rock" tournament. We played "Bop it", a cool game where you 'flick it', 'twist it', 'spin it', and 'pull it'. And we played a footy passes game where you had to clap before catching the ball.
[On the bus to En Gedi], we passed right by the Dead Sea, and saw all these 'plants' (for desalinisation, I assume) next to it. We looked across the sea, and saw Jordan on the other side. At one point, there was a town on the top of a hill on the other side, and in the dark it looked like it was floating in the clouds.
Finally (quite late), we arrived at En Gedi, had a quick bite to eat, and went into our hotel rooms for the night. Tonight I'm with Portnoy and Deutsch.
That should be all there is to tell, but just before Portnoy went to bed - well, actually, just as he got into bed, to be precise - his bed collapsed under him! It was the funniest thing you ever saw - absolute classic. I hope my bed stays up - it's a pretty crummy hotel. Well, if there's another entry tomorrow, you'll know I survived the night.