One Girl and a Big World

Welcome back to the blog everyone and Merry Christmas!

For today’s blog, I will talk about a December trip my family took in 2016 and one that almost resulted in us dying in a mountain car accident (no joke).

In December of 2016, a couple months after we had moved into our house in Portugal, my mom planned us a trip to Israel and Jordan. We did not see Israel with a tour group. Instead, we hired our own personal driver so we could see exactly what we wanted to see on our trip.

Israel was incredibly fun. As Christians, it was very special to see all the places where Biblical figures and Christ would have walked around. The food and drink was so good as well. (For anyone who goes, freshly squeezed pomegranate juice is a MUST). Our driver took us all over Jerusalem and Israel. We visited Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Tel Aviv, Galilea, Jericho, Nazareth, Caesarea, Haifa, the Dead Sea, and probably a couple more that I cannot remember as of right now.

Going in December was a very good choice on my mom’s part as the weather was very pleasant. Not too hot and not too cold with blue skies beautifully adding to the scenery. On top of that, Christian churches and sectors of towns were decorated for Christmas. Although we were not able to spend Christmas in Israel, going a couple days before was still a really cool experience. What better way to celebrate Christmas than to visit Christ’s place of birth?

Simply stated, Israel is FULL of things to do and places to see. One of the places my mom planned to go to was the fortress of Masada. To give you a quick background, Masada is nestled in the mountains and it watches over the Dead Sea. You can actually see Jordan from the fortress. It was originally built during the reign of Herod the Great a few years before the birth of Christ. It gained its infamous reputation, however, because of the slaughter of Jewish rebels (Zealots) holding out in the fortress by Roman soldiers in 73 A.D. After Jerusalem endured its horrifying fall to Roman Emperor Titus, some Zealots held out in the fortress until it also fell to the Roman army.

The site was incredibly well preserved. To reach the fortress, you actually have to take a cable car (unless you want to hike the mountain). That was not enjoyable for me personally as I am very afraid of heights… but oh well, I did not have a choice. Inside the fortress, floor mosaics were still intact. That was probably my favorite part of the whole fortress.

Anyway, enough talk about the actual fortress. Let’s address the near car accident on the way to Masada…

As I mentioned before, we had our own personal driver to tour Israel. From my personal experience (and I say this with all love and respect), driving in the Middle East can be terrifying. As we are driving the mountain route to Masada, our driver decides that we have been behind a certain car for way too long and determines that he his going to pass him (keep in mind this is a two lane road on the edge of a mountain). He follows through with his plan, but as he veers into the lane of oncoming traffic, we see a car driving in our direction. Now, there are few moments when I have been severely terrified, but this was one of those moments. Put yourself in my shoes for just a second: imagine yourself sitting in a car, with your mom and brother on either side of you and you see yourself in a lane with oncoming traffic at the edge of a mountain cliff. What would you do in that situation? Well, if you thought scream, that’s exactly what I did. By the grace of God, our driver somehow had enough speed to pass the car in front of us and merge back into our designated land with one second to spare before we would have had a head-on collision. Thankfully, a crisis was averted, but my faith in our driver was rather shaken. That was too much risk for my liking! My whole family was rather shaken by Middle Eastern driving to say the least. Regardless, we made it to Masada, and got to spend a couple hours learning about the Jewish resistance to the Roman army.

To end this blog, I would just like to say that I hope you have a very merry Christmas. Be sure to remember the reason for the season. Our Savior was born in Bethlehem 🙂

Merry Christmas!

Sofia

“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”

Luke 2:8-11