5th

At 4:45 in the morning Allan's alarm went off and he Rhys and I got up, changed and headed out of the hostel to tackle the 2km snake path up to Massada. We didn't get far though as the big gate to the hostel was locked. Rhys noticed a rectangular outline in the tarmac and thought it might be a sensor for cars so we both jumped on it and the gate opened, we didn't actually think it'd work... We made our way up the steep track and were on top of hte 300 metre rock well before the sun had risen. Masada was the last strong hold of the Jews when the Romans invaded, it is a fortified little city ontop of a rock. The Romans had to build a massive dirt ramp to reach the door and then had to burn the door down, whentey got inside they found all 900 Jewish people dead. They men had killed their families then ten people were chosen to kill all of hte men, then one person chose to kill those last remaining 9 men and himself. We scurried back down and had breaky with the three girls who also went up Massada in the morning and found that they were doing a col walk and camel ride ane were going to Tel aviv like us. We didn't get an invite to join them so we though we'd bit the bullit and just ask - as it utrn out they were just going to bum around the hostel or that was just their excuse to get rid of us. We never really figured out there whey were coming from, seeming really pleased to see us and very friendly but a little stand offish. We said we'd probably se them on the bus t Tel aviv and headed off to a waterfall near Ein Gedi about twenty kms away. We tried hithing and wee successful! A bus pulled over for us and we payed 16 shekels for the ride (okay perhaps not technically hitchhiking but the intent was there). We saw some cool animals like ibex and hyrax (dear and tail less possum looking things) at the waterfall place, then went to wait for the bus, but it was a little late and a lady in a small suzuki pullled over and offered us a lift to Jerusalem so we took it. Then with the hel of some very friendly locals we made our way to central Jerusalem bus station, then sat on the floor of the bus to Tel Aviv where we caught a sheroot to our hostel near the beach. Straight away i could tell that there was a difference between Tel aviv and the rest of Israel - it just seemed like a big Western city. The hostel that we stayed at too was different, very laid back and social. Still only one sex per room, but as Rhys said, they don't mix their cheese with meet, so haved mixed dorms must be way out of the equation. Rhys and i were starving and decided as this was our last night together we would make it a big one. Allen had talked of sending 200 shekals in one night on booze so we thought we'd aim to try and spend a similar amount on food. We managed to spend 70 shekals on Shwarms, pizza, chocolate milk and sweets - we went crazy! At the end of the night we got completly lost. It was fun, but we were quite tired, i was really sure i knew where we were, but i was wrong, very wrong. That was a pretty solid day.