By March 3 the end was quickly approaching. We knew this was our last weekend, so we had to see the one major site in Israel that we had not yet visited—the Dead Sea. To many foreigners, the Dead Sea represents the most famous natural attraction in Israel; to us, the Dead Sea represented a nice place to relax. From the moment the trip was proposed, Katherine and I were thinking about our massage at the spa.

Because our time was limited we decided to spend our first day at Masada, the enormous ruins set atop a hill in the Negev desert, and spend the second day at Ein Gedi, a resort/spa town on the shore of the Dead Sea. We didn't leave until Friday morning, when we hopped on an early morning bus headed straight toward Masada. As the bus got closer we realized that Ein Gedi consisted of nothing more than a few scattered hotels in the middle of the desert. My mind immediately drifted toward the fact that we did not have hotel reservations or solid transportation plans, and I wished that we had rented a car.

However, there was nothing much to do about those concerns immediately, so I decided to just enjoy Masada. The hilltop fortress of Masada was initially built by the Jewish High Priest Jonathan Maccabeus around 150 BC, but it did not gain real status until Herod came along a few years later and spruced the place up a bit. The fortress"s real story though, is not of its creation but of its destruction. In 70 AD, when the Romans were slowly conquering Israel, Masada became the last Jewish holdout in Israel. Over 15,000 Roman soldiers tried to overtake the 967 people blockaded atop Masada, but for five months they had no luck. When the defenders realized that the Romans were going to make it through, they chose death over potential slavery; ten men were chosen to kill the rest of the defenders, and then one of the ten killed the other nine before stabbing himself.

This story of sacrifice and battle reigns over Masada today. In a similar vein of battle, Francis and Paul decided that we should climb up the imposing snake trail to reach the top of the cliff, rather than riding on the comfortable cable car. Despite the fact that I was overcoming a severe cough, my stubborn side came out and I decided to join the others in the ascent. The snake trail only takes about 30 minutes, but with over 700 steps up the side of a hot desert mountain, it is a tough trip. It was quite a sense of accomplishment when we reached the top.

We spent a couple of hours wandering through the palaces and walls of the ruined fortress. The ruins were beautiful, but the view was incredible. We could see the huge expanse of the Negev desert, the Dead Sea, and in the distance, Jordan. However, hunger, thirst, and exhaustion eventually motivated us to descend, and this time we enjoyed the comfort of an air-conditioned cable car.

The true adventure was yet to come. We had been told that the last bus came around 4pm, so we were at the bus stop (an empty bench) by 3:30pm. But no bus came. The Masada employees left, the road became increasingly deserted, and we started to question the information that we had received earlier. One bus came, but it was going the wrong direction. We started to discuss the relative merits of hitchhiking versus walking several kilometers along the side of a nearly deserted road in the middle of the desert. Neither option sounded particularly appealing.

Alas, our fears were unmerited. The bus finally came and dropped us off next to the Ein Gedi Guest House, which is located on the kibbutz of the same name. Although this was the most expensive place we had stayed in during the trip, we were hot, exhausted, hungry, and more than happy to pay for the convenience of being able to lie down.

We enjoyed a night of quiet relaxation at the kibbutz, and the next morning we intended to head to the Ein Gedi Spa. However, people ended up sleeping in, lunch took awhile, and before we knew it we were rushing to reach the 2pm bus down to the spa. That gave us more than enough time to see the Dead Sea, but sadly it meant that there were no more massages available that day. Katherine and I were especially disappointed, but we were still at a spa—we really had nothing to complain about.

We headed down and covered ourselves with Dead Sea mud. It was quite a surreal experience to scoop mud out of an enormous communal trough and spread it over your body. After rinsing off in the slightly painful sulfur water, we headed down to the actual sea.

Perhaps because of its regular association with mud, I expected the Dead Sea to be somewhat gross. However I was happily surprised to discover that the sea was beautiful—crystal clear with an oddly white salt beach. The signs told us exactly what to do—lie on your back and float—and so we followed directions. The salt did in fact create amazing buoyancy, and we had a great time just sitting on the water. It was a truly unique experience, and a great destination for our last trip.

The bus home that evening was slightly bittersweet. We had a great weekend, but we knew this was the end. We had one week left at MDA, but then we would be heading our separate ways. As we sat at a picnic table, waiting for the bus, we realized that in exactly one week Francis would be in the US, Paul would be in Jordan, I would be in Egypt, and Katherine would still be in Israel. The time had come to move on.