Heading South

The night before I headed to the Sinai I spent in Jerusalem in a hostel in the Old City. It was a beautiful stoned-walled place down a side street and was located above a small cafe. The dorm room was pretty cheap, 50 shekels and was in large room with a domed ceiling. After I dropped my bag off, I headed off on foot just after nightfall to locate the Jerusalem Central Bus Station, which I knew was located along Jaffa street a few miles outside the Old City. I knew Jaffa street well enough because it was the street that the central post office was on. It felt like a pretty long walk, somewhere around an hour, but I got a chance to really see one of the main arterials in the city. Many of the municipality offices and upscale markets are located on the street and the weather was nice so I enjoyed the trip. The demographics on the walk were interesting to say the least. The most common thing that I saw was orthodox Jews in their long black suit coats and beards and large hats, followed by IDF members. It's odd seeing IDF members in Jerusalem because they are not really "on-duty" but they are still wandering around in their uniform with their rifles. It's way more than anything you would even see on a marine base in the US, but like I said, this is in the middle of Jerusalem. Anyone who talks about America having a military or a gun culture hasn't seen anything compared to Israel.

Anyways, I got to the bus station okay and bought my ticket for the next morning and headed back towards the old city. I was lucky enough to run into my french co-worker in the lobby of the hostel who was on her way home for the holidays and we went out to the only open cafe at night in the old city for some tea and talking before heading to bed for an early morning. I was up at 5:30 and got to the bus station and loaded up on the bus for the five hour trip south. In between naps I caught glimpses of the Dead Sea and the Negev, the vast desert area that constitutes the southern region of Israel. At the one resting point we got off the bus for a few minutes to stretch our legs and very nice young Jewish man went out of his way to introduce himself and ask me about my trip. This was an especially nice moment for me because until this point all the Israeli's I had met had been less than friendly, and I was happy for a chance to break the stereotype that had been forming in my head that these must be rude people. Back on the bus, we continued south until we arrived in Eilat, the southern most city in Israel, where I grabbed a quick bite to eat and waited for the bus to the border with Egypt.

 Pictures of the trip thus far:

 In the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea

 The Dead Sea

 The Negev Desert

The mountains of Jordan as seen from Eilat

The border crossing was easy enough. I passed through Israeli Security quickly and Egypt was also a breeze. My passport is finally starting to get some character to it with various visa stamps! At the border I met a British dive instructor who was returning to Egypt doing essentially the exact same thing I was but in reverse- renewing his Egyptian visa by coming to Israel for a few days. He was a nice guy who had been living in Dahab for the last year or so, ever since he got laid off in England and decided to seek out a new occupation. It's interesting to see that other people in the developed world are looking away from home for work and finding new adventures along the way. We partnered up with some other English kids and got a cab down to Dahab. I wish I could tell you about the trip and the Red Sea at this point but we were all too busy talking. I didn't even get a chance to take a picture along the two hour trip south!

I'll write more tonight while it's still fresh but for now I need dinner and to work on my lesson plans for teaching english next week!