Hello!
Peter and I got back from our trip to Israel last night, and to make this post a bit more understandable I've added a map of our trip across Egypt-the Sinai Peninsula-and Israel.
We left Cairo last Monday night with eight other students at around 10:30 pm on a public bus across the Sinai Penninsula, and arrived on the other side Tuesday morning at about 4:45 am where we were dropped off on the side of the road and had to wander until we were able to find the way to walk across the border into Israel. By the time we were past both the Egyptian and Israeli border patrol officers, the sun was rising over the Red Sea. We walked along the coast for almost two hours enjoying our first cool breeze in six weeks, before giving in and getting a taxi to the nearby town of Eilat, the southernmost town in Israel. After arriving in Eilat we set to work at finding a hostel to spend the night since there were no buses running that day to Jerusalem because of Rosh Hashanah-the Jewish new year. After visiting a few hostels the 10 of us settled in at the Corrine Hostel for 50 Sheckels (17 dollars) a night, and spent the day swimming in the Red Sea. (I know, what an awful place to be stranded).
The next morning we got up early and took off for the bus station to catch the earliest bus to Tel Aviv at 11:30, since the Jerusalem bus didn't leave until 5 we thought our best bet to get to Jerusalem the fastest would be to take a 4 hour bus to Tel Aviv and a 30 minute bus from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem (Tel Aviv is marked on my map by the northernmost point of the blue line). After arriving in Tel Aviv, the girls promptly went on our hunt for a bathroom (one of the few words I know in Arabic). While the boys went to look for the ticket counter. While standing in line for the bathroom I was looking through my bag and realized my passport was nowhere to be found. I frantically dumped out my bag but had no luck. After Peter came up with nothing either we immediately took off and were able to find the main office where I was told that my bus was presently on it's way back down to Beer Sheva (which you can find on the map) about one hour south of Tel Aviv in the middle of the Negev Desert. The manager phoned the Be'er Sheva bus station for me and told me to come back in one hour. By that time the bus driver should have arrived and would be able to search the bus for my passport. So we went back to our group and told them we'd be waiting for the news and they could leave. We said good-bye to the 8 others and Peter and I stayed behind in Tel Aviv for a total of 3 more hours waiting for it's return. Luckily they found it and all went smoothly from there.
Peter and I arrived in Jerusalem at about 10 pm and were able to find room with our friends at a hostel in the Old City between the border of the Christian and Armenian quarters. The next morning I bet Peter he couldn't go until 3 p.m. without saying the word "Armenian". And sure enough the first person we were approached by was a young Armenian man at 9:30 in the morning who hadn't slept all night (smelled a bit like liquor) and was extremely friendly. Obviously Peter lost the bet. (Although we all wish he wouldn't have so early in the day)
We spent the day wandering around the densely packed streets of the Old City and trying to find our way to the Temple Mount. Eventually we learned that only the Muslims were allowed in because of their Holiday (the reason we were allowed on this break) Eid al-Fitr, marking the feast at the end of Ramadan. Christians would once again be allowed on the Temple Mount the following Sunday-the day we would be leaving. This news made us all very disappointed, but we ended up going to the Wailing Wall and getting to see the ancient Temple Garden's anyway. After spending some time hanging around the Muslim Quarter smelling delicious schawarmas we left the gates of the Old City and proceeded on our epic journey to climb the Mount of Olives. (Do NOT eat the olives.) Half of the Mountain is now covered in Jewish graves, about 150,00 which you'll be able to see in the photos I've added. Once we got to the top we wandered around the village and were able to get excellent views of the wall dividing Israel from the West Bank.
We walked back down the Mountain before stopping to sit on the side for almost an hour amidst the Olive Trees and take in the city. After climbing back down we found the gate to the Garden of Gethsemani and were able to walk through it. A Catholic Church is now built next to the garden so Peter got to attend a little service there, which was pretty impressive although in Latin.
The next day we got up early to walk the Via Dolorosa (The Walk of Pain). The supposed route Jesus took after his condemnation up to his crucifixion and burial. I was surprised to find out that Golgotha was actually inside of the Old City. Although at the time of his crucifixion it was not, it was just outside the gates on a hill. Evidently there is good evidence that the spot actually is Golgotha. It's just hard to imagine now because the spot has been covered by a building, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and the spot where they think Jesus was crucified is inside the Church. The experience was a bit lackluster, although it is cool that the spot we were at has been a pilgrimage site for Christians for the past 16 centuries.
Later that day Peter, Cody (our friend from St. Olaf also attending the American University in Cairo) and I, found a taxi driver who would drive us across the border into Palestine so we could go swimming in the Dead Sea. That was excellent!!! The cab driver was a Palestinian/Israeli which is why he didn't mind taking us into the West Bank. He's lived in the Muslim quarter of the Old City his entire life and his family has been there for 850 years. His family has been keeping track by carving every firstborn sons' name on a tree. Because he grew up in the Muslim quarter, which is considered East Jerusalem (the Arab side of the city). He grew up learning Arabic, Hebrew, and English. So we were able to have a good conversation in English. The other half of our group spent the day in Hebron, the burial site of Abraham, also in the West Bank talking to Palestinians. We returned to the Old City and wandered around to find yummy kebabs, and returned to the Wailing Wall to watch an extremely solemn Jewish service, marking the beginning of Yom Kippur.
The next day was the Jewish Sabbath, Saturday. So everything was closed. Apparently you can't walk over 120 steps on the Sabbath, so it was funny to see the Jewish men taking very thought out, long strides everywhere they went (joke ha ha).
Seriously though, everything was closed. So we decided to go to the East side of Jerusalem and take an Arab bus to the West Bank to the City of Ramallah. Here we spent the day at a cafe on the roof of a tall building overlooking the city drinking tea and playing cards. We taught some Palestinians how to play B.S. and they taught us a version of canasta. That conversation was also very interesting.
Concerning the Israeli Checkpoints...
The Israeli checkpoints will let anyone go into the West Bank, so we just flew right through without stopping. The difficult part is getting out of the West Bank and into Israel. On our way into Ramallah Peter noticed some of his favorite graffiti artwork painted on the wall by Banksy, his favorite graffiti artist and immediately tried to take very inadequate pictures of them in the moving vehicle. On the way out of the West Bank, our bus was filled entirely with Palestinians (excluding the 7 in our group.) All the Palestinians were required to walk across the border by foot, while we Americans were allowed to wait in the bus. While we were sitting in the bus Cody was snapping pictures of the wall and decided it was a bad idea in case he was seen by the Palestinians lined up outside the vehicles. Also, a few boys saw him there and immediately starting throwing gum in the bus window and shouting random dollar amounts at him.
While I was watching this go on, I noticed Peter sitting in between us tapping his feet and staring out the window. After a few moments he got up and ran out of the bus towards the wall, camera in hand. Not to be outdone, Cody immediately ran after him, followed directly by the gum-throwing-boys. The rest of us just sat there, watching them as they rounded the corner of the wall out of site.
We waited five minutes before the bus started moving closer towards the checkpoint.
...Ten minutes, we were almost there.
...Fifteen minutes and it was our turn to go through. An Israeli officer entered the bus to look at our I.D. she was friendly once finding out we were American students traveling around without a purpose.
..20 minutes, the driver had stopped to wait for the missing 2 boys on the other side. Still no sign of them. Finally he told us we couldn't wait any longer, we agreed, and started speeding off towards Jerusalem.
"Crap" I thought, so much for promising Peter's parents I wouldn't let him do anything stupid...like stranding himself in the West Bank. Was this better or worse then letting him get hit by a car..?
We got back to Jerusalem 20 minutes later and I ran into the gates of the Old City so I could explore before all the shops closed at sun-set. I managed to wander my way through the Muslim and Christian quarters into the Armenian quarter and through the other side of the city to Mount Zion, where King David is buried. I found his tomb and the site of the last supper before making my way back through the maze of the Old City and into the hostel.
Peter was sitting in the kitchen teaching a Palestinian boy to play backgammon. I looked at him warily and kept walking to my room where I napped and silently thought not-so-nice thoughts. Ha.
The next day was Sunday, we got up at 5, caught a bus to the Jerusalem Bus Station where we bought tickets for a 10 am shuttle back down to the Red Sea, where we once again crossed the Egypt/Israeli border on foot (only this time we had to pay an exit/entrance fee of approximately 40 USD, gr.) we budged in front of a huge tourist group from Argentina to get back into Egypt in time to catch our bus back to Cairo. Unfortunately we missed the bus, but were able to hire a van to take us directly to our dorm for only $5 more than the bus.
We arrived back at Zamalek 6 hours later and went straight to bed.
And in case you're curious, I'm sure Peter will blog about his adventures taking pictures of graffiti in the West Bank.
Also, here is our album of the trip. PHOTOS
