From Jordan to Israel to Egypt

We took a micro bus from Petra to Amman, Jordan's capital, and arrived about three hours later. When we got to Amman we were planning on taking another bus to the Jordanian/Israeli border but we found a taxi driver who was willing to take all four of us directly to the border for just as cheap. It didn't really matter how we got there, just as long as we made it before the border closed later that day for the three day Muslim holiday. So it was a race against time. The taxi ride ended up taking another two hours, but I think the driver was secretly willing to drive us there for so little because of the beautiful landscape. There is a mountain range that runs along the Israeli/Jordanian border, the southern half of the mountain range is desert while the northern half is lush and green. The valleys are farmed meticulously, so we stopped a few times to take in the view, and were able to see Israel on the horizon.

After driving down the mountainside into the valley we got to the border with two hours to spare. There is about 5 kilometers of no-man's-land between the two countries at this point so we had to hop into another taxi and be driven across. Halfway across no-man's-land we had to get out of the taxi and take an Israeli bus through to the other side, where we were once again welcomed by the lovely Israeli border patrol soldiers. It took Peter about 10 minutes longer to get through because he was carrying around dangerous weapons.

Ha ha ha. Just kidding, he was carrying a laptop. I almost got stopped though because the border patrol officer-who looked 18-started drilling me on my ID information. She asked me what city I was born in, so I told her Fairmont. She shook her head and said "WRONG you were born in the city of Minnesota" I told her "Minnesota is a State" (you idiot). And I got through just fine.

From the border we took three more buses before we arrived 3 hours later at the city of Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. We found our hostel really easily and took a nap before going out to chow down on amazing local food. We watched the sunset over the mountains surrounding the sea and finished our day by watching Wall-E.

The next morning we got up early and rented four mountain bikes and biked up the western shore of the Sea, until we reached a few biblical landmarks where churches were built in commemoration. The first was a church where Jesus supposedly broke the break and fish and fed 5,000. There was a sanctuary built around the rock where he sat, and a courtyard with a few baptismal fonts. Up the road aways, along the northern shore was another chapel commemorating the site were Jesus called (Saint) Peter to carry on his ministry. It's an extremely important site for Catholics especially who consider Peter the first pope. (we ran into a lot of Spanish speakers here, ha).

"And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it." Matthew 16:18

We spent alot of time here because the beach was particularly nice. It's not surprising this is where scholars believed Jesus frequently visited. We also saw the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus preached his Sermon on the Mount. I continued up the northern coast alone to check out the ruins of Capernaum. Then we biked back to Tiberias, the trip was probably 15 miles roundtrip, but it was fairly difficult considering we were biking up and down steep hills on mountain bikes, I wanted my road bike so badly after that trip!

The next day we were planning on doing another biking trip, but it was raining so we left. Up to this point there were four of us on the trip. Peter and I split with the other two at this point (Kurt and Sterling). They took a bus directly to Tel Aviv, Peter and I decided to go to Nazareth. Nazareth was just as soggy as Tiberias. So we ran around the cobblestone streets trying to find the Basilica commemorating the spot where the angel Gabriel supposedly appeared to Mary and where Jesus was conceived. The basilica standing there now, is the fifth one on the site. It is build on top of the old ones sheltering them. It was like walking into what the city had once been 1500 years ago. The church is also the biggest in the Middle East. Other than then I thought it was really ugly. So we left the church and found a schwarma place run by an Arab family (we can read arabic now/ converse limitedly so it was a relief to do that again..since we know no Hebrew).

Nazareth is an interesting city because about half of the population is Christian, and the other half is Muslim. For the most part, I doubt that they have any problem living homogeneously, however there was a banner we saw in front of the basilica citing the verse from the Quran that says Allah has never begotten a son. So we took a picture.

We waited in the rain for a bus down to Tel Aviv for about 2 hours before one showed up. We ended up in Tel Aviv about 3 hours later, at the bus station where I lost my passport last time... so we knew our way around. Peter and I decided to spend a few days in the ancient port city of Jaffa, which has existed for thousand and thousands of years before Tel Aviv. Jaffa's been swallowed up by Tel Aviv's urban sprawl, but it is still intact and beautiful.

We saw some ancient ruins, played in the Mediterranean Sea, ate really good local street food, and sat on grass!! (there's no grass in Cairo). We met up with Kurt and Sterling again and went to the Chocolate Bar, this swanky place with a menu full of chocolate concoctions, yum yum yum! After two days of Jaffa, we reluctantly left the Mediterranean Sea behind to take another stuffy bus back down to the Red Sea and Egypt, we made it across the border in time to catch another bus across the Sinai Penninsula and be back in Cairo two days before finals started.