SO. I am officially leaving Israel for my last day in Cairo! ahh SAD SAD SAD!! I'm more than excited to go home, but the closer I get to boarding this plane the more I realize how much i'm dreading having to say goodbye to the city that has become my home. But, enough of that...i'll save my depressing post for the day i leave. For now, i'll give ya a quick overview of my time in Petra and Jerusalem! Alright let's start with my general itinerary:
Day 1 (May 17): Fly into Amman
Alright so I got to Amman at about 9:30 pm their time and had prearranged to be picked up because, well, it's a foreign city, i'm alone and I don't want to chance it. So, I find the guy holding the sign for my hostel...he looks nice..but he's GIANT, and it's just me and him, and he has me sit in the front seat. He offered to carry my bag, which was nice, but of course the entire time i'm thinking, "well, awesome. I'm going to get kidnapped and he already has my bag." Okay, I wasn't thinking that, but I was a BIT nervous. Until I got into the car and started chatting. His name is Ahmed and he's SO nice. We chatted about Amman, and attempted Arabic,he told me where to go get food (none of that information got used unfortunately), and oh we discussed the fact that
he's a member of the JORDANIAN NATIONAL TAE KWON DO TEAM. He actually knows the 2 girls and one guy that they have going into the Olympics this summer. He was out of commission because he'd had his jaw broken and messed up a ligament in his knee. But, he still trained younger athletes and is working on keeping fit so that he can continue to fight one he heals up. It was awesome. Seriously going to be cheering on their team this summer. Awesome.
Day 2: Petra
So, the next morning I woke up at 5am to make a 6:30 bus to Petra. Conveniently there were some other people from the hostel headed that way so I caught a cab with them, and ended up getting the last seat on the bus to Petra! I passed out on the bus, which was good cause it took 3 hours to get there and I didn't get much sleep the night before. But, upon getting there I completely woke up. As I started down the path into Petra I started chatting with this nice guy who became my Petra sight-seeing-buddy. He's Iraqi but followed his parents to Sydney after the start of the war. He told me he'd had two younger brothers and a nephew killed by an accidental airstrike. The worst part is that they are originally from Baghdad and had moved from there to a smaller town in order to stay safe. Anyways, we had a good time chatting and making our way through the magnificence that is Petra. It's
breathtaking. The initial passageway in is spectacular with the multicolored rocks, and streams of sun piercing through the top at various segments. Gorgeous. We went to the monastery at the end and made sure to see the Royal tombs as well as the Treasury of course=] We got a donkey ride up to the monastery but then walked back down. We saw at LEAST two mothers carrying children up that mountain though. What are you people thinking?! We could barely do it and we were in shape! Insanity. Anyways, after a good five hours of walking around, we both headed to the exit, downed some water and then waited for the bus to arrive to take us back to Amman.
Day 3: Bus to Jerusalem
So luckily the night before I had gotten the chance to catch up with some people who were also heading to the border the next day, so I ended up getting some much needed info from them and booked a ride to the border through the hostel. So, I got up at around 7am and was in the taxi by 8am to drive to King Hussein Bridge! The Bridge crossing was SO easy. I went in, did my passport stuff and then was heading to the bus when i inadvertently responded to someone by saying "ayowa" which means yes in Arabic. This led to a guy speaking to me for the next 15 minutes about Arabic, and how I liked it and where I was going and whether or not I was married. You know, the basics. He thought it was hysterical that this little white girl could understand him. But, then again, I guess it was. He was really nice and we joked around a bunch until the bus left to take us to the Israeli terminal! There it was fairly simple crossing, minus the guards looking like they wanted to destroy me when I said I wanted a paper instead of my passport stamped.
"why?! You don't want the stamp?"
"No, I want the stamp, just on a paper."
"WHY?!"
"I might be travelling to Lebanon later"
"Lebanon is friends with us"
* uncomfortable laughter* "yeah..."
It's fine, they finally gave it to me on the paper. I just stared him down until he figured I would make a scene if he didn't. This was probably a fair assumption. But, after that I grabbed some shekels and hopped on a bus to Jerusalem, where Brendan (a guy from the hostel) and I attempted to find our hostel in Jerusalem. After wandering around forever with no luck we finally grabbed a taxi. Which took us 5 minutes past where we'd stopped looking. Yup. that happened. On the bright side, we'd gotten to Jerusalem so early that I had plenty of time to wander around!
So, I checked out the old city with a nice Canadian kid i met at the hostel. He had gone on the birthright trip and ended up loving it so much that he moved to Israel and is joining the IDF. It was interesting walking around the old city with him and getting the history of the place from his point of view. Although somewhat awkward when he discovered I disagreed with him about some of it, and i'm pretty sure some of his facts were wrong, it was nice to have a tour guide and someone to walk around with. After a bit we parted ways and I did a little souvenir shopping and headed over to the Mt. of Olives before heading back to the hotel and grabbing dinner with a Brazilian girl named Estella. Successful day.
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| Zion Gate--filled with bullet holes from the war |
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| Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall |
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| The Western Wall! |
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| Garden of Gethsemane |
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| Pretty mural at the church of Jesus praying in the garden |
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| Largest Jewish graveyard |
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| Tomb of Mary |
Day 4: Bethlehem and Dead Sea
This day was pretty fantastic for a few reasons. First, it was completely organized for me. I took tours with the hostel for both, which made planning simple. Second, it left time in between the tours to grab lunch and rest up for the next one. Third, I met amazing people on the first tour and lovely ones on the second. Definitely a good day. It started when we headed to Bethlehem. Grabbed the bus where I was the only person my age, and the only one on my own. Automatically thinking "GREAT. What did I get myself into?" But, it ended up being wonderful. There were 3 other couples on the bus. First were a couple in their early 30s that were both from London. I got a chance to talk to them about the Olympics. Definitely mixed feelings about it, but the girl was able to rent out her apartment for it and make some money, so that's a plus! One of the other couples had a daughter who had been studying in Haifa, so there thrilled to find out that I had been studying in Cairo. The final couple consisted of a
husband and wife who were both professors at Cornell University. The woman
focused on Eastern Europe, Russia and uprisings, while the husband had a
concentration in biotechnology with a focus in Southeast Asia. They were an incredibly
fascinating couple. The husband had come to give a talk and the wife was along
for the ride. They loved that I had been in Cairo studying Arabic especially
during the uprisings.=]
Anyways, Bethlehem itself was wonderful.
Our guide was so sweet, and tried to teach me some Shamii Arabic. We went to
the field where the Shepherds were supposed to have seen the angels and star.
Then we went to where people believe that Christ was born. I haven’t checked up
on the archaeological evidence for either of those so I can’t say whether or
not they were legitimate. However, we WERE in Bethlehem which has always been a
small town, so it’s cool to think that this is where Jesus would have been
born, regardless of whether people put churches in the right spots. We also
went to the milk grotto which is apparently where Mary lactated and a small bit
of Breast milk fell on the ground turning what used to be a black cave, white.
Interesting idea, though I don’t personally put much stake in it. The church
itself was quite beautiful and of a beautiful white circular design. After that
short jaunt, we headed back across the Palestinian/Israeli border and back to
the hostel.
(the first picture is the cave they think the shepherds lived in, the second is the field in which they were to have seen the angels)
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| original floor of the church |
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| Church of the Nativity |
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| Graffiti on the border walls |
Since I had about two and a half hours
until my next tour, I wandered over to the nearby market and had lunch. While, after
having lived in Cairo for four months, markets aren’t a huge deal, this one was
lovely. It wasn’t too huge, but big enough to get a little lost in and looking
at all the different sweets, nuts, olives, dates, spices and general goods
being sold was extremely enjoyable. I ended up going to a random local place
and getting something called Kubra, which is a wheat (although it can be other
things) based patty filled with meat in a greenish soup with onions, lemon and
mint. A bit odd, but the Kubra itself was quite tasty. Then, after wandering
around a bit, I headed back to the hostel to get ready for part two of my adventuring
that day.
Our driver arrived right on time to take
me, 2 German girls and 4 Italians to the Dead Sea for the afternoon. It was
wonderful. The only obnoxious part was that I was alone. I attempted to start
conversations with the Germans, but they wouldn’t continue anything, and the Italians
were actually very nice and chatted with me, but they were older couples and
kind of did their own thing. But, whenever they ran into me around the city the
following few days they would say hi which was nice=] So, I do wish I had been
able to go with someone as opposed to having to do it on my own, but the dead
sea was really cool, the mud was fun (my skin did actually feel better after),
and I generally enjoyed being there.
DAY 5: The Old City
The night before, Geoff and Amelia, two
friends from Cairo both arrived and so we planned to meet up the next day and
do all the big things in the Old city. So, 7:30am we headed out to stand in
line for the Temple Mount. It was really insanely beautiful. It was crazy to be at a place that so many
people have regarded as being such a holy site for so long. But, it was
unfortunate that we couldn’t go inside as according to pictures it’s even more
stunning in the interior. But, nonetheless it was cool. After that, the three
of us headed over to the Church of the Holy sepulcher, which was beautiful and fascinating.
Right when you walk in there’s the slab that Christ supposedly was laid on when
he died, and SO MANY people had cloths and were rubbing it to get a bit of
Christ’s healing powers. I’m Christian obviously, but I don’t buy into things
like this, or see it all that often, so it was extremely interesting to see a
completely different way of enacting my own faith. After that we grabbed some REAL bagels and then
headed to the Israel Museum. The Israel Museum was really cool. I got the
chance to see some of the original Dead Sea Scrolls which are the oldest
written portions of the Bible. I also got a little bit more of the History and
whatnot behind them, which I love, so that was super interesting. Then we
finished the day by going to the Tower of David Museum and finding out more of
the history of Jerusalem. It was a great little museum and realizing that the
places we were standing and been there since the time of Herod? So cool. It was
awesome just to go to a city where I could recognize the names of so many of
the historical figures and realize this is where things that I’ve read about
would’ve taken place. AMAZINNGGG. That night Geoff and I hung out with these
two Australian guys we met. We attempted to find a bar, but upon being
completely unsuccessful and extremely tired, we all just grabbed a beer,
chatted for like an hour or so and then headed off to bed. All in all, it was
an extremely successful day.
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| People attempting to wipe off some of Christ's power from the slab he was laid upon. |
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| BAGELS! |
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| Replica of the Temple |
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| Jerusalem! |
Day 6: Leaving Israel
Today has been…an adventure. I woke up
around 8:30am grabbed breakfast and headed to the Old City to take it in one
more time. After that I headed back up Jaffa St. towards the hostel, and grabbed
some banana-date gelato on the way. Oh, I’ve fallen in love with dates by the
way. Well, maybe not love. But I DO like them way more than I used to. Anyways,
I chilled out, grabbed the taxi to the airport and then the adventure began. So
I got there a bit earlier than planned because I had read the time wrong for my
departure. But, better early than late, so I waited it out and then about 15
minutes before the check-in opened up I went and stood in the security line.
THANK GOD I DID.
I knew it was going to be a bit of a hassle because of my
Egyptian and Jordanian passport stamps. No big deal. They asked me a few
questions about that: where was I going, why was I in Egypt, what was I
studying there, why was I studying Arabic, blah blah blah. Then the first lady
brought ANOTHER guy over who asked the exact same questions in another way. At
first I was amused, but by this point I thought it was a bit ridiculous. I’m an
American citizen. I will be in Cairo for one day and then I’m heading home. Get
over yourselves. Anyways, after that they let me continue on to throw my bags
in the x-ray scanner thing. Which was fine, except that I had electronics ( my
laptop and chargers) on me. If you have ANY electronics on you they want to
have them checked out. So I headed on to another desk where they tried to find
my camera charger. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize this would be a problem, so
I had just tossed it in my backpacking bag with the rest of my clothes. And,
since they couldn’t find it, they took my bag apart completely. I mean, thank
goodness I put my dirty underwear and bras in a separate bag because the entirety
of my bag was all over this counter. Presents, clothes, breakable objects,
shoes, EVERYTHING was taken out and patted down and scanned. And the lady keeps
asking me where my charger is, to which I consistently responded I have NO
IDEA. I threw it in the bag. But it was like they were blaming me for keeping
it from them. I kept saying “I want to find it too! I need it as much as you
do!” Absurd.
Anyways, they started checking my other two bags, which were fine…and
then they found the charger. How it got in there or what they saw in my other
bag that they thought was the charger I have no idea. Whatever the case, it was
enough to have me dragged off to another room where I was then strip searched.
Okay, let me be honest here, and say that the amount of strength it took to
keep my composure and not start flipping out at these people was BEYOND
ridiculous. I was SO angry. I came to your freaking country to enjoy myself,
see places that I find important, and then go back home, to the United States,
which happens to be one of the ONLY places that freaking supports you. And I’m
getting strip searched in case of what? That I’m taking a bomb to Cairo?
Stealing holy artifacts? I don’t even know. Whatever the case may be, I was
pissed. Unfortunately, I also know that the people doing this, have a job to do
and it’s not their fault their government is a bit crazy with this. So, after
praying for a little peace, I ended up chatting with the woman who was my
overseer for all this and we had a lovely conversation. She was fairly young
and an extremely nice person. Oh what a little prayer can do. Having said all
that, I finally got to my gate, made it to Jordan and am currently, as I write
this, on the plane back to Cairo. So, I made it.
Overall feelings and takeaways from this
trip:
- I LOVE travelling on my own. I met so many amazing people
during the few days I was here, and when I wasn’t chatting or sight-seeing I
had a chance to just sit and reflect on my own. I really, really liked it.
- I enjoy spending time in places. I like to stay long enough
in a place for it to begin to feel like home, and then move on. I wish I had
had longer to enjoy Israel and Jordan.
- I absolutely adore trying new food. Whenever I got the
chance I ordered things that I didn’t recognize. Definitely worth it.
- I love helping people experience new things. I met a few
people on my trip who were headed to Cairo, and it was so much fun to talk to
them and give them an idea of what they’d be running into. They’re going to my
home!! Yay!
- Amman is rather boring. Petra was amazing, but I’m glad I
didn’t stay that much longer in Amman. Although I wish I had time to enjoy
mensef and Kenafa (two recommended foods from friends), the city itself was
rather dull.
- Israel is crazy. I mean that both positively and
negatively. Politics aside, Israel is made up of insanely beautiful landscapes,
matched up with a sometimes hostile environment. That is to say, that Israel
itself was GORGEOUS. I mean the weather was perfect, streets were clean,
traffic wasn’t bad, and the countryside was a dream. But, while the people
themselves were nice, the atmosphere could come off as hostile. Yes, people of
three major religions live there and see each other day to day, but in terms of
interaction….you don’t see it often. And, some neighborhoods are actually
somewhat dangerous for people to walk through (German girls getting rocks
thrown at them in orthodox neighborhoods). Then of course there’s the IDF
walking around everywhere. This is strange enough to get used to when they’re
in uniform, but even worse when they’re in plainclothes and holding giant
machine guns. Creepy. And they hold them so casually, I swear I thought I was
gonna get shot accidentally. Anyways. It was odd. But, like I said, the people
themselves tended to be quite nice.
- I miss Cairo already.---more on this tomorrow or Thursday.
- GOD IS SO GOOD. I realize I say that in a lot of my blogs but that just got proved over and over during my trip. I wish I could explain it all on here, but suffice to say that God answered SO many prayers while I was travelling. Down to the smallest details. I've been keeping a prayer journal, and it was so insanely cool to look at that the next night and realize how much of it had been answered. Crazy.
Psalm 139: 1-6
1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
