taba, jerusalem and the dead sea

walking across the border from egypt to israel
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we took a bus from sharm el-sheikh to taba along the coast of the red sea. a 5 hour ride that was truly beautiful. this ride made me regret that we had gone to sharm at all. we read that we could walk across the egyptian-israeli border without any problems so we figured that would be the cheapest option. we got the taba, which was the last stop for the bus, then paid the driver some egyptian pounds to take us right to the border. then we walked for a few minutes and quite literally stepped over the border and into a different world. we were in eilat. shared a taxi with an irish dude to the bus stop and got on another five hour ride to tel aviv to pick up a friend. then left the next day, by bus to jerusalem.

we went to the "western wall'. we, being a russian jew from orange county, a south-african jew from los angeles and an irish catholic from sac-to. there were jews from brooklyn, spain, england, israel and everywhere else in the world where jews come from. this is a site to see...its haunting. quiet. and sad. i don't think one could visit this place and not have a moment of reflection pass over them. after cramming a prayer in the wall we backed away slowly. and headed toward our hostel, which was located in the muslim quarter. this place costed around $5 us dollars. and it was worth just that. after dark we were warned that we would not be safe in the old city so we pulled out our deck of cards from our travels in egypt and played till we were so exhausted we wouldn't mind sleeping in the beds, the sheets, the room.

in the morning we rented a car and went to the dead sea. took about an hour and was so amazing. there were a lot of people floating with us and there was no mud, but it is still such a permanent experience to float there.

we drove back to tel aviv and slept well before reassimilating to our social life there.