Day 2

I slept pretty well, considering it was a bus ride.  All with the help of some Advil and Melatonin.  Sarah said she couldn't sleep because she was up at the front of the bus and saw how fast we were going and kept thinking we were going to crash.  I was woken up at the Israeli border at about 4:00 AM.  It was supposed to be a 7 hour trip from Cairo to the southern border of Israel, but we made it in 5 1/2.  I got a good 5 hours of sleep!  We ate some pastries on the side of the road.

I went behind some bushes to use the restroom, so I told Weston it was all clear so he could too.  When he went, he got stopped by and Egyptian border security guard.  He played it off by waving his hand around and pointing at things, so the security guard thought he was just looking around, and proceeded to show Weston around the area.  Close call, he just decided to go later.  Glad I didn't get caught, I needed to go right then.
The Egyptian exit customs were easy, but the Israeli ones took a wile.  There are a lot of female soldiers here.  Some of these soldiers have blonde hair and they are all very young.  Israel has mandatory military service.

We sat by the Red Sea for about an hour waiting for the bus.  Jerusalem is about a 4 hour drive north, but we will make stops and get there this evening.  The bus took us into the town of Eilot, the resort town on the southern border of Israel by the Red Sea.  We rented five small cars.

I rode with Mom, Dad, and Lynette, and we drove up through the Negev (the desert in the southern part of Israel).  We stopped to eat lunch at Masada, but we didn't go up like we did in 2005.  This is where some jews fortified themselves from the Romans during the Maccabee revolt.  It is a mountain with steep cliffs and a flat top.  Herod used it as a palace during his reign.  The Romans built a siege ramp (still there today) and overtook the fort.  When they got there everyone had committed suicide.  Lunch was only crackers and whatever else we had in our backpacks because we forgot to buy bread and peanut butter in Eilot.  A bird pooped on my shoulder while I was eating, and everyone laughed.  I had to take off my chacos and put on tennis shoes because my toe was getting so bad.

Next we went to En Gedi, an oasis in the desert by the Dead Sea where many bible stories happened, like when David spared Saul by cutting off part of his cloak.  It is a fresh water spring making lots of nice pools, waterfalls, and vegetation.  We swam for a wile in the pools.

Next we went to the dead sea to swim.  Everyone floats really easy on it because its so salty.  It is shrinking every year because of evaporation, which only makes it saltier.  When you get out the salt crystals immediately form on your skin.  We took showers afterward, though.  That was nice.  It was my first since being home.

I rode with Gary, Amy, and Laura after the dead sea.  Everyone was exahausted.  The girls kept falling asleep, and Gary kept himself awake by telling jokes.

We stopped at Qumram, the caves where the dead sea scrolls were found right by the dead sea.  In 1947, a bedouin boy was herding sheep and throwing rocks into caves and heard the sound of breaking pottery.  He found manuscripts of Isaiah and other parts of the bible that were 800 years older than any previous manuscripts that we had.  This might be the greatest archaeological find in history because they were almost word-for-word with the newer manuscripts, giving the bible much more backing.

We stopped at the Jordan delta at the north end of the dead sea and looked up at Mt. Nebo, the very place where God took Moses to show him the land of promise that we were standing in.   From there we also saw Jericho and Gilgal which is on the east side of the Jordan where the Israelite nation crossed and erected the twelve stones.

The drive to Jerusalem was very steep because it is up on a hill.  It would be a very hard walk, but people used to do it for Jewish celebrations all the time.  The cars had to stay tight so other cars couldn't get between us.  If we were to get separated, that would be bad.  It felt like we were in the movie the Italian job with all of our cars racing around and loosely obeying traffic laws.

We parked outside of the Damascus gate and walked into the city to the Golden Gate Hostel where we will be staying the next 5 nights.

We ate Shwarma at the Al Ayed restaurant outside of the Damascus gate.

To end the day we went to watch the Sabbath festivities at the western wall where all of the orthodox jews were praying.

My whole foot is swollen and red now, and a lymph node in my groin is swollen making it hard to walk.    So before we went to bed, my dad lanced my toe and drained it.  It was pretty awesome.  NHAT.

Good day good day, ready to hit the hay.