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February 05, 2004
israel entry 1
sorry i haven't written, been away from computers completely, and the phone cards i brought from home don't work with this phone system, or i can't figure out how to make it.
so the flight over was 18 hours, we got stuck in a canadian airport waiting room for 2 hours. i arrived delirious but excited, met many new folks on the plane ride over, all from the west coast, then a bunch more from the east coast when we got in.
the first day, 2 days ago i guess, we went around tel aviv, saw the birthplace of the modern jewish state, then headed south toward the negev. yesterday morning we awoke and went on a camel ride. it reminded me so much of riding camels in morocco with the spain kids, this was even more sedate, we were all tied together. after that we went to masada, walked around that a bunch, learned some history from out guide. apparently a bunch of jewish zealots held the romans off for 3 years, and the night before they were overrun, the all comitted suicide to deprive the romans of a victory. we then walked down the snake trail towards the dead sea. the bus picked us up and we drove to a beach where we all bathed in the dead sea, it was the highlight of the trip so far, almost hard to describe. the water has such a high salt content that you float very high in the water without having to swim at all, we all paddled ourselves around using our hands like oars, i felt like a canoe. for years my father has related the story of when he went there, now i know why he felt compelled to bring it up, it was amazing.
today we awoke and went to a ein gedi nature preserve and saw ibex and a rabbit like creature that climbs trees and travels in "herds" as our guide said.
now we are in the old jewish quarter of jerusalem, i'm taking a minute to update this, the street walls are narrow like morocco and hebrew is spoken loudly.
ok, a list of observations since i'm having trouble writing lucidly.
it's very weird to travel in a country again in which i don't understand the language, and can't even read the street signs because they are in hebrew. it's good for me, things were getting too easy in the spanish speaking countries.
i'm in a group of 36 people, plus our two female armed guards, so we move very slowly and take forever to do anything. everyone is greatful because this trip is free and i feel so lucky, but this style is very different from the solo traveling i'm used to. i'm glad i'm staying later so i can be on my own again, i like it more.
being around jewish kids is a totally new thing for me. many of these kids grew up on the east coast, where everyone was jewish, in a way i'm jealous, but not really.
i've been having good political talks with people about israel, palestine, and the u.s. getting a much better picture of the israeli side, later i'd like to see things from the palestinian perspective.
after we finish on the 12th, i think i'm heading down to the sinai peninsula in egypt to do some scuba diving, then on up to jordan to see petra. it will be roping in a lot to do all that, but while i'm over here...
Posted by bendan at February 5, 2004 03:40 AM
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