Israel: My First Earthquake

So I managed to get across the Jordanian-Israeli border with ease and very little questioning. I bypassed a tour group so I didn’t have to wait several hours like I did at the Egyptian border. I then found an Arab bus that was leaving in thirty minutes for Al Qads, which is Arabic for Jerusalem. 32 Shekels ($8) and another forty minute drive through the West Bank, I was just outside of Jerusalem. I saw the “Apartheid Wall” that divides much of the West Bank and Palestinian Territories from Israel but my opinion will follow…

As we headed out of the West Bank into East Jerusalem, we drove up a highway (since Jerusalem is high in the mountains) that was lined with Menorahs celebrating Hanukkah. I completely forgot that it was the Hanukkah season and was overjoyed to be returning to the holiest city in the world. I arrived at the Damascus Gate of the Old City at about 1pm – with my huge bags in tow – where I fought my way through the Arab Souk in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City. I finally managed to get through into the Armenian Quarter (familiar territory) before realizing it was still Shabbat so everything in the Jewish Quarter would still be closed. I grabbed a quick shwerma before heading to the Christian Quarter to see the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is one of the holiest sites for most Christians.

This Church is built on the site in Jerusalem where Jesus is believed to have been crucified and also buried. Also, there is the Stone of Anointing which was the place where Jesus’ body was placed following his crucification. It is also one of the stations of the Cross, but I didn’t really understand what all was going on and most were unwilling to really explain it to me. I touched the Stone (hopefully I am allowed to) for anyone who is Christian and who will be unable to do so in their lifetime. It was incredibly powerful seeing Pilgrims making the voyage to Jerusalem, and although it isn’t a pillar of my religious beliefs, the power that it brings to others is truly inspiring.

After wandering around the Old City for a little more, I hailed a cab (a Mercedes one of course, Israel is $$$) to go to Mt. Scopus, where I was staying with a friend for the weekend. I actually was staying with a friend of a friend and we kinda knew each other and so it ended up working out really well. My friend attends the Hebrew University on Mt. Scopus which is technically in East Jerusalem and has incredible views of the Old City, West Jerusalem (New City), and most importantly, the Kotel, which is the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism.

And most of the time, I just hung out with friends in their apartment or hung around the campus area. It was so much fun just hanging out, watching movies, COOKING, going to the market, and just sitting around goofing off. It also nice not having gender segregation… one thing that is horrible about AUC. I honestly wish here in Cairo I could just go to female friends rooms, if only to watch a movie in pajamas or sit around and talk in the privacy and comfort of someone’s bedroom.

Anyways… Saturday night we went to an incredible restaurant/book store in Downtown near Ben Yahuda Street and then we went for a drink and to smoke some Houkah nearby. We also got ice cream and I got to hang out in the part of Jerusalem that I love so much. Then, the group of us returned to Mt. Scopus and watched a film.

The next morning, I awoke early and laid in bed for awhile until about 9:30am… when… the room started to shake a little. I didn’t think much of it; I really thought my friend was under the bed or pounding on the walls or something, so I went back to sleep. A couple hours later at breakfast (MILK & CHEERIOS!!!) one of her roommates yelled “there was an Earthquake this morning!” To which I replied, wow that was an earthquake. Kinda cool. It only measured 4.0 but I could definitely feel it. After putzing around for a little, Jen and I took one of the buses into downtown and went to the Shook (Israeli outdoor market), where I got some candy and sweets. We went to lunch at a deli (clearly delicious) and coffee on Jaffa Street before she had to return to campus for a quick class and I headed off to the Old City to visit the Kotel.

Just a quick note that I hadn’t even thought of. Earlier in the day, when we were deciding upon plans, I was asked if it was okay that we took a bus. I replied of course, before realizing the severity of the question. There are several students who live in Jerusalem that refuse to take buses anywhere because the Israeli bus system has been a favorite target amongst Arab suicide bombers. At least forty buses have been bombed in Israel in the past fifteen years, but there haven’t been any suicide attacks in Israel since 2005 (sans one in Eilat in January) which is why I actually think the Wall built between Israel and the Palestinian Territories has been effective. It does serve a practical purpose, which has been to protect the Israeli citizens. It has done just that. I understand some questions about the legitimacy of it, but how is it truly any different than an electrified border fence.

Back to my trip. So I walked through the Jewish Quarter before heading to the Kotel. The Kotel, or Western Wall or Wailing Wall, is the holiest site in Judaism. It is the only remaining wall of the walls that held up the Temple Mount, which is where the First & Second Temples stood. It is the only wall that remains from the Second Temple Era, which was destroyed two-thousand years ago. Now, atop the Temple Mount, sits two mosques. One the Dome of the Rock is one of the most famous mosques in the World and it is the Golden Dome that everyone sees when they think of Jerusalem. The other, al-Aqsa, is less recognizable, but the whole site represents the place that Muslims believe Muhammad ascended to heaven. So yes, three of the holiest sites in the three most important monotheistic religions. And you wonder why Jerusalem is such a hot topic?

During the 1948 War of Independence, Israel lost control of the Old City and the West Bank as it was annexed by neighboring Jordan. In 1967, upon the success of the Six-Day Way, the Jews gained control of the Western Wall for the first time since the Romans destroyed the Second Temple. So I went down, went through security, grabbed my favorite prayer book and put on my yarmulke and touched the wall. Every time I see it, sometimes inside me lights up. I can’t really explain it. I read some prayers at the wall, before saying a few prayers and touching a few items to the wall. It is also custom to write wishes or prayers on a piece of paper and place it in the crevices of the wall, as many believe the wall is a direct connection to G-d. After praying, I thought about it for awhile, and decided against walking up to the Temple Mount to see the two mosques. I don’t know if it was a lack of desire since I have seen so many mosques or my Jewish distaste for not being allowed to build a Third Temple, but I chose against it.

I walked around a little more, through an open-air mall before heading back to Mt. Scopus to head back to my friend’s apartment. That night we had pasta and meat sauce before lounging around for yet another night: hanging out, watching movies and just being lazy.

Monday was a continuation of Sunday night as I didn’t really leave the apartment since it was cold and dreary. I watched a movie or two with friends, had great food (including DR. Pepper) and just enjoyed my time, which was reminiscent of freshmen year in college. Community life was very important so it made it quite fun.

Monday night I took a bus from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv and then an overnight bus from Tel Aviv to Eilat, where I slept for most of the ride. I went through customs quickly and found a bus back to Cairo that left at 10:30. So I was back in Cairo by 5:30. I left Jerusalem at 9:30pm and twenty hours later, arrived back in Cairo, with only two weeks left in the Egyptian Capital.

Sorry for the lack of photos from most of my journey. They always say that when you are truly enjoying yourself, a memory is so much more important than a photo. I would agree. So yes, I leave two weeks from today (12/19) from Cairo and will be heading to Rome for four days. The last fourteen days I will be here in Cairo, finishing up the semester both academically and socially. I will be home in 18 Days! So excited, yet so sad at the same time. It has been quite a semester and I will begin in the next few days to wrap it up.

Enjoy the holiday season. I miss the snow and lights and shopping and food and time with friends and family, but I will be back soon! Best!

Jordan: What’s My Hotel Called Again?

Just days after returning from an exhilarating trip to Luxor and Aswan for Thanksgiving, I packed my bags again, this time heading elsewhere in the Middle East. I decided to travel by myself to Jordan and Israel for my last trip around the region, mainly because I had to get to Petra in Jordan and since I am so close to Israel, it was very important that I return. I had planned to meet up with friends at certain points during the trip, so I wouldn’t be alone all five days.

I left Wednesday evening from the Sinai bus station in Cairo. After dodging through the herds of Egyptians taking overnight buses to the Red Sea resorts (Sharm el-Sheik, El Gouna, Dahab), I found my way to the bus heading to Taba, which is the border town along with Israeli border. After a six-hour bus ride (in which I slept for most of it), I arrived at the Israeli border at 4:30am. Thinking “oh this should be a piece of cake” I took my time walking to the border, fiddling with my passport and crossing into no-mans land. Upon reaching the Israeli border, I realized a tour group had just been let off before us and it would probably take several hours! I went through the usual border procedures (where are you from, how long are you staying, why are you coming to Israel, who do you know) and the inevitable: “are you Jewish?” If so, “what was your Torah portion from your Bar Mitzvah”, which, if answered correctly, is your automatic gateway into Israel. I was in by 7:15 and took a cab to the bus station, only to realize that no buses went to the Jordanian border until later, so I met up with a couple of guys and we shared a cab to the border. In the one hour I was in Israel, we drove along the beautiful Red Sea, saw the area I went snorkeling in, passed by the mall and the beaches, and drove through one of my favorite places, Eilat. I reached the Jordanian border, crossed through effortlessly, and obtained my free visa without any question.

After crossing, the two guys I had taken the cab with were also going to Petra, so we hired a modest cab for the two-hour ride north through the mountains to Wadi Moussa, which is the town located outside of Petra. We stopped along the way and got great Bedouin tea (as usual) and made it to the town by 11am, where I checked into the quaint Valentine Inn, before heading with our driver to the entrance of Petra.

Petra was an ancient civilization – over two-thousand years old – where the citizens carved out a city into the mountainside. It is located in the southwest portion of Jordan, in a valley, surrounded by mountainous peaks. The entrance is nearly a kilometer long, and consists of a natural valley pathway that was enlarged. It also contains an elaborate water system and some carved out rooms in the mountain.

By far the most recognizable site at Petra is the Treasury, which is considered by most a tomb, carved out of the rock. Other than a little restoration work, the entire Treasury was carved from the single mountain and no additional rock was added. Again, I resort to photos to best display the ancient city.

We sat around for a little and I had tea with a few Bedouin women who graciously offered their tea and food. I guess I hadn’t realized that walking down into the valley to see the ruins would result in me having to walk back up at the end of the day, which I had to take in several stages. I got back to my hotel and took a quick nap, followed by some light reading, a decent, yet tasteless buffet at my Inn. I read a little more in the common area, but took an early night, since it was freezing and I had slept for only a few hours on the bus ride the previous day.

I got up relatively early the next day and I had been told that the only bus for Amman (capital of Jordan) would leave at 6:30am. I felt that was a lie so I woke up at 8 and walked to the bus station, where low and behold, there were a few minibuses waiting around until they were full to head to Amman. Best part: if I had taken the “lone” 6:30 bus, it would have been 15 Jordanian Dinars, or $20. But this minibus (which also only took 3 hours instead of 4) only was 3 Dinars, or $5. Brilliant.

I arrived in Amman and shared a cab to my hotel. I was exhausted at check in and did some more leisure reading before heading out to explore the area around my hotel. I had not planned to come to Amman to begin with, so I had no expectations. The only reason I came was because one of my Fraternity Brothers, Jake Patoski, was in Amman on business. So before we met up, I walked around a little, grabbed some tea, and bought a backgammon board! I have been meaning to buy one and I probably paid a little more than I would in Egypt, but it is great quality and I can’t wait to bring Towla back to the United States.

I ate dinner at Midan Abdoun (Abdoun Square) at a restaurant where all the writing was in Arabic and I had a decent shwerma wrap before grabbing a donut, across the street, before hailing a cab to meet Jake.

One side note, however. In Egypt, a lot of locals try and speak to me in English and so I have to force them to speak to me in Arabic. But in Jordan, as soon as they knew that I spoke some Arabic, they refused to speak to me in English. They kept saying “yanee” (like) or “lets figure it out. No English” which was great for my Arabic. Plus they speak the dialect I am used to. Anyways, it was great using my Arabic and the people actually understanding exactly what I was saying.

Jake and I went to a quasi-diner with great shisha and drinks where we caught up for awhile before heading across the street to a bar, called Blue Moon Pub. Didn’t expect much, however, this place was borderline American strip-club. Tons of women dancing around in skimpy clothing, dancing all over what seemed like high-powered business men. But first, no money was being exchanged and second the girls really seemed to enjoy it. We couldn’t understand if they were being paid or not by the bar or if they were just girls that come and play at the Bar. So weird.

After wishing farewell, I realized that I didn’t have my book on me so I therefore couldn’t remember what my hotel was called. I got in the cab and was like “oh man, where am I staying?” It also didn’t help that I had no idea what street I was staying on, what neighborhood it was in (other than just Downtown) or any landmarks within a ten-block radius of my hotel. The closest thing I could tell him was the Roman Theatre, which was a good 2-3 minute drive past my hotel. So we just went and I eventually told him to go down Shariyah Malik Hussein (King Hussein St) until I recognized where I was, and SUCCESS! I made it home and crashed.

I was nervous about Saturday since I wasn’t too positive of all the plans to get to the Israeli border and then from there into Jerusalem. Plus, my friend had been MIA in responding so I wasn’t sure of where I was going to stay. But I got up, took a cab to the “new cab place” where I could catch a service taxi to the Israeli border. It wasn’t too bad and the trip took only forty minutes. At the border, I took the necessary steps to leave Jordan only to realize I had to pay another 3 Dinars to take a bus to the border. The actual customs & passport facilities are 4km to the border, and you have to take a bus. You can’t walk. So I scrounged together 3 Dinars and was off to Israel…

I was in Jordan for a little over two days and thoroughly enjoyed it. Jordan is quite modern for an Arab nation and parts of Amman reminded me of a cross between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. It is definitely a more open society than Egypt, but is still trying to catch up to its Western, mini-America nation next door.