i am back in israel after a WHIRLWIND of a trip. when i say whirlwind i mean many a thing: emotional highs and lows, fatigue, aw struck, thankful, appreciative, dirty, exhilaration, etc.
aviva and i went to the central bus station together and met up with dustin there. i passed out on the bus within 10 minutes due to my not-able-to-stay-awake-on-busses syndrome. 2 hours into the bus ride i woke up and decided to read my book. at one point, as i read, i thought about how i was excited to get a new stamp on my passport....MY PASSPORT. i shot my head up, turned to dustin and aviva who were sitting in the aisle next to me and told them i forgot it. both of their mouths dropped open. i started panicking in my head, thinking of driving 5 hours to eilat, having to pay all that money but not go, and having to take the 5 hour bus ride back being pyramid experience-less.
after freaking out for a minute with dustin and aviva i called tomer at desert eco tours, who helped me book the tour.
"i forgot my passport tomer. i dont know what to do"-me
"what? oh no"-tomer
"i know, i know. i dont know how i could have forgotten it"-me
"where is it?"-tomer
"tel aviv"-me
"do you have someone there that can get ahold of it"-tomer
"yeah, i think so"-me
"call them, if they can bring it to the airport, call me back"-tomer
"tals, its sara"-me
"omg sara! hi! whats going on??"-tals
"i forgot my passport"-me
"WHAT! OH MY GD" tals
"i know. can you do me a huge favor?"-me
"of course. just tell me what to do?"-tals
"can you bring it to the airport in TA?"-me
"yes yes"-tals
tals and the girls got in a cab, went to the TA airport and met up with the head of security who gave it to security on a flight to eilat where my passport landed at 11pm. after i heard they videotaped the whole adventure and titled it "forgetting sarah's passport" (haha kristen) and also "hey guys? have you seen my passport?"
tomer picked it up and brought it to me at midnight right before we drove to the border. i swear, only in israel. it was incredible.
when we first got to eilat we had 2 hours to kill so we had dinner on the main strip then waited for the tour to come get us at the bus station. here aviva and i prepared with all our water.
there ended up being 3 other people on our tour. a husband and wife (they looked our age but were 28ish) and the girls mother who was from columbia. the girl, adriana, still had a columbian accent but has been living in the states for 10 years now. come to find out on the tour adriana and her husband started a not for profit 2 years ago that has really taken off. they both work at different governmental agencies in DC during the day but then have their np at night. they work NON stop. it really was inspirational. their np is now sponsored by underarmor because they both run marathons and do triathlons with teams to raise money and awareness. the organization is called the high cloud foundation. they were in israel for one of their schools that is located in bethlehem.
anywho we went across the border which took about 1 hour and then entered taba, egypt.
at the border
the man that helped us across the border (3 ppl were involved in the process of picking us up in israel, getting us across the border and handing us off to our drivers) brought us across the street to our van. we had 2 drivers and a security guard who were all from egypt but they didnt speak english. we piled into the van and i instantly laid down to try and fall asleep for the 7 hour drive (it was 1:30am at this point).
our home for the next 24 hours
i couldnt sleep for the first 2 hours because it was freezing in the car and it was SO bumpy. i never have been on a bumpier ride. literally my whole body would bounce up and down every 15 seconds. i finally fell asleep after the first rest stop 2 hours in. at one point i woke up after a very large bump and sat up to look around--all i could see was dessert around me. there were a few bumps where i am pretty sure the whole car flew up in the air.
around 6:30am we stopped off in egypt at a bus stop to take a little break. we woke up feeling gross however i still felt great. aviva and i brushed our teeth next to the van. im not sure why but i made a face like i wanted to cry haha.
after we brushed our teeth we went back on the van for another 2 hours. we all passed out but i think our tour guide was running late so we just drove around. i woke up at one point and looked outside. it was a serious culture shock. i havent been in that islamic of a country before. jordan i guess was like that but we werent in as much of a bustling city so it wasn't everywhere you looked--esp all of the women that were covered.
our tour guide greeted us and brought a bunch of croissants and juice on board and then we were off to the pyramids.
i first glimpsed them as we were driving through the city. it was shocking because they were like a backdrop to the city below. i pictured them to be far off in the dessert, not as if they were a skyscraper in NYC. they were breathtaking though. it was as if you looked up and just saw all of this power overlooking the city and people below.
i ended up wearing a long dress and little shawl to stay covered. there were a lot of women walking around wearing little shorts but i felt much more comfortable knowing i tried to fit in with the culture at least a little bit. i wasn't cat called at all while i was there--idk if it is due to showing less skin or not but it was nice to not have to deal with it.
i found out there were 96 pyramids in egypt. i had NO idea. i thought there were just a few. we saw the pyramids in giza and the sphinx. they really were breathtaking and shocking. i have no idea how they could have been man made. our tour guide kind of pushed us along to each one. he was nice at times but i had this weird vibe from him, as if he was having a very bad day and was trying to just push through it. at one point on our way to the pyramids he listed what was beyond us in the west, east, north and south. when we got to east he said there was "taba, then palestine". it stung a bit to not hear israel acknowledged but i tried to just shake it off. here we are at the pyramids...
we stayed at the pyramids for almost 2 hours. afterwards we went to this paper shop.
it was art on a special paper from this egyptian plant. it was obvious they brought us there as some kind of commission if we bought anything. aviva dustin and i just walked around. one of the sales girls came over to ask where we were coming from. all three of us grew quiet. finally aviva said "we are just visiting for a day then going back"..."to where?" the girl asked... we were all quiet. it was so awkward. it was as if we all felt better being quiet then saying israel. it is an awful feeling to think we have to be concerned about being vocal of where we come from. we should have just said canada, but it was interesting how all three of us didnt say anything at all and were all cautious about what came out, or didnt come out, of our mouths.
our feet were hurting and our tour guide was sitting near a desk with a few other men. dustin said we should go over there and sit with them but there was a thought that flashed through my head of what they would do if aviva and i did sit with them. on the other side of the wall i saw all of the women sitting having lunch apart from the men. would they be angry if we did? would they say anything? we ended up walking over but our tour guide stood up and went somewhere else. finally the other half of our group was ready to leave as well and then we headed to lunch at this buffet. the food was good but the dessert was better. it was like honey baklava but without the nuts in the baklava.
after lunch we headed to the bazaar. it was about 2pm at this point.
outside the entry to the bazaar
we went early in order to avoid the tourist rush. the bazaar was beautiful. it was all covered and had such a pleasant feel, even with all of the store keepers trying to get us to buy their goods.
aviva in the bazaar
it got to a point where i began to ignore some of the shopkeepers when they would keep trying to sell me something. i hated that feeling afterwards though--where i realized that i ignored another human being instead of just looking them in the eye and saying "no". its almost like i began to dehumanize them because they would all be around me, yelling, or trying to get my attention. it was awful, and then i tried to change my reaction but its hard to.
we walked all the way through before we bought anything. there was one store where i really liked the scarves so i told the owner i would come back. when i finally did come back 30 minutes later he seemed so grateful and surprised. he shook my hand and brought me back over to the scarves. it was a very genuine moment and i felt as if i partnered up with him...like we were in this together. it sounds silly but in an environment like that, when people are yelling to sell practically the same thing, its as if a small gesture as just coming back feels like a mutual trust and respect even without knowing the person.
me with my new ring (i buy a ring from each new country i travel to)
outside the bazaarafter the bazaar we met back up with our tour guide...
yes i have dirt on my face in the picture. when i say we were dirty--i mean DIRTY.
and then went to the cairo museum. we werent allowed to take pictures there. we were there for about an hour. it was really interesting because it made the pyramids come to life. we saw all of king tutankhamun. i stupidly said "king tut" and our tour guide was like "no no, TUTANKHAMUNNNN". at around 5 we had to start heading back to make sure we got back to eilat in time for our bus.
i was really itching to get back into israel. it is always thrilling to be in another country but i do always feel a bit uncomfortable being in an arab country. i love it, and i try to embrace parts of the culture, try and get to know the people and be open to everything but i also can't help but be on guard as well due to my background or where i am coming from. i feel very different. the area isn't anything that i am familiar with. i dont know all of the customs, what would be offensive, the sense of humor, the language, etc. however, i still tried to take in what i could and understand the new ways of life i was experiencing and seeing.
while i didnt get to see a large amount of the culture due to running around and touring, the people i came across all seemed very genuine and kind. our drivers, while they couldnt speak english, gave us smiles that seemed so real and the look in their eyes so gentle it seemed as if we were friends with just our facial expressions.
i slept for 4 or so of the 7 hour drive. the last 2 hours i just stared outside the window of the van. we were going through dessert but the moon was so bright you could see everything, even some mountains in the dessert. as i bumped up in down in my chair, feeling delirious from exhaustion my mind was still racing.
i thought about a lot of different things--including but not limited too being thankful for what i was just able to do & see, realizing i am turning 25 and how old that may actually be, relationships, my future, israel, the middle east, the moon, sleep, the future, my family, picturing my trip to the east coast in august, the bus ride back from eilat, g-d, my last few days in israel, my first night back at home in CA, etc etc etc.
we had to hustle across the border at midnight to get our 1am bus.
at the bus station in eilat after a crazy 32 hours
the bus ride back was a bit hellish and i woke up with my butt hurting so badly i thought i was going to have to take a lap down the aisle. aviva and i stumbled back to beit leni around 6:45am (dustin went on to jerusalem). i showered, as i think i smelled like a dog, and then jumped into bed. i woke up here and there but didnt get out of bed until 2:30pm haha. i still feel a bit out of it. i went to lunch with rach and adam and now i am here! i've been blogging for like 2 hours now.
im going to go to the gym i think, start packing, and probably go out for drinks tonight. i can't believe i am already back from egypt. it was such a whirlwind, but a wonderful spin it was indeed.
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