Blogs from Eilat, South District, Israel, Middle East - page 4

June 8th Up at seven to catch the public bus to Eilat. We finally get to ride on one of the innumerable green buses that are all over the place here. Said goodbye to Smore and started the 5 hour bus ride. We got here at two thirtyish and went where? To the beach of course, though the sand here is not as nice. From here I can see Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and I know that Egypt is right around the point. Pretty cool. There are some huge black sea urchins here that I spotted by a rock. We’re going snorkeling sometime this week. I think Wednesday before we head out for Sinai. Tomorrow we are going to Petra! Woohoo!... read more

We are now exactly one week away from flight from Cairo to Athens. Today we are sort of flying blind. As I explained to Joshua, we have no idea where we will be sleeping the night or even what country we will be in. Depending on what happens with border crossings, we might end the day in Jordan, Israel, or Egypt. After breakfast at the hotel, we set off in a crew cab style pickup truck. Our driver, it turns out, has a brother in Edmonton and has visited there (in the winter no less). We have some great views as the road climbs out of Wadi Musa. Our driver kindly stops at one particularly panoramic lookout for me to take some quick photos. We pass goat herders at the side of the road in places. ... read more

The drive down to Eilat was interesting. You could see Jordan on the left and Egypt on the right as. I hadn't slept much the night before and so took the opportunity now to nap as much as possible in the car. Finding the hostel was easy. There was a Sudanese get together on the premises. We quickly checked in and head onwards to the seafront Eilat is Israel's southernmost city and has a beautiful Marina. The restaurants on the beach with latin music and the sea breeze were just great. After sunset we made our way to the city center to find some traditioal cuisine. It's a pity how the fast food chains have dominated the scene here. After inquiring a bit we finally head inwards to the quiter part of town. It was the ... read more

So here is what we have been up to for the week following birthright. We stayed in tel aviv for the next couple of days and spent the days at the beach and partied hardcore at night. From Tel Aviv we rented a car and went north up to Katzrin, stopping overnight in Tiberius where we partied with other birthright participants. There, Mike exchanged his bottle of wine and then we headed down south to Eilat stopping in Be'ersheva for 2 nights. 1 night they had a huge party called student night (5000 people) and the second night because mike came down with a case of food poisining. From Be'ersheva we drove down to Eilat and registered for a scuba course. Unfortunately, yesterday (the 18th of june) as we went down for a dive mike's ear ... read more

The first stop on the second day was to this place called the Red Canyon. Our bus stopped on the way there in this place where you can see Jordan and Egypt. So we took some pictures there. Red Canyon is in the desert and is a place where you can hike around. It really sceneic and the rocks there are that reddish color, hence the name Red Canyon. By far the best part of the entire trip was our time spent in Eilat. Eliat is a beautiful desert city where the Red Sea is located. We got there around lunch time and were able to walk around the city to look for something to eat. There is a pretty big mall there, so we got sandwhiches in the food court and ate outside on this ... read more