Sweet Sideburns of Shiva

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Oh good lord. I am getting so behind on this I hardly know what to do with myself. This trip is especially emphasizing what I already knew: on the road, a day feels like a week, and a week feels like a month!

SO. I might just have to cut my losses and write about what happened since Sally, Bub and I parted ways. So I spent a ridiculously delirious night, involving mooching off of a giant greekman's shower and couch, and sleeping on the beach. Now, I love the beach, but I will tell you right now, beaches are for the DAYTIME and never, ever should be for the nighttime. What a miserable night's sleep. I am such a hobo.

In any case, I chilled out a couple of extra days in Jerusalem, to catch up with friends from Cairo, and friends from Montreal. I was staying at the Montrealers place, and I can say I've never been so happy to just sit and chill and watch the sunset and eat and basically do nothing.

Well, that is a complete lie. I did go see Bethlehem, and the Church of the Nativity, among other things. Bethlehem pisses me off a little bit- the cab drivers are so sleazy. The first time I was there, one offered to make the cab ride to the bus station free, if I gave him a kiss. I scolded him as if he was a 2 year old the rest of the ride. This last time, the guy offered me a free ride in exchange for nothing, but the bad vibe I was getting inspired me to rattle away on how horrible the last cab driver was, essentially shaming him too. Most tourists only make it to Bethlehem within Palestine- I can't believe that that might be their only impression of Palestinians.

In any case, I found the WALL encircling Bethlehem to actually be far more interesting than anything within the city. Pictures to follow- from the philosophical, to the angry, to the funny, to the just plain unrelated ("Mohammed loves Rania" etc. haha)

Then I spent the most delirious 30 hours of my trip. I woke up at 7 in Jerusalem, and ended up in Istanbul at 2 the next day. 5 hour bus ride down south, cross the border, 5 hour bus ride up north, slept at the airport in Amman ("where are your parents?" question from the guards, extremely puzzled by my presence). The 10 hours of buses was purely and utterly to avoid the Israeli security at the border crossing an hour away from Jerusalem. That's my giant **** you to Israel. I crossed the border in 10 minutes down at Eilat, holding my breath the entire time, as if I was a fugitive.

I got toured around for free (and free Turkish lessons) from a cab driver in Aqaba, where I saw a viewpoint of Jordan, Israel, and Egypt all from standing at one point. Aqaba is also a duty free zone, so I stocked up on whatever food I could (yet I feel like my stomach is just so used to being empty, that it's almost forgotten how to digest).

Anyway, long long and millions of little stories short, I ended up in Turkey, delirious, dirty and dirt poor. But excited for the next leg of the trip.

Stacey

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