Tell me something new

Yes, I know it's been forever since I wrote, and rather than beat myself over the head for that, I will smile and keep moving on.

I am back in the good ol' USoA. However, as the Waysaway blog must focus on things that are a ways away, I will tell you about my next adventure planned!

I am kidnapping my cousin out of the clutches of her much beloved family (two boys and one hubby... which is better than two hubbies and one boy... or maybe not... hmmmm.) ANYWAY, moving right along, we are going to Alaska! Just we two, for some girl time. Should be a hoot.

She and I privileged the world by gracing it (she more than I) with our presence a mere 10 days apart. So for our trip, we chose a cruise that falls smack dab between our birthdays. Less than 30 days to go!!! yippeeeeeeeeeee

Cruisin'

We have been out and about, then even more way out, cruising the Western Mediterranean.

I will be posting an update about the travels here soon, with more pictures on my Flickr home page.

See you there soon!

Flicks

I finally got a new Flickr account, after completely messing up on my original account, forgetting the answer to every "secret question" they had to validate my account. I must have had an unfortunate spelling error or two.

Oh well, here is the new one... http://www.flickr.com/photos/waysaway/

I'll be adding pictures, so please come visit, and I look forward to your comments!

Over the Green Line

Herodian....

I heard about this place many moons ago and wanted to go, and so when I realized that one could drive there, and not have to worry about finding a tour guide, I jumped at the chance.

Not much is left above ground except for some huge walls and towers, but the intricate tunnels and cisterns are quite cool. Literally cool, when it is 90+F outside!!

Herodian is right near Bethlehem, where I have become quite famous amongst my friends as someone to knows the ins and outs of Rachel's Crossing (the border into that portion of the West Bank).

So of course we had to go there too, leaving our rental car behind, as it is not allowed in Bethlehem.

The border crossing is like a weird, dream-like version of a prison Disneyland ride:
You buy your "ticket" from a person in a small stand (really, just checking your passport), then zig zag your way in, out, and through, until you reach a long walkway out to a grove of trees and a parking lot, where a dozen taxis wait for the moment to convince you that you REALLLLLLY need them to take you around, and that they have this cousin who is a good tour guide, and no it would be a pleasure to ask him to take you to the Church of the Nativity, for free, as a friend, but oh, you've already been there, well then how about we visit the Mar Saba Monastery instead...?

Ok, NOW we're talking!! Somewhere I haven't BEEN yet!

So like any good 'Turr-istas' we went for it!!

Here is the Kidron River Valley. It runs through Jerusalem too, between the Old City and the Mt of Olives. Way out here, even though there is still a river, there is not much else.

The Monastery hides behind some old walls, and looks out onto the canyon. Dozens of caves dot the cliffs on the other side.

Shade is at a premium here!

Whew! An austere location, but also beautiful in its ruggedness. I think I prefer the idea of joining a nunnery in Germany.

Canine Catastrophies

By popular demand, I am back with a short on the day in the life of a dog. My dog.

No malice was intended, I am sure.

It's just that she was bored. Really, really bored.

She discovered how to pull open the wire drawers in the microwave stand and ate three raw potatoes, and half a loaf of bread. (It was even a brand new loaf I had bought the night before, in blissful expectation of toast - if I ever figured out how to wake up in time)

Anyway, the funniest part is that she somehow managed to get out whole slices, and she left the butt-end!!!

Then she found and gnawed on my headset to the computer, so I can't Skype until I find a replacement :(

THEN she found the remnants of the box of Kleenex (specially imported Kleenex) that I rescued from total annihilation a few days ago, and proceeded to shred both the contents and the container to ensure it would not EVER come back to life again. It looked like a confetti ticker-tape parade had happened in my bedroom.

And THEN, she peed in the house while I was entertaining dinner guests. I guess it's time I break out the newspaper and hit myself over the head.

The worst part is that last week she was a complete ANGEL!!!! Ha - she fooled me!!! She wants a sister, I think.

The Big Huge Triangle Thingies, and Their Funny Looking Pet Cat

Next, we got to visit one of the 8 Wonders of the Ancient World. A real highlight!

I was there!!!!!! I never really thought I'd ever get over there, but I did!

Sarah, our Guide, and Chana - Walking like an Egy-pti-an

The Great Pyramid and the Middle Pyramid are set up to allow tourist to enter into the depths, to the burial chambers. Our wise guide suggested that we only do the middle pyramid, as even that has a long enough passageway where you are doing a monkey-hunch and shuffle waaaaay down, then waaaaay up. (Sure enough, my legs felt it the next day!)

On the way in...

In the dimly lit burial chamber itself, there was a sarcophagus with its lid removed and to the side. I couldn't resist. I climbed in it, and crouched down, ready to "boo" a poor unsuspecting tourist. So bad!

So, anyway, I am the only person I know who lay in a sarcophagus and lived to tell about it! :)

The Sphinx says hello

Mighty friendly fellow!

And I thought Israeli driving was crazy!

Not quite as bad as Egypt.

Cairo was actually less littered than many parts of the world I have been in, but it was dingy. There was grey soot all over the buildings, most of which look like they had never been painted to begin with. The "beautification" projects of trees and flowers was mostly absent. And cars and people EVERYWHERE. There were some beautiful areas, don't get me wrong, but in general it was not the Cotswolds.

The picture above was taken on one of the holy days, so vehicle traffic was minimal... The below picture more closely resembles the standard traffic density. Just picture the cars moving fast and rather randomly.

Crossing the street was hilarious. Chana and I were afraid that we'd lose life or limb as we attempted to check out the restaurants on the other side of an eight lane road out in front of our hotel. But, as we are resourceful women, we would stake out unsuspecting locals to be our cover.

We'd sneak up to them - desperately attempting to appear like everything was normal - and then stay r.i.g.h.t. there at their side... with THEM the ones closest to the oncoming traffic. They move, we move. They stop, we stop. Cars zooping in front of us and behind us. Taxis changing lanes and honking. Motorcycles weaving in and out. Piece of cake. (Breathe.... breathe.... you're still alive...)

Some pictures of the various loads in motion we saw...

Cairo Oh!

I can now claim a new continent to my travel sites: Africa! We caught a flight direct from Tel Aviv to Cairo, and were greeted by our staff. Yes, one travels in style there... a driver, a tour guide, and an "expeditor". (I never did quite figure out what the expeditor did, except for pay for things like the hotel and the cruise, and help us figure out how to get bus tickets home, but I was ok with having more staff than tourists, so I decided to just enjoy.)


Here is a picture of the two symbolic plants of Egypt, the papyrus, and the lotus. This is in a fountain out in front of the Egyptian Museum.

One isn't allowed to take pictures inside the museum, but even the outside is 'littered' with ancient statues of pharaohs, lions, sphinxes, and carved sarcophagusssessssses. Or is it sarcophagi?

The collection in the museum is impressive. The most famous, of course, is the King Tut exhibit, but all the halls were filled with fascinating carvings and stories. To do it justice, one would have to spend weeks there.

After spending a mere 4 fast hours in the museum, under the tutelage of our sweet, funny tour guide, we bounded our way through traffic to the Mohamed Ali mosque, in a citadel that had a comanding view of Cairo.

We could even catch a glimpse of the great pyramids in the distance.

I thought that this was a fun piece of trivia...
In Paris, there is a huge obelisk, a gift from Egypt to King Louis Philip. I got to see it on my trip there last May, with my mom. Anyway, King Philip, in return, gave Egypt this rather overly ornate clock, that has never worked!! It sits in the courtyard, a giving the correct time twice a day, reminding the Egyptians that maybe the trade wasn't such a good one...

More pics later.... Ciao for now!

Eeeek!!! (but even Eeeekier than last time)

Today, for the first time, my little Mazda 3 took over $100 USD to fill up a whole tank of gas. $108.50 to be precise. That's almost $8 a gallon. Concidering I have over 32000km (about 20,000 miles) on my previously 0 km car, I hate to imagine what my total dollar output has been.

Nha nha nha nha - I'm in denial!!!

"Don't worry about that. Let's look at flowers!!"

A New Found Respect

Do you know how frikin' FAR it is from the Cairo area in Egypt all the way to central Israel? I now do. It is about 15 hours in an air-conditioned minibus, over paved roads, under the Suez canal, through much flatness and much mountainess, and very little waterness.

So next time you read about Joseph sending his brothers back to go get Benjamin, and then Jacob, think about what that was like sans minibus!

Dead to the World

You know those days you are just feeling low, but can't put a finger on why... Not to worry, it is perfectly normal to be very low here in Israel. In fact, it is easy to be the lowest you'll every be!

It is very odd to be driving along, and see a sign that says "Sea Level" and not be hitting any water, then you keep driving, and see pretty designations that you are going deeper and deeper and you are still not wet!

Below is picture of the marker for 300m below sea level (-984ft), but you don't hit water until -1378ft!

The sensation of floating in the dead sea is almost indescribable. You walk out into the water, and instead of sand under your feet, there is rock salt. You keep walking until you are a bit deeper than waist-deep, then sit down into... nothing! Perfect suspension. Now you know what an ice cube feels like floating there in your glass.

Here are some pics of our train ... Mike was the engine, the rest of us were there for the ride.

Below is the picture that is my background on my work PC. I love the shadows and stormy weather. You can really understand how in this barren area we went thousands of years without finding the Dead Sea scrolls.

Wandering the Wilderness - our style

The Israelites were punished by God and made to "wander in the wilderness forty years". It was into that wilderness of Sinai that Mark and I set forth.

Of course, don't get going on whether it was really that particular spot, and for how long it was that spot or whatever. In fact, when I went to go check the wandering location of wanders, I found several web sites, but was most entertained by the definitive tone of this compendium (http://www.earth-history.com/Various/Compendium/hhc2ch16.htm) which actually indicates that little wandering was done in this region, with most of it out near my posting of a while back, Petra. I mean... COMPENDIUM??? Who uses such words anyway!?!

So, back to Sinai.........

After catching a fast moving, road wandering, headlight flashing van at the border between Egypt and Israel, we enter the Sinai Penninsula and make our way south through Taba and down to Dahab.

Once there, we check in to our resort hotel, which offered comfortable lodging at a reasonable price with a dive shop on location :)

Checking our gear - BWRAF!


This dive spot is called Moray Gardens. We did two dives here. The coral was beautiful, and the sea life better than anywhere I've been so far. One of my favorites was watching a small octopus change colors with his environment.

Destruction in Ashkelon

As the violence in the Middle East wages on, even Sarah's porch is affected.

Hardly any vegetation remains in these harsh conditions, after repeated attacks wear down even the heartiest flora.

The media coverage gives a mixed view of the situation, and one can't help but wonder if those responsible realize the consequenses of their actions.

I guess not, as they go on to enjoy another sunset on the Med.

Fooooooooood

Mark has trained me well, and I am always on the lookout for good fooooooood.



Here we are with Jonathan and Robin, with a table full of salads. These small flavorful dishes and fresh bread make the best appetizers.

In Petra, fresh veggies, and the various sauces... Humus, Tahini, and Babaganoosh

Mark's favorite though (yes, I AM joking) is this place, a Kosher McDonald's! Complete with a lot of your old favorites (without the cheese and bacon) and with a pita-kabob-sandwich!

Petrafied

Ok, so this is much overdue.... but worth a write-up none the less.

I got a wonderful chance to go with my friends Mike and Michelle off to the not-even-a-little-bit-Red Sea, then a day-trip to Petra, in Jordan.

Here is a view of the Israeli resort city of Eilat. Hotels, restaurants, clubs, duty-free shopping and diving make up its profile.

We were up at dawn to make it to the border early, but even so were in a large line, as this was the first day open after a long religious holiday that shut down Jordanian government and businesses. The creature below was the most fun to photograph... it was just hard to catch it standing still.

Once in the entrance to old Petra, Mike and Michelle wrap up to fight the cold. And it was COLD. The temps were below freezing when we arrived, and the wind chill kept biting our faces. I have to say I had no idea that it got this cold here!

The walk down towards the Treasury led us through a large canyon. It was fun finding pictures in the stone. Here is one of two people about to kiss...

The Treasury (which really was never a treasury, but if you want the history of the whole place, you can read up on in at http://www.kinghussein.gov.jo/his_nabateans.html ) was breathtaking. It is amazing for its sheer size and the fact that it still stands, even though carved out of this relatively soft sandstone.

And we did fall prey to the sales pitches from the locals, and were coerced into riding camels. Mike practiced his bartering skills, and after many false starts off by foot, got the price down to where we decided the experience was well worth the cashflow. Certainly a fun way to book it back to the bus for the drive back to Eilat.