Whew!

We just arrived back at the apartment in Jerusalem, capping a full day of traveling. It is almost midnight our time. We left our relative's apartment in Cairo at 4:30 this morning (due to last minute socializing, my procrastination in packing, and my overactive brain, I didn't really get any sleep that night). It's been a solid day. It went as follows:

4:30 AM - Left the Cairo apartment for Turgoman Bus station.

6:00 AM - Left the bus station on the East Delta bus to Taba, the Egyptian border city to Israel

12:30 PM - Arrived at the Taba border crossing

5:00 PM - Finished the rigorous process of crossing into Israel (Due to the interrogation and background/story checks, it took us nearly as long to traverse the 50 yards from Egypt to Israel as it did for us to go all the way from Cairo to Taba. Ironic, yet frustrating. On another side note, I'm now convinced the the border security for the majority of the state of Israel is run by 19 year old girls with meticulous hair and nails. This is based on multiple entries into Israel. They have quite the stylish military, but I digress.)

5:15 PM - Arrived in Eilat (the Israeli border town). We missed our bus to Jerusalem due to the border snafu, so we got a sherut (shared taxi). However, there were none going to Jerusalem, only Tel Aviv (north of Jerusalem).

10:45 PM - Arrived in Tel Aviv. Got another sherut from the Central Bus Station there to Jerusalem.

11:30 PM - Dropped off by Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem. It's not that bad a walk from here to the apartment (we've done it several times), but by this point none of us really cared about saving the extra 40 shekels.

11:45 PM - Taxi drops us off at the apartment.

Final numbers:

1 bus, 3 sheruts, and 3 taxi cabs.
A grand total of roughly $40 per person for the whole trip (woohoo!).
A little over 900 kilometers.
19 1/2 hours traveling.

All in all, the amount we saved by not flying was worth the extra time. Plus, we got to see some cool landscapes along the way. The final feather in my cap was that I was able to tell the last cab driver where to go and negotiate the payment and change in Hebrew. Granted, this required the knowledge of about 8 words on my part, but it's a victory none the less. I wouldn't say we are all ready to do it again right away, but the trip was definitely a good experience.

39+ hours and counting without any significant sleep for me, so I'm going to crash now. Am looking forward to waking up tomorrow in Jerusalem with Vernon and Aubrey and the roomies.

Alexander