I'm more of a princess than I thought

I'm in Jerusalem now, and I've found I have time for some silly blogging (read previous post). It's late night/early morning of course. 3:12 a.m. to be exact. I spent 16 hours traveling from Cairo to Jerusalem, slept most of the way in the buses, and now I'm wide awake! The rides themselves were uneventful, just long. First I had to pick up a bus from Cairo to the border town of Taba. I didn't miss any interesting scenery during the 6-hour jaunt: each time I opened my eyes all I saw was desert and electricity lines. We had a brief break at a small rest stop in, literally, the middle of nowhere. I went to the bathroom, knowing full well that it would be awful but thinking it couldn't be worse than holding the urge for 4 more hours. I may have been wrong....That bathroom probably hadn't been cleaned since 2003. I had to wade through the floor get to a toilet that wasn't completely covered in excrement. There was no paper of course and there was a pile of surprises in the corner of the stall. I think I'll have to through the shoes I was wearing away and no way was I going to order food from that restaurant!

The next leg consisted of me walking out of Egypt and into Israel. The Egyptian border patrol was a bit lackadaisical. Scanned my bags for contraband, asked a few questions, shook my hand, and said come again! Once officially out of Egypt, I lingered a wee bit to view the Red Sea! It's acutally blue, by the way. (I wonder what that area in between the two borders is called? Israegypt? Egyprael?) Then I entered the Israeli side. They went through each bag and asked me the same questions a dozen times: Why did I come at this time? How long was I in Cairo? Who do I know in Cairo and what do they do? How did I meet my friends in Cairo? Where were my parents born? Where am I staying in Jerusalem? What am I doing in Israel? Then I spent half of my week's allowance getting a cab to the bus station, a bus to Tel Aviv, another bus to Jerusalem, and yet another cab form the bus station in Jerusalem to the hotel. All of that was not very interesting or scenic either. Tel Aviv looks like any modern city except for the signs are Hebrew. Then we drove into Jerusalem and there was a totally different feel. It was already past 12:00 a.m. by then so there wasn't much to see. I did notice that 95% of the people who were out and about were orhodox Jewish men in black suits with the long side burn curls and the tassles on the hems of their shirts! All I could think of was, "Oh boy, this city is going to be an interesting city!"

Tomorrow I'll wander through the old city which is conveniently located across the street from the hotel. Actually, I'll probably get lost in the old city, knowing me. Then I'll meet up with Yun and Robin at the hotel at 4:00 p.m. Oy vey I must get some sleep now so I can have a couple of hours of touring around tomorrow. Nighty night!