Sunday, November 5, 2017

March 8th, 2017 Jerusalem, Israel and Bethlehem, Palestine


5AM I woke and took a bus to the checkpoint for 4.7 ILS.

6AM The bus to the border only took 20 minutes or so. The border traffic was much worse to Israel than to Palestine. Our line was done in minutes. I got to the other side and started walking. I was offered a ride from a nice Palestinian man and his 8 year old daughter. I toured Bethlehem within 2 hours. I had another falafel before I went higher but none of the churches were open. The yogurt was just horrendous. I gave it back to the owner at Afteem. Seeing where this guy was born was interesting. I walked up to the hill, the Christian churches were closed.






9AM I am making my way back to the border. I got another ride from someone who offered. The border wasn't bad at all again. Maybe this was just a little later than the normal traffic. A Palestinian girl was very frustrated with the Israeli occupants. She also didn't want to sit next to me.











10:20AM I got back to old city. I got a coke and walked toward Jaffe Gate. I met a couple of German Christian girls who led me to the stations and to Jaffe Gate. We started the free tour on time.


1:30PM We went through the Armenian quarter, the Jewish, Muslim and Christian quarter. I liked the tour. I left the old city and walked to the bus station. Turek was here. He was the one who spent even more time at the border than me yesterday. It was 3 hours for him and 1 for me. We waited for 10 more minutes for more people to share. We caught a couple of South African women. I changed with them and then changed with an old man a few steps away.

2:30PM We got to the border and paid an exit tax of 179 ILS. I didn't have to pay extra and no trouble getting back into Jordan even though the visa is for a single entry. Waiting for the bus took 2 hours.

5PM We shared a taxi to get to Budget rental car first and to their destination after. We were in contact the whole time so they were waiting for me even after closing at 6PM.




6:30PM I got my car and started driving. I stopped for some coffee and chips. Some Jordanian offered me a bite of the local food. I then had to stop multiple times throughout the night and didn't get to Wadi Rum until 2AM. I had to turn on heating every hour so the car stays hot.

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