Dahab, Southern Sinai

Under the Dahab Bridge

I needed a break from break. Yeah, I've had a week and half off but it didn't feel like a real break. The breaks around here have never really felt like real time off. So with Kaitin here we decided to get out of the country for a few days.

The drive down itself wasn't too bad. The bus #444 from Jerusalem to Eilat, a quick taxi ride to the Taba border crossing and finally a 1-hour 45-minute taxi ride to Dahab. Not too bad. The hard part was that we needed to watch the craziness of getting our passports stamped and taken care of. I'm sure when you send in your information back in the states, six or seven people see our information and it get's tossed around the office. I think there were six people that took our passports and wrote down information from them before we actually crossed into Egypt.

Then we got to our destination. It was incredible.

The Red Sea

For two-and-a-half days we did almost nothing. The breakfasts in the morning we took on the beach were complimentary with the exception of the turkish coffee, and we sat on the beach reading and watching the waves for a long time each day. It was really refreshing to sit with Kaitlin and just be on vacation. No cares, no worries and very little scheduled.

One of the few things that was actually arranged was taking a tour on a camel. She had her heart set on riding one since we were in the desert climbing Masada. So we arranged it and took a ride out to the Blue Lagoon to watch the sun set a little, but then our guide needed to make it back for prayers, so he brought us back before the sun went all the way down.

Kaitlin and Me Riding a Camel

We ate a bunch of meals in different restaurants, sitting on the floor or at tables. We sat in the open and in enclosed areas. We ate on the beach and in our hotel room. This vacation was exactly what I needed and what we needed to have together. It was incredible to have some time to just be with each other, watch movies, sit in the chill-out areas, watch sunsets and just really get a chance to relax.

Sunset

There isn't much more I can say. Dahab and Sinai is an incredible trip, if you have the chance to visit I would highly recommend it. If you need a place to stay, use the Dahab Plaza Hotel. Mr. Emad, the manager, is great. When we arrived, he gave us a tour of the strip along the beach and pointed out his two restaurants, Same Same But Different and Fresh Fish.

On the walk with Mr. Emad, we were left alone by most of the annoying salesmen. He explained that he tried to tell the salesmen that most "westerners" don't like the aggressiveness that they work with. Many of them ignored his advice, but the ones that did leave us mostly alone, these were the ones that we shopped at. We loved to pop into the restaurants that only asked us once or twice to check out their menus and ate there. We also made a point of buying from the shops that were laid back about us.

Some of the salesmen were very aggressive though. One of my favorite lines I heard was a guy that very slowly said, " God Bless America. Yo. Yo. Yo. Whas up?" I also really liked the guy that told me each time we passed, "Remember when you said yesterday that you said you would come back?" It was a lot of fun experiencing a new place in the world and I realized that I have now been on the African continent now.

One final word of advice. If you go to Sinai, do not, I repeat DO NOT take a cab from the guys just inside the border. You need to walk through the border and out of the building. From that point you need to walk beyond the first gate. There you will find a group of men with taxis. You will be able to get a better price than we were able to get. Be ready to haggle.

Unwanted But Much Needed

Friday morning, our day off, I needed to be at school by 7:20 in the morning (meaning that I need to leave my apartment before 7:00) to go on a retreat to Kibbutz Hannaton. I have to say that heading into the retreat, I didn't want to head out of town so close to the end of our semester. I was honestly feeling a little stressed looking at everything that is on our schedule as we come to the end of the year.

It was so much better than I could have anticipated. I went on a hike for about 3 hours of hiking. I wish I could remember the hills we climbed, but it was a lot of fun. At the start is seemed pretty easy. Then we took on the actual hilly part of the climb. It was great! There was nothing that we needed to scale, but some of the hiking was pretty tough at times. When we got to the top, the view was incredible.

The way down was actually harder than the way up. I'm a lot more nervous about dropping down, but it was great.

Exhausted, we got to the Kibbutz, showered and had a really nice Shabbat together as a program. Some z'mirot (songs) after dinner and even a tish (table, song session and study session) with one of the community's rabbis. A bunch of melodies, a few discussions and constant interruption of two dogs chasing each other around the tent. After relaxing for a while, I got a decent night's sleep and woke up to go get some meditation in.

I had never do that before and it was a great experience. I'm not sure what it exactly was about focusing on nothing but the pace of my breath. The session was guided and she asked us to concentrate on the the four letter word of God's Name. Each letter represents a part of the cycle of breathing. I felt so much better after that.

Sitting around the kibbutz the rain hit. Yep, that's right. The rain hit hard!

We actually got a nice downpour off and on all day. Complete with thunder and lightning, it was a fantastic show. I had forgotten how much I missed storms. There was really only one more thing that could have made it better was to have a certain special someone sitting on the couch next to me. I love storms and I haven't had a chance to see anything like this since getting to Israel.

It was great to have a little time off somewhere away from Jerusalem. Although I have to see that I am still a little worried about all of the stuff I have coming up and the days that I don't really have to get it all done in. But with that said, I need to get a little sleep. It's going to be a long three weeks until Kaitlin gets here.