Road trippin' to Egypt

Egypt was amazing. A lot of time was spent driving, but lucky for me, I love road trips and this was definitely the ultimate road trip. On our way there we stopped at a few significant sites. The first one was at Be'er Sheva, which is about 75 miles southwest of Jerusalem. Initially, I wasn't that excited about stopping so soon because I was ready to get on the road to Egypt, but the funny thing about me having a bad attitude about stops is that as soon as I get off the bus and realize how cool and significant the places are my bad attitude is instantly gone. 

Be'er Sheva is cool because it was founded by the Israelites in about 1000 BC after the land was conquered by King David and, before that, Abraham alternated living between there in the winter months and Hebron in the summer months. Anyway, we went in a big water cistern there so we had to wear these dang cool hard hats. I have a video of Jake giving an exceptional tour of the cistern, but I'll just have to share that one later since the internet is way too slow to be uploading videos.

Kristi, me, Miriam looking super stylin' in our hard hats

We went up on a tower so we had a good view of the tell and Bro. Chadwick walked around beneath us explaining things. There is one area in the city where they are fairly sure an Israelite temple once stood, which was cool to see.

lovin' life at Tell Be'er Sheva

RaeLynn, Morgan, me
This would've been a great roommate picture if Lindsey would've
been on the ball and joined us. Bless her sweet heart.

Walking through the streets of an ancient Israelite city.
If you imagine the walls being taller, this picture is infinitely cooler.

Just outside the tell they had a replica of a four horned altar. These are what the Israelite altars would have looked like that they made sacrifices on.

Ally, me, Lisa (Ween), Mickell, Miriam, Kristi, Megan Gygi
Remember that frumpy thing I was talking about?
Well, I was a master of that style by this point. :) 

Next we drove a little further to Tell Arad. This is another Israelite city where they have found the remains of a temple.

Outside Tell Arad

In the Holy of Holies at the Tell Arad temple

Jocelyn, me, Alison
Notice the spelling of 'sanctuary' on the sign. A lot of signs have cute
little misspellings like this. I love how they try so hard to accommodate
the English-speaking tourists.

After Tell Arad we finally got to the road trippin' part of the day. We drove over to the Dead Sea on a super windy road. A few people got really car sick and one girl, who will intentionally remain nameless, even threw up (luckily she had her sack from lunch close by!). I had a hard time remembering her name up until then, but that made it really easy to remember her name. Poor girl. She was such a good sport about it though, I was really impressed. Brother Judd went to her seat and asked if he could take her bag when he found out what happened. He is such a nice guy. Our teachers all care so much about us, it really feels like a family here. 

We drove along the Dead Sea and down to a kibbutz that was about 30 minutes north of the Red Sea. (a kibbutz is a Jewish community that practices socialism, essentially) The route we drove is likely the same one Lehi and his family would've traveled when they left Jerusalem. It was really eye-opening to see what things would have looked like when they were going back and forth from Jerusalem. I have so much respect for them, and I can actually understand now why Laman and Lemuel would have murmured. The miracle, in my eyes, is that Nephi and Lehi didn't murmur. Anyway, we were all super exhausted from getting up early and leaving at 6:30 so a lot of us passed out at this point. 

Passed out on the bus

That night we stayed at Kibbutz Keturah. After we got there, they took us to some amazing sand dunes that were kind of close by. We got to play in them for awhile, but I don't have pictures from it because I didn't want to risk having the sand ruin my camera. The sand was SO cool though - it looked like water when it ran down the hill. I loved it. When we finished playing they gave us time to go off on our own and have about 15 minutes to ourselves. We each had a paper w/ the scripture found in 1 Nephi 2: 4-5 written on it, which really helped to set the tone for our thoughts. The solitude was indescribable and I loved being able to just sit and think without any distractions.

That night we had pita burgers and french fries and swam in the pool at the kibbutz. I forgot the silly putty I have to use in my ears when I swim so I just sat on the side and talked with some girls. So fun! 

The next morning we left the kibbutz early and drove about a half hour to the Taba border crossing. I didn't get too many questions at the crossing, so it wasn't too intense. We weren't allowed to take pictures though, sorry. The only hard part about the crossing was, since I was the "Snack Lady," having an extra bag to carry around that was full of snacks.

When we finished the crossing we got on our next tour bus. This one felt like we were getting on Austrian Air all over again; the color layout was almost the same, we had overhead bins, and there was a man who handed out juice boxes once we were moving. I got to sit by Lizzy, which was great because I just adore and admire her so much. I love talking to her so I was glad we had a long time to sit together. She is one of those people who has the ability to make you feel really good when you are with her.

Lizzy and me with our Arabic juice

Those of you who know me well know I have a small kine attachment to my dear teddy bear, Beddy. I had a lot of stuffed animals when I was younger, but for some reason I latched onto her more than the rest. She has had several surgeries w/ me and even stayed in the hospital w/ me overnight. As a reward for her loyalty during my hard times, she is becoming quite the world traveller! She has now been to many places on the US mainland, lived in Hawaii for the better part of 3 years, been on a couple of Carribbean cruises, lived in Israel, and travelled to Egypt. Soon she will get to see Galilee and Jordan. She is really good to travel with because she never complains, even when she is getting shoved into my already-full backpack. I am so lucky to have such a good teddy bear. Truth be told, I was nervous about taking her to Egypt because I didn't have a lot of space in my bag and I was worried I might lose her somehow. I decided it was worth the risk though, obviously. I mean, she has been with me so far, why stop now?

Beddy saying hello from the Sinai Peninsula

We drove all day that day while crossing the the Sinai Peninsula. We had two rest stops, which served as a not-so-nice introduction to the bathroom situation in Egypt. A quick summary would be that a lot of places make you pay to use a super disgusting restroom (I don't get grossed out that easily, either, so that is saying something!) and they don't even give you toilet paper! No need to taint things and dwell on that aspect of the trip, however. 

We got to Cairo in the evening and stayed at the Oasis Hotel. For some reason, I thought we'd be staying at hotels that were on the cheaper side of things, but the Oasis was actually pretty nice. I was roommates with Kelsey and each of us had our own double-size bed, which was glorious. After dinner we re-arranged our luggage for our trip to Luxor the next day and then passed out almost instantly.

PS. Don't worry, I am more than willing to put Beddy on a shelf once I am married. :)