Egypt, Jordan and Israel Trip

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Our summer has been completely full and just now are we finally getting a chance to relax a little and update our blog. To begin, we left Macedonia just after the school year finished and had an amazing 16 day vacation, beginning in Thessaloniki, Greece for a day and then heading to Cairo, Egypt where we met Conor's mom before venturing to Jordan and Israel as well. Our good friend and fellow Peace Corps Volunteer, Benson, also joined us. We saw so many amazing sites and have too many great stories to include in one small post, so I'll try give a brief overview of each day:

*Saturday, June 12: Thessaloniki; stayed with our new good friend from Couchsurfing, Maria!!

*Sunday, June 13: Flew to Cairo; explored a bit before meeting Casey at the airport at 3:00 am.

*Monday, June 14: Egyptian Museum & downtown Cairo at night; watched a soccer match from the middle of a street that was projected on the wall of a cafe.

*Tuesday, June 15: Pyramids -- visited on camels and were able to go inside a small pyramid -- & papyrus 'museum' (unfortunately Casey had a little accident at the pyramids with her "B"ucking camel named Moses. She was such a trooper and we're so happy to hear everything's feeling well again.)

*Wednesday, June 16: Coptic Cairo -- saw where Moses was said to have been found in the basket, the cave where the Holy Family hid from Harod, St. Stephen's chains; toured a beautiful mosque that is the second oldest university/learning center in the world; walked through the maze of streets in the bazaar; almost died from heat exhaustion.

*Thursday, June 17: Took a train to Alexandria where we visited the Library of Alexandria.

*Friday, June 18: Watched a hotel burn; toured the Qaitbey Fortress that stands on the site of, and contains marble used to build, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, an original Wonder of the World; saw the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa; returned to Cairo by train.

*Saturday, June 19: Left at 5:30 am on a bus traveling to Taba; entered into Israel and took a 10 minute taxi ride to the Jordan border crossing. After almost getting shot by a soldier on a watchtower while walking down a road trying to find the "appropriate" taxi, and after getting two cab drivers arrested, we traveled 2 hours to Wadi Musa and our beautiful hotel. (Wadi Musa is the site of Moses' spring.)

*Sunday June 20: Spent the entire day exploring Petra -- a must see!! (We met a Peace Corps Volunteer serving just outside Petra on our van-ride!)

*Monday, June 21: Met another PCV on our bus-ride to Amman; hopped in a taxi that took us to the Israel border crossing at the Allenby/King Hussein Bridge. Conor and I were targeted as terrorists and were searched (I barely got out of a full-body search!) before crossing into Israel and taking a van to Jerusalem. Once in Jerusalem we went downtown and enjoyed a great meal to celebrate Conor's birthday!

*Tuesday, June 22: Walked along top of the old city walls of Jerusalem; saw the cave where Mary was born; visited the place where Jesus healed the blind man; walked the Via Dolorosa -- the actual stations of the cross; ended at the holiest place in Christianity: The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, built on the site where Jesus is said to have been crucified and containing the site of the tomb where he was buried and rose.

*Wednesday, June 23: Back in old city Jerusalem; visited the Wailing Wall followed by the Dome of the Rock -- a place holy to Christians, Muslims and Jews as the site of Abraham's sacrifice and God's intervention -- also where Muslims believe Mohamed made his journey to Heaven to meet with the prophets and God; saw the site of the Last Supper and King David's tomb; went to a beautiful church built on the site where Mary died.

*Thursday, June 24: Spent the morning trying to get our rental-car figured out; visited Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity -- the oldest continually operating church in the world which is said to have been built on the site of Jesus' birth; drove along the Dead Sea to Masada; enjoyed a great anniversary dinner in the cafeteria.

*Friday, June 25: Got up at 3:30 and hiked up the Masada to watch the sun rise over the Dead Sea -- the Masada was a fortress built by Herod that a group of Jews occupied and where they all subsequently committed suicide rather than succumb to the fate of the Romans who built an incredible siege ramp -- the site is central to Israeli myth and identity; swam/floated in the Dead Sea; drove to Nazareth and on to the Sea of Galilee.

*Saturday, June 26: Drove to the Mount of Beatitudes, overlooking the Sea of Galilee; visited Mount Tabor; drove back to Jerusalem, stopping along the way to see Jesus' baptismal site which is in the middle of nowhere, only to be stopped by the Israeli military on a desolate road in the middle of a mine field; saw the Garden of Gethsemane, Mary's tomb, Mount of Olives.

*Sunday, June 27: Drove to Tel Aviv and on to Haifa; returned to Tel Aviv and spent our last day in Israel eating dinner overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

*Monday, June 28: Casey flew out at 12:30 am; Benson, Conor and I flew out at 5:30 for Riga, Latvia and on to Belgrade, Serbia (this time Benson was targeted as the terrorist and had to go through 3 additional screenings before finally making it to the terminal); bused from Belgrade to Skopje, Macedonia.