Leaving Greece

So we have decided to change our plans. We tried to get out of Santorini the night of the 20th but our ferry was canceled so we had to get another night at our hostel and take a day ferry this morning. Sucked because the ferry was 8 hours long and we wasted a whole day on the boat in the Agean Sea in a wind storm with everyone pucking and getting drenched by the water spraying up on the boat...and this is a BIG ferry...for 8 HOURS! I'm still sloshing 6 hours later! We would have rather slept on the boat and saved some money on accomodations. Oh well. We decided we wouldn't highly recommend Santorini to anyone unless you didn't want to do anything but eat and buy art. Really.

We decided that we are done with Greece. We have only seen Athens and Santorini but we feel done. It's hard to tell if we are just getting burnt out on travel in general or if we are tired of seeing ruins (which I know is true for the meantime).

Tomorrow we are heading for the west coast to Patras to take ANOTHER ferry all the way to Bari Italy (14 HOURS!). I just pray that the waters are clam so we can sleep (this one IS an overnight boat). Once we get off the boat we have a 5 hour train ride to Naples where we are staying because it is cheaper then Sorrento (where we want to be).

There we will see the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii. We also needed to cut some days out of our itinerary to make sure we made it to Spain on time and we decided that we want more time in Switzerland. So we are leaving Greece 6 days ahead of schedual but we are fine with it.

Sorry I can't check spelling...this computer is in french for some reason and it thinks every word is wrong!

Love you all!

We've been busy!

Sorry we have been incommunicado! We are in Santorini at the moment and will be headed to Corinth on the 21st. David's 22nd birthday is on the 22nd of Sept. so hopefully we can stick to our budget well so we can celebrate. Our $80/day budget doesn't get us very far when all of a sudden it is only 57 Euros! The dollar is worthless here!

Anyways, we left Nazareth, Israel earlier then planned b/c the Jewish New Year started, all public transport stopped and all businesses in most of Israel closed. Not a good time to travel. We were able to see Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee for 2 hours but that was all we saw in the north.

We decided to spend our 2 days in Tel Aviv where the beaches are amazing.

On the 15th we flew into Athens and found our hostel very easily. We went to the Acropolis first thing and saw all the historic ruins around it. We got a three day ticket to see all the archaeological sites. Good thing because the 16th was election day and everything was closed! We bought an all day metro/subway/train ticket and that was our entertainment for the day. We just explored. At about 5pm we went to Syndagma Square infront of the Parliament building where news cameras and stages were set up. We hung out there waiting for the 7pm announcement and watching everything unfold. We walked down the street to where the other party (the Green party) was set up and met a man on the way who was running and was kind of related to the green party but independent. We talked to him for over an hour. He was a professor of philosophy in Canada for a long time. Anyways, it would be cool to know if he got into the Parliament which I guess was still an option when we found out eh blue party won and the green lost. The former Prime Minister was voted back in and there was a huge party int he streets at Syndagma Square so we decided to go join the party. We got huge Greek flags people we passing out and we danced and waved our flags int eh street like loyal tourists. We were on the News at least 4 obvious times. There were several stations there filming live and playing the news on huge screens in the square. The channel was called "NET" and I was wearing a purple shirt, that's all I know.

The next day we finished our tour of Athens and left in the evening for an overnight boat ride to Santorini. We have been renting a moped each day and just exploring everything on the island. It is really set up for rich tourists who want to do nothing but spend money so the moped is our fun. The sunset was gorgeous. Theres a volcano you can visit but you can only go by guided tour which we decided we hate so we won't be seeing that unfortunately.

Tomorrow night we head back by ferry and off to Corinth, Mycenae (hopefully if we can find accommodations), Nafplion, Olympia and then Patras where we sail to Italy.

Run-ins with friends and strangers

On Tuesday (the 11th) we spent our last day in Jerusalem and started the day by going to the Basilica of Agony, otherwise known as the Church of All Nations. It was very dark and depicted the pain that Jesus felt before he was betrayed by Judas in the garden of Gethsemane (where the church is located). Outside was a garden of ancient olive trees which was really neat looking.

After wandering around the old city for a while, we decided to check out the Israel Museum and the Shrine of the Book (where some of the most important Dead Sea Scrolls are housed) next door. Well, apparently they are doing renovations and have wack hours. We showed up two hours before it opened...at 4 pm. What? Oh well, we went back to the hostel and did some research of the Galilee area.

In the evening we were able to meet up with Katherine and Pastor James Harleman of Mars Hill Church at the Hyatt Regency and eat like kings at their buffet with the rest of the tour group. This was the only day that our schedules aligned. It was such a blessing to be around other Christians and have them pray over us and our trip. It really strengthened us and got us excited for the adventure ahead.

OK, CRAZY STORY:
We decided that the bus to Nazareth could wait because hanging out with our friends in Israel was way more important. We got to Jerusalem central bus station at 8:30pm and they said the next bus to Nazareth left at 11:30 (its a 2 hour trip). Instead, we went to Tel Aviv (1 hour), then Naz. (2 hours). We got off at some random stop in Nazareth at 12:15am with a crappy map and confusing directions to the inn. We stopped at a convenience store but they hardly spoke English. They gave us free beer and juice, told us to pull up a chair and take our packs off while they called the number and looked online. Then a taxi driver came and they talked in Arabic for a long time and we told him we didn't want to pay, we just wanted directions. Then some random guy came in who knew the man behind the counter. He knew NO English but apparently offered to help us by driving us there because apparently he knew the manager. It was definitely scary but we got in his car and he took us straight there (it's like 1:30 am now). The front door of the inn was locked so we sat in some patio furniture while this guy called several numbers trying to get someone to open the door. They weren't gonna do it. He tried to help us for like 30 min. -we tried to offer him money as thanks but he wouldn't take it. At 2 am, stranded in Nazareth we decided to camp out in front of the door. We hardly slept-kinda scary-outside a 200 year old building.

We got up at 6am and walked around the streets wondering what to do. Some guy our age asked if we were looking for the Inn (apparently everyone gets lost). We told him no but he wanted to lead us there. we showed him it was locked. He lead us to his house, got his cell, told us to call (using no English), no answer still. Then he lead us to the house where the manager sleeps, woke everyone up, and got the manager for us. The manager (a guy named Gabi) walked us to the inn, gave us a nice room and told us to get some rest and we'd talk later. We slept well then.

The people up here are insanely hospitable and amazing.
Oh and today is the Jewish new year...year 5000-something, and the Muslum new year is in a couple days. Fireworks, lights, loud people, its fun!
Love you all, until next time...

Sept 8th,9th and 10th

This is the Dome of the Rock. This is where the Jews and Christians believe Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrafice. The Muslims believe this is where Muhammad was taken up into heaven when he was standing on the rock. How convenient. Now everyone is fighting over the land.

This is the newer Mosque that the Muslims built on top of the Old Mosque which is still in use. The Dome of the Rock is directly behind me when I took this picture. This is the second most important spot in the world to the Muslims, first is Mecca.

This is the Mount of Temptation. Also known as the West Bank area. We took this photo from Jericho. The tour guide said that if we were to walk around on our own in this area, we might get kidnapped.

This is the view of Old Jerusalem form the Mount of Olives.

This is me flouting in the Dead Sea, enjoyng life... You actually float. It is impossible to drownd in these waters. It is the weirdest feeling. It feels like you are floating in warm oil. The water is 35-40% salt and the rest is water.

This is Heidi and I during some pagan purification practices. Just joking, but they make bank off of selling this mud in cleansing and moistering beauty products.

Here is a guy on the side of the road walking his daily driver.

This is at Qum'ran where the Dead Sea scrolls were found.

This is the anceint fortress of king Herod at Masada. These are his store rooms which could supply the entire fortress with food for over a year.

We have been spending so much time in the Old Jerusalem lately. There is so much to do here. You really need a month here to see everything.

We have visited every quarter of Old Jerusalem, Muslim quarter (where we are staying), the Jewish quarter (which is newly rebuild, and very clean), the Christian quarter (filled with churches) and the Armenian quarter.

We also went to Masada, where Herod had a fortress on a plateau that was taken over by the Romans after the sack of Jerusalem in 70-72 a.d. We went to the Dead Sea which was the definite high-light of this short trip south. We went to the famous West Bank to visit the old and new city of Jericho. The old one is still covered by sand but they know where it is.

We went to the Mount of Olives that had a beautiful view of Jerusalem.

The next day we met up with a Muslim we met in the hostel the night before who has been living in Jerusalem for his whole life. He showed us all around the city and inside the temple gates.

Will post pictures and more info later. We have a lot of things we are too excited to do here and we don't have much time left.

Pictures

This is a picture of us with all our vitality before the 20 hour precession of flights. (5 in the morning)

Here we are boarding the Lufthansa 777 flight from Frankfurt Germany to Tel Aviv Israel. Here is where we started to feel sick.
We were crammed into this plane with a lot of Jews on their way to Jerusalem. They wore what looked like electricians tape wrapped around their arms with little boxes connected that were stuck to their foreheads. I think the boxes contain the ten commandments and other Jewish laws. They also would distinguishably grow out the hair above their ears and nervously curl it as they waited in lines and sat on the plane.

Here is a viewing point in the old town Jaffa (South Tel Aviv, where Solomon shipped the grand cedars from Lebanon to build the temple in Jerusalem) which overlooks some of the beautiful Mediterranean coastline.

More Tel Aviv

This is an ally in Jaffa.

More winding ally ways.

View from the ally to the bell tower.

This is one of the richest neighborhoods in Tel Aviv.

Down town night life on Dizenghoff street in the main shopping district. This is where we ate the best falafel and drank fresh squeezed pomegranate and orange juice.

Blurry night shot of the beach in Tel Aviv.

Entry way to Old Jerusalem at the Damascus Gate, right across the street from our hostel.

Here is the Western Wall, we will expound upon this later once we have more time to walk around it. Currently the Muslim quarter is open to tourist so we will be visiting the Dome of the Rock where the Holy of Holy's is located this Sunday.

This is a shot of the Jewish quarter.

Here is some archaeological work that is underway. This is being dug out in the middle of the walk way.

We Made it!

So, we survived the huge flight (barely). We flew to DC first with an hour layover, then off to Frankfurt with another hour layover, then finally, our last flight to Tel Aviv which was delayed like an extra hour. Bu the time we boarded that flight I was feeling a bit queasy and malnourished. I finally couldn't take it anymore and made use of the sick bag as we were hitting the runway in Tel Aviv. All that to say, our first day was HORRIBLE! We finally got to our hostel at 6pm (5am your time), 24 hours after arriving at Sea-tac.



Today was much better. It is the end of our second day (9pm) as I write this although it is 11 am your time. Today we saw Jaffa, the old town of Tel Aviv and the artists district, we swam in the Mediterranean for hours, made friends with a guy from Buenos Aires and had lunch with him at what is know here as the "best hummus place in all of Tel Aviv". Here, there was a crowd of locals and a huge line, but soooo good!



We are at an Internet cafe and they don't let you plug stuff in so we can't upload any of our pictures but hopefully at some point we can.



Tomorrow morning we are going to the Caramel Market and then taking a one hour bus to Jerusalem. On Saturdays they observe that Sabbath and elevators stop, power goes out, shops close, etc, so it will be interesting to see what locals do and that is what we will do!

So Long Suckas!

We are leaving soon and this is a silly test because we know nothing about "blogging". PS. we leave in 8 hours at 4:45am on 9/4. Peace out!