More on Israel (and Jordan too)

After Jerusalem, I headed down to the southern tip of Israel, Eilat, which borders both Egypt and Jordan and is located on the Red Sea. From there, I literally walked across the border into Jordan. Very interesting to physcially walk across a border, especially into a country which was at war with Israel so recently. Anyway, as you may now, Petra is located in Jordan and was recently named one of the new seven wonders of the world. You may have seen part of Petra in the Indiana Jones movies. Hiking through Petra is amazing. Giant red rocks everywhere with intricate buldings carved into the rocks. The most famous is the Treasury which was in Indiana Jones. It literally looks like a Treasury does today, except it is completely carved into rock and was carved around 100 A.D. The building is huge. I have no idea how they managed to carve the building into stone back then. There is also a very cool monestary carved into the rocks. Had to climb up 800 steps to get there but well worth it.

After Petra and a beach day at Eilat, Chad and I decided to rent a car and drive up to Northern Israel near the Sea of Galilee and Golan Heights. For those who think Israel is a small country (and it is in terms of square footage), the drive took 5 plus hours because Israel is a somewhat long country. Anyway, the Galilee and Golan Heights areas are beautiful. Yesterday, I rented a bike and rode along the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River. And today, I hiked a nature reserve in the Golan Heights. The nightlife in the Galilee is interesting as well since the bars are all located on kibbutzes. We went to one of these last night and met some Israelis who were very cool. There is supposedly a big party at one tonight as well. We will see.

Other interesting things about Israel, we passed a ton of hitchhikers on the road. There are tons of them. I guess it is a common form of transportation here. The falafels are very good -- if you go to the right places. And the weather here has been amazing. Beach weather everywhere so far. I hope this holds up for when I hit Tel Aviv on Thursday. No photos yet due to the lack of a USB drive on this computer but soon, very soon.