Israel and No Man's Land in the West Bank

The next day, Sunday, Zoe had school, so instead, after many failed communication attempts, Sarah and I met up to wander around the city again. We went to the Tower of David, a great old place with layers of history on top of each other and an interesting museum of the history of Jerusalem. Then, we enjoyed some amazing hot chocolate at a local café, and then proceeded to just hang out at Sarah’s hostel. Later, we found a vegetarian restaurant that really was more comfort food. Lasagna, cottage cheese and a plain salad never tasted so good! We ended the night at a local pub where we just sat and shared stories of our study abroad experiences.

Monday morning, Sarah and I went over to the Israeli National Museum, mostly to see the Dead Sea scrolls. A lot of the museum complex was closed for renovations, but it was totally worth it for the open parts. A massive scale model of the Old City from way back when was really neat, even if inaccurate, and the Scrolls and lots of similar ancient documents were absolutely incredible.

An explanation of our journey back to Jordan would take forever, but let’s just say it was not the normal route in an abridged version of the story. We pick up tickets to the King Hussein bridge at the bus station. Well, turns out the bus doesn’t tell you when he’s stopping at what stops. So, we miss our stop, as does another American wanting to go the same way as us. The three of us get off on the highway in the middle of the desert and wait for a ride to take us back. We catch a shared taxi of sorts, which take us to Jericho and, long story short, we end up taking the Palestinian way back to Jordan. Definitely was an experience, not as bad as the Israeli border, but you definitely feel the struggle of just daily activites for Palestinians. We end up making it back to Amman, with a few kinks, but no major issues, that night, ready (or not) for school the next day.