Last weekend three friends and I traveled down to Eilat for a little break. We planned this trip about 2 months ago and we’ve been looking forward to it for such a long time. Originally I was going to go to Petra (as two of my friends did) but I have so much work I didn’t go and did reading on the beach.
The trip started Thursday afternoon. Our bus was at 5pm, but because Bush was still in Jerusalem and we were worried about traffic we left way early in case there were crazy traffic jams. Of course it was the quickest ride we’ve ever taken. We decided everyone must have stayed home because they were so worried about the traffic caused by road closures due to Bush’s visit. Because we were so early we were able to do a little shopping at the bus station mall and eat at the Burger’s Bar there (delicious). The bus ride was supposed to be four hours and forty-five minutes. Despite making two stops, we got to Eilat in a little over four hours. Our bus driver was absolutely crazy, he was speeding and driving all over the road. Not to scare anyone.
After settling into the hostel we got ready for dinner and going out. After spending almost an hour getting ready (I mean we were four girls) we finally headed outside. As soon as we stepped out we discovered that it was actually raining. We were of course complaining and all of the Israelis were just glad for the rain. The downside was that we didn’t want to wander around to find a place to eat. Luckily there was a pizza store next door. One kind of cool thing is that I stayed in the exact same hostel three years ago when I was there with my high school. So the pizza store next door was actually one I had visited before, and I had a little bit of nostalgia. We then went back to the hostel and went to bed, ready for an early start the next day.
Because it was supposed to get to about 100 degrees Fahrenheit we wanted to leave for the beach early. Two of my friends headed out for Petra while the other two of us headed for the beach. We basically stopped in the first area of chairs on the beach. We noticed that they were playing loud trance music but sort of assumed that was going on all up and down the beach, so we were okay with it. The beach is really cool in Eilat because it’s really a cove which is divided between Israel and Jordan. So while sitting on the beach we could see the mountains of Jordan. It was really very beautiful.
It started to get really hot already by 11:30am, so we headed inside to the mall next to the beach. The air conditioning was amazingly refreshing, which everyone else seemed to have discover as well. We walked around for a bit and got lunch before heading outside again. Once we headed out at 1:30 it was really unbearably hot in the sun. So instead we sat in the shade for a while. Despite the loud music blaring I fell asleep instantly. At around 3 it was finally slightly less searingly hot, so we moved back into the sun. By that point the reason for the music was revealed. Apparently there was a huge gay and lesbian party on the beach around us, meaning everyone was dancing around the entire beach around all the beach chairs while incredibly drunk. It was kind of annoying and after an hour we were tired of the sun, and music, and people and went to walk along the promenade. There we did a little bit of window shopping in the tourist stores. We then went back to the hostel to shower and nap before going out for dinner.
After our naps my other two friends who had gone to Petra were back. It sounded like they had an amazing time, but I was still glad with my decision not to go. We went out for dinner along the promenade to this really great restaurant called Cafe Optimi. They had enormous salads that were really delicious. So much so, that one of my friends, whose birthday dinner was set to be Saturday night, said she wanted to return to the same restaurant. Afterwards we walked along the promenade again, this time being a bit ridiculous and trying on all of the really tacky clothing, hats, and jewelry. Finally we went home and changed to go out to a bar. It was incredibly annoying though because all of the good places were super crowded with birthright kids. It made us realize that we are a little tired of the huge American groups that travel around and are probably going to have reverse culture shock when we go home.
The next day, Saturday, we started early again and headed out to the beach. This time we went farther down the beach to a hotel beach. Here the crowd was a bit older so it was much more relaxed, plus all of the attendants were much more helpful with the beach chairs than on the other beach. After a couple hours of being out in the sun we decided we had to go in the water. It was so clear and it wasn’t too cold. The water was really salty though and we all had to shower on the beach before lying back down. Afterwards we stayed on the beach for a couple more hours. Then two of my friends went scuba diving and my other friend and I went shopping, for real this time. Because it was Shabbat only the clothing stores were really open, which was good because it kept me focused in my shopping. Also the best part was a cd store which has cds for $8-9. I went a bit crazy but it was totally worth it because I got a lot of great Israeli music.
As I mentioned before, we went out to dinner again at Cafe Optimi. I actually branched out and got a different dish from the night before which was equally amazing. We got a little sparkler in dessert and sang happy birthday to my friend even though it was really her birthday eve, and not her actual birthday. Afterwards we were going to go home and change to go out but instead we just went to a place near our hostel. There we officially celebrated my friend’s 21st birthday at midnight.
The next day we got up early again to take our 10am bus back to Jerusalem. This time we only stopped once but there was an Aroma coffeeshop there (my favorite place) so it was okay. We all slept after being so tired out from the heat and the sun. It was kind of nice to come back to Jerusalem where the high is only 80 degrees.
A note, I won’t really be doing any more travel until I go to Europe after my finals on June 5. I’ll be hiding out like a hermit in the library for the next few weeks while I work constantly to get all of my stuff done. Even though this is study abroad, professors seemed to have missed the memo saying work should be easy. I have 4 papers totally 75 pages, 4 presentations, and 2 finals. So making it through the next three weeks will be a ridiculous challenge.
