Passing through a military style checkpoint, our cab driver pointed ahead and to the left, I gave him 30 JD, we took our bags from the trunk and took our first breath of cool, dry desert air. Cool, as it would later be discovered is a bit of an understatement as temps hovered around 50 with no wind and below freezing at night. With inadequate clothing, we hopped into the jeep with our 20-year-old guide Muhammad and into the desert we went.
The bus system in Israel is efficient, relatively cheap, and they even have free wifi (which is a hot commodity in Uzbekistan and you better believe I used every minute of it). After a few relaxing days in Tel-Aviv we boarded the Egged bus for the southern resort town of Eilat.
We took the bus on a Sunday so it was nearly filled with soldiers going back from their weekend leave. I’d recommend keeping this in mind when planning your trip. The landscape going south was dry and arid. As we reached closer to the border with Jordan, it looked like some sort of lunar landscape. Although we had boarded a bus to the Israeli town of Eilat, we had our sites set on the small town of Aqaba on the Jordanian side of the Red Sea.
1. Rent a bicycle
2. Carmel Market
3. Old Jaffa/Jaffa Port
4. Florentine neighborhood
5. Nachlat Benyamin Arts and Crafts Fair
6. Rothschild Boulevard
7. Benedict’s: Breakfast 24/7
8. Neve Tzedek neighborhood
9. Any cafe’ in the city
10. Steal one of the adorable Tel Aviv dogs and head to the beach**
*I realize there are so many wonderful things to see/do/eat in Tel Aviv, these were just my top 10 favorite.
**No animals were (successfully) stolen in the writing of this blog post.
A year ago I fell prey to one of those silly internet bucket lists. You know, the ones titled “10 Things Every 25 year-old Should Know” or “96238347 Places to Visit Before 30”. At first you feel inspired and then you just feel like a couch potato doing nothing while everyone else figures out all the bullet points to being a real adult. I hate those. Around the same time I read an article about how writing down goals makes you more likely to accomplish them. Feeling both inspired, agitated, and in a bit of a standstill with life I decided to write down 25 things I’d like to do while I’m 25. I’m stubborn, so as I wrote down numbers one, two and twenty-one I knew I’d do them even if friends thought it was a bit overly ambitious. Now folding 1000 paper cranes, I don’t know how I ever thought I could actually do that.
I should start this off by saying: I’m a horrible cook and I have no interest in becoming a better one. I wish that cooking interested me, and it slightly does in the company of friends, but mostly I just like to eat good food…..prepared by other people. It’s a shame, and I’m sure hugely disappointing for my mother. I should also say, that while I have somehow managed to work my way through some challenging situations, I often don’t have common sense in the most obvious of situations.
My favorite part about staying in hotels/hostels is the free breakfast. I always make sure to stay at one that offers it. At the City Hotel in Samarkand there was quiche, hard-boiled eggs, fruit, fresh jam, coffee, and tea. It all looked like it had been specially cooked just for me. Warm, welcoming and homemade. It was a far cry from the cereal dispensers and individual waffle cookers of most American chain hotels. I sat alone, filling my cheeks like a chipmunk. I’ve learned that the trick to cheap travel is making the most of your free hotel/hostel breakfast. I certainly have mastered the art of food hoarding. My mother would be proud. Next to me a group of French couples sat, if not criticizing my barbaric eating, most likely discussing their itinerary for the day. They looked planned, and I wondered what all I wanted to do. I finally settled on calling Sherry and asking him to drive me around again. In Uzbekistan, it’s relatively cheap to hire a driver and a lot of people have them. The sites around Samarkand are spread out, and I enjoyed his company, so for around 60,000 so’m ($20) he agreed to drive me around the city.
After the dusty brown country side of Urgut, Samarkand was a colorful relief. I have become obsessed with the blue and green tiles of Uzbekistan. Actually, I’ve really just become obsessed with all the handicrafts this country has to offer. I’m sorry if I continue to talk about them until I move back home, they will never get old. Samarkand, “The Mirror of the World” “Rome of the East”, was almost too much to handle in terms of beautiful tile. Am I right!?:
