February 14th – Jerusalem to Jordan...almost

We slept until we awoke which was late morning. Though we had heard during our whole trip experience that nothing was open in Jerusalem on Saturday, it turned out, you just had to leave the Jewish areas(of which there are many) so we headed towards the Damascus gate through the Muslim Quarter where it was hustle and bustle like any other day. As we headed out the gate into the old East Jerusalem it was like entering a new country. We ate just outside the gates, delicious food at a fraction of the price within the old city walls and then headed to see if the Rockefeller Antiquities Museum was open. It was actually open and because it would be closing soon, the entrance was free so my group and some stragglers we picked up had a look see. It wasn't mind blowing, but it was nice. We spent the rest of the afternoon with the 2 girls we met along the way buying snacks and enjoying strong Arabic style Turkish coffee with cardamom.

We wanted to head towards Jordan by way of the Jordan River Crossing in the north. The trouble was that the buses don't start running until sundown. We left the hostel in time to arrive at the bus station for the 7PM bus to Beit Shean on the border. It was about a 2 hour drive and we heard conflicting reports about what time the border was to close. We wanted to try, however, because we had no place to sleep. The bus dropped us off at a roadside cafe in the clearly one stop light town. I did my thing and talked to some people and was told the border was open until 10. Just in time we thought, so another person called us a taxi and we headed for the crossing with little idea what we were doing or where we'd go when we crossed.

When we arrived the border was dark and quiet, but the gate was open so we strolled in. We were quickly stopped by David in Security, who told us that the border was only open until 10 during the week and we could not cross. We told him we had no way to get back and had no where to sleep. He asked his manager to call us a cab to take us back to the one hotel in the town. David and his manager waved goodbye as they left work and told us that the cab would be there shortly. We cautiously chatted with the soldiers in the humvee guarding the border in broken English and waited. After 15 mins or so, the manager came back in his car, he told us that the taxi had been turned around by the police due to the late hour and that he couldn't bear the thought of us sleeping in the cold and had come back for us even though taking passengers from the border was against protocol. He took us for free to the town (where he did not live) and apologized profusely for not being able to do more! He even gave us his phone number and told us that if we were unable to get a room, he would come back and bring us to his kibbutz with him. When we got to the hotel, the night manager was getting in his car to leave, he saw us and came back in, but had the timing not been perfect we would have had to take the good samaritan up on his offer. Instead just minutes later we were in a nice room with hot showers and got a good nights rest, as I kept telling my sister(who handled the whole deal in stride)...it always works out.