If I float, does that mean I'm not a witch?
Trip Start
Nov 04, 2006
1
6
18
Trip End
Nov 25, 2006
Ein Gedi, Israel
Thursday, November 9, 2006
My onward bus wasn't due to arrive until 2:50pm, so I had plenty of time to relax. I sat in the hot sulfur pool, the down to the sea itself, then sulfur pool, then sea, the I rubbed gross, sulfur stinky mud all over myself and waited a bit, back in the sea, in between relaxing under the palm umbrella on the beach. The water is indeed slippery and the tiny drop that got in my mouth was the most foul-tasting stuff I've ever known. But float, I did. On my back, on my stomach, with a minimum of flailing (in contrast to a few other scardies). The water is nice and warm, maybe 80F?, and the air was about the same. Not a cloud in the sky to interrupt my float. Then I had a lovely cheese sandwich and coke, while I listened to insane fundamentalist Republican senior citizens from the States embarrass us all.
The walk to the bus stop was a shadeless half mile with all of my crap (why did I bring so much stuff?). The resort is hidden from view from the highway, so I was sitting at a bus stop on an empty stretch of highway overlooking the sea. It's possibly the most beautiful bus stop I've ever had the pleasure to wait at. After a few minutes, some random guy who called himself "Rambo" made a squealing U-turn to stop and chat with me for a while. He had a sweet golden lab with him and was quite nice. Wanted to take me to a secret spot for the best mud. Believe it or not, I declined and he left shortly thereafter.
My bus came and I sat next to a military girl who was very put out for having to share her seat. But since the us was half-full of 13 year olds on a weekend get-away with no adults (must the revolution be so noisy?), I stayed put for the first 2 hours. Then some American who was living in Jerusalem said there was lots of room in the back, so I moved back there while he proceeded to chat me up. After half an hour or so, talking about all sort of things, he said "You're Jewish, right?" When I indicated that I am not, he replied with "But your name is Jewish!" Um, yeah, but Christians and Muslims are also named Sara. And Atheists, too, apparently. He sounded like a cross between a petulant child and someone who'd just been cheated out of a stuffed animal by the claw machine. He also showed me a picture of him in his full Orthodox Jewish style- beard and hat. LOL. Color me impressed. He wanted me to go have a drink with him after we got off the bus, but he was insane, so I took a taxi straight to the Jordanian border.
