Homes cover the hillsides outside Jerusalem
Through the Israeli desert in a little white rental car ...and camels!
Today I had expected to call Joan, a woman at Superstudio who had a friend with an apartment for rent. I called the number she had given me the day before, but no one answered. I left a message that I would try again later, and set about deciding what to do with the day. A guy named Noah at work had suggested that I go see Petra, but I couldn't remember the name then, and I saw a town called Paran, and I thought that was it, so I decided to drive there.
I grabbed a few things and then drove out to a gas station for the first time. Gas came in the following three varieties:
There was a man there who checked my oil for me. He was really dirty. When he checked the oil, he didn't even use a rag or paper towel -- he just wiped the dipstick with his fingers.
As I began to get out of the center of Jerusalem, the surrounding countryside was covered with squarish tan buildings.
Homes cover the hillsides outside Jerusalem
The day was very hot. I rarely use the air conditioner in cars, but this time I made an exception. Of course, I was careful to keep an eye on the temperature guage of the car, but it didn't come anywhere near overheating.
The little white rental car.
I drove way out into the boonies, where it was mostly just farms of some sort, but I couldn't tell what they were growing. Not much, from what it looked like.
bleak-looking farm
Several of the farms had livestock, mainly sheep, but I did see a few cattle, and even some camels!
Camels!
As I drove further and further south, It became apparent that I had started too late in the day to make it to Paran, so I chose Be'er Sheva as an alternate destination.
Plan B: Be'er Sheva
I arrived in Be'er Sheva, and drove around for a while looking for a place to eat. By that was extremely hungry, and allowed myself to stop at a (*grimace*) shopping mall. Inside there were guards, as usual. I located the food court area, and walked around to see what was available. Three food places were open -- all sold shwarmas. ...I decided to eat a shwarma. Actually, as I approached the counter, I noticed that they had turkey chunks on a skewer, so I chose that to put in my shwarma. I don't really know if it is still called a shwarma if you put turkey in it. In what appears to be common Israeli style, they offered a buffet selection of stuff to put in your pita:
After I stuffed the thing, it was quite large -- more volume than a burrito from "La Costena", in Mountain View, California, though the weight probably did not compare.
After I finished eating, I left the mall and began the return journey. I used the sun to guide me north out of Be'er Sheva, then realized that I had my east and west confused so I had to back track and go back the other way. It was difficult to tell the highway markers from the speed limit signs because they are both two-digit numbers in about the same range. However, eventually I made it back to Jerusalem.
I called Joan's place, but her roomate said she had gone to her brother's house. It turns out she was there when I called earlier, but couldn't answer the phone because of Shabbat.