Ariving in Israel

We arrived in Tel Aviv early this morning at 3:00am. I couldn't believe how busy the immigration booth was. I decided NOT to have my passport stamped while traveling into the country. This is because many countries throughout Asia don't believe in Israel's Political existance so If I were to travel to one of those countries, I would have a difficult time explaining why I visited Israel as well as trouble entering the country.

When we got out of the airport, we traveled for two more hours by bus to St. Margarets Hostile and spend a few days in Nazareth. What a view of the city, I can't believe it! I've taken several pictures. We can see the whole old city and sveral artifacts includuing the Basilla of Annunciation. This is the site which the Catholic Church claims Joseph and Mary's house was located.

As a way of adjusting to the time, we spent the whole day on the porch of the hostile which has a great view. Our rooms were not ready because of a youth camp that was just ending. There were about 40 youth froum around Israel. They were about 8-12 years old and were very interested in who we were and what we were doing here. Some came to say hello, although their english was not great.

At about noon, we headed down to a shoping center at the bottom of the hill. It was relativly new with several places to buy clothing. Many of the locals however were not very welcoming. They didn't want to make the extra effort to speak english, although we are in their country and don't speak their language so it is understandable. I finally bought water and some sunscreen.

The tap water isn't very good so we use bottled water instead. We need to drink lots of water. The average temperature was about 90 degrees F and the sun never goes away. It was rare to have clouds this morning. I can't wait to sleep. By the time I go to bed tonight, I will have only had 4 hours of sleep in the past 50 hours.

Tomorrow, we go to the Old City (still in Nazareth) and venture into the old and more religious sites. I think we are going to the Bastille of Annunciation (What I talked about earlier).

Oh...if you are looking at the time stamp, I am writing this a day behind because of my lack of access to a computer.