jericho, you busted.

yesterday, lisa, jan and i decided to venture out to jericho, a city in the west bank. we must have been a little crazy because the hamsin winds were on full blast making the day around 93 degrees. maybe it was because it was hot and we were all tired, but jericho was less than stellar and it was rather disappointing. bah. jericho is known as the longest continually inhabited city in the world. fascinating but not really. there was no one out due to the heat. the cable car to the mount of temptation where jesus was tempted three times by the devil was closed. we could have hiked but who the hell hikes in that kind of weather?! so lisa and i rode a camel instead. it was the weirdest feeling and i was so excited that the guy leading the camel made fun of me. i had no idea camels were so tall! i think jan got some funny pictures out of the experience. there was an austrian casino that was closed due to the conflict. and that was also the first gambling place i laid eyes on in israel. after riding the camel, we walked around for a little bit, doing little photo shoots in abandoned, decimated houses along the way. there are also banana farms in jericho; how random. is desert climate good for growing bananas?

we finally arrived in the city area and crawled in the nearest restaurant. one of the things i'm going to miss about israel is paying so little for such a grand spread that we shared between the three of us. big plates of hummus, various salads and other dips, fresh hummus and a plate of succulent lamb. oh, plus a hookah and sweet turkish coffee. our server, named mr. smiley, was incredibly nice and helpful and even offered to let us nap. haha. we kindly declined the offer because we really should really be on our way and left, full of delicious food and hazy apple smoke. we caught a cab back to abu dis and experienced one of the most lax checkpoints back into israel. the heat can take a lot of a person so lisa and i dragged ourselves slowly down jaffa st to our houses under the intense sun.