Coming from Jordan, the entry into Israel was as lengthy as expected and yet not as troublesome as I had feared. Almost the most annoying thing was that I had not expected the bus from the Jordanian to the Israeli post to be more expensive than a bus to Aqaba and back, so I had to change money again… But at least I cross the Jordan River, so quickly that I almost missed this symbolic moment. On the Israeli side, I then had to check in my luggage like at an airport, pass through security checks before queuing at passport control. The pretty officer flicked through my passport, muttering “Syria, Lebanon, Iran – wow”. She told me to fill out a form and wait on the chairs until someone came for an interview. That took quite a long time, I was by far not the only one who had to wait there and there were also travellers without such stamps. The interview itself was then surprisingly short. What I had done in Iran, Syria, Lebanon, plus the usual questions about where I lived, etc. Then I waited another hour or so (all in all I waited almost 4 hours) until I was called out of one of the passport control booths almost unnoticed. That was it. I didn’t have to unpack my backpack, as someone else had told me, I had reckoned with that.
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Backpacking trip Middle East and Caucasus 2008
Jerusalem
Hebron and Bethlehem
Tel Aviv and the North of Israel
MasadaMakhtesh Ramon
Dead Sea and Madaba