Back in Paris

This week we set out to complete the relatively daunting task of booking our spring break trip. We started off by considering four countries on three continents...in 13 days. We quickly realized that we wouldn't be able to do that and still enjoy the destinations, so we unfortunately cut Istanbul, Turkey off the list, keeping Athens, Cairo, and Jerusalem. The flights to / from Athens are not bad at all (about 70E), and Athens to Cairo isn't bad either (about 90E). However, anything with Tel Aviv is going to be super expensive. It's looking like about 240E to fly from Cairo to Tel Aviv, and there aren't very many (or safe, or reliable) alternative modes of transportation between the two, either. I guess no one wants to take a bus through the Gaza strip, for some reason.

We've gone ahead and booked our Paris-Athens flight and the Athens-Cairo flight, but we have to (1) figure out if there's any problems going from Egypt to Israel and (2) come to peace with ourselves and our parents about spending that much money for the third destination. We have to make sure that there are no travel restrictions coming into Israel from a hostile Muslim neighbor. I know that if you have an Israeli stamp on your passport, you're not allowed into Lebanon, Syria, Beirut, and the UAE, but I'm not sure if its a reciprocal thing or not. I'll have my questions answered when I go to the Egyptian consulate this week to discuss obtaining a travel visa. Apparantly Egypt is like Turkey where you can get a visa when you arrive at the airport, but we'd be much more comfortable having one in our possession prior to that.

I think that going to Jerusalem would be one of the coolest experiences ever, and I feel like at any other point in my life (assuming I even have the chance to go to Jerusalem again), it would be way more expensive than maybe 400E round trip. So I think I just need to suck it up and go. If I thought the Templar Church in London was an amazing spiritual experience, my head would probably explode in Jerusalem.

Other than that, a pretty uneventful week. Cameron, Lauren, and I hosted a little preparty last night before we met up with a bunch of people at a club on the Champs Elysees. Every tuesday is international student night at a discotheque called Le Duplex, so it's free admission (which is huge in Paris) and 9E for two drinks. Not a bad deal if you've had some wine beforehand. This Friday we're leaving for Bratislava, Slovakia and Vienna, Austria, so stay tuned for some more updates soon.