[Yes friends…it’s the first public outing of “the buff.”]
We finally made it to St. Katherine’s Monastery in the middle of the Sinai desert. It was a very hot 8 hour bus ride with no air-conditioning (dad, you’d never make it). We arrived, got checked into our very nice room and then got dinner — and a few hours sleep before getting up at 2am to begin the trek up to the mountain. It’s interesting all these preconceived notions I had about climbing Mt. Sinai – well, the entire thing is obviously packed with tourists all the time, and there were hundreds of people at the top of the mountain. We got to the top in exactly 2 hours (4.30am) and hung out until the sun rose around 6am. It was cold…but it was beautiful to slowly watch the red rock mountains emerge around and come through the dusk. I don’t know why, but I was searching for the “perfect song” to listen to on top of Mt. Sinai in my iPod Shuffle. So I ended up with the Indigo Girls and “Dead Man’s Hill.” Don’t ask me why exactly, but I liked the chorus:
“Don’t you write it down, remember this in your head / Don’t take a picture, remember this in your heart. / Don’t leave a message – talk to me face to face – talk to me face to face.”
Of coures, I wrote about it, and took pictures…but, I don’t know – interpret that how you will, but I really loved the song on top of Mt. Sinai.
We walked down and were confronted with these all the way:
They’re kind of weird looking – kind of cute…kind of…I don’t know. Anyway, that’s a camel.
The monastery was very nice – we got to take a look at all the relics, icons and speak with some of the monks. From St. Katherine, we took a bus to Dahab, where we are now…