How many buses can I take in one day?

I had my my last Ulpan course this week and my final exam so I now have a bit of down time before the semester starts up. The Hebrew course was a lot to handle at times, but I am glad that I was able to participate in it... my hebrew has definitely drastically improved (which isn't too surprising considering I couldn't spell my own name before... ha).

After the last exam my friend Zoe and I decided to take a camping trip to the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi. After getting to Tel Aviv we had to hop on another bus to Jerusalem and then another one to Ein Gedi... the buses in Israel are ridiculous. People get on and off in all sorts of random places-- you can be in the middle of the desert with no homes or civilization in sight and someone will be trying to get on or off the bus.

Despite all of the bus travel we managed to make it to the Sea by the afternoon. We immediately went into the Dead Sea to enjoy the weightlessness of all that salt... the water was so unbelievably hot though since the sun is much more intense in the south... so we didn't stay in the water too long...

After getting all the stinging salt water off us we set up our newly purchased $20 tent that we picked up in the bus station-- which I am so glad we got because there were sooo many bugs on the camp ground. I cannot explain how beautiful it was to camp by the sea... we camped in a small camp ground right by the edge of a cliff overlooking the water and we slept right beneath the stars with palm trees over our heads.

This morning we got up with the sun and headed over to Ein Gedi, which is a park just down the road from where we camped. We went on this really amazing hike at the base of the mountains and through a creek. There were a bunch of water falls and swimming areas along the way too so we got to take some breaks from the scorching sun. Well I am quite exhausted from my trip so I'm going to make some dinner and relax a bit.