Traveling with Aussies

I was awakened at 5:30 this morning by a phone call from Australia, so now I sit with my coffee, surfing the internet, looking for flights from Paris to Tel Aviv. I am flying to Europe in the beginning of May to travel with my friend Danielle that I met on the great Ocean Road, but also another adventure has presented itself to me. My friend Irene from Sydney has invited me to join her in Israel. She will be getting married this summer and has asked me to join her for a brief tour and maybe a quick trip to Egypt. It has always been a dream of mine to see the Pyramids in Giza, but she has also mentioned trips to the Dead Sea and the Wailing Wall. It is not so much to fly from Europe to the Middle East and I was having trouble getting back from Europe any sooner than the 26th of June, so my latest thought was just to stay and travel from Europe to Tel Aviv. I will of course have to buckle down and save my pennies but I am excited at the prospect of seeing a place that once seemed so far out of reach for me. I know what I have to do in order to make this a reality and I have begun to think that as one opportunity fell... living in Spain... another has presented itself to me. I realize there are logistics and I still need to check on my credit from TACA airlines but I believe that this is going to be the latest and greatest adventure in my travels. Stay tuned over the next four months to see this become a reality.

On another note I hope everyone celebrated the holidays in style. We had the typical trip over to Mexico on Christmas Eve and a nice quiet dinner at my parents house to cap off Christmas evening. It was warm down here and the last week has been beautiful and sunny, a perfect Rio Grande Valley Christmas or as my friend Bobby likes to call this place a Tropical Paradise Hell. The day after Christmas we found a bar that had outdoor sitting and besides the looming HEB across the street we pretended we were still on vacation.

I have run into some old friends from High School and they have made my time down here a bit more enjoyable. I am buying a new car on Tuesday and I am very excited, it is a 2005 Jeep Liberty. I just need to make some extra cash to keep in the bank or start buying lottery tickets. It always comes down to finances and I have decided to forgo South Padre Island for New Years as a first step in saving money. I believe when I am placing a rolled up prayer in the cracks of the wailing wall, New Years Eve celebrations will be a sacrifice not worth mentioning.