The Tale of the Missing Camera

As promised earlier(June 17th), here is the story behind Sophia's missing camera:
It all began on a warm Jerusalem evening when Sophia, Shaby, Barry, and I discovered that we were locked out of our hostel after missing the 1 AM curfew. We opted to wander through the city in search of a motel. We stumbled across the Miran Hotel, an extremely sketchy old place with warped floorboards and skewed wall dimensions. It was like being in a funhouse. Soph and Shaby wound up sharing a bed, while Barry disappeared into a sunken sofa-bed matress. I slept on the floor atop a pile of couch pillows. The next day, we vacated the dumpy hotel and hopped a cab back to the hostel. From there, Soph grabbed a shuttle to the airport, and flew home. Before doing so, she was horrified to discover that her camera was missing - along with all 140 photographs she took while in Israel. It was made the duty of Barry and I to find her missing camera. It was either in the creepy hotel, or in the cab. Either way, the odds were stacked against us. "Don't tell me the odds" I defiantly stated. "Agreed", Barry responded. And the search began.
The two of us ventured back to the Miran and faced off against the suspicious desk manager. He denied having found a camera and told us to get lost. I told you he was suspicious. We came back later, but the night manager was just as cold. We decided that there was a decent chance that the camera had been left in the cab we had taken. Luckily, I remembered the name of the cabby, after having read his license out of sheer curiosity. His name was David Cohen, and our search continued.
Barry and I had heard about a lost and found place for taxis in Jerusalem, but that turned out to be pure fiction. We soon learned that all the cabs in Israel look alike, and there are over 70 companies. The next day, we hiked through the hills of Jerusalem, in the searing heat of the Israeli sun. Beyond the sweat which caked our eyelids, we spied the headquarters of one of the bigger cab companies - Rehavia Taxi.
Barry and I burst through their door and demanded to know whether they had an employee by the name of David Cohen. "Yes, we do. Here's his cell number". Too easy! We called him up, and learned that he was the cabbie we were looking for. He had the camera. We met with him a few days later and retreived it. I'm writing this all from the Barbara Frum Library in Toronto. Barry and I just returned the camera to Sophia a mere few hours ago, and she was so happy to have it back that she offered to buy us lunch.
I know, I know - this was not the most thrilling blog post you have ever read, but know this; Losing something important to you, and then retreiving it again against all odds is an amazing thing. When push comes to shove, you should never give up hope. There's always a chance things will work out and you'll come out on top. And who knows, maybe you'll wind up getting some lunch in the process.

New Israel pictures coming (really) soon!