the 19 bus adventure

Yeah I had a little bit of an adventure after work yesterday. I left around 5 and decided to take the 19 bus (my regular bus) but instead of going to the bus stop I usually go to (about 6 blocks away) I decided to try out the bus stop by my work (2 blocks away) and see where it took me. So here comes the 19 bus and I get on...then we go around and around and all over the dang city. It starts to turn from dusk to night and then we pull up to an area that looks like a hospital / mall/ I dont' know what and what's important to note about this place is that there is a check point. Now I'm worried because I have only gone through checkpoints when I've gone into the West Bank never IN Jerusalem. Anyway, so the bus stopped, the soldier gets on the bus, quick walk through and he gets off and we proceed into the enclosed area. We pull up to what looks like a bus station.
The bus pulls over, everyone gets off, and I walk up to the driver and ask if its going back downtown. I had no clue what was going on, where I was etc...because I knew that the central bus station is downtown...so the driver tells me to get off and that it was the last stop. Then mumbles something and points forward. So I get off and walk a bit around other buses all of which are unmanned. Once passed the empty buses I see another bus stop. I wait for the 19 and sure enough here it comes, I get on and sit and pray it heads back to the city.
It started going on the same route but back toward the city. I started to recognize the neighborhoods again and got almost home when an Arab bus pulls up to the Israeli bus and starts honking! Oh goodness seriously! The two bus drivers stop in the middle of the street, start talking, I have no clue what they are saying, its all in Hebrew. Then the Arab bus pulls up ahead of us after all the traffic started honking behind us. Our bus driver gets off and goes to talk to him. After about 5 min people start getting off the bus. I stay on with the majority and wait it out a bit longer.
I was close to home but NOT THAT CLOSE and it was night time, and I live in East Jerusalem where it's mixed between Arab and Jewish neighborhoods and lord knows I'd prob make a wrong turn although the one thing I have going for me is that I've been told that I look nothing like a Jew (whatever that may be). Most of the Jewish population stays out of the Arab neighborhoods out of fear for their safety. I have been in these Arab neighborhoods during the day, I have been on the Arab buses and have never felt afraid but now that it was dark I didn't think I wanted to push it. The first sign that you are in an arab neighborhood is when the signs cease to have all three languages (Hebrew, Arabic, English).
Moving on past all my wild thoughts, the bus driver finally gets back and continues to drive, no big deal not like any of us have anything else to do! geeez! Well I didn't but after what I had already been through I just wanted to get home. I have already spent the better part of two hours on this tour.
Alright so I made it home safe last night and was tired and happy to be back. But then, today I ran into one of my friends at the bus stop and we went to get some dinner together and she told me she just had the craziest adventure. Turns out she rode the 19 bus "just to see where it goes" too. I started laughing and told her I had just done the same thing the night before. We started laughing about how crazy we were to just ride it around like that. She agreed with me about how horrible it was to go all over town and she ended up at that same checkpoint too. Just another day in the Holy Land on the 19 bus.