Being a tourist!

This weekend, rather than traversing to some "far away" city to go sightseeing, we're taking a restful weekend and staying in Jerusalem. And by "restful", I mean that we left shortly after 9am to meet up with our tour guide and go explore the Old City. After staying up late to watch "Fiddler on the Roof", this seemed like an early start. However, we were all very excited to actually get a chance to explore this place we've been living. It gets kind of easy to take it all for granted when it's a nightly routine to walk down the street to buy 6 shekel falafel or 10 shekel kebab and then sit and eat by the Old City walls. Yet it's also pretty amazing to be here, in the center of so much history, at this place that is the center of 3 major world religions.

Even though we definitely live within walking distance, we all loaded into the van and the car and drove into the Old City through the Jaffa Gate. Yes, into. It seems strange to me that you can drive in the Old City, but people do. Mike even managed to park. Barely.Yaron, our guide, began by describing some history and the plan for the day.
We then set off walking through the Armenian quarter. I really enjoy the stonework and the architecture.
We eventually reached Jaffa gate again, this time on foot, and so we walked out the car entrance so that we could walk into the old gate entrance. This is the gate that was traditionally used by pilgrims coming from Jaffa, the port. We then proceeded into the market. Based on my past experience several weeks ago and also on stories from fellow instructors, the market was rather deserted in comparison. We attributed it to the fact that it was only 10:30 in the morning. Yaron then led us out of the market, onto the roofs.
Jerusalem is an amazing city for many, many reasons. The current, modern city is actually built on top of the ancient city. There are apparently tours that will take you down into the tunnel system to see parts of the ancient city, and Yaron said he would try to arrange a visit to these during our stay here. Anyhow, above the main roads, there are roads that run on the roofs, over people's houses. (Good thing we had a guide, or we never would have known.) Here, where we ascended onto the roof, we were directly above the bustling market streets. We also happened to be at the center of the Old City, at the approximate point where Jewish, Christian, Armenian, and Muslim Quarters meet. From here, we were right near the dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of our later destinations.We proceeded to cross the roof, entered the Muslim Quarter, walked through a school for biblical study, and descended back down a narrow staircase to the main street level. Here, we stopped briefly to take a water/restroom break at a store selling multitudes of historical artifacts and souvenirs. We then continued on through the market to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a spiritually powerful building. As a holy and meaningful site for all Christians, it contains the sites where tradition says that Jesus was crucified and buried. Different sects and denominations of Christians now have worship space here, and it also contains several of the "Stations of the Cross".

The inside ceiling of the large dome

The tomb, or "sepulchre"

The Old City also has plenty of anachronisms. Besides the cars driving through the streets, take this as an example:(Rope lights, eh?)

Possibly the neatest place we stopped on our adventure was Helen's Cistern, a large underground cavern that used to supply water for people in the area. The cavernous room has phenomenal acoustics and we all enjoyed Ted's beautiful singing. Then, the MEET instructors together provided a rendition of Row, Row, Row Your Boat (not very pretty) and Amazing Grace (which was actually fairly nice). Unfortunately, Jon then followed that by playing his "I Kissed a Girl" recording... (This song has been circulating around for the past week, much to my chagrin, ever since it played on the radio.)

For lunch, we drove to the top of the Mount of Olives, to a restaurant that has been run by the same family for 500 years. Incredible. Not only that, but check out our seating location!They served us a fantastic spread of vegetables, labane (a white dip kind of like sour cream), other dips, and a bountiful supply of pita. After a while, they also brought hummus and salad. Sam then took a nap while waiting for the main course.Next came the main course: peppers and chicken, beef, onions, and chips (aka fries). Delicious! We then sat around and contemplated life, drank some delicious coffee, and headed off to continue our adventure.

Our next stop was Pater Noster, a convent run by nuns who spoke French. This complex was definitely another highlight of our day. Translations of the Lord's Prayer in just about every language possible cover the walls. They claim that every written language is represented. However, Alice and Mike (our two resident Russian experts) noted that Russian is not there. Nevertheless, it's a beautiful place. Some examples:
The roses were also beautiful. Someone proposed a rose photo contest, so everyone started taking photos of roses. Then taking pictures of people taking pictures of roses.
Next, we drove to one end of the Mount of Olives, where we had a fantastic view of the Old City.According to Jewish (and Christian) traditions, when the Messiah comes (or comes again), he will come to the Mount of Olives first. Thus, being buried on the Mount is highly desired. A Jewish cemetary covers much of the slope.
From the top, we also had a view of the wall.Next, we drove down the Mount a ways to the Dominus Flevit Church, the church where Jesus wept over Jerusalem. The small chapel there was beautiful, and it had another great view of the old city. Jon was almost denied entry for wearing shorts, but luckily they let him through anyway.From here, we could also see the Church of Maria Magdalene, a Russian Orthodox Church.We continued on to the Garden of Gethsemane, yet another of my favorite places from today. The history here is amazing, as are the olive trees, which are several thousand years old. If only trees could talk, I'm sure they'd have some amazing stories.Here also stands the Church of All Nations.Finally, we drove back to the Old City to visit the Western Wall, a very holy site for the Jewish community.

The women's side (men are on the far side)

Behind the wall is the Dome of the Rock, and the al-Asqa Mosque, both Muslim holy sites. This area is closed to non-Muslims on Friday, and hopefully we will be able to arrange a visit at a later date.

When we returned to the apartment, we tried to figure out what the great song was that we'd heard on the radio. Through some jumbling of the Hebrew words, some tricky internet searching, and some help from Max (our resident Hebrew expert), we found the song! Enjoy! It's called רק תבקש. We're still working on translating lyrics. The song came from our favorite radio station: GALGALATZ, which plays a mix of English, Hebrew, and Arabic music, and has everything from this song, to "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from Monty Python's Life of Brian, to "I Kissed a Girl", the aforementioned annoyance of the week.

Humberto, Mike, and I then went on an adventure to find dinner. We were worried that since it's Friday (the Muslim holy day) and also the start of Shabbat (the Jewish holy day), we wouldn't find anything open. Happily, though, we discovered that the falafel stand on the street was still open and still making falafel in their large vat of oil. Excellent! We enjoyed a tasty meal of falafel and pistachios while sitting by the Old City wall. We also got to watch as a dumpster caught fire across the street. Much to my surprise, no one did anything. Pedestrians kept walking by, some people stopped to watch, but not even the police car that drove by did anything. By the time we'd left, it had nearly burned itself out. Interesting place, this is.
On the menu for tomorrow: Sleeping, more sightseeing, and watching the sun set over Jerusalem!