Jerusalem

After spending a day in Arad and visiting the Dead Sea, Nick got a ride to Tel Aviv to get a flight back home. The rest of the group made our way to the bus terminal and caught a bus to Be'er Sheva before we went our separate ways. Pat would go on to Tel Aviv and catch his flight home to England, while Andrew and I transferred to Jerusalem to play tourist for a few days. 

Jerusalem. What a place. 

When Andrew and I arrived in the downtown area we were greeted immediately by lots of noise and more people than we had encountered in the whole of Israel up to that point. We did not have a plan of what we were going to do once we were in Jerusalem and coming up with a plan without any idea of where anything was in the city was making me extremely anxious. My phone was being incredibly slow but it was better than nothing and as we searched for a place to get out of the hustle and bustle of the downtown streets we must have looked extremely out of place or my specialty... helpless because a woman about our age asked us if we needed help and sent us to a restaurant up the street for something to eat. We spent a good amount of time in the recommended nearby Waffle Bar while we waited for our friend to return home from school, where we would look forward to seeing him and using his vacated apartment room the next few nights. Andrew finished consuming a GIANT plate of waffles with MOUNDS ice cream (a pile of pure sugar) while I ate a quinoa/beet salad, quietly respecting my partner's appetite. We were both very happy with our meals. 

Once my friend was finished with classes for the day, we left the air-conditioned restaurant and navigated the busy streets to an even more unfamiliar part of town. After reaching the destination on our GPS, we waiting for the arrival of our host. On the park bench outside the apartment, two young boys smashed a plastic laundry basket into bits on the sidewalk. Three young puppies cowered underneath the other bench near the children, timidly looking on only a couple car lengths from the scene. Our friend showed up and said it was normal - not the expected response to that situation.

We dropped our hiking gear on the ground and sunk into the couch for some time before heading out to get a Jerusalem night life tour. Shahar took us to a restaurant that specializes in HUMMUS. Real. Homemade. Hummus. We were so happy. Each of us got a different flavor and each of them were equally wonderful. After we were finished with a few hummus refills, the guys basically dragged me out of the restaurant. Shahar brought us to a market place that in the daytime functions as a covered farmer's market; at night the market turns into rows of bars and late-night restaurants around 10 PM. The guys ordered tasters of beer before we all made our way back to the apartment where we stayed up until Shahar left for the airport.

Our first full day in Jerusalem consisted of our reduced team, Andrew and myself, acting as squatters in Shahar's apartment. We both took showers to get the remaining desert grime off of our legs, simultaneously running clothes through a second round in the washing machine. I hung everything outside to dry but of course today is the one day that it isn't a million degrees out... We waited a few hours for our clothes to dry before we went out and walked around the neighborhood to find a grocery store. We ended up stumbling upon a little market after getting a little lost along the way. We stocked up on food for the next few days because everything would be closed due to it being Easter holiday weekend. 

Day two was much more eventful. It started with me waking up to all of my clothing that was hanging outside DRENCHED. It started raining while we were asleep and I was not a happy camper. We had to delay our departure time a bit so that my leggings could dry at least a little. 

We eventually made it out of the apartment and took a stroll down to the Old City of Jerusalem. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting but I guess it was more along the lines of sacred or at least less touristy considering there are so many holy sites that are important to various religions. The streets were lined with venders all selling pretty much the same plastic-y souvenirs. Not surprisingly the streets were super crowded with a myriad of people. As we were walking towards the gates of the city I was getting super anxious that my outfit (leggings, hiking dress, hiking shirt, and sandals) was way too informal for such an important place, but I ended up being pretty averagely dressed from what I saw from other people. 

Andrew and I walked through the different quarters of the city on no specific route... Even with a map we got lost a lot and wound up back where we started a few times. We visited the Western Wall in the Muslim quarter and in the midst of a conversation about the age of the buildings here I completely forgot women and men have separate sections of the wall to pray at. Luckily I was turned around by a guard before we got too far. Due to our late start this morning we were unable to make the visiting hours for the Temple Mount but we were able to see it from a rooftop we wandered around after a missed turn.

After departing from the Western Wall we found one of the hummus restaurants in the city walls and had lunch.

Before we left the city walls we visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre aka the Church of the Resurrection aka one of the sites at which it is believed Jesus was crucified.

We made a few more stops before we started back even though we were pretty tired and had a freshly acquired rug courtesy of one of the very persistent venders inside the walls. 

Outside the Old City, The Garden Tomb is another possible location of where Jesus was entombed.

We joined a tour group that was guided through the garden and then made our way to a restaurant that Andrew had his eye on. Everything there was vegan and everything was delicious and it wasn't hummus. We took our time walking back to the apartment and visited the market again before we turned in for the night.

Reflecting back on the day, our knees hurt, our brains were scrambled, our inner tourist felt taken advantage-of, but as soon as we saw the bridge on Shahar's street, we felt like it was a great day!