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Published: September 26th 2008
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I woke up this morning to the sounds of Ernests alarm - I don't know why he had set his alarm he wasn't going to do anything!!
After breakfast went for another dip int the dead sea and then got on a bus to Jerusalem which cost 33 sheckels - it took around 2 hours.
On arriving at the old city I initially had a look round at the Lutheran hospice but it didn't have any dorms so settled on the Hebron Hostel in the Muslim quarter. They charge 35 sheckels a night which meant that 3 nights there was the same price as one night in the the youth hostel - a bargain. The hostel was Ok just what you expect and it did have lockers - a bonus. The old city of Jerusalem is contained within the old city walls and it is divided into the Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Armenian quarters. I was attracted to the muslim quarter as it was more vibrant than the others and obviously cheaper. The majority of the stalls are located here.
My dorm room has 6 bunk beds and I have met a new chum Kev from London -
a Brit!!!
I just had a walk round the city on my first day in Jerusalem so nothing interesting to report but at night went round the bars on Rivlin street in the new city with Kev and another chum from the dorm - Christian who had been living in Damascus for the last 2 months.
Day 14 - was first of all woken up by a baying donkey and then after I had got back to sleep a cockerel - you don't get that in the jewish quarter.
First of all I went to the wailing wall which is the only bit left standing of the original Jewish temple. As I was leaving I saw a sign that said appropriate headwear must be worn - too late - no wonder they were looking at me funny - another religion I've upset.
Under Jewish tradition Passover is Friday and the Jewish museums etc are shut from around 14:00 and on Shabbat - Saturday everything is closed all day so I had to target the Jewish museums first thing. Went to Yad Vashem first - had to get a taxi though. Yad Vashem is the Jewish holocaust
memorial and it had a huge collection of artifacts depicting the story of the holocaust - it was very moving and sad.
After that went to the Israeli museum which was a complete rip off, half of it was closed due to refurbishment and they charge 41 sheckels to get in I did ask at the ticket office if they would reduce the admission due to the closure but she wasn't having any of it. The two main sights at the museum are a model of the old Jerusalem and the Dead sea scrolls which were the original text depicting a lot of the stuff in the old testament - which were then plagiarised in the bible and the Koran - controversial!!!
I got told off for taking a picture of the scrolls.
After I got back to the old city went to the church of the holy sepulchre, which is where a number of religions believe that Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected. The crowds were horrendous and everybody was kissing the stones, they were scattered all around the church and each one was important to their religion I saw one which was suppsed to be
where the tomb of Jesus was. I didn't get involved with any of that - didn't seem very hygienic to me.
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