Life is not a picknick!


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Middle East » Israel » Jerusalem District » Jerusalem
April 28th 2007
Published: April 28th 2007
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10.15 The plan of waking up early for a whole day of excursion had failed! Guy woke us up after a long sought after sleep, with a knock on the door asking us if we were awake, a humble host's way of saying 'Get your lazy asses up!' So, we got up to a late start, where we were first introduced to Guy's lovely girlfriend Morit, that was coming with us for the day in Jerusalem. After a quick shower and breakfast we were on our way. From Tel Aviv it is only 40 min to Jerusalem by car, so it went pretty quick.

The first impression of Jerusalem, driving through the suburbs, was the special look of the buildings. They are all made of stone, new or old, they all have the same outside look which gives the whole city a certain atmosphere.
We went straight into the old city, still surrounded by the old city walls, walking around the small colourful streets with shops. Maybe the most impressive thing here is actually the way the different religions live directly together on such a small piece of ground, the Jewish quarter, the Muslim quarter and the Christian quarter. Spending the day with Isrealies makes you really feel the tension that's probably always around between the different groups.

We found our ways to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which claims to stand on the true site of crucifixion, burial and resurrection. Still people stand 1,5 hour in line to get inside the tomb monument, where a holy man inside blessed them by holding their hands through a candle. We got the luck to catch him in a short moment outside the chapel :-) (see picture)

After scrolling around there for a while we went out to look for the famous humous shop for a good filling (!!) lunch, so we were energized to go to the Western Wall. It was Shabbat, so no pictures allowed (ahum, mr. C, hehe), men and women have a separate space to approach the wall, and say their prayers, or put their little notes into the wall.
Also here you feel the spirituality everywhere in the air, and seeing the orthodox jews at the wall, while in the mean time hearing the singing coming from the mosque with gold dome, situated just behind the wall, once built to compete with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre..
So yeah, one could not deny that this area is quite loaded with meaning..

Before going home we went by car to an other nice little neighbourhood in Jerusalem, were Claudio was walking around with his 'modest' Canon, and was (as usual) seen as an Israeli by an orthodox Jew, who just had to tell him that 'life is not a picnic!' A good consideration to end this nice and inspiring day ;-)



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6th May 2007

From Haarlem with Love
He MiNi en ClouD. Nice blog. It's nice to follow your adventure!!! Greetings from Cynthia, Danny, Gilles en Kalle!!! Have fun in Egypt en good luck with your tooth Claudio.
9th May 2007

PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE go to Bethlehem..for me?! xxx

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