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Published: June 23rd 2008
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Jerusalem Inn - my room
Yep, this is exactly how big my room is - all that you see except the small bathroom on the left. There's a bit of walking space at the foot of the bed where I'm standing to take this! Saturday 6/21/08
To airport at 6:15 (thank you Susan!). Everything smooth through security. Flight is 1½ hrs late. I really don’t think things happen by chance - since the flight was delayed, I decided to splurge for breakfast. Good way to start the day, after all. And then I promptly spilled a full cup of coffee into my lap. Explicatives abounded, I’m afraid to say. Those who know me know that I can get a potty mouth when faced with frustrating situations, which of course this was one of those! Thankfully, I have a change of clothes with my carry-on because, again, no coincidence, it was suggested I take some in case I don’t connect with my luggage for a few days once in Israel.
So, I changed in the bathroom and got the coffee out as best I could. The folks at the café were awesome and gave me a completely new breakfast (the other one was saturated with coffee!). And it was a pretty darn good! I am thankful that I have a pretty good attitude about things and didn’t let this little oops ruin my morning. Besides, they have really good hand dryers in the bathrooms
View from hotel room
It may be hard to see the laundry. Notice the black hat below... so I was able to almost completely dry what got wet!!
Sunday 6/22/08
First night in Jerusalem. Perhaps it’s the fatigue from the travel. Maybe it’s the chaos of a place and a people so unfamiliar to me despite being related somehow by Judaism. Whatever it is, I am overwhelmed. Stressed. Feeling out of sorts. I get this way when things are suddenly beyond my control. Especially small, stupid things like frying my flatiron when I tried to plug it in. Had the adapter, but apparently was either still too much voltage or what my new roommate said about not having appliances on before plugging them in. This flatiron is new to me but goes on automatically when plugged in. That’s probably what happened. And that threw my entire evening off whack. And why? Because of a defect of character, but I won't go there :-)
What a strange and eclectic place. Laundry hanging from windows (are we in Venice?!). Cars honking. Tourist buses scurrying down alleys. Definitely a pedestrian city. See black tops everywhere. And tank tops, for that matter. My hotel is a dump. A very small room with no light in the bathroom and
barely enough room in there to turn around. But the place is clean for the most part and has air-conditioning. And a balcony that overlooks one of those said alleys. Restaurant smells waft in from below and I am hungry again. Can’t wait to see what the breakfast is like that comes with this hotel room!
Met my roommate, Arlette. She’s a budding singer songwriter. She performed tonight to about 20 guests at a friend’s house. It was really quite nice. She has a beautiful voice - I look forward to hearing her sing around the apartment. Oh, and my room there is also very small. I have more room to turn around in it, but it too, is small. I think God is trying to tell me something so far. Small rooms, burned out flatiron, spilt coffee. Hmmmm... The apartment itself is quite spacious and has a wonderful balcony overlooking trees, the street and I can see the Judean hills in the distance. Arlette is also correct about there being a good cross breeze. I’ll have to shutter my room during the day, but at night, it should be comfortable for sleeping. I move in on Thursday.
Lila tov… (good night in Hebrew)
Monday 6/23/08
Jerusalem is still an eclectic place, although now I also add explosive, energetic, and definitely enriching (alliteration deliberate :-)). Today was a walk-the-streets-around-me kind of day to get a feel for the city. And a feel for the kind of people who make Jerusalem their home. Israelis haven’t changed much since the last time I was here - sometimes helpful, often rude, persistent and impatient, mixed with a little good humor and beautiful in that Mediterranean way. I get a kick out of hearing them converse while I try to understand what is being said. Hebrew is slowly coming back to me. I’m picking up words, mostly, and the occasional phrase that rings a bell.
Met Arlette for lunch. We spent the afternoon going to shops on Ben Yehuda and King George Streets (two of the main thoroughfares) and their alleys. It’s amazing how many shops can be crowded into one block. I thought New York was pretty dense, but I think Jerusalem takes the prize. The best part was people watching and they are everywhere. Definitely NOT for the claustrophobic!
Spent the evening in the Old City
The Western Wall
Notice the divider - men on the left, women on the right. myself. I am smitten with it. I forgot how smooth and curvaceous the streets and alleys are, inviting you to pick one and see where it goes. I was really tempted to not reference my map but I also knew that the sun would be going down and didn’t really want to be there after dark. So, I made my way to the Western Wall. Of course. I’m Jewish, what do you expect?! I was really quite shocked at how much has been built up around the Wall as far as security and blockades go. All of that wasn’t there when I was here last. Kinda loses some spiritual punch, if you know what I mean. It was wonderful to see it, but I definitely wasn’t as moved as I was years ago. Took pictures anyway.
I’m getting used to my hotel room and am actually beginning to enjoy it. It’s small, but it’s cozy and a reprieve from the hustle and bustle of Jerusalem center. And it has air conditioning. Did I mention that already?
Tomorrow I think I’ll stay indoors and visit Yad VaShem, the museum that pays tribute to the reason Israel exists in the
first place…
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