The Western Wall and the Dead Sea

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So, yesterday was one of my favorite days (so far, of course). We stayed in an international hostel in the old part of Jerusalem. The "streets" are narrow walkways paved with ancient stones (one area actually said the stones were from the Roman period), buildings built on top of each other for the last thousand years. On the inside the buildings look like little caves, with arches supporting the stone walls; quaint and beautiful. Like a step back in time.

We went to the Western Wall, the most holy place for Jews. After going through security, we sat to write our messages on paper to leave in a crack in the wall. The men and women are separated; the men's side being twice the size of the women's. No judgement, just an observation. Anyway, I can only speak to the women's side, you'll have to ask Asaf about the men's. Orthodox women are easy to spot, they are dressed very modestly: long sleeved shirts, skirts below the knee (sometimes to the floor), stockings (it's 90+ degrees!), closed toed shoes, and either a wig or a head covering hat (did I mention the heat?). Non-Orthodox women are to wear knee length skirts and have their shoulders (at least) covered. I made my way slowly to the wall. Women held siddurs (prayer books) to their faces while saying prayers. When a spot was open, I made my way up to the Wall, touched the 2,000 year old stone and looked for a place to stick my prayers. When I was done, I followed the other women and walked out, careful to not turn my back on the Wall. It was powerful, I'll say that.

Later, we were walking around and found the "road" Jesus walked down while carrying the cross, at the end of the street is the Holy Sepulcre Church with the stone where he fell and died. An amazing old church with tile mosaics and rooms that chamber off and seem to go forever. This is the holiest place in the world for Christians.

We also toured the outside of the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque, one of the holiest sites in the world to Muslims. They were built where the first (Jewish) temple once stood, one of many bones of contention between Jews and Muslims.
Sadly, one can feel the tension and animosity between the different religious groups in this holy city.

I thought it was interesting that most tourists there were in big tour groups, and a few of them (mostly the ones with teenagers) had armed escorts with them.

After driving around looking for something and getting totally lost--the roads in Jerusalem are crazy, we drove to the Dead Sea. Yes, it's in the West Bank and we could have floated our way to Jordan, but it felt pretty safe where we were. Again, there were lots of tourists getting off of big buses (reminded me of when I was one of them in India), we heard Russian and Italian while floating. What fun, the Dead Sea! It's thick water that feels very soft on the skin. When you take your feet off the bottom, they float right to the top. The water was warm and cold in spots, and everyone was rubbing the mud all over their bodies. It was very interesting to see Muslim women in the water, still covered from head to toe. So very relaxing and peaceful.

Today, I'm happy to say, we slept in and did laundry! Went to visit Asaf's aunts and uncles. Had dinner with Ilana, Eliezer and their family and went bowling!

It's been such a nice trip, the people here are great (except when they are driving--drivers are so aggressive here, it's worse than in LA!), the food and weather are great.

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