the holy land

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i must first start this blog by stating that one of my wishes came through on my amazing trips to the holy land of israel. i tasted the sweet sweet taste of dr. pepper once again. i found a couple of places in jerusalem that imported it from the states and i had my fill. i would have brought some back here to istanbul but i spent every single dime i took out of the atm and i didn't want to take anymore out. but i am satisfied until i return stateside in a couple of weeks. so just because of the dr. pepper the trip to israel was a success.

besides the dp, i will just begin by saying that israel is fucking amazing, even for an atheistic jackass like myself. the place is full of history, you can't walk down the street without walking over something that is important to history. i was truly amazed by its beauty and magnificence. i recommend it to anyone and everyone. but be prepared for a country that takes security in and out of it very seriously. on wednesday night, we arrived at the airport here in istanbul about 2 1/2 hours early and needed much of it to check in. the people at the el al ticket counter grilled me harder than a pow. apparently a white american student studying in istanbul who wants to travel to israel raises all sorts of red flags. i got grilled more than the german and we all know what they did. since i mentioned the german i'll take a minute and say few words about our friend from the the other side of the curtain. andreas is the typical german. any stereotype a young american has about a young german is fullfilled in andreas. he walks like a german, dresses like a german, and has a german accent. he has a german sense of humor that either hits or misses but makes me laugh everytime. the best part about him is his hair. he wakes up a hour and a half before i do just so he can take a shower and have enough time to let his hair dry so he can fix it. abd everyone, i shit you not but his hair is exactly the same when he fixes it as it is before. but he needs to fix and i let him, as long as he doesn't wake me up, he can get up at dawn to make his hair look the same all he wants. so anyway, the german is very german but a lot of fun.

i was exhausted afterwards and needed a drink but i had a pita instead. we arrived a little after 11 and were picked up by alex's cousins and taken to the father's house first. then we went to the son's house and fit the three of us on the floor in his apartment. there was just about enough room for the three of us to stretch out and possibly turn over. but it was cozy and free, both of which are important. in the morning we got up and alex's cousin the father, who is a licensed tour guide (not an easy feat in israel), took us on a little drive around jerusalem to show us some amazing views and help us get our berrings. he showed us one view that overlooked the palestinian only area of the west bank where bethlehem is located. he as an israeli could not go in there but we could. i tried to get them to go but they didn't really want to. a cab driver told us he would take us over for 50 dollars but it didn't feel right. i also wanted to go to gaza but they wouldn't even entertain the idea of that. i really wanted to see some of the palestinian areas first hand, outside of the influence of israel, but it just didn't happen. maybe next time.

after the tour, the three of us went into the old city of jerusalem, where most of the interesting and historical stuff is. we tried to go to the temple mount and see the dome of the rock and the al-asqa mosque but it was closed when we got there. we went on to the western, or wailing, wall, the most important jewish site in the world because it is the closest area to what was the second temple. i do not have enough time or patience to give you a history lesson over everything i write about so look it up if you are interested. anyway, the western wall was pretty neat becasue of its significance but was really just a wall. people who come to visit write notes on pieces of paper and stick them in the cracks of the wall so it was full of little tiny pieces of paper. i didn't write anything because i felt it might be a little offensive since i do not believe and all, plus i don't believe so why would i waste my time. just kidding. after the wall we went to the church of the holy sepulchre, which is on the site where catholics believe jesus was crucified and then buried before the whole float to heaven thing. (i am going try to be as disrespectful as possible in this just to lighten the mood since we are talking about some pretty serious stuff). protestants don't agree that this is the site, believing its somewhere else outside the holy city since jesus wasn't crucified inside the city. what they fail to understand is that the city walls have changed in the last 2000 years and the church of the holy sepulcher is located outside the walls of jerusalem during that time. plus there site some random ass spot found by some british general in the 1800's becuase he thought it was a pretty place. st. helena built the church of the sepulchre in the 300's. it is also true that she built it on a that spot because she thought she felt god there, telling her that was the place. so i think we can imagine how i feel about that. either way, you would think that christians would remember where their savior was buried, but whatever. not that either side wins or that we are keeping score, but i have to give it to age so helena and the cathloics prevail. catholics 1, protestants 0. moving on.

after the church of the sepulchre, which was quite brilliant but crowded with tourists. it is kind of instresting that several denominations fight over the church and they have seperate altars and domes and such. this shit never stops. anyway, afterwards we wandered around the bazaars within the old city. i thought the grand bazaar in istanbul was big and confusing, and whatever, but i think jersalem's might win. it is massive, sprawled out all over the city, going in every direction and into every quater of the city, except the armenian quater. apparently they don't like annoying tourists or the little parasites who prey on them. imagine that. even without the armenian quarter, the bazaar is fucking huge. you could buy anythin you want there, except pork the one thing i was looking for, from touristy things like t-shirts, to brooms, to clothes, to fruti and veg, or other foods, to spices and candies, to fresh meat and fish, to dvds. speaking of dvds, we were wandering through the bazaar and found ourselves somewhere in the muslim quarter of the city. (quick sidestep, old jerusalem is divided into four quarters: the jewish quarter, the armenian quarter, the muslim quater, and the christian quarter. i know that armenians are christians so why do they get their own quarter? i am glad you asked because then i can tell you it is because they were the first people there. pretty interesting huh? the christian quarter is predominately muslim today because the christians have been moving out and selling out to the muslims because they think they get picked on by them. pussies. i don't know if its true but the evil plan is working for the muslims.) so, we are in the muslim quater of the city and i walk up to a stall full of dvds and i am looking at them when i notice something on the tv. it appears to be a home video with a man bending over and moving his arm up and down. the people in the store are all arabs speaking arabic, which i don't understand, i know money well spent huh pops?, but they are trying to cover the eyes of the children in the store while they watch the tv. the next thing i know i am looking into the eyes of a mans head that is being held up by another man. i have just witnessed a recorded beheading and i am not happy about it. i quickly grabbed the other two and we made our way down the bazaar. it was a sobering sight to what is happening in the world. i never felt in danger and i am sure that the people in the store would have done us no harm, but it is a different reality than the one i am used to where watching a video like that in public is acceptable and probably enjoyed by some people.

the rest of the day we wandered around the old city, in and out of stalls, harassing the merchants, haggling with them and then deciding not to buy. it was a fun game to play and one i don't feel bad about after having to listen to them harass me all day. that night we went out with alex's cousin the son and his girlfriend to a couple of bars. nothing special, just hanging out with some jews in israel.

the next day we went to the holcaust museum, which i have to say is probably the best and most emotionally moving museum i have ever been to and probably will ever go to. it was an impressive museum from the architecture to the exhibits to the grounds. the pictures of the people that they have in there, not the ones of them actually in the camps, but the family photos of them before the holocaust. to see these people's faces and witness their humanity was tremendously moving and emotional. it made them people and not just an abstract number of horrific porportions. they had a model made out to looke exactly like a gas chamber and it was detailed to show what happended to the people when they arrived at the camp through the chamber and to the ovens. every person in the world should see it. it may not change much but it would certainly make people realize how brutal we can be and what that brutality can look like. at the end of the tour is a room with all of the names that are known written down in books. the room is massive and it is only partially full of books. each name takes a page on a book and there are thousands of books. that is eventhough they only know about 1 1/2 million names. after the museum, we went back to the bazaar to haggle some more and found a nice little place in the muslim quater where we had tea and coffee while alex smoked the hookah. it was really pretty amazing, siting there in the middle of the old city of jerusalem, with all of the people bustling around us. it was one of those moments when you really feel fortunate and amazed at the world. how does a boy from oklahoma end up having tea with a jew and german in the muslim quarter of old city jerusalem? delta sky miles thats how. in all seriousness it was pretty amazing. the couple who owned the cafe were amazing nice and they couldn't have had a better situated place to have a cafe.

that night at sundown started the jewish sabbath. it runs from sundown friday to sundown saturday. during that time, religious jews do nothing. to have sex is mitzfa, a true shame. the city of jerusalm was deserted. it was kind of creepy, reminding me of the scene in vanilla sky when times square was deserted. we went out to alex's cousin the father's house for dinner with him, his wife, his daughter, son, and his girlfriend. it was a nice homecooked meal that i have missed. we went out for a little while but came home early because we had a full day ahead of us.

in the morning we started early (around 7:30), driving to the north of israel, heading up to the border with lebanon and syria. we stopped and had lunch in the golan heights at this little place by a lake with really good falafel. the whole day we did a loop up to the north and then over throught he golan heights and back down along the sea of galilee, through the west bank and dead sea into jerusalem. when we first left, alex's cousin the father took us up this mountian and showed us a view that mas spectacular. from that point you could see both sides of israel. from jordan in the east to the mediteranean in the west. its wa really quite something. he drove us along the green line, which was the border of israel before the 1967 war. my favorite part about the morning was when he showed where thet filmed the chuck norris film "Delta Force". i got goose bumbs. we stopped in nazareth and saw the church of the annunciation, where it is believed that the angel gabriel informed mary she was pregnant, despite the fact that she was a virgin. i bet it wasn't easy telling people that one. especially joseph. he probably had some questions for the little lady. we continued driving north and came to the border with lebanon, which is closed so we weren't able to get that close but we could see villages and towns inside and could definitely understand how close they were to the israelis. hizbollah routinely fires rockets into israel and there are several towns within israel they want back so its easy to understand the threat that exists there. we continued along the border east to the golan heights and the border with syria. the northern border contains some beautiful mountains that reach around 8000 feet. some were covered in snow and there is apparently some good skiing up there but many israelis go to europe to ski. after lunch in the golan, we began our journey back south towards jerusalem.

traveling along the jordan coast and into the jordan valley, we made our way ti the see of galilee, the famed spot where jesus walked on the water. here i saw a most remarkable and ironic sight. right there on the sea of galilee was a wake boat with a guy wakeboarding behind it. where jesus walked on water 2000 years ago today there is a guy wakeboarding. how cool would it be to say you wakeboarded in the sea of galilee? unfortunately i was unable to say that. along the sea we stopped at 2 spots. the first was the church of heptapegon, where jesus fed the multitudes with the bread and the fish. the original church has been built over several times by the many conquerers but much of the original floor remains intact, including a neat mosaic of a basket of bread and a fish. i'll leave it to you to figure out why that is there.

from there we drove down the road a bit and up a hill to the spot where jesus gave the sermon on the mound (blessed are the poor, blessed are the meek, yada yada yada. basically, all of the neat sound bites from jesus.) the church there was buit in the 60's to comemorate the spot. before it was just a spot on the hill, and frankly i think it should have stayed that way. now there is a gift shop and this and that, it makes it look very tacky. but its a nice view of the sea of galilee.

our last stop before we made the long drive back to jerusalem was at the river jordan, where jesus was baptized by john the baptist. i would like to say its a quaint little spot in the river with out much fanfare but i would be lying. like many other places it has been used to extort money from the visitors. i waded into the water and collected a little bit in a bottle for some hard core catholics i know back home (you know who you are) and then we made our way back to the car. there were too many people to really enjoy it but it was neat to see nonetheless.

on our drive back we made our way through the jordan valley along the border wuth jordan and into the west bank. the west bank is seperated into 3 zones since the oslo accords. zone a is palestinian only, no israelis allowed. zone b is for both and zone c is israeli only. we drove through zones b and c so there was no danger. i would have liked to make it into a zone a area but i didn't get the chance. at the end of the drive we passed the dead sea but unfortunately i missed it because i had dozed off in the back seat and my "friends" failed to wake me. they seem to enjoy the fact that they saw it and i didn't and persisted on reminding me of that fact as much as possible.

that night we stayed in a hostel in the old city because we didn't want to put out alex's cousins anymore. i wish i could say the hostel waas nice but then i would be lying. that was the only night we did not go out. we got up the next morning and went to see the temple mount since it had been closed on thursday. we walked around it for awhile, looking at the dome of the rock and the al-aqsa mosque. the dome of the rock is amazingly beautiful on the outside but i don't know about the inside since they wont let non-muslims into it or the al-asqa mosque. from there we just made our way to the bus station so i could catch a bus to the airport and they could catch a bus to the south. they stayed a few extra days but i had to get back for a test on monday. damn school. the excuse for why i am here getting in the way of the reason i am here.

the bus station was full of soldier going back to there post after weekend break. when i say soldier, i really mean a teenager with a machine gun. they are everywhere in israel and they look about 16. since israel has mandatory military service and most do it right after high school, they are really young looking. it is a really interesting sight to see a teenage army lounging around the bus station with m-16's across their laps. it brings into stark contrast the reality that exists in israel on a day to day basis. that and the guys with a metal detector at the door to every cafe in town. they live at war everyday but continue to live their lives as normal people, refusing to be scared. whether or not you support israel or agree with their policies or not, it is hard not to respect theses people for the way they live their day to day lives. many of them have no desire to keep any of the occupied territories, but the don't believe there can be peace without controlling them. the yound do not remember the early wars. they only know the reality of today and that reality is that they are surrounded by enemies, and all of them have to contribute to keep them safe. most israelis have no interest in the palestinian territories. they have no trust in the palestinian governments, especially hamas. they, understandably hold a very israeli and selective interpretation and perspective of the current political situation as well as a memory of history. they continue to live their lives despite the threats. the young of both sides can not be held responsible for the sins of their fathers and grabdfathers. they are all extraordinary people living in an extraordinary place during extraordinary times. My heart goes out to all of them on both sides.

anyway, from the bus station i said good bye and went to the airport. i got there 3 hours early and good thing too, becuase if i thought security was tough onj me coming into the country, i was confused. 3 different people grilled me for an hour and one guy gave me a full person search (with my clothes on) and then escorted me through to passport control. i guess a white american student from oklahoma is a threat to israel as he is LEAVING. i didn't mind though, i thought it was kind of intersting really.

when i arrived in istanbul i noticed a very strange thing. they do not believe in customs at the airport here. i arrived at the airport 3 times and not once has someone been even sitting at a customs desk. strange. that was my trip. sorry it was so long but it was that interesting of a place. whether or not you believe in the bible or are a jew or a muslim, a trip to israel is imperetive if only for its natural beauty and its history. i was in awe of the place.

since my friends are not bcak from israel yet i do not have any pictures. as soon as i get them i will upload them for you to look at. hope all is well where you are.

until next time.....

what i miss most this week.....clean roomates

PEACE in the middle east

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Photos

1
view of jerusalem from a hill.

market
markets in old jerusalem

wailing wall
me in a yamaka in front of the wailing wall

idf
israeli soldiers in front of the wailing wall. inspires a lot of confidence

andreas
andreas and i in front of the north wall of the old city

church of the sepulcure
the front of the church of the sepulcure, where catholics believe jesus was crucified and buried

prague
i made a side trip to prague while i was in jerusalem

nazareth
the german and i infront of the church where the angel gabriel told mary she was pregnant in nazareth

syria
alex and i are preparing to attack syria. we are standing in an artillery cannon that was used in the 1967 war. on this location is where kissinger was brought and decided that what syria could not win in war, they could not get in peace so therefore israel recieved the golan heights. pretty good idea having kissinger broker that deal. think he was biased?

bread and fish
the church where jesus fed the multitudes. a small mosaic commermerating the event

sea of galilee
view of the sea of galilee from the church built on the location of the serman of the mound

jordan river
me standing in the jordan river, collecting a small sample

dome of the rock
dome on the rock inside the temple mount. the dome is where it is believed that mohammed ascended into heaven

sign
a sign that properly provides a picture of the kind of hostel we stayed in