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Jaffa Pride
Chris in front of the beaches and skyline of Tel AvivTravelling through Israel, it's hard to know how you feel from any one moment to the next. On one hand, you get to experience the beauty of the Jewish culture, finally able to fully flourish after centuries of oppression. On the other, you know that the country exists on the backs of the Palestinians, who've been shunted aside by the world community to assuage their guilt.
After our night in Tel Aviv, we got up early the next day to walk down to Jaffa. Originally a seperate town populated mainly by Christians, it's mostly been swallowed up by Tel Aviv as the latter has expanded. However, it still features a beautful section of old town, with gardens and houses of worship. It also has a bridge where supposedly if you place your hand on the plague with your astrological sign and make a wish while looking at the Mediterranean, it comes true. Since we have yet to hear that the Pussycat Dolls fell from a 30-story building onto James Blunt, we'll assume it's just a legend.
We hiked with our bags to the bus station, experiencing the most decrepit underground passage we've encountered on this trip (no small feat).
Pretty nice on a carpenter's salary
The Franciscan monks end their procession in front of Jesus' tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre After a quick pass through security, we were on our way to Jerusalem. We'd heard many times that Jerusalem is unlike any city in the world, and our experience proved this correct. A convergence of the three major religions in Western society, all with legitimate claims to sites within the Old City walls, it eminates a seriousness, while also conveying a legitimate depth, both things certainly lacking in Tel Aviv.
We checked into the
Petra Hostel, which had been recommended by a friend and Lonely Planet. The first night, we wandered up to the Zion Square area, where we had a great meal of bagels and lox at Rimon, followed by some soft-serve ice cream (Justin ranks it as one of the top five meals of the trip - he loves him some Jew food). For the first of several times, we wandered around the pedestrian mall of Ben Yehuda. The crowd seemed predominantly teenaged, many travelling in groups from America. Basically, if
Seth Cohen wanted to be cool, he didn't have to wait for Ryan Atwood - he needed to get over to Jerusalem.
The next day, we headed out to M'ea She'arim, the ultra-orthodox section of town. A
Can I see some ID?
An example from the Wailing Wall of the kind of guys you see walking around with machine guns very reluctant tourist attraction, it's marked on the outskirts by signs from the rabbis asking that you dress appropriately. Since Chris, loose woman that she is, was wearing pants rather than a skirt, she waited in shame as Justin looked around. It was surprisingly normal, with mini-marts populated by conservatively dressed women buying potato chips.
After a quick Reuben, we headed back to see the religious sights in the city. Since we'd left the best map in the room, Justin ran into the hostel to grab it. When he unlocked the room to our double, he found the guy that had checked us in. Confused as to why this guy was looking around aimlessly, he asked why he was there and got no response. Then he noticed that his locked backpack had been forced open, and his iPod was lying on the floor. Then the yelling started. Back in Bulgaria, Rosa had covered all our bags with red string for good luck. We figure this explains our timing, because five minutes later, he would have taken what he wanted.
Since he was caught red-handed, we had no choice but to get out, leaving a few choice words in
Mount of Olives
Justin stands in front of one of many biblical settings in Jerusalem our wake (In fairness to Petra Hostel, another worker, Gabriel, tracked us down that night, and took our story to the owner. He also offered us a couple of free nights, which we declined. But because we were told this had happened with the employee before, and had heard other bad things after the episode, we decided to name the place. We know our tale will cause an international boycott that will shake their economic foundation, but that's why you don't mess with us, fella). Thankfully, we found another hostel quickly,
the Citadel , which had a midnight curfew, but no disgruntled clerks.
After throwing our stuff down, we headed out, as Friday is a big day for religion in Jerusalem. We first went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Catholics believe that Jesus was crucified and buried. A cool labyrinth of several architechtural styles built over many centuries, it attracts Christian pilgrims from all over the world. As we were leaving, we happened upon a procession of Franciscan monks who recreate Jesus' march to martyrdom each week. Since we joined at the 7th station of the cross, we got to hit all the highlights. The final four stations
A Dome by any other name
Chris in front of Haram Ash-Sharif, or the Temple Mount, or the Dome of the Rock were in the Church itself, as the sites of his crucification and resurrection are supposedly contained within.
Next, we headed to the Wailing Wall for Friday prayers. The last reminant on the second temple of Jerusalem, it now constitutes a shrine and open-air synagogue. As we waited for the sun to set, the start of the Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, we got a great dose of people-watching. As quaint as it sounds, the only way to describe the festivities is joyous. Young and old mingled, hugged, sang songs, danced. Believe us, it wasn't as lame as it reads. Afterwards, we went to the Armenian quarter for dinner, since it was the only area open until Saturday sundown. If, like us, you haven't had Armenian food before, don't run away, but don't hurry either.
Saturday, we did a sweep of many of the other religious sites around Jerusalem, including the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus was betrayed, the Mount of Olives and King David's Tomb (where the Last Supper "occured"). One of the amazing things about Jerusalem is the proximity of so many historical religious sites. You can really get a sense of how close the events
Valley of the Communities
One of the 170 walls listing destroyed Jewish communities at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem in the biblical narrative occured to each other. We then hit the
Tower of David Museum , which gave a surprisingly digestible and cohesive history of Jerusalem, and helped us to put many of the pieces together.
Since the Jewish world came back to life after sunset, we went back to the walking mall, and the nearby bar district. A mention must go to Sugar Hill, the closest thing to a good American dive bar we've encountered on our trip. We entered to Guns n' Roses, and when we asked why they were watching The Big Lebowski with Spanish subtitles, were told they've seen it so many times, they figured they may as well learn Spanish (the only acceptable answer). And they had pitchers.
Sunday consisted of going to the Temple Mount, a disputed site between Jews and Muslims. Believed to be the site of the rock upon which Abraham was going to sacrifice his son, it currently houses a mosque finished in 691. Because of the tension, visitors are no longer allowed inside. Next, we headed to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in the Jerusalem forest. An impressive campus, it features a building consisting of heartbreaking narratives of oppression and destruction.
Total Garbage
The streets of Hebron are often pelted by urine and refuse from the settler's building above It also features trees planted for those who helped to save Jews, an eternal flame, and a memorial of rock walls to lost Jewish communities. It served as a striking reminder of the plight of the Jews before they found a permanent home in Israel.
It also stood as a striking example that resonated on Monday. After checking out of our hostel, we headed to Hebron in the Palestinian Authority with
Abu Hassan , a tour guide who has spent his life under Israeli occupation. It remains amazing to us that a people who've seen the effects of oppression don't see the parallels with their treatment of the Palestinians. Simply driving to Hebron was an eye-opening experience. Don't let the media tell you that Ohlmut is getting rid of the settlements - all along the way, we saw new buildings going up, along with the seperation wall that makes it impossible for a Palestinian state to truly exist. Of course, when it's done, the Israelis will offer the Palestinians statehood, and when they refuse, they'll be blamed for being unreasonable.
Hebron itself is divided in two, most belonging to the P.A., and the rest to the Israelis, in defiance of
"Closed for Security Reasons"
Some shop owners still open up in this formally bustling market to show they haven't given up U.N. resolution. The reason for their presence is to protect the 200 or so settlers who've planted themselves in the city. As you walk into the Israeli controlled section, you encounter barrier after barrier, all designed to control movement and community. It's now a ghost town, except for soldiers and cement blocks. We saw the mosque where in 1994 Baruch Goldstein opened fire on Muslims prayer, killing 30 and wounding hundreds. In the demonstrations that followed, the Israeli army killed 12 more, then shut down the mosque for nine months, and gave part of it over for a synagogue. This is the kind of oppressive logic, along with constant identification checks and harassment that truly constitutes terrorism.
After the tour, we headed up to Tiberias, the only town on the Sea of Galilee. A standard sort of beach town (to Chris=good, to Justin=bad), it features a boardwalk of sorts and plenty of ice cream stands. The sea itself is quite large, surrounded otherwise by cliffs.
Today, we headed to Irbid in Jordan.
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