All I want for Christmas is Shwarma

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Jane knew a lovely French bakery that she needed to share with us - I guess I need French food at all times - even in Israel! After a calorie laden breakfast of croissants, apple tunovers, brioche and chocolate rugalah, we set off on the walking trail to burn off a few calories. The trail is flat and is the old railroad tracks and closed to pedestrians. We walked to the windmill and to a very chi-chi row of art galleries. We were introduced to Gidan - a playful character who proceeded to show us pretty much every dreidel he had made in the last 30 years. Very expensive, but he let us spin and chat for over an hour. He also gave Jane a beautiful turquoise dreidel in honor of her becomming an Israeli citizen. We marched on to the old city to the tile guy I remembered from 2 years ago. Dianne found a pretty bowl that now houses our new dreidels and small coin shekalim. Off to the Church of the Holy Sepucher, since it is Christmas eve. Christmas in Israel is very different than the holiday anywhere else in the world since Israelis dont do Christmas. No holiday music, no Santa, no incessant Honda Holidays commercials. Very peaceful and today seems just like any other day - sort of like July 4th in France. We did see a Santa mannequin right outside of the Jafa Gate near the Arab Quarter, but he was wearing Santa bunny ears instead of a hat. Ho Ho Ho. A quick wander through Mamilla mall (with lots of twinkly lights) and then the King David Hotel to meet our new sherut friend, David, for a coffee and much needed foot rest. David was charming as usual and we said good bye with reluctance. Our 8 mile walk ended back at the house of Jane, and Di and I packed our bags and headed off to the Jerusalem Gate Hotel. If you read my blog from Israel last time, you will recall that neither Shelly nor I had written our hotel name down and had a tough time with the taxi driver. I don't seem to learn so fast and once again, had forgotten to write the hotel...îs it the Jerusalem Gate or the Jerusalem Gold Hotel? A nice dinner with some new friends - we particularly liked meeting Mary/Miriam from Miami. Gorgeous, with red hair and blue eyes, she is recently Jewish and has a very cute Israeli boyfriend who seems ready to propose. We bought a bottle of wine from the market on the corner, had the shopkeeper open it for us, and headed back to drink in the lobby. That's Christmas Eve in Jerusalem!



And now...Christmas Day in Jerusalem...

10 Hours in a very warm classroom and I need some shwarma to perk me up! We heard excellent lectures today on topics such as how to make our students better through teaching the Holocaust, and an amazing talk about the use of "degenerate art" as propaganda against the Jews. My head is swimming.

Now I need some fresh air. Originally, we had tossed about the idea of going to Bethlehem to see Christmas for ourselves, but then heard that the crowds would be massive. Plus, Bethlehem is regarded as not that safe, so we decided to get on the local train - tram thing and head off to Ben Yehuda street instead. We met Jane in front of Moshika - THE best shwarma place in town and I am now one happy girl. Shwarma is a lot like gyros - carved from a big hunk and lovingly placed into a warm pita. A few chunks of cucumber and some chips (fries) on top...heaven. And I've been jonesing for it for 2 years.

We settled at an Irish pub for wine and cherry beer (quite good actually) and topped off the perfect culinary night with Aroma hot chocolate with extra chocolate bars tossed in for extra good luck. It made not being at home watching Christmas Story over and over again and eating Chinese food with my family a ittle more bearable.

Christmas day - everything is open, it's just another day here. We wished some Nigerian tourists in the hotel a happy Christmas and watched a very orthodox wedding take place in 2 different rooms in the lobby. One for the women and one for the men - the men seemed to get the better party (or maybe it just looked that way).

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Photos

Jewish Santa
Complete with bunny ears. My favorite phot so far...

Windmill
Gorgeous views

David, Dianne and Kelli
Our new friend from the sherut ride into Jerusalem

Mall Synagogue
Just in case...

Kosher McDonalds
Only meat, no dairy

Only meat
No cheese or milkshakes at all.

Jerusalem
From Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem
Grandfather took the crying babies out of the hiding place, are captured, and none survive. I walk by this memorial every day. Hidden off to one side is one more "baby", the only one in the entire family to survive the Holocaust.

It's kosher...don't worry.
Mmmm......Shwarma...mmmmmm