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Published: December 18th 2014
Today started out with us catching an Arab bus from Damascus Gate and taking a trip into Palestine. It is there we find Bethlehem. Exiting the bus, we are greeted by what can only be described as the world's most annoying taxi driver. He followed us for a couple minutes chirping on about how the tourist area is 3km away and he could take us. First, I knew for a fact where we needed to go was just a 1km walk down Pope Paulus. Second, even if he was telling the truth, a 3km walk is nothing to us anyway. When ignoring him didn't work, we tried another tactic. We started answering him in Swedish. I used the few sentences I knew and Niklas did most of the babbling. By the end of the exchange, he was pleading with us to speak English. I had the hold back my laughter.
After losing Mr. Annoying, we made our way to The Church of the Nativity. Sandwiched between a group of boisterous four-years-olds and a group of Nigerian tourists, we just managed to squeeze our way into the spot believed to be where Jesus was birthed and where his manger lay. The
thing that really stood out about Bethlehem was how Christmassy it was. Large Christmas trees and many Christmas decorations were everywhere. Ironic how there seems to be more of an appreciation for the true Christmas in Palestine than there is in the west. We took notice of the political messages strewn around Manger Square: "All I Want for Christmas is Justice". Powerful words. It isn't until we were leaving the Palestine checkpoint, on our way back to Jerusalem, that we finally grasped the gravity of those words. When the bus arrived at the checkpoint, the Palestinians all made their way off the bus to be greeted (and probably searched) by heavily armed guards. They needed to show their papers to cross the checkpoint. As tourists, we were allowed to stay in our seats and in the comfort of the air-conditioned bus. A couple of guards came on to just look at all of our passports. It felt wrong to be on the receiving end of this kind of preferential treatment. Niklas summed it up perfectly in one word as we discussed how strange it is that there are Arab buses and Israeli buses and how different people are treated differently:
apartheid.
After an afternoon nap back at the hotel, we continued on to the Jewish quarter of the Old City. We didn't stay too long because we wanted to be back by nightfall. From what we saw, it seemed to be better developed than the rest of the Old City. We will aim to go back before we leave.
Tomorrow: we drive north.
Salam
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