Israel – Part 2 – Jerusalem
A week in Israel 20-27.12.2009. – Part 2 – Jerusalem
Из “Разходка по Светите места”
TRAVEL ROUTE:
- Tel Aviv ( 3 nights from 20-23.12.09 ) – Travelogue for TEL AVIV HERE
- The Tel Aviv – Jerusalem distance by train
- Jerusalem (4 nights from 23-27.12.09)- Travelogue for Jerusalem HERE
What it's like to experience the Shabbat tradition, to walk in the footsteps of Christ, to enter Palestinian territory, to ride a camel, to touch the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and to almost go hungry on Christmas – these are just a few of the things we experienced during our trip to the Holy Land...
Early in the morning on December 23, we set off by train from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The journey took about 3 hours. It turned out that the Holy City is located amidst the mountains, where vegetation is extremely sparse and there are no forests.
In Jerusalem the traffic was extremely heavy, so heavy that one day while leaving the city to go to Bethlehem I felt very sick. During our stay, one of the main boulevards was under construction, and maybe that was the reason.
The houses in Jerusalem looked just like in the pictures, white with flat roofs.
At the same time, the people there were much more religious while also being much rougher. About 750,000 souls live in the city, of which 480,000 are Jews, another 250,000 are Muslims, and 10,000–20,000 are Christians. Amidst the traffic-jammed streets filled with cars, buses, and crowds of tourists, many traditional Jews can be seen wearing not only the traditional Jewish skullcap – a kippah, as was the case in Tel Aviv, but also tunics and black suits. Many rabbis can be seen, as well as traditional Muslims. Jerusalem also turned out to be interesting because of the unity between the three main religions – Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. In a few places, we saw the following signs side by side: a CROSS, the Jewish STAR OF DAVID, and a CRESCENT. This alone speaks of an emerging New Unified Religion, which in turn portends the coming of the Antichrist.
What really scared us at first were the military personnel, who could be seen literally everywhere. For example, as we were having a bite at McDonald's in the bus station, three uniformed, armed men with submachine guns and so on were sitting at the neighboring table opposite us. 🙂 The hotel we stayed at was called Jerusalem Gate Hotel and turned out to be a very nice, huge hotel with 290 rooms, welcoming tourists from all over the world. Our accommodation at the hotel also included a very tasty buffet breakfast. The dish that impressed us the most was the local version of kottu.
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The weather in December in Jerusalem it was similar to desert weather in terms of having a huge temperature amplitude. Mornings and evenings, for example, were very chilly and we dressed in winter jackets. At lunchtime, however, it got warm enough to strip down to short sleeves.
And so, after checking into the hotel, we caught the city bus and went to the Western Wall, or the so-called Wailing Wall. While traveling, there were many ideas as people were reading the Old Testaments on the bus. As soon as we got off the bus, we were immersed in the unique atmosphere. It was incredible.
Praying Jews were everywhere.
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Also, thousands of tourists placed slips of paper with their prayers and petitions to God in the cracks of the Wall.
Interestingly, access to the Wall was divided into men's and women's sections, and when Simeon wanted to go to the Wall itself, he had to put on a typical Jewish skullcap (made of paper) given to him for free. Without it, men are not allowed to approach the Wall.
The next day (24.12) we spent the whole day exploring the Old City of Jerusalem. We entered through Jaffa Gate and walked along the fortification walls of the Old City. The Old City itself is divided into 4 sub-quarters – Jewish, Muslim, Armenian, and Christian. After that, we passed through the Arab bazaars, entered the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and saw the Holy Sepulchre. Mount Golgotha itself is believed to have been located on the site of this church.
This is the place where a pilgrimage certificate can be obtained.
We passed through Via Dolorosa street, were on the Mount of Olives and in the Garden of Gethsemane.
As a bonus, we stumbled upon the funeral of a Jewish rabbi 🙂 We also saw the graves of various shrines. We wanted to visit the place called Moriah, which was right next to the large Dome of the Rock mosque, but it was closed. Everywhere there were more tourists than stones – swarms of tourists everywhere.
Something interesting! Our trip fell during the Christmas holidays, but in Israel, you could nowhere tell in any way that Christmas was approaching. It was truly a huge exception to see Christmas decorations anywhere, let alone a Christmas tree.
Also, today I rode not just any other, but a truly super photogenic camel. 🙂
That same evening was Christmas Eve and literally for a few hours we tried to find the Protestant Christ Church, where we wanted to celebrate Christmas. Our feet hurt from the heavy walking during the day, we had no strength left, and by some huge coincidence we found it and it turned out to be a typical congregational church.
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Before the start of the holiday service in the courtyard, there was traditional Christmas soup and various sweets for refreshments. They had also brought out a piano and from 20:00 to 22:30 we were in the courtyard, eating, drinking, and singing Christmas carols. Awesome weather! The building itself turned out to be a cathedral which had a grand piano that sounded amazingly, I was simply left speechless! Other instruments present were also the guitar and flute. The holiday service started at 22:30 and lasted about an hour, and at the end we were given two free new New Testaments in Hebrew. Yay!
On December 25th we decided to go to Bethlehem, to the Church of the Nativity. It turned out that the city is very large and located in Palestine, and to enter it we had to go through very serious border checks. We had rented a taxi for this whole trip, but I felt very sick from the ride and we couldn't see anything except the so-called Herodium, the Palace of Herod. On the way back from the border to the center of Jerusalem, we got on some intercity marshrutka with a capacity of about 20 people, where everyone except us was Muslim. They even told us off not to hug. Safe and sound, we got back to the hotel for a little relaxation.
On Christmas Eve we went out for dinner, but a big surprise awaited us. 🙂 Outside, the streets were deserted, there were no people, and no cars.
All the shops, restaurants, and even the bus station, which was located next to our hotel and where we planned to have dinner (since it was abundant with all kinds of dining establishments), were completely, totally closed and locked. It turned out that we were in the Jewish part of Jerusalem and it was also Friday evening. This is what you call 'an unexpectedly bad combination' 🙂
According to Jewish tradition, from Friday evening to Saturday evening Jews must not work, cook, or do anything else, except rest, just as God rested on the seventh day of Creation. So, finally, after seeing what situation we were in, we were forced to pay 120 shekels per person to have dinner at the hotel restaurant. The dinner was a buffet and was in huge quantity, abundance, and variety. We stuffed ourselves so much that we could barely breathe afterwards. This whole evening was very shocking for us because we didn't expect Jews to still be keeping these traditions of theirs in the 21st century.
The next day, Saturday, Dec 26, there were no other vehicles on the streets except taxis driven by Arabs or rental cars. We really wanted to go to the Dead Sea, but considering the fact that there were neither buses nor trains, and we didn't have enough money to catch a taxi, it turned out to be mission impossible and we left it for our next visit. So we walked again to the Old City, where we saw the Pool of Bethesda, Mount Zion, the tombs of Absalom, Zechariah, and the City of David.
In Jerusalem, it turned out that all attractions are completely free, with the exception of the Pool of Bethesda.
On the last day, Dec 27, we headed back, first by train from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, then by train to Ben Gurion airport and finally by plane to Sofia.
As a souvenir from the trip, Simeon bought me a Jewish shofar as a Christmas gift for 170 shekels (after some serious haggling J) as well as a very high-quality wallet from the airport in Tel Aviv on the way back.
More photos from our trip to Jerusalem can be seen below:
