Israel - Jerusalem, Old City

An interesting city, and another interesting day in it. In fact, I did decide to go ahead and stay here for the remainder of my trip. There is so much to see here and I want to make the most of it in case I never get back.

I woke up after a good night's sleep and my feet were feeling much better! I showered and headed downstairs for the free breakfast. They had a nice selection of fruits, pastries, eggs, juices and coffee. No meat was present, which is the norm for Israeli breakfast as you are not allowed to mix meat and dairy products due to the religious dietary laws. I scoffed down some Israeli melon, date pastries and coffee and headed off.

I walked back down Jaffa Road and explored the area to the west of the Old City. I came across the King David hotel, the home-away-from-home for foreign dignitaries and high-end journalists. It was a lovely stone and brick building surrounded by lavish gardens. I found some more gardens and wandered around them for a while before plunging back into the Old City.

Again entering through the Jaffa Gate, I made my way down to the Wailing Wall. As a reminder, this is the last remaining structure of the Second Temple, and is the holiest of Jewish sites.

I went through the heavy security there and walked up to the Wall itself. Around me were Rabbis dressed in their black traditional garb and tons of religious schoolboys. This was a divided area, being - essentially - an outdoor synagogue. A wooden fence divided the men from the women, but up a staircase on the women’s' side, I could see a bunch of women tourists trying to film the men’s' section. There was a lot going on here.

I stood and looked around for a while. Rabbis were bringing their classes down here for study. Some tourists were standing back and observing, trying to figure out how to keep their skullcaps on in the gentle breeze (at least the non-Jews were!). Other tourists walked straight up to the wall and began to pray.

I had already put on my skullcap after clearing security. I walked right up to the wall and placed my hands on it. It felt very warm, and my mind tried to comprehend the age of the rock itself and how many others, and who they were, had touched the same part of the wall that I was now touching. In the cracks separating the large stones of the Wall lay the prayer papers of those that had already visited, crammed in there by any means possible. I pulled out the prayer notes I had made back in Texas and placed them into the wall, before saying a few personal prayers.

As I walked away, I was approached by a Rabbi. He asked if I wanted a blessing, and I agreed. We prayed at the Wall and then he took me into the synagogue next to it that stood over the ancient tomb of King David. He showed me the tomb itself and then the Moses Torah scroll before leading me in a small blessing for my wife and children in the synagogue's library. I gave a small donation, thanked him and headed back to the Wall.

I again prayed to God and asked him to forgive me for all of the zoom photo shots I was about to take, given that it is a bit of a no-no here. I attached my zoom and off I went, taking dozens of snaps of the various goings on. Rabbis in deep prayer, nodding and rocking their bodies towards the wall while muttering in Hebrew. Religious school boys play-fighting while their Rabbi teachers were looking the other way. Tourists talking to the Rabbis, some of them refusing blessing offers. One Rabbi was having a really hard time getting his group of students to stand still for a school photo, and he looked up and prayed to God for assistance, which did come eventually as the group of cheeky looking boys smiled at his camera for a mere second or so. "Mazel tov!" the Rabbi exclaimed loudly as he got the shot he was after. Some Rabbis were helping very elderly, wheelchair-bound men up to the Wall and assisting in prayers. Some African men were helping to keep the myriad of prayer books in order.

I shot away still, completely wrapped up in the scene. Then, a large crowd of young Jewish schoolboys that had gathered at one section of the Wall erupted in melodic prayer, a really wonderful sound. Their loud tones echoed throughout the area. One of the Rabbis with them finished their prayer with the sounding of the shofar. Very impressive and rather moving!

I said a quiet goodbye to the crowd and left the area. I stayed in the Jewish quarter for a while and found a cafe where I drank some water. A bunch of primary school boys from the nearby Yeshiva (Jewish school) walked by and I took some snaps. A lot of them saw me and waved and yelled "shalom!" with big smiles on their faces.

Now I wanted to visit with the Muslim side of the Old City. I walked over to the Muslim Quarter, looking for an entry to the Al Aqsa area, home to the Dome of the Rock. I reached a security checkpoint and was greeted cheerfully by a heavily armed Israeli soldier. He told me it was closed, and that I should try again in a couple of hours but from a different gate (the non-Muslim entry). I wandered off and got a bit lost. I noticed that the alleyways were growing darker and there was an absence of shops and markets. An Arab boy met me, who was maybe ten or so. He said "Muslims only, you come back this way". I believed him and followed him to a main market area, tossed him some shekels and said "Shukran" for “thank you” in Arabic. He ran off right away and gave me a haphazard wave.

With time to kill I decided to hunt down the Via Dolorosa, which is the final pathway that Christ took to his death and spans from part of the Muslim quarter and into the Christian Quarter. It was full of tourists, all wearing their yellow and blue tour guide company caps and listening to their various tour guides. I traced the pathway that Jesus took but every single point of interest was mobbed with tourists, and getting photos was really impossible. It was sad and disappointing, and I headed away with the aim of trying to get back again in another day or two.

On my way back to the Al Aqsa area, I saw a nice store that maybe had something for Laurie and the kids. I found what I wanted but the guy who ran it was a real market man, and he pushed me hard. I started by offering him a third of the original price, and ended up haggling him to just a little above that, which was pretty good. However, at checkout he seemed odd, chatting on his cell phone while running my card through. "Damn it" I thought to myself, thinking of what was going on. Was I about to start funding some weapons purchase or buy some more crap for him to sell? I stuck around for a while, in plain sight, logging into our bank from my cell phone. He asked me what I was doing, and I told him "just checking my account". He looked a bit offended and patted me on the shoulder saying "We friends you and I, you no worry". I gave him a bit of a stern look and said I'd probably drop by tomorrow and walked off.

I walked back to the non-Muslim gate for the Al-Aqsa area. This time I was greeted cheerfully by an Israeli female soldier armed to the teeth, who told me that it was closed and to try again tomorrow. Hmm, something was up. I walked away and had a sit down, noshing on some Israeli potato chips which were sort of caramel flavored cheese puffs. Odd but I liked them. I felt miffed that I couldn't seem to get close to the Dome of the Rock. I scanned the news from my phone to see if anything was going on but saw nothing. There have been lots of issues with Jewish settlements recently, and I wondered if there was a bigger lockdown going on but the security services were being casual about it?

After giving some more thought about the interaction with the guy at the shop, I felt I was maybe too suspicious but was still worried. So, I thought I'd call my wife and start her day with a call that went "Hi baby, Umm, can you check all the transactions on our bank account for the last two hours or so?" Nothing weird, yet...

I walked to the south of the Old City to seek out Oskar Schindler's grave. Schindler was not Jewish, but requested that he be buried in Jerusalem. So, his grave lies in the Christian Cemetery. I found the cemetery, but it was locked. Crikey, I was having a rough afternoon! I was tired, and had enough and headed to the hotel for a nap before dinner.

After a nice two hour nap I headed out for dinner. I had heard and read about a meal called a "schwarma", which is a Turkish pita sandwich including kebab beef, salads, hummus and hot chips. I went to the place I had seen selling it on Ben Yehuda Street and ordered one along with a Maccabbee beer. It was absolutely scrumptious, and extremely filling. For US$6.00, it was a real bargain. I was joined by a Rabbi as there were few tables available. I was horrified as he sat in front of me watching me drink my beer. He tried to talk to me but spoke very little English. Between my limited knowledge of Hebrew and his minimal English, I gathered that the beer was actually okay with him, Barack Obama was bad (a recurring trend here in my conversations with people) and something about cats (?).

I bid my rabbinic buddy goodbye and went for a stroll. I headed north on Jaffa Road where I had not yet been. I came across a very lively street market, still bustling like mad despite the late hour of the day. They had everything from meat and fish to fresh spices and clothing. Tons of different folks there, including Rabbis, mums with their kids (Jewish, Christian and Muslim), lots of Ethiopians which I hadn't seen many of until tonight, as well as - you guessed it - loads of heavily armed soldiers. I wandered around, taking photos with the flash going off like mad but I didn't care and neither did the locals.

This was how the local folks lived, and while it has been fun to visit all of the historical sites, I'd like to see more of what I saw tonight. So tomorrow, I am going to venture further out and away from the Old City and see what I can find.