Lo Agvanyot, Lo Spicy (no tomatoes, no spicy)

            Since these photos are gonna take more than an hour to upload, how about some blogging?  This has been one heck of a weekend; let me tell you!

            After I last left you I ate dinner, the contents of which are probably unimportant, though I am sure it included hummus and pita and was delicious, then played a cool new card game with some of the other people here.  It was kind of like multi-team pairs spit, and my partner was named Lucas, and so were team Lucas, and we are losing so far; the game goes to 500 and no one has broken 100 yet.  Then we watched The Princess Bride, then went to bed way late (10:00).

            On Saturday we got to sleep in until 7:30.  That was fun, except I woke up at 5:30.  Anyway, on the docket for Saturday was Herodion and Bethlehem.  We crossed over to the West Bank with absolutely no trouble and heading through the city of Bethlehem to Herodion.  King Herod, the guy who built the Temple Mount, was kind of a megalomaniac.  You can see his fort/palace complex in the distance because it looks like a volcano, a large, steep hill with a flat top.  The truth of the matter is that Herod took what was only a modest hill and made it into a huge one before sticking a fortress on top from which he could survey the whole area.

            The fort was big and round, with three half towers on the three sides and a full tower on the forth.  In the middle was a good ol’ Roman bathhouse, a courtyard, and a Roman dining room.  The dining room was particularly interesting because during on of the Jewish revolts, when they took Herodion over, the dining room was converted into a synagogue.

            From the top of the wall we could see the whole surrounding area.  In ancient times we would have been able to see the Dead Sea, even.  As it was, we could see Bethlehem and the Jordanian desert.  That place looks exceptionally inhospitable.  The desert looks inhospitable, not Bethlehem.  Bethlehem means “house of bread,” so I would consider it very hospitable.  We could also see Herod’s palace down lower on the hill and his gosh dang SWIMMING POOL.  Herod was such a bamf/douche bag that he built a huge swimming pool in the MIDDLE OF THE DESERT.  I was impress.  Fun fact, or not so fun:  the archaeologist leading the excavation of Herodion fell off of it and died.

            I hugged a column in the courtyard, but I think Sam has the picture of that.

            We took some stairs down into a deep tunnel system that served as an interior access point to a water cistern.  Some of the ceilings were really low and we had to duck.  Some corridors branched off but were barred by locked gates, which was a little disappointing.  Dan jumped down into this pit that was barred off to explore some hole, but it didn’t lead anywhere.  We kept following the tunnels and popped out on the side of the fake hill.  We walked around to the front and boarded the bus to head back into Bethlehem for lunch.

            We went to a store that specialized in carved olivewood to eat lunch.  The stuff they were selling was pretty impressive.  They had a ton of olivewood pieces and mother of pearl stuff too.  I saw some ill-sick-nasty bibles with covers made either of the olivewood or mother of pearl, but the English translations were all King James Version, so fuck that.

            I had Turkish coffee and a chicken shawarma for lunch.  It was tasty, but I still prefer falafel.  The tour guide made a really good call doing lunch then and then heading to the Church of the Nativity, because the church is usually packed.  After we ate, it was about noon, so we headed to the church hoping it would be emptier due to lunchtime.

            The Church of the Nativity was pretty impressive.  It was a massive Byzantine cathedral erected first by Constantine and again by Justinian, though you can still see the original floor mosaic through some trap doors in the Justinian era floor.  The church has stood since then, more than 1000 years.  The selling point of this particular church is the claim that it houses a cave system with the manger Jesus was laid in as well as the very rock Mary squeezed him out on.  When we made it through the very long line (though shorter than normal cause our tour guide was super clever) we got to see this rock, though it was covered in marble with a gold star on it.  The manger was equally tepid and so we went back upstairs too admire the Byzantine frescoes and mosaics, because they were way cooler.

            After the church we ditched the tour guide and headed into the Old City for a free afternoon.  Some of us cool kids, though, decided we’d hit up a cheap hostel and spend the night in the Old City.  That way we could do whatever we wanted and experience some of the Jerusalem nightlife.  We walked around and did some shopping for a few hours.  Kirsten bought a blue cape with silver embroidery.  I learned to say lo agvanyot (my transliteration may be off, so sue me), which means “no tomatoes,” thus allowing me to order falafel more efficiently.  The only downside to getting rid of the tomatoes is that some places put a tomato and cucumber salad on the sandwich, which means I lose out on the cucumber too.

            I ended up buying a camera and then celebrating with a six-sheckel falafel, less than two dollars.  Or I might have gotten the cheap falafel and celebrated with a camera.  Either way, we walked out to the New City in search of a hostel we could rent for the night.  We found two places to stay, but both were full up.  Steve Ortiz hooked us up with a place back in the Old City that gave us a slight discount from 100 sheckels down to 90, just under $30.  By the time we started heading back to the Old City, the Sabbath was ending and people were starting to come out in droves.

            By the time we made it back through Joffa Gate there was a party going on in the Old City.  Apparently there was some weird light shot going on.  We met up with Benjamin who took us back through some dark creepy streets on the way to hostel.  I was super lost until we hit Christian Quarter St., which has now become familiar to me, so we were going to have no problem finding our way back.  The hostel was really lovely.  There are pictures on Facebook.  It is hard for me to upload pictures to the blog because it takes super long, but we’ll see what I can do.  We had two rooms, one for the four girls: Sam, Becca, Becca, and Kirsten, and one for the guys: Matt, Akiva, and this guy!

            After dropping our stuff off we hit up some restaurant for my second Turkish coffee and second falafel of the day.  After that we roamed the streets.  There were people juggling fire and all sorts of light sticks flying around.  There were also numerous light shows going on around the city that you could get to by following lighted paths of different colors.  I have pictures up and I might try to load a few videos on the Facebook as well.  We must have walked the length of the city something like four times before trying to head into the New City to find a bar.  We ended up making it to the hostel and then not making it back out again.  It was just as well.  My legs were on fire and I was exhausted.

            I woke up this morning, had my shower, and went into the kitchen for breakfast.  Benjamin had been up all night preparing for an exam and he had for us some sesame bread thing and cheese and zatar for breakfast.  We ate quickly because we needed to get to the other side of the city to meet the rest of the group to go onto the temple mount.

            We had kind of an adventure getting there.  Sam, the Beccas, and I were racing through the city, getting all sorts of lost, so I asked a security guard at a checkpoint that I assumed was to the Wailing Wall the way to the Dung Gate, by the temple mount.  He sent us all the way down the street where we met Steve, who then brought us all the way back to that checkpoint and through it.  I think that guard may have been trolling.  Anyway, crisis averted, we met with the rest of the gang and made our way up to the temple mount.  Security was a breeze since no one brought weapons or bibles, and we made it up in no time.

            The first thing you notice once you’re standing on the temple mount is how freakin’ big it is.  It doesn’t look monstrous from afar, but it is HUGE and flat.  The Dome of the Rock is one of the most incredible things I have ever seen ever.  Unfortunately, since 2000, non-Muslims are not allowed into the mosque.  Fortunatley, AJ is a Muslim, so she was going to go in.  I was thinking about posing as her fiancé with the intention of converting to try and sneak in, but we thought it best to leave things alone.  AJ got some sweet pictures of the inside, so I contented myself with the outside, though I was incredibly jealous.

            Outside the Dome of the Rock on the temple mount is a place that is considered to be a secondary possibility for the Holy of Holies from the Temple.  Unfortunately, the most likely candidate is also the Rock of the Dome of the Rock from which Mohammed ascended into heaven, hence the controversy.  We also looked at the eastern gate of the mount, which has been sealed up.  Both Muslims and Jews believe this is the site at which the Messiah will return, so there are vast cemeteries of both faiths just beyond it to ensure a speedy ascent when Messiah comes.

            We left the mount and walked part of the Via Delarosa, the way of the cross, and ended up back at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which was nice because I didn’t have any pictures of it on my new camera.  We had some free time to grab lunch (I got some delicious falafel, but it was 15 sheckels) and then met the bus.

            Our afternoon activity was a trip to the Holocaust Museum.  I’d rather not go into the experience, but they have some truly horrible things on display there and it was not fun to walk through.  The only plus was that I ended up with a swell construction paper kippa to wear, but other than that I was miserable and on the brink of tears the whole time. 

That about sums up the weekend.  I’ll be able to provide picture through Facebook to illustrate some of my stories, and I’ll be providing info in the descriptions, so I suggest that you all check it out.  If we’re not friends, send me a message.

Love and Peace from the Holy Land.

PS.  Falafel count is up to 5.