Wednesday June 18th
Once again, I forced Megan to wake up early so that we could get ready and head off to the Dome of Rock. We showed up there at about 7:30, 30 minutes before it opened. This was a good sign, as before they would always say it was closed. When 8:00 rolled around, they opened the gates and after walking through a small room with about 8 guys with M-4’s and body armor, we went up through the tunnel and into the Noble Sanctuary. This was amazing for me, as I had been learning about this place since Freshmen year in college and had at least 3 classes spend serious amounts of time on this spot alone. It was gorgeous and all that it was cracked up to be. The Dome of Rock is a gorgeous building and just like everyone said they wouldn’t let us enter for even look into it. They also wouldn’t let look into the Al-Aqsa Mosque which also disappointed me. How would they even know, without asking me that I wasn’t Muslim. Granted the camera and the guidebook might have given it away, but I still feel slightly shafted. After that we headed back to the David Street and started looking at hostels. We finally settled on the Citadel Hostel, where we could sleep on the roof for 30 NIS and had a breathtaking view of Dome of the Rock and Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We wandered back to the Golden Gate, got our stuff, checked out and got set up at our new digs. Afterwards we embarked on the walking tours of walking tours, starting with the Room of the Last Supper and David’s Tomb. These I had seen before, and found a little bit easier the second time. Afterwards we checked out the highly depressing Chamber of the Holocaust Museum, where we saw man’s inhumanity to man. I think the most interesting thing I saw in the museum was a letter that accompanied some gruesome photo’s taken by a US army solider who believed that without photo evidence people would never believe that this could have happened. It was simply too grotesque. The letter said that we should never forget that the people who were responsible for these acts were put to stop by men of higher morals. It reminded me of the line, that the greatest evil is for good men to stand by as evil is committed. It spoke to me, called to me, to be man of higher moral and give truth to the claim that this shall never happen again, through more than just words and thoughts but by action.
After this saddening visit, we wandered over to the Church of All Nations and the Garden of Gethsemane. This was Megan’s favorite site in Jerusalem and you could tell from the way she talked about it and recreated the scene for me from the Bible. We then checked out the Tomb of the Virgin Mary and then headed up the Mount of Olives, seeing the thousands of tombs that cover the mountain. We ended up looking for the Church of Ascension, but only found the Russian and Muslim version. These either were closed or cost money. We did find a group of Mormon’s who were extremely nice and I think wanted to convert us. If I had picked up on that earlier I would have told them that I am Muslim, just for experimental purposes. I feel like I could have pulled it off.
Wandering back down the Mount of Olives we stopped for a water break and enjoyed just overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem, chatting about our experiences and life in general. Finally we got up the energy and headed down the Mountain, got another picture of Church of All Nations, had a downright awful encounter with a bathroom attendant, and then headed back to the Old City.
Here we ended up coming right upon the first station of the cross. So we decided to follow the stations, and I wiped out the book and relayed to Megan what happened at each spot. We made our way much easier than before and even found the hidden 9th station. At the 9th station we also found something else we were not expecting.
This Arab man came up to us and asked us if we were Christian. Rather than answer that I was in the somewhere in the Middle, I just answered I was Christian as did Megan, because you know she is. This made the man extremely happy, and then he told us that he was from Egypt. When I told him that I too lived in Egypt, he became very very happy and gave me a big-hug. He then insisted on showing us around for no money. Being a little bit skeptical of such situations, we agreed hesitantly. He took us over and showed us from the roof into a church below, which I didn’t really understand what we were looking at. Then he showed insisted on showing us what he called the Jordan River. Now I wasn’t too sure if it was the Jordan river, but rolled up our pant legs and took us down these creepy looking stairs to what opened up into a large underground cave filled with water. There appeared to be a church underneath the water or some time or ruins, there also appeared to be a body, but no closer inspection turned out to be a statue of some kind. The water wasn’t exactly clear and there wasn’t a lot of light to really make it out. Anyways, our friend who took Megan’s hand to help her down, after earnestly asking me if it was okay, took us down to the banks and washed our arms and feet in the water. It was weird and hilarious. He then took us up and got pictures with us, which are no prominently displayed, on Picasa. He wanted to give us bottles of water, but Megan thinking that he wanted us to drink the water, and not wanting to get left down here while he went in search of water decided it was time to go so he told him we had to meet our friends at the Church and that we had to go. He took us up, and it turns out his other buddies made us pay a total of 2 NIS each because we took photos. Not that much, and the guy apologized for it. When we were leaving he was still trying to get us to get Tea or Coffee. I couldn’t tell if he really was just friendly or maybe a little bit off. I feel most Egyptians are a little bit off, maybe because they don’t get enough sleep or just aren’t well educated. Then again, I wouldn’t like them as much if they were so cut-and-dry like Westerners. I think their eccentric nature is what makes them so fun.
Anyways, the guy also kept saying that he loves us, and giving us hugs. At the end he said it one more time, and looked at us expectantly. Megan, in an almost motherly manner, responded with the “we love you too” and he got really happy again and gave us more hugs. We would later see this guy around through our stay in Jerusalem and we would have to change routes or walk slowly as to not actually meet up with him again. Although he was really friendly, we told him we were leaving that day so it would have just been awkward.
Finally making it to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, we finished the stations of the cross by climbing Golgotha and then heading over to Jesus’ tomb. We got in line and waited our turn to go in. I don’t think we were in the right mood for a proper religious experience because of A. the entire incident that happened at the 9th station, and B. we were standing beside these guys who were also just up on Golgotha and were having a good time, but didn’t really know what they were doing. So when it was our turn, we were allowed into the antechamber, where the guy’s camera died. I told him how much that sucked, and then the usher told us to be quite. As we were chilling in the antechamber waiting for the people to clear our of the tomb room, Megan almost caught on fire as she got too close to the candles. It was pretty funny, and definitely threw off and religious vibes we were going for. So the people before us, finally came out, continuing with their prayers and prostrations and we entered in. The other guys and Megan (who had my camera) all started taking pictures with their phones or with their cameras. After about 20 seconds, the guy who just broke his camera, looked around, and simply said “huh,” and kind of nodded his head in that semi-interested, not quite sure what to think of it way. It summed up the entire experience perfectly. After leaving the tomb, all I could do was laugh about the whole ordeal.
For dinner we wandered out of the old city looking for something interesting and found thai food. So we got that and headed back to the Square at the corner of Jaffa Road and the Old City and ate our thai food in Jerusalem. I love globalization. Also at the Thai place, we meet David, my friend from AUC who was the Palestine expert and was actually staying at the same hostel on the roof just like us. Small world.
No comments:
Post a Comment