Day 151

Thursday June 19^th,

After realizing just how much stuff we did yesterday, we decided to take today much slower. I tried to sleep in as much as I could, but sleeping on the roof means it gets hot and noisy and you can’t really sleep past 8. So we got ourselves ready and headed out for another exciting day. Since both of us had already seen the Dead Sea Scrolls, we opted on not going all the way out to the Museum, so instead we headed to the Tower of David where we spent the morning looking at the History of the Jerusalem. They even had this little movie with terrible animation that Megan feel asleep in. The Tower of David refers to a whole fort complex that was used to defend Jerusalem. Now apparently it is used for parties and weddings as when we were walking around they were decorating for what looked like a wedding. For lunch we strolled over to the park beneath the old city found some benches and enjoyed more thai food. It was peaceful and relaxing and I kind of wanted to just take a nap there. But there was still more to do and see, so we headed back to the Old City and checked out the Western Wall. I got hassled three times here for money, which I thought outrageous and kind of disrespectful and the holiest site in Judaism. There was another party going on, and we used the opportunity to take lots of pictures of people, including the orthodox jews, the 18 year old soldiers with guns, and the citizen militia with their WWII era rifles. Didn’t quite understand their story for being there. I did use the opportunity to write another note and stick it in the wall. I wrote it in English, and realizing I knew all the words in Arabic also wrote it in Arabic, thinking well maybe it will have a better chance of being heard if its got more languages. The irony of putting a prayer in Arabic into the holiest spot in Judaism only dawned on me after the fact. Oh well, I don’t think God will care what language it’s in.

After that, or before, the timeline isn’t quite clear to me, we did a lot of shopping. Not for me this time, I had bought enough stuff in Jerusalem before. So this time it was much more relaxing as I didn’t actually have to spend any money. So we picked up a bunch of stuff for Megan’s family and generally had a good time shopping. I really enjoy shopping with Price, not quite sure why, but she’s got a good head on her shoulders, is money-savy in that she spends it, but not too excessively, unlike me which generally errors on spending too little. Then again, I have made some pretty extravagant purchases on this trip. For dinner we looked around for the pizza place that I had last time, found that it was closed, and so went to the pizza place that Lonely Planet recommends. It was really good food and we ate outside right next to the 3^rd station of the cross. Jerusalem is nutty. By this time it was getting late, and knowing that we had to wake up early, we turned in for the night.