Israel Part 3: You Didn't Ask for it but here it is anyway!

We couldn't tear ourselves away from Jerusalem even though we knew we needed to get on the road if we wanted to see all the places we have planned!  There's just so much cool stuff there! And we made some amazing friends that we ended up hanging out with for a few days.  We went to the BYU JerusalemCenter for a quick tour and met a cool couple who were there studying abroad for the semester.  They'd been there a few months and had seen and done a ton and invited us to hang out and see some sites with them!  They took us to the museum of Israel which was very cool and interesting (lots of history and we got to see some of the original Dead Sea Scrolls!) and we spent a lot of time with them just wandering around different parts of the city while they played tour guide and taught us a ton of stuff they had learned about the city during their semester there.  Seriously these kids were smart!

We're not in Provo anymore 

Our Jerusalem friends!

One thing we loved seeing was the Western Wall.  We went back to this almost everyday.  It's a stone wall in the old city outside the area that the Jews believe to be where Solomans Temple once was (this area is now referred to as Dome of the Rock).  Since there are only a few in the Jewish religion high enough to be in the presence of the Holy of Holys, no Jew is Allowed past that wall.  Even though the temple is no longer there it is still considered sacred ground and they don't know exactly where the holy of holies once was so in order not to risk it no Jew is allowed near it.  (It's a major sin to be in the presence of the holy of holies without the right to be there).  So they have this wall that is the closest to it that they can be and they go there to worship. The wall is separated by two sections - one for men and one for women.  No man can go near the wall without wearing a yamaca so Robby had to get a paper one!  The wall gets PACKED around sunset on Fridays since that is the beginning of the sabbath and you can see people kissing the walls, dancing around the wall, bobbing in front of the wall, and reading the Torrah at the wall.  It's pretty action packed and more entertaining than any Nicolas Cage movie I've ever seen. 

The wall!!! during normal times.  To be honest the men's side was more entertaining than the women's.  

Friday at sunset! Insane!! If only you could hear the signing, chanting, praising. So cool! 

The craziness from a level above 

Close up shots at the wall

Heres a video I snuck from the women's side of the wall looking into the men's side (it was way more action packed!) Can you spot Robby?!

Some other highlights in Jerusalem include the Dome of the Rock (believed to be the place where Solomans temple was and where Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac - where Jews will not go - now owned by Muslims), random barmitzvas that take place thoughout the old city that come through like parades tossing candy around (that I ran behind and collected leftovers from), the most amazing Shwarma wraps ever, fresh squeezed juice, pastries galore, and just lots of ancient history.  

 

Dome of the rock!  They wouldn't let us go inside though - but we could walk the grounds. 

The shwarma...oh I could write so many sonnets and love songs about the shwarma. So good !!

 

Bar mitzvahs are party central! We seriously saw like ten of them in a day.  They parade through the city to the Western Wall.  Some kids have more friends than others that join in on the celebrating. And some have better candy than others. I may have followed some of the parades and collected the leftover candy that was thrown....me and a really old/potentially homeless woman.  

Oh and how I could I forget!! We watched the most amazing light show that was projected on CASTLE WALLS.  The light show basically told a history story about jerusalem with pictures and music but it was the most incredible light show we've ever seen - even better than the one at Disneyland!  The lights transformed the castle to different scenes  and it looked so amazing! Pictures won't do justice but it gives you an idea :)

The castle.  Looking all normal and castle-like

Then the show begins!!! Can you to what it is?? Bookshelves galore.  Looked so amazing first hand.

Still on the castle - all sorts of scenes were projected on it and the images moved around like a movie. No cameras allowed so we could barely snap a couple pics without getting our heads chopped off!

On fire!!

Finally - we had to be on our way to Petra! But first we had to check out the Dead Sea and float around in it! We took a bus out there that got us in late and it turned out that the very few hotels that are there were sold out! So what do you do?? You sleep on the beach of the Dead Sea and watch the sunrise.

Our hotel set up for the night 

The natural alarm clock

Just reading a gripping novel...it was impossible NOT to float!

Check out all the salt!

Now for another lovely bus ride!! We just can't get enough!!

Israel Part 2 - Holy Places

My main excitement coming to Jerusalem was just to walk in one of the only places on Earth that Jesus Christ walked while He was here.  Contemplating that the whole time was pretty amazing.  Although things maybe just maybe changed a little in 2,000 years, I loved imagining in my mind what He saw and what events had taken place in the very places where we went.

Garden of Gethsemane

One of my favorite places we went to.  Many of the other holy sites are completely covered with giant cathedrals memorializing the sacred spot - which is nice - but I prefer something more peaceful and serene whereas the cathedrals tend to have a dark feel to me with lots of candles, monotone chanting and echoes of people walking around.  So what I loved about the Garden of Gethsemane is that it is still just that- a garden. There's a pretty church nearby honoring the area - but there are still quite a few Olive Trees in this garden to look at, some that are believed to be over 2,000 years old in which case could have been witness to the suffering in the garden by Christ.  Unbelievable to be in that very spot.

The Holy Seplechure and Garden Tomb:

Ok so of course there's no way to know exactly where Christ was crucified and buried, but they have a church of the Holy Seplechure where they believe it happened because they found a tomb back in Constatines time (300Ad) that seemed to match up according to Constantine's mother (he put her in charge of finding and identifying all the historical sites relating to Christ and the newfound Christianity).  So who knows, I'm not sure how strong her evidence was but she declared this the spot.  what is there now is a giant Catholic Church with a very small tomb inside you can look at.  Lots of candles and worshipping going on there.  

The church outside

Decor inside - extravagant lamps and candles

This is a small part of what they believe had been the tomb

Although the Holy Seplechure is the most widely accepted spot, the Garden Tomb just outside the city walls is believed by some to be the spot of the atonement and tomb.  Personally I prefer the ambiance of the Garden Tomb. It's outdoor and just a big garden.  There is a big stone tomb that has been dated by archeologists to have been around a LONG time (can't remember the date), and it just looks the part to me. Nearby there's a hill that you can tell is skull shaped which some say is Calvary (described in the bible as being skull shaped).  Historians also say that in Jesus' day there was a busy road next to the garden tomb and this hill - which would also make sense for the crucifixion because in those days they crucified people where others could see them, right next to busy streets.  It's interesting to hear all the facts and put the pieces together, but we can't really know exactly where it was and it doesn't really matter.  It's just nice to have a sacred spot you know is nearby where the actual event occurred where you can think and reflect on it.  We loved the Garden tomb. 

This is the hill nearby.  Can you kind of see the skull??

The garden area 

Outside the tomb here.  This is how I imagined it.  Apparently it makes sense too because according to historians, back in Jesus' times most tombs you would walk into would be open space to the left where the body was placed.  By tradition.  In the scriptures it talks about Jesus being laid to the right inside the tomb and to the right of the door inside is where angels appeared once he was risen.  Well this tomb has an open space to the right when you walk inside which is very unusual for its time, but paralleling the scriptures if this was in fact Jesus' tomb.  

The door inside the tomb. Love the inscription.

We also went outside Jerusalem to Capernaum where Jesus spent a lot of his time ministering.  Here we saw ruins of the old city and the Sea of Galilee!   The Sea of Galilee was amazing.  It is very foggy all the time there and makes it look so mystical! It was so cool being there contemplating all the miracles that happened in Capernaum as well as all the events that took place on Galilee.  We also go to see where the multiplication miracle of the fishes and bread took place and climb up to the mountain where Christ did the Sermon on the mount! They call it the Mount of Beatitudes.  

The ruins in Capernaum 

Sea of Galilee 

Galilee doesn't look at that huge but because the fog is so thick you can't even really see to the other side at all!

On the Mt of Beatitudes...lost in thought just candidly waiting for the camera timer to go off. 

The sunset was beautiful!! So hard to leave...so hard in fact that we didn't...until dark...until there weren't any more buses...which led to:

This..Haha! But we got lucky and after three cars stopped but weren't going our direction a BUS came by somehow and saved the day!

Can't forget Bethlehem.  Bethlehem is just a short 30 min taxi ride out of jerusalem.  I don't know what I was expecting, I never really thought about what it would look like today - I always had the 2,000 year old Bethlehem envisioned with fields, shepards, maybe some barns...and of course a manger!!! So when I had to come to the realization that it's not a city frozen in time, I was a little sad to see that it kind of feels like any other city in the middle-east.  Even after that harsh realization I was still hopeful that a manger scene would be set up somewhere honoring the birth of the Savior.  Am i the only one that would want that?! I love manger scenes, and besides - it was almost the christmas season! But sadly, no manger scene....but another big Catholic Church and a shopping area outside called Manger Square.  No manger scene whatsoever!!! Come on!! I was really hoping for that.  But I guess since technically Bethlehem is in Palastine and most Palistinians are Muslim and don't think too much of Christ's birth you can't expect there to be too much there.  Beyond that disappointment it was still incredible to be there and know that this was the place - or very close to the place - that our Saviors earthly life began. 

Bethlehem! Not our photo, but I promise we saw this 

Inside the church.  With no nativity scene :(

But wait!! Redemption!!! I found a giant manger scene at a shop nearby.  Not exactly what I hoped for Bethlehem, but at least they had a manger scene somewhere!

Funny story - a few days before we went to Bethlehem we had this big taxi driver with very few teeth had stop us in Jerusalem asking if he could take us to Bethlehem for an absurd amount of money.  We said no and he smiled and said ok maybe tomorrow!?? (they are always so hopeful haha) Surprisingly enough the next day he popped up out of nowhere in jerusalem as we were walking on the street and was like hello my friends!! Remember me?? You want taxi ride to Bethlehem today?! Haha we were shocked he remembered us and found us...but we still said no.  Now on the third day and in a city 40 miles away we are walking across the street when we see a taxi pass us, then quickly stop and put the car in reverse to speed right back to us.  He had passengers in his car and they were obviously on their way somewhere, but the taxi driver was determined to say hi to us!  He just smiled at us and yelled out "hello my friends, you made it here yourselves!!" Then drove off.  Hahah we thought it was HILARIOUS he took the time to back his taxi up - with passengers inside - to talk to us.  And how did he always pop up out of no where?!? We loved that guy! I couldn't stop laughing that we had run into him again and he always remembered us.  

We went to other really cool places too! The Mount of Olives, the prison where they believe Christ went before he was sentenced to the crucifixion, tomb of the Virgin Mary and other beautiful churches that had major hisotrical significance.  But if youre dying for more poor quality pictures and commentary come hang out with us in person.   This is already too long and even I stopped reading it fifteen minutes ago. 

View at the top of the Mt. Of Olives with the blazing sun in our eyes and lots of confusion 

And churches galore! They are beautiful. 

The holy places we got to visit were incredible and it was surreal to be there.  Although one thing I realized is that it doesn't take being in the places where Christ lived and walked to feel the magnitude of events that took place there and the significance of his life.  You can feel it and know it wherever you are.  But this was such a great experience that I will never forget.

There's one more Jerusalem post, I just can't help it.

Is-rael Is-the best

Much like most of our greatest adventures, our first night in our new destination, Israel, was spent in an airport.  On a five star airport hotel ranking I would give the Tel-Aviv airport a 3.  It's modern, spacious, and has lots of Cafés open for you in the morning as well as free wifi and decent bathrooms, but the floors were pretty dirty and there were pretty much no dark corners to curl up in at all.  Eye masks helped a lot, but the clamour of rolling bags and shoes danced around us most the night.

Welcome to Israel where McDonald's are blue...and kosher 

We spent a day in Telaviv before heading to jerusalem.  You look at the city and you think OLD - older than anything we could even touch in the states, some of it is really run down, but other parts of it have that old charm.  telaviv itself is really developed with a big downtown next to the beach with a boardwalk running through it.  We rode bikes around the boardwalk - it totally reminds me of Santa Monice or Venice Beach!  Aunt Carol you would feel right at home there!! ;). Another highlight of telaviv - eating the most delicious hummus I've ever had and a huge thing of falafels! So authentic and so ridiculously good.  It's almost bitter sweet to have this much good food abroad because now nothing else will compare! But you better believe I've already yelped some authentic gyro and falafel joints near home. I plan to hunt until I find the best place I can find!

The best hummus I have eve beheld or eaten.

Look at that face. He's in love or lust and who can blame him??

Felt just like home! Especially because there were people playing paddle ball everywhere on the beach!! That's my sport!!

Now on to jerusalem. Jerusalem is AWESOME! 

(View from the Mt of Olives)

The city itself is so multicultural although walking down the street you'll see mainly crowds of Jewish people dressed in the black cloaks, white button up shirts, black pants, black hats and long curly sideburns you know that this is the only place in the world you would see this and it's completely normal.  There are a ton of outdoor markets with the most amazing pastries, fruits, candy, nuts, baked goods you have even seen! I had no idea Israel had such good food but we found some of the best chocolate chip cookies we've ever had and an amazing chocolate filled pastry called a Bureka that we couldn't get enough of!  

The typical passerbys...Weird Al Yankovics "Amish paradise" kept popping up in my head the whole time we were there.  The way they dressed just reminded me of Amish people.  We actually spent family vacations visiting Amish country when I was a kid! For real. And it was awesome to observe. 

Cute little boy and his dad - see his curly side burns too??

People are all over the streets and outdoor markets spot the city. Why can't America have more of these?!

This is the country of olives right?

As well as everything else!

The cookies were sooo delicious!! The first chocolate chip cookie I had had since we left on our travels...torture...but I definitely made up for lost time with these bad boys. 

Just look at the colors of their fruits! Man I love exotic fruits and they have tons of them!

The Old City of Jerusalem is surrounded by old city walls that protect it.  Now this city is OLD.  Although the city walls have expanded over the years, the City of David which dates back to 2,000 BC was in that very spot.  We went to the exact places where they actually have ruins from it that they speculate to be part of one of King David's homes.    

The old city walls!

That's the old City of David behind me As well as lots of dirt

Some of the ruins of one of King Davids abodes.  We are talking thousands and thousands of years old here! They even pointed out to us a part that they believe to have been the toilet of the house..haha! I love seeing details like that, makes it all seem even more real. And come on, who doesn't love to see a good old fashioned toilet seat? They should have museums fully dedicated for that stuff!

There's also an underground tunnell you can walk through called Hezekiahs tunnel that was built during King Hezekiahs time (600ish BC) it was a way for them to have additional water source since jerusalem always seemed to be in wars or getting captured by other countries and always under chaos and turmoil so you could never be too prepared.  We did the walk through the tunnel which had water up to my thighs at times and a ceiling that Robby had to crouch to fit through!! It took about 40 minutes to get through the whole thing which was Claustrophobia central but it was so fun to do!

in hezekiahs tunnel!

It was pitch dark except his headlight and my cell phone...

And the occassional camera flash ;) at one point the water was mid-thigh I wish we had a pic of that! 

Another thing about the Old City is that it is blatantly segregated.  It is made up of four distant parts - the Jewish Quarter, the Christian Quarter, the Muslim Quarter, and the Armenian Quarter.  Each party believes the old city to contain Holy Land for one reason or another and believe that it strongly relates to them and are therefore essentially trying to stake their claim.  It's such a small area too, probably 1 KM in diameter. But since they all have such different beliefs they keep it all pretty separate and each quarter feels completely different.  Walking through the Jewish Quarter you see synagogues everywhere, lots of beards and yamacas and the authentic Jewish attire, you see people out praying and sometimes you can hear the loud singing and praying from the synagogues.  Then you have the Muslim quarter which feels third world compared to the others - more run down and dirty, and of course the Muslim attire of head shawls and robes as well as the five time daily prayers over a loud speaker.  The Christian Quarter is more Low key, marked by shops and different holy sites and churches in memorial of sacred things that happened there.  The Armenian Quarter is very artsy with lots of elaborate churches and crazy colorful lights and lamps. So essentially you have four completely different worlds under one small roof, each separated by nothing more than a stone road but you can immediately see a difference when stepping into a new territory.

Inside the city walls. All the buildings look super old and are made of stone or brick.  This is a snapshot from the Jewish quarter.

Inside the Western Wall of the Jewish quarter.  This quarter and the Muslim quarter were way more obvious due to how the people dress.  You'll see more pictures later.

Typical decor you'd see in the Armenian quarter, lots of cool looking lamps 

Lots of amazing street food - this is in the Muslim quarter...they have bread stands everywhere! Robby blending right in.

You can walk on top of the old city walls to get a birds eye view of it all - they call it the Ramparts Walk and that is exactly what we did first then when we arrived.

So much to ponder up here, like why is that backpack so tiny?

Scaling the walls...making sure everything is secure 

Showin off the calves

View from the top looking down into the city 

More views inside the old city. the top gold dome is a Muslim mosque at the "Dome of the Mount" the spot where they say Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac (more on that later) 

More views of the old, old city - but don't worry most everyone has a satellite dish it appears 

My back hurts and I pulled a hammy! Should've stretched before this strenuous 2K walk

We did it!! Now to figure out where we were and how to get down 

Next post ill give you a run down of some of the amazing sacred sites we visited in jerusalem! It was so incredible to be there.