Well, that felt like was a much quicker turn around then I anticipated. I arrived home Sunday night at 9:00 PM. Two loads of laundry, two problem sets, a take home exam and, by 5:00 PM on Tuesday afternoon, I was off again! Before you all argue that I don't go to school. Wednesday was a Turkish holiday and I engineered my schedule to have no class on Friday. Therefore, I was only really missing one day of class on Thursday.... 2 hours... to be exact....
Now that I've justified my "second spring break," I guess the next step is to tell you where I went. Answer? ISRAEL!
Our first night was a less than an ideal start to an incredible trip. In short, we arrive at the illustrious Momo's Hostel around 2 am and are greeted by some wonderfully seedy lobby characters. It only gets better when we open the door to our 8-person dorm room only to find people sleeping in our assigned beds. They proceed to scream and scamper across the room to their own beds. This of course begs the question as to why they were in our beds in the first place. The wonders of this hostel don't stop here. Have a mentioned that it is located next to a club. Nothing like 2:30 am pounding bass to rock you to sleep. I snag a bit of the ol' shut eye before waking up to the sound of all 6 of the Vietnamese travelers having a full fledged, full volume conversation with lights on, computers open at 4:15 am. Um, excused me? Not ok. Let's just say that at this point niceties are avoided for a more, call it, direct approach. By 7:00 am the alarm that had been going off across the room for at least 30 minutes signaled an end to our time at Momo's.
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| Beth loves Momo's |
Without even staying to brush our teeth or changing our clothes, we headed off in search of some breakfast. Thankfully we found a cute breakfast that served Shashuka (a traditional tomato based breakfast dish) and freshly baked brown bread. Nothing like good food to make you forget about the fact that you have had 12 hours of sleep in the last 3 days.
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| Saving Grace Breakfast |
After breakfast we caught the bus to Jerusalem, which is about an hour bus ride from Tel Aviv.
We spent two days in Jerusalem - two days of being in a place of so much culture, religious diversity, that it was both overwhelming and enlightening. The old city of Jerusalem only occupies 1 km squared, yet within the city walls exists a community of 200,000 people whose religious affiliation ranges from Muslim to Orthodox Jew to Catholic. Our hostel was located in the old city and provided us an optimal homebase. We spent two in touring the old city - one of the few places where I have submitted to paying for a guided tour because the place is filled with such rich history that it seemed like a waste to not know the significance of each site. For instance, the first day we were there, we didn't even realize that the city was divided into four religious quarters. Oh, the role of ignorant tourist.
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| Old Jerusalem (thank you google images) |
Highlights of the Tour Include:
(1) Church of the Holy Sepulchre: The church, located in the Christian quarter, and has incredible religious significance for many sects of Christianity. Owned by multiple religious groups including the Greek Orthodox Church, who are the largest owners, the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Armenian Apostolic Churches, and some smaller sects. A status quo is maintained that prevents changes to the interior of the church. According to Catholics, the church contains both the site of crucifixion and the sepulchre (where Jesus was buried). The church was apparently built on top of the site of the crucifixion is said to be where Jesus's cross was discovered.
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Inside church of the Holy Sepulchre (notice the difference between the Catholic Arch on the left and the Christian Orthodox arch on the left)
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| Reaching down to touch the hole left from Jesus's Crucifix |
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| The slab where Jesus's body was prepared for burial when removed from the cross |
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(2) Dome of the Rock (Temple Mount): Today this site is under Muslim control as it is the third most important site in Islam after Mecca and Medina. Muslims believe that it is the place from which the prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven and the first Muslim prayer took place.
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| The Dome of the Rock (yes, it is real gold on the top) |
Because of the strict control of the area, it is only open to non-muslims for two hours in the morning and one in the afternoon. Luckily part of the afternoon tour was dedicated to getting in to see the site. However, they were quite strict about the one hour limit for visitors, and we were only able to stay for about 20 minutes. Five of these were dedicated to arguing with the security guard who said that my skirt was see-through and I would have to buy some cloth from his "friend" to cover myself. This, of course, was the skirt that I had bought earlier that day for this exact purpose. Fortunately a women in our tour group had an extra scarf which I could drape over my floor length skirt. Honestly I was a bit upset that this man was clearly trying to make a buck off a tourist by claiming that I was inappropriately dressed. Goes to show that mixing business with religion isn't the best.
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| Scarf on top of skirt on top of shorts + long sleeve shirt on top of short sleeve shirt = appropriate dress |
(3) The Wailing Wall (The Western Wall): The Temple Mount has important significance for Jews as it was the site of the First and Second Jewish Temple. Our guide informed us that the Wailing Wall does not have significance in itself; however, it is the closest that Jews can get to the Temple Mount.
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| Wailing Wall (The Western Wall) |
The wall is divided into two sections where men and women pray separately. While there we witnessed many people inserting prayers and notes into the wall as well as multiple bar mitzvahs taking place in the large square.
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| Inserting a prayer |
(Just to reiterate, all of this knowledge is the result of a 6 hour tour and from the opinion and interpretation of one tour guide, so I apologize if anyone knows any of the information to be incorrect)
In addition to the sites above, we also visited the house where the Mother Mary was born, the room of the Last Super, and the tomb of King David (Although our tour guide had a pretty good argument for why this could not be the tomb. He also said that in Israeli belief is far more important than fact.)
The historical significance of this area is more complex and nuanced than I can possibly replicate in a blog post. So I would highly advice reading a bit about the area. An area, which less than 60 years ago was not even part of Israel. An area, that regardless of one's monotheistic religious affiliation, is a holy place that draws people from all over the world.
Although we spent most of our two days in the Old City, nights were spent exploring New Jerusalem where we were greeted by people who were friendly and willing to candidly talk about their life in Israel.
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| One of the Main Streets in New Jerusalem |
Some of the most meaningful parts of the trip were talking to people my age who were either Israeli soliders, people who had been born in Israeli and had never left, people from the US who made Aliyah in their twenties, and people who moved to Israel with their parents in grade school. New Jerusalem was such a friendly, open place to walk around and sit down at a bar or cafe and just talk with people.
Not to mention some of the best people watching. Beth and I sat on a curb for at least an hour chowing down on Falafel and watching all the different people walking through the market.
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| Fresh Falafel Toppings |
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| Waking up on the roof of our Hostel to a scenic view of the old city |
The second two days of our trip were spent in Tel Aviv. After two days of intense "touring," the soothing blue waters of the Mediterranean and powdery sand were luxurious. Although I can't say that my fair skin felt the same.
Two days were spent lying on the beach, swimming in water that was eerily clear, and talking with guys that we meet at our hostel from England and Australia. It may seem clich
é to say that I have learned far more from the people I have met and talked to abroad than from any lecture in a classroom, but it couldn't be more true. With beers in hand and a setting sun, we discussed stereotypes of Americans and Westerners, careers, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, college tuition prices and more...
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| Tel Aviv |
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| Two Nights Spent at the Beach Enjoying this Sunset |
During our second day we rented bikes and went to the southern part of Tel Aviv to an area known as "Old Jaffa." It is one of the oldest port cities in Israel and has ties to many biblical stories.
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Old Jaffa Building
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Beth and I ended our time by splurging for a real sit down restaurant on this beautiful street.
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| Rothschild Street |
It was a wonderful 4 days. Too short for my liking but meaningful and relaxing nonetheless. It definitely left me wanting to return.
Much longer post than I anticipated! It is hard to believe that I have less than a month left in this fabulous place. Too bad it is plagued with final projects and exams. However, I'm planning on making the most of my final weeks before heading home in early June!
