Jerusalem 2
Day 2
Our second day in the Old City we ventured outside the wall once again and stopped at a lovely cafe for breakfast. We had Shakshuka a traditional Jewish breakfast which includes poached eggs in a tomatoey sauce which is reminiscent to me of a Mexican dish of a similar nature which I can’t remember the name of, only the spices seemed significantly different. We also had some delicious pancakes which came with no less than 6 topping options of chocolate sauce, peanut butter, honey, butter, something unidentifiable, and a mixed fruit bowl. Delicious.
On our way back we stopped at a Money Exchange by Jaffa Gate to pick up some more cash for our trip. MISTAKE. If I’ve never learned a thing I needed to learn it today apparently. Do Not get things at main entrances to major tourist attractions. The food should’ve been the warning but I was beyond stupid to stop for cash here. Essentially to pull out $850 USD worth of shekels they charged me $1155 and it is beyond me that I didn’t speak up about it at the time. A combination of our American attitude of “not causing a fuss” and “signing without reading” (guilty jeez…) I somehow didn’t say anything about the $300 upcharge. Grant riled the team though and we went back with my natural good cop and (sorry) his natural bad cop in the situation. We found out they actually made a mistake as they meant to charge me $1055 and that helped us to get the entire transaction nullified to my GREAT relief. Lesson: Do NOT get money outside of a REAL BANK atm. Ever. EVER.
Anyway after that little fiasco, which could’ve ended very differently if it weren’t for Grant saving my butt and getting me to go out there and face those guys, we headed out for more touristy sight seeing.
Jerusalem is an ancient city with both huge religious and historical relevance. We were able on this second day to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Sepulchre - a small room or monument, cut in rock or built of stone, in which a dead person is laid or buried according to Google) as it is the site of Christ’s crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. It is interesting because different sects that share this particular church don’t actually agree 100% of what it holds but definitely agree on some parts of it. The best thing for me here was the beauty of the architecture of the church. The inner portion of the large dome area has another smaller building essentially built inside of it. I have a photo of the view pointing upwards but the downward view gives a better understanding so I stole the second picture off the internet. It really is beautiful and inside that place is the Angel’s Stone which is a fragment of the rock that is believed to have sealed Jesus’ tomb. Very interesting and we waited in line for a while for the chance to enter that highly Holy space.
After the Church of the Holy Sepulchre I also bought a very beautiful blue silk scarf. It is required here in the Old City that women cover their shoulders (preferably to elbows) and knees (preferably to ankles. I had a scarf that I bought in Amalfi but I wanted a new prettier one and I’ve been happy the whole trip with this one.
We also briefly visited The Western Wall which you may know also has huge religious importance to the Jewish religion. We only listed briefly though as a new bottle of wine couldn’t enter the area and we decided it was better to come back later, though we were happy to have seen it.
Lastly we took a tour around the Tower of David which was honestly really interesting because like most old and important things it has been built, remodeled, burned to the ground, ravaged by war, taken over, reclaimed, restored, etc until it is in it’s present day setting. We got to walk around, look off of view points, and see the immensely beautiful stone work of the building as well as check out a few small exhibits about the history of the place. The most interesting thing to me was a set of nearly perfect stone spheres that during one war or another had been used to pelt the castle walls. I thought they were stunning.
One thing to note here is some things I’ve noticed around here. First off the Jewish people here and specifically their dress code fascinates me. The hassidic and orthodox jews wear a well established and functionally beautiful attire where the men where all black either a suit or also a black trench coat, black round hat or tall fur looking hat, generally the white tassels that seem to hang off of belts near their waist, a yamaka, and generally they all have short hair with long pieces by each ear as they do not cut their hair directly above their ears and instead let it grow long generally in ringlets which I assume must be genetic as they are simply too perfect and consistent for them to be curling their hair every day. That was the men, the women generally just wear long skirts and cover their elbows with their shirts but I have seen enough variation and several cute outfits and combinations to know they have a bit more color freedom or at least choose to. In honest it is such a diverse religious community here that it is fun seeing all of the different dress codes being followed and the beauty generally of all the clothing. It is something you don’t see every day in America to see a Christian man of the cloth or perhaps a priest walking opposite a muslim in a floor length garment, and crossing the street towards them both is a jewish man in his finery as well. There is a very historic but alive culture here and I’ve found it fascinating and wonderful to experience.
Day 3
One thing I've managed to forget to mention is that our hostel is literally in an old citadel so its made of stones, has uneven rooms, Grant has to duck to get through all the doorways (I don't), its about 4 uneven floors or maybe 5, and its really old. It's pretty cool though. Like everything here it is made of large sandy colored stone blocks. Here's some pretty pictures of the town and our hostel.
On this day we woke up and walked maybe a mile to go see the Yehuda Market which is a market in the area. It's a decent size and sells pretty much exclusively food which was fine because we found a candy shop that we were able to buy heaps of candy from for like $3. I have no clue why it was so cheap but Grant was happier than a kid in a candy shop so that was fun.
We later went and visited the Tomb of David, Room of the Last Supper, and we tried to see Oscar Schindler's grave but the cemetery was closed as it was Sunday. These were all really cool and I'm glad we were able to see them. We also had a nice walk around the old city and the perimeter as a result. The less touristy areas are so much more beautiful to me because they're not lined with markets stalls and packed with tourists. Sadly though, on this little walk Grant cut his foot quite bad.
This was an abby in the area that I just really liked
We decided that since this was our last day in Jerusalem that we'd have a fancy dinner that night so we set down to a delicious meal. I mean technically the next day would be our last day but we weren't sure when we'd get back from the Dead Sea. Grant had wine, I had a lemon-mint crushed ice kind of drink. We also had sweet potato fries with a spicy aioli sauce, sweet potato pancakes with a dill sauce (all appetizers), and for our main courses I had a salmon dish and Grant had parmesan fettuccini. Everything was delicious.
My salmon specifically came with a mustard creme dipping sauce that I am going to try to make when I get home. I also want to learn to make hummus when I get home since it's been so unbelievably good here.
Lastly of note today, Grant got some nice sandals here in the Old City. They're totally dad shoes but he likes them so I'm happy for him and they're super comfortable so all the better. He keeps seeing things and going "oh that's from Indiana Jones" which has been funny and we were going to watch the last one "The Last Crusades" but the wifi in the hostel was horrendous so we're saving it for Italy. We almost bought him an Indiana Jones hat too but ended up not every time we went to get one. Luckily he hasn't burned too bad though and has actually tanned a bit which we are both pretty impressed by.