Jerusalem Travels Continued

Okay, I'm back.  Here goes.  We woke up early again on Tuesday to head back into the Old City to hit a few more spots.  We started the day doing the Ramparts walk, walking along the wall above the city.  It wasn't quite as exciting as it sounded.  Pretty disappointing.  And we had bought a bagel and spent some time prepping pieces with zatar for a snack, which I promptly dropped off the stairs as soon as we started up to the ramparts.  Oops.  My bad. 

When we got down we ran into Autumn, the girl who's apartment we were staying in.  We invited her to join us for a bit.  She and Ricci went to visit the wall one more time, and I stayed back to wait in line to get into the Temple Mount.  We didn't even know there was a line, so I'm glad we walked by and saw it.  It is only open to visitors for an hour each day.  They came back as the gate was being opened, and we started the security process to get up.  I didn't realize it was such a process, but we had to show go through a few different scans before getting up.  When we finally reached the top of the ramp, we were just overwhelmed.  What an incredible sight.  The Dome of the Rock, the gold dome a landmark I've seen from all over Jerusalem, was even more beautiful up close.  I didn't realize how detailed the blue tiling was outside the shrine.  The mosque nearby was quite pretty as well.  Unfortunately neither are open for visitors anymore, but that means a visit to the Temple Mount is free, so its ok.  Maybe someday we'll be at a point where they can once again be open for tourists.  We walked through the grounds a bit, looking around, taking tons of pictures.  Truly an incredible site.  We read the information from my guide book, learning what we can, and ended up with tons of questions and curiosities we knew we would have to look into.  Fortunately, many of them were answered on our afternoon tour of the Western Wall Tunnels.  After lunch with Ricci's cousin Allen, I had delicious sabich, we went to meet for our 4:00 tour of the tunnels.

This was honestly one of the coolest and most informative tours I've been on since arriving in Israel.  We were lucky to get a reservation on such short notice.  The tour started with a model and demonstration of how the grounds went from the mountain where Abraham nearly sacrificed Isaac (or Ismael, depending who you ask) to the location of the first temple to Herrod's new temple complex, to the Muslim holy place that stands today.  We saw the story again from an animated model as well, giving us orientation of what we were about to see.  I didn't realize the Wall we pray at today is so small a section of what once stood, both length and height wise.  We walked along the length of the wall, underground, lookiung below us at what the excavations were soon hoping to uncover and open for tours, and across at the amazing stones from the original temple complex.  We could tell them by the frames carved into the stone.  We learned that the reason the Western wall is the most holy is because of its proximity to the holy of holies, the sight of the near sacrifice and location where the commandments were stored in the ark. This is why people apparently pray at the wall on a slight angle towards the spot.  We were, on this tour, closer than we could ever have gotten from the outside.   There were prayer sections, notes and all, on this lower level too.  We saw the original street lining the wall where shops would have been for pilgrims visiting the temple, and so much more.  Our guide shared many details filling in gaps of the familiar stories, and I really learned a lot.  Powerful and meaningful tour, and I know next time I come more will be uncovered and it will be a completely different experience.  Can't wait to see what they find. 

After the tour, we wandered back towards Ben Yehuda to find the building where the show we were seeing that night was located.  The same actor who I saw in Timekeepers has another show, but unfortunately only playing in Hebrew coming up.  I decided to give it a try, figuring I could see the video in English after to clear up any confusion.  We grabbed a snack at McDonalds, don't tell anyone, and headed to the theatre building.  The piece, called My First Sony, has apparently been touring for years and has gotten great press.  Unfortunately, I was tired, and it takes a LOT of focus to get through a one man show in Hebrew.  Long monologue, of which I got every few words.  I enjoyed it as far as I can tell, but I know I missed a lot, so I hope to see it in English soon to fill in the gaps.  We waited a bit after to thank him, but there was a talkback and we eventually decided to just head out.  Putting that much effort into watching a show is exhausting.  We went back to the German Colony apartments and went straight to bed.

After our long and amazing day, we decided to allow Wednesday to be a more relaxing, chill day.  We slept in a little, then headed to the Shuk.  I thought I had never been there before, but as soon as we arrived I realized I had been there with my Birthright group.  We wandered through, exploring all the side sections looking at the vegetable and fruit choices as well as clothing and stuff, and bought ourselves a nice picnic lunch to bring to the zoo.  Ricci got coleslaw and some fruit, and I got a persimmon, malawach and some red pepper cheese to put on top.  When we had our bags packed with goodies, we headed to the bus station to catch a bus to the Zoo.

The cool thing about the Biblical Zoo is that every animal they have is mentioned in the Bible in some way.  They even have the verses printed on some of the plaques describing what is in each cage.  We saw lions and tigers and bears oh my, and tons more.  Fell in love with this adorable Red Panda.  There was a cute fish exhibit with fish from different bodies of water around Israel and the World called Wet Side Story.  We didn't listen to advice, again, and didn't take the train which we regretted later when we discovered it was not a circle but a straight line that forces you basically to walk back through what you just saw in reverse. Oh well.  We ate our picnic lunch while watching monkeys, saw some cool things, and stayed till closing.  We hoped the train might come around and pick everyone up after closing time, but we weren't that lucky.  We waited forever for a bus, got bugged by a woman in an unmarked sherut to get in, and finally ended up sharing a cab to the bus station with an American couple from yeshiva.  It always works out in the end.

We felt like a movie that night so we called Yonit, the madricha of the Jerusalem program, to ask if there was a theatre near by.  She told us, roughly, where to go, and we went there asking what was playing now.  We ended up picking a random Hebrew title with a picture Ricci recognized, and saw The Men Who Stare At Goats.  At first I thought it was kinda stupid, but redeemed itself and was actually quite funny.  Not sure I would recommend it, but it was a nice relaxing evening and I quite enjoyed myself.  We asked for directions at a gas station and managed to get home without too much problem.  Again, exhausted from a full day, we passed out quick.

Thursday morning I woke up early to pack up and head out of town.  Ricci was staying one more day, but I had to get to Bat Yam for the last rehearsal day with the kids.  I missed the bus to Bat Yam, so I ended up having to go from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv and taking the local bus from there.  Ayn baya.  I made it with plenty of time.  I had to bring my suitcase to class, and it was a bit of a rough day, but the show is Sunday and should be pretty good.  I'll post when I can how it went!

I spent the weekend at Merav's in Tel Aviv instead of in Hod HaSharon since Tsachi and Einat were out of town and I would have been all alone in an empty house all weekend.  We drove out there on Friday to do laundry and switch out my bag, and now I've just been here in Tel Aviv stealing her computer to get planning and blogging done.   Had a nice dinner with Yael and her boyfriend and his sister as wella s an American guest of theirs, so I wasn't the only one speaking English.  Nice.  Tomorrow is the show, then I take the overnight bus to Eilat and leave for Egypt from there in the morning.  The trip almost didn't happen, as we had some security concerns, but I did some serious research, made some calls, and did some thinking and decided it was happening.  Can't wait to tell you all about it.  We will be doing 2 days in Cairo, pyramids and museum and more, and then 2 days in Sinai, climbing the mountain for sunrise and hiking etc.  After that its 10 days up North solo.  Got all my hostels booked for that this weekend, so now its just planning my days and getting excited.  Gotta give Merav back her computer, but I'll post as soon as I can, from Cairo, or as soon as I get back.  Love!