A crazy day in Jerusalem

As I mentioned in my last post we spent our first night in the middle east in Jerusalem. It had been a long day so I think that we were all as excited about sleep as being over seas. Because of jet lag the sleep didn't last very long. I think I went to bed at midnight and woke up by 6. That ended up working out pretty well because it gave me an chance to go to the roof of the hostel and see all of the old part of Jerusalem day. The way all of the building were constructed made it look like I had traveled back in time. Another thing that makes Jerusalem such an interesting place is that it is so diverse. From the roof I could see at least 2 mosques, 3 churches, and a couple of temples all within walking distance of each other. I don't know if there is anywhere else in the world were that is possible.

After a breakfast of pita bread and jam we left the hostel for our 3 hour whirlwind tour of the city. The old city is not a very big area so our hostel was not very far from some of the best sites. It was about a five minute walk from the hostel through the bazaar to the security gates to get into the Jewish quarter. No matter what way you enter the Jewish quarter it's required that you go through security that is very similar to airport security. Once we passed through security we came out into a big open area. It turns out that this location we entered, known as the western wall, is the holiest location in all of Judaism. The western wall is only remnants of Herod's Temple, or the Holy Temple, and is in the same location as Solomon's temple. Jerusalem was under the control of Jordan until until 1967 when Israel took it back during the 6 days war. This was the first time that the Jews were able to go this this holy place in nearly 100 years. When we were at the wall it was Jerusalem Day, which celebrated the end of the 6 days war so the wall was very busy that day. Our group was able to go up to the wall but there was a women's and a men's side so we could not all go together. In order to approach the wall the women had to wear shalls and the men had to wear yarmulkes. They had cardboard ones for guests for guest to wear. It was really amazing to approach such a holy place, it really gives you a different perspective to see all that history in one place.


After leaving the wall itself we past through more security in order to go on top of the wall. On top of the wall, where the Holy Temple used to stand is were the Dome of the Rock now stands. When the Jews were first allowed back to the wall the Muslims that were on top at the mosque would throw stones at the people praying. It is no longer like this but there is still a lot of tension. The Jews want to buy the land that is above the wall to build a new temple but the Muslims refuse to sell it because the Dome of the Rock is one of their most holy places. We were able to go up to the Dome of the Rock but they were only allowing Muslims in that day so we were unable to enter.

From the Dome of the Rock we walked around part of the wall surrounding the old city and were able to see many other parts of the city. One part of particular interest was also very near the Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall. Here there was a very large Jewish cemetary that lead to the Garden of Gethemane. We were not to see the garden but it was still cool. At this point we returned to the hostel to pack and to depart for Eliat. The main difference between coming and going was that when we arrived the bazaar was empty and when we left there were thousands of people out there. It turns out the vendors aren't happy when you bash your suitcase full of clothes and your other big bag full of dive gear into their tables. Who knew? Any who it took a while but we were able to make it back out of the bazaar and to the street and we got some taxi's and caught a ride to the bus station. From there we could a bus to Eliat and crossed the boarder to Aqaba. There were a couple of interesting things about the bus. First it was a charter bus yet once the seats were full the made people sit and stand in the aisle. The other thing was the off duty soldiers were riding around with the m-16's in civilian clothes (m-16's are big automatic rifles). We ended up getting to the marine lab in Aqaba at like 9 and from there crashed.

This was a long one, hope you enjoyed!!!