March 8, 2019
Day 3: This morning we woke up with one mission: Operation Procure Challah. After breakfast we headed over to the Yehuda Market and quickly found what we were looking for. We were so proud of ourselves for just grabbing some challah and a few baked snacks, shelling out our shekels and acting like we did it a million times before. Of course, then we had to find butter...and grabbed a burkeka to share for lunch.
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| Holy challah!!! |
Afterwards, we headed back to the Old City. We really didn't have a goal in mind, Joanie had seen a documentary about a secret rooftop access point but we really didn't have a great idea of where it was located and I was easily distracted by coffee and a chocolate croissant at the Christ Church Coffee Shop. Yum!
We wandered around the Armenian and Jewish Quarters, mostly taking in the local culture and amazing architecture. It's pretty well known that the Jerusalem we see today bears little to no resemblance to the ancient city in the Bible. The buildings and streets that are there today are fairly modern, most of them probably only date back a few centuries. Old in comparison to, say, our own homes, but it has this ancient feel to it that makes it easy to believe that these were the very same streets that Jesus once walked. In reality, He likely walked down streets that are about 10 feet below these. Certainly a lot of history, and that shouldn't be forgotten, but when taken into the correct context being in the Holy City takes on a different meaning.
After eating lunch and people watching at the Jaffa Gate, we again wandered the streets of the Old City. Suddenly we found ourselves at the bottom of a metal staircase leading who-knows-where. Joanie and I looked at each other and we each wondered if this could be the secret staircase we were looking for. We decided to go on up and expected it to be a private courtyard that we would be trespassing onto, but no!!! We had found the secret rooftop access point!!! It was neat to see Jerusalem from up above.
We decided to peek into the Western Wall, knowing that we'll be going on the 'real' tour later. It was a neat experience, even though I had been there before.
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| Western Wall (AKA The Wailing Wall) |
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| Joanie in front of the Western Wall |
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| My symbols of Israel: Israeli flag and Cofix |
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| On the way to the Jaffa Gate |
Tonight we joined other fellow travelers in an Erev Shabbat dinner that was hosted by Abraham Hostel. It was a good dinner but the liturgy certainly lacked substance and was clearly aimed for a secular crowd. We sat near an interesting trio: a drunk man who was yelling at us for not moving to our promised land, all while slugging down way too much beer, cursing at us and telling us that we obviously did not know Scripture. An American woman and her son were also there, explaining that they now lived in Israel but longed for home. We got into a deep, spiritual dialogue about rap vs heavy metal and he explained that he teaches rap to the Yeshiva kids where he works. Oy vey.
Now we're back at the room, ready to go to bed. Tomorrow is the Sabbath and all of the streets are empty and shops are closed. No taxis or buses will be running until after the sun goes down. The Shabbat siren sounded 40 minutes before the sun went down, an extremely loud reminder to get ourselves home and prepare. For some reason I don't ever remember hearing that when I was here last time!
Miles Walked: 10.44
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