Jerusalem!

Another incredible day... Today we went to Jerusalem, which was amazing.

We woke up around 9 and had breakfast at the apartment.  Just bread and fruit and coffee.  Then Gilbert, one of Inge's boyfriends, took us to Jerusalem.  He lives close to the Old City, so we went to his apartment to park and then walked the rest of the way.

The Old City was incredible.  The whole city is astounding.  The stone buildings are gorgeous, and the drive from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was so pretty.  It was so green and the mountains took your breath away.  The architecture here is so diverse and some leave you wondering how on earth they don't slide into the valleys. 

We wandered around the Old City for a while, got some gifts and tee shirts and some interesting bread.  The shops were interesting and had so many different things, and yet they repeated themselves.  There were spice merchants with all the different herbs and spices and incense and stuff, but also many tee shirt shops (I got my Coca-Cola shirt!) and pottery and jewelry and stuff.  Basically your touristy stuff, but still a nice market. 

Nearby was the church where Jesus is buried, so we stopped by there.  It was creepy (in my opinion) because it was dark and twisted passageways connecting hoards of people and then these empty halls leading to crypts and stuff.  It was interesting. 

Then we went to the Western Wall, which was so amazing I can't even describe it.  It was exactly what you see in pictures, right down to the plants growing out of the wall and all of the papers jammed in the cracks, but it was still breathtaking. 

After the wall, we separated from Inge and Gilbert and went back into the market place and wandered a bit.  We got a very tasty date bread thing for lunch while we sat in the shade.

To me, it's astounding how much of a difference standing in the sun versus standing in the shade makes.  It's at least a fifteen degree difference - in the sun I'm sweltering and in the shade I need a jacket.  The dryness is also strange to me.  Weird, but good.  I really like it here.  Gabe agrees and we both know we want to come back. 

We went back to meet Inge and Gilbert at the YMCA, where they were eating lunch, which was a nice 30 minute uphill walk from the Old City, but was right next to his apartment.  On the way we grabbed a pomegranite, which was very yummy. 

We got back to the apartment and got back in the car to drive home.  We drove through Abu Gosh and I really can't tell you anything about the drive home since I fell asleep.  We all took naps when we got back, and then went out for dinner about 8.

We went to a restaurant down by the old harbor and it was very tasty.  Dinner started off with at least fifteen different "salads" and then we had very tasty entrees - I got "kebabs" which were basically hamburger patties or grilled meatballs with potatoes and Gabe got his "dream meal" - fried calamari, shrimp and mussels drowned in creamy butter.  It was so good.

Then we walked around the port for a little bit - they have stores and shops down there - before coming back to the apartment.  I packed and then we had coke floats for dessert and now Gabe's in the shower.

Tomorrow we are going north to see a whole bunch of things and then spending the night at some kibbutz resort.  And then Wednesday we're going even farther north before coming back for a flight at midnight.

It's going to be a busy two days.  Israel is incredible.  So pretty. So nice. So comfortable. 

But now it's time for bed.

Goodnight, world.