From Amman we headed to Jerusalem. To do this we decided to use the closest border crossing, which is the King Hussein Bridge, south of Amman and north of the Dead Sea. We took a service taxi to the border for 17 JD ($20 Cdn) and got out in the already sweltering heat around 10:30 in teh morning. Aside from the fact that there were no signs telling you where you had to go and in what order, we managed to jump through the appropriate hoops ( buy weird stamp for 5 JD, get stamp put on sheet, get passport stamped, etc.) without too much hassle, which was good since my hangover was beginning to kick in. We then had to board a bus to take us the mile to the Israeli side. The bus of course waited until it was full, and they charged us 5 JD per person plus 1 JD per piece of luggage, which seemed ridiculous. Halfway across the crossing they stopped the bus, made all the men get off, and then let them back on - no clue as to why.
Once on the Israeli side, all was organized chaos. There were signs telling us where we were, but it was crammed full of people waiting to get through, and getting through was slow. The Israelis seemed to question everyone comprehensively, and search procedures were pretty intensive as well, which is what you'd expect. Rose and I had the bad luck of being in line behind two men who were in fact part of a family of 16 who were all standing in different lines. So when the men in front of us got to the front of the line, the whole family came with them! Grrrr. Ah well, standard border stuff anyway. It gave us more time to chat with an American guy named Matt who was about our age who was working at a school in Jordan.
Our bags were X-rayed, and Rose's electrical converter attracted attention so she had to go ask questions about her bag. The solders who spoke to her were pretty nice actually, and when they were satisfied about the power converter took the opportunity to make fun of her puny flashlight, which they said was so small as to be useless, and asked why she had a camping flashlight if we weren't camping, etc etc. After that we emerged into the heat again and arranged a sharut to Jerusalem. Since it was so busy we figured the Sherut would fill up fast and it did - with the exception of one seat. Oh, curse the one seat!! It took about 45 minutes before they found someone to fill it, and all the time my hangover worsened in the heat. Finally, finally we left and drove to Jerusalem, where we foudn our hostel fairly quickly and checked in.
Our hostel was just outside the Damascus gate, which is near the Muslim quarter of Old City. It wasn't a gorgeous hostel, but it was adequate and had a kitchen, so we were able to cook a couple of meals instead of eating out all the time. We liked the location and the staff, and it was by far the cheapest option in Jerusalem. Being in the Muslim quarter also meant we found cheap falafel and schwarma pretty easily as well. (The beds weren't the best though.)
That night, we arranged to meet up with a friend of mine from Osgoode, Ori, who had been one of the monitors on a Birthright (Taglit) trip and who was staying in Jerusalem for some time. He arranged to meet us for a chat, and then, since it was Friday night, we walked around and then went to the Western Wall just before sunset to observe the celebration of Shabbat there.
Our first impression of Jerusalem was how ancient but also pretty it is. We walked through the markets of old city to meet Ori and then walked all together along the wall overlooking the rest of Jerusalem. Building are all made of the same stone, which is a very light beige colour, and the city looks light and airy and quite clean (especially in comparison with cities in Egypt and Jordan.)
At the Western Wall, we met a group of people (all Canadians), some of whom had been on Ori's birthright trip and some of whom were at the same hostel as those on the Birthright trip - a group of about 10 people in all. Since at the wall there is one side for men and one for women, we parted company and arranged to meet again at 8. The women at the wall were a diverse bunch - some were clearly tourists, some not, some were dressed more formally/modestly (long sleeves and skirts below the knee) and some were not, some were dressed in military uniform, a few had their hair covered (but not in the same style as Islamic women) some sat, some stood, some chatted with friends or with their families. We watched as women said prayers and sang at the wall. Many had prayer books and bowed as they prayed - we also noticed that they backed away from the wall when they left, rather than turning their backs to it. We could also hear the men singing and celebrating on the other side of the partition, which is not a wall but just a light movable partition.
At 8 we met up with the others, and Ori introduced us to a gentleman who organizes for people to spend Shabbat dinner with a family in Jerusalem. He does this every Friday, and apparently every Friday many Jewish families in Jerusalem open up their tables for people to come eat with them.
A group of 5 of us (Rose, Candace, Jamie, Ari and I) were organized to go to the house of a rabbi who provides Shabbat diner to about 75-100 people every week. We soon met the others who were invited to his house, and got to know them as well - there were about 15 of us in total. Some had been on Birthright, some had been studying in Israel and some were just travellers like Rose and I.
It took about 40 minutes to walk to the house, which was in the Jewish orthodox area of Jerusalem, and where just about everyone we passed was dressed in orthodox garb of various types. Luckily we had a guide, a lovely 50-something gentleman who we enjoyed chatting with and asking questions of. Once at the house, we squeezed into the back room, where we were greeted with great hospitality and made as comfortable as possible, given the small space. One of the guys who had been studying in Israel blessed the wine and the bread, and then we began our meal. There were several courses and the food kept coming - I actually couldn't believe they could provide so much food to so many people. The rabbi invited people to speak or give teachings, his only caveats being that topics should be non-political and that if there were quotations they should be from Jewish writings, in order to respect the fact that Shabbat is a Jewish. Several people stood up to speak and the rabbi spoke as well, alternating between Hebrew and English. The layout of the house made it difficult to hear. We had some opportunity to discuss amongst ourselves, although this was difficult as well because if others were talking we didn't want to appear rude, but we couldn't always hear or tell what was going on in the main room. We had arrived there around 9:45 or so and dinner ended around 11:45 or so, and after thanking our host, Rose and I made our way back to our hostel where we promptly passed out, exhausted after our long day, but having been fairly inspired by Jerusalem.
The next day was Saturday, and since many things were closed for Shabbat, we spent the day wandering the shops in the Muslim quarter and then doing a walking tour of the stations of the cross, which is laid out in the Lonely Planet guide. It's funny because although each station is said to be at one of the sights of the important events of Jesus's walk to the place of his crucifixtion, traditions have disagreed and changed over time, so the stations we visited are more to do with tradition than history. Basically, the stations are for example, where Christ was flogged, where he picked up the cross, where he first stumbled, where a woman wiped his forehead, etc. Some of the stations are denoted by a small chapel or church, but some are just denoted by a plaque and number. One of the stations was formerly a cistern which is now empty but which has a great echo and in which people are welcome to sing (but only hymns - I sang This Is My Father's World which is about all I could remember off-hand. We were the only ones in there and it sounded pretty cool.) The final stations are in the Church of the Sepelchur, an opulent but rather odd church. I was surprised because it was much smaller and much less grandiose than churches I've seen in Italy and Spain, despite being in the most Holy City.
That evening we went out with Ori and some of the others we'd met through him at Ben Yehuda square. It is a thoroughly modern area of Jerusalem and looks much like any other going-out area which is popular with young people. We first went to the Burger Bar, which had been recommended to me by my friend Batya and which had amazing burgers (although the service wasn't the best!) and then we headed to a pub and nargileh (shisha) bar where we had wine and smoked a bit of shisha. I tried melon tobacco this time, which was actually quite nice. A couple of the guys walked Rose and I back to our hostel and we exchanged numbers and agreed to meet up again.
Bus tour - Yad Sh (Museum) - being left behind by bus - nice guy on bus - passing market - meeting up with Daniel, Jamie and the others for light dinner and then ice cream and crepes - next day market- marzipan - museum on the seam - tunnels tour - ethopean restaurant - small bar, mulled wine - buying wine to drink on the roof - next day - market - shopping on Jaffa - Mt of Olives for concert.