So I now see why Jerusalem has been so fought over for so long. The Jews (maybe others too, I'm by no means a religious scholar, I just know what I read there) believe that Adam and Eve were created there, Jesus was crucified and buried there, some believe the Mary was born there, and Muhammad ascended to heaven there. That's crazy! All that in one city. And now, Rob Aikins has been there.... (I know, not as important)
My approach to going around the old city was just to wonder aimlessly until I found something cool. The first thing that I found was the Western Wall. I knew I was about to go some place special before I got to the Wall because I had to go through a metal detector to continue down the little ally I was walking. When I first saw the wall, it'll really just seemed like a wall. But you could sort of feel how important it was to those praying at it. For those that don't know, the Western Wall is the only remaining part of the Second Temple which was a Jewish temple built around 19 BCE.
After the wall, I wondered into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Now in my complete lack of thinking, I didn't realize that I would be seeing the place where Jesus was buried in Jerusalem. This was somewhat of a moving experience for me, which I was not expecting at all. I'm not a very religious person, but kneeling next to the rock that covers the man that inspired Christianity, I felt moved. It was weird. On the walk away from the Church, I ended up on the path to see the Dome of the Rock, but I was not allowed to go right then. They had very specific times that non-Muslims could see the Dome, and I was already too late for that day. My first attempt at seeing the Dome had failed.
After that, I meet up with some Canadians that were really cool and went to get some beers. This turned out to be a horrible mistake for me, kinda. The Canadians I meet were really cool and we had a great night out on the town, but I ended up getting horribly sick (not entirely from the beer, I only had like two). I had been having stomach issues since I had left Jordan, and staying out late and drinking seemed to push my stomach over the edge. I'll spare you the details, but I was unable to make a tour of the Dead Sea and Masada that I had paid for the day before. For those that know me, you know I had to be really sick to miss a tour that I paid $50 for.
On day two, I woke up really late took some Cipro and did some more walking around the city. I wanted to see the Dome of the Rock, but I had woken too late. I decided I would pay to walk around the city walls so I could get to see all of the old city. It was cool to see that people were actually living in the old city and that it wasn't just a tourist location. Most of the people that I saw in the old city appeared to be Palestinian. What I personally found interesting, was seeing a bunch of kids playing soccer on a basketball court. Clearly, I was not in America.
The next significant thing that happened to me in Jerusalem was going to a Passover Seder. This was an awesome experience. It was hosted by the family of a friend from work. I think the most interesting thing was there was a reason for everything that happened during the night. I learned a lot about trip of the Jews out of Egypt. It also required that you drink four glasses of wine, which should be a requirement of all holidays. The food was also really good. After dinner, we went to a bar that was open in protest to the requirement that they be closed that night. A very good night indeed.
After this, I left Jerusalem for a couple days to go back to Tel Aviv and the Dead Sea, but on my last day in Israel I headed back to make a quick trip to the Dome of the Rock, which I had failed to make it to on multiple attempts before. This was on Easter, which made the city absurdly crowded. That traffic made me miss the morning window allowed for non-Muslim visitors, so I dropped of my big bag at the Jaffa Gate Hostel (really nice guys working there) and hung out until the afternoon window. When I finally got to the security entrance for the Dome, they scanned my day bag and saw that I had my laptop. Evidently, laptops can't go near the Dome of the Rock. I was so upset. I had come to Jerusalem with the sole purpose of seeing the Dome, and I didn't have enough time to drop off my laptop and make it back. So I hid it beside the security room and hoped that it would be there when I got back. I went into the Temple Mount area, took some quick photos, then ran back to my bag. I was disappointed that I was not able to go in the Dome of the Rock because I wasn't Muslim, but it was still cool to be close and see the beautiful tiles and dome. When I returned to the security room, my bag was still there. I thanked G-d and headed for Eilat.
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