Descending through death — Jerusalem, Israel
Where I stayed
Abraham Hostel Jerusalem
Abraham Hostel Jerusalem
What I did
This morning I did it again. In true Middle Eastern stye I slept in. Late. I did manage to dash upstairs to the kitchen and grab some breakfast before it finished but I then I lazed around in the common room for a few hours and skyped home.
I lost track of time and although I was supposed to join a Mount of Olives tour at 2pm it came to 1:40 and I was still just lazing in the common room with my feet up. Realising the time (It takes 15 minutes to walk to the Old City from Davidka Square where i'm staying) I did a mad dash back to my room, grabbed my camera and flew down Jaffa street heading for the Old City. I managed to bolt into my favourite falafel place near the hostel and grab a falafel on laffa bread from the frazzled young long haired guy who said "one moment, one moment - I need to make more falafel" (I think this guy must be the shop owners son because he doesn't seem to have been in the falafel business as long - he stresses far too easily!) I then kept on my downward dash (lucky it's all downhill!) towards Jaffa Gate whilst trying to shovel a massive falafel into my mouth and dodge the tram whilst running across the road. I gave new meaning to the term "mad tourist".
Skidding to a halt outside Jaffa Gate I found the tour group just about to leave and tried to pull out my ticket and explain to the guide that I was part of the tour whilst swallowing the last of my falafel. It was not a pretty sight. To my delight the lovely young canadian guy named Alon who led the free city tour that I took a few days previously was also leading this tour which was great because he really knows his history and happily answers any questions you have. He also has a deep love for this country and moved here several years ago because he couldn't bear to leave.
I wasn't really sure what to expect from Mount of Olives - sure i've heard of it but I didn't really know what there was to see there. I was planning to just take a taxi there myself but after hearing stories of a few women that had ventured there alone (very deserted, hassle, isolated assaults) I decided to really break the bank and pay $20 for a tour which included transport there. After hopping into the taxi's to take us to the Mount I discovered myself in a car with three other incredibly friendly tourists - all of which spoke English! Yay! There was a bleach blonde American woman from Georgia in her early 30's who has been travelling around the world on her holidays for the last few years and two lovely German guys in their late 20's who are travelling in Israel together. One guy looked totally lost and clutching his German Lonely Planet guide said that his friend (the other guy) had totally planned to the trip and organised everything and he was just going with the flow. All three people were super friendly and we had a nice long chat whilst the taxi was winding it's way up the mountain to take us to the very top where we would descend down to the bottom.
Starting at the top we paid our two shekels (about 22 cents) to a very bored looking arab man who was leaning against a wall before ducking under an arch and into the courtyard of the Chapel of the Ascension - believed to be the place where Jesus ascended up to heaven. There is even what is believed to be one of his footprints imprinted into the concrete that somebody has made an edge around. The chapel which used to be open so the stars could be seen came under Islamic control many years ago and was converted into a Mosque and a lid was placed over the top so it is now a closed dome. Although still under Islamic control the chapel is open to people from all faiths for the two shekel fee. Am I the only one who thinks that it's ironic that a mosque marks the spot where Jesus ascended to heaven?
The second place we stopped at was a little further down the mountain and is called the Sanctuary of Eleona (aka Church of Pater Nostor) which is actually quite a beautiful church that due to financial difficulty remains unfinished. It is the site where it is believed that Jesus taught the Lord's prayer. The most remarkable thing about this sanctuary is that on every wall the Lord's prayer is inscribed in every language imaginable so that every person who visits Eleona can learn and read the prayer - despite where they come from or what language they speak which is quite a beautiful thing.
We then wandered further down the bottom and alongside the Jewish cemetery - the oldest continually used Jewish cemetery in the world which has an excess of 150,000 graves from over 3,000 years ago running down it's flank. From the cemetery you can see the Kidron Valley which seperates the Old City of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. This is the valley that is mentioned as the Valley of Judgement and is an incredibly important and holy place to both Christianity and Islam. Further down we wandered past Dominus Flevit, a church whose name basically translates to "the Lord wept". This is a fairly recent church but was designed carefully so that through the main glass window of the church - a cross sits, so that when people look through the window during a service they can see Jerusalem and more importantly the cross that sits exact where Golgotha is. We had to sneak around a little whilst there because there was a very serious looking Mass taking place.
After Dominus Flevit we headed further down and came across a large stone pillar which legend says marks the spot where Judas betrayed Jesus. Shortly after this is the entrance to the Garden of Gethsemene, which is basically the Hyerdome of Jesus's time where he and his friends used to chill out. The olive trees in the garden look ancient and the garden has been beautifully maintained but now that a wall has been built around it and the gardens have been fenced off I think they have lost a lot of their original look and i'm sure they were much grander back in Bible times.
The church next door to the garden, appropriately named the Basilica of Agony or the Church of All Nations, is spectacular. The church was such a coordinated effort. Many different countries provided the funds for the church and the coat of arms of each country involved is displayed on the ceiling of the church. Australia itself donated an entire crown to the effort which I think is pretty generous for a random country in the Pacific ;) There is absolute silence required when walking inside the church by visitors and when entering all you could hear is this beautiful singing in Hebrew which reverberated off the high ceilings and created the most etheral sound.
Our last stop was visiting the Tomb of the Virgin Mary down the bottom of the mountain which is a believed to be the tomb of Mary, Jesus's mother. The tomb was very different to the others that we'd visited and was decorated in Greek Orthodox style with many candles and was very dark. The reach the actual tomb you need to descend many stairs and then duck inside the memorial where many visitors have left notes to Mary in a glass cabinet. On leaving the tomb Alon pointed out a gate that we could see in the distance leading to the Old City that had been walled up. He explained that it is through that Gate that Jesus will return when he comes back to earth and then he sort of giggled at the fact that it had been walled up and said "Well to be honest if Jesus is really that powerful then I don't think a closed gate is going to stop him coming in!"
It was quite fascinating to walk down a mountain that is literally covered in death Reaching the bottom of the mountain we were all so exhausted with aching feet. Alon gave us the option of catching a taxi back to town or said that he would be walking through the Old City via Lion's Gate and would love some company if anybody wanted to walk with him. I figured that I hadn't seen the very bottom of the Muslim quarter and that I couldn't possibly get lost with Alon leading the way so I decided on that option. I think everybody else had the same idea because we all trailed after Alon heading across the valley towards the Old City. Now Alon, just must really love guiding. He just cannot help himself. On the way he ended up pointing out various points of interest and showed us all the stations of the Via Dolorosa (The way of the cross) and even found a handprint of Jesus's, where he was said to have rested on the wall because of the weight of the cross. All of this is actually part of another seperate tour but I just think that Alon could not help himself and just could not resist showing us everything there was to see in the Old Ciy which was a bit amusing. After four hours this Canadian guide still had a bounce in his step and cheerfully told us that he was heading off home to his wife and bounced away down the street after leaving us at Jaffa gate.
I wandered down the path that leads to the gate and sat down on a bench and watched the Jewish families rush past while heading to the synagogue. It had just gotten dark and a slight haze of dusk still hung on the horizon so I think it was a beautiful time to watch the city go past.
It was an exhausting day but much more interesting that I inititally thought. I'm really glad I was with somebody who knew about the area or I really wouldn't of had a clue what I was looking at. After doing some more people watching I headed back to the Hostel and to my room to send off some emails. I ended up chatting to a blonde woman from Norway called Silje (pronounced Celia) who was also staying in my room and invited her to come and find dinner with me because I was starving! I was really dying for some company at this point because it had been a few days since I'd had really good company and I was feeling like a good chat. We walked down Jaffa street in search of food and I tried in vain to find Moshiko - the amazing shwarma bar that Jonathan had taken me to a few days previously when suddennly it appeared ! I was so impressed i'd found it that for a moment I had a moment where I felt like a local.
Silje had never tried Shwarma so I convinced her that she needed to try it before she left Israel. The young guy who was working at the busy snack bar is the same guy that has served me every time i've been there and seems to get a kick out of the fact that i'm a foreigner. Without fail he very overdramatically pretends to be amazed at how much I order on my shwarma and then pretends to pass the wrap through the glass to me and laughs hysterically when I reach for it. Whilst eating I spotted a very quaint looking bakery across the street which has a large sign displaying "fresh juice". Oh my god. We know how I feel about fresh juice. I was there in 30 seconds flat to grab my 12 shekel glass of fresh orange juice. It may be the best thing i've ever tasted. Deciding to be adventurous Silje and I set off up this busy street to go around the block and back to the hostel.
Where we went wrong I will never know.
After strolling down a few steets we begin to realise that we've left the street mall type complex and are in a near deserted residential neighbourhood with no signs that aren't in Hebrew. We walked and walked without any luck before finally admitting to ourselves that we'd have to ask for directions. I braved up and walked into a gas station to ask the attendent who promptly looked at me in disbelief when I mentioned where we were trying to find and said "You're trying to get to Davikda Square!? What are you doing here!?
Yeah thanks man. Like I didn't already know we were lost!
The gas station attendent didn't seem to be able to get his head around the fact that we'd ended up there and kept looking at us with his mouth open but luckily a lovely orthodox Jewish man, fully kitted up in his black suit, large hat, overgrown beard and curls down his face said kindly "Where are you trying to find girls?" And then proceeded to take us outside and pointed up the huge hill we'd just come down and said "Okay walk that way and keep walking that way and don't stop until you see the tram lines". Thanking him profusely we trudged that way and made it back to the hostel before midnight!
That'll teach me to drag other foreigners around a city that i'm still figuring out myself!