First up: Jerusalem
Wednesday night, 9 of us (American study abroad students from AUC) climbed onto a bus at 11pm outside our dorm, headed for Taba, the Egyptian city at the border with Israel. The ride took about 5 hours, and we arrived in Taba at about 4 in the morning. The 9 of us were split into two traveling groups: JM, Nick and I, and the other 6. We entered the Israeli side after some discussion with the Egyptian border officers and were immediately pulled aside for questioning. After most of us (not including me) were questioned, they let us go through the normal process. We assumed the questioning was over, but that was only the preliminary round. My group of 3 made it through rather quickly, despite the Lebanese stamps on both my passport and JM's. We got into a cab on the other side and rode to Eilat, the closest Israeli city to the border, about 10 minutes away. From there, we intended to take the first bus to Jerusalem; however, it was sold out and we had to wait around til 2 for the next one. That worked out ok, since the other 6 were stuck at the border for a few hours as the Israelis questioned the two Muslim girls. We met up with the rest of the group and took the bus up to Jerusalem, where we split to go to our separate hostels. Not 10 minutes after arriving in Jerusalem, JM and I crossed the street when there was a red "Don't Walk" light; apparently that's actually illegal in Israel (as it is in the States, though it's never enforced there), and we received 100 shekel tickets, about $30. Welcome to Israel.
So the three of us checked into our hostel, the Palm Hotel. We were staying in a mixed dorm room with about 5 other people. It had no heat. For $11/night, I guess we can't complain. An extra blanket did the trick. Other than the lack of heat, the hostel wasn't too bad, just a little dirty. The rest of the hostel had heat, and in fact had free internet with free use of community computers, albeit with a restriction of a half-hour per person, as there were only 2 computers for the hostel. We did also have free breakfast too, which was amazing because they actually had real hummus. In Egypt, it's just tahina (sesame paste, with oil and spices; hummus has chickpeas and is so much better), so I ate far more hummus each morning than I should have.
Day life in Jerusalem:
I spent the days with just the other two in my travel group. Our explorations of Jerusalem were restricted mostly to the Old City, venturing outside the walls only to see the Mount of Olives and at night to go to bars or go back to our hostel. We visited the Holy Sepulcher Church, supposedly on the spot where Jesus was crucified. The church is huge; it has rooms commemorating the various aspects of Jesus' crucifixion, including the stone on which Jesus was supposedly lain after he was crucified. Touching it gave me a really weird feeling that persisted for about 10 minutes afterward; I can't explain it, but both JM and Nick agreed. There is also a room underground where Jesus' cross was allegedly found.
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| From Israel/Palestine |
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We also visited (and touched) the Western Wall, also called the Wailing Wall. It is the most significant place in the Old City for Jews, the only part of a temple left that used to stand on that spot. When it was destroyed, Jews were afraid to rebuild it for fear that they would step on the holiest spot that was reserved only for religious leaders, so they prayed against the Wailing Wall. Again, wikipedia for accurate history and significance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wailing_wall.
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There are many other churches and places of religious significance throughout the Old City, too many to remember or really even worth mentioning.
Jerusalem by night:
Our first night in Jerusalem was Thanksgiving, and the closest we got to turkey and the rest of the tradition was burgers and Sam Adams. Oh well, I'll have to wait til Christmas for amazing home-cooked holiday food again. We were pretty tired our first night, so we just headed back to our hostel after dinner. The next night, however, we found a great bar with happy hour until 10. We visited that bar again the third night and proceeded to a dance club across the street. Overall, Jerusalem night life was much better than I expected considering that it's an old, religious city.
Other notes about Jerusalem:
The city is split between West Jerusalem, the Jewish side, and East Jerusalem, the Arab side. There are separate bus systems for Jews and Arabs. When we were looking for our hostel, our cabbie dropped us off nearby in West Jerusalem and upon asking directions, I was given a disgusted look and informed that it was "in the Arab part." We crossed the street into the Arab part, and I immediately felt more at home. They were speaking a language I understand (unlike Hebrew) and felt like a cleaner, nicer version of Cairo.
The food in Jerusalem is AMAZING. Arab food: the shawarma (chopped meat or chicken with spices and such) was much better than Cairo, and they have the best kabobs I've ever had. They also have real hummus, and their falafel is unbelievable. I really miss that food now that I'm back in Cairo. Israeli food: bagels! The delis had the best bagels and cream cheese. They also put tomatoes on them if you want, which I'd never thought of. I had a whole wheat bagel with salmon cream cheese and tomato in the Old City. Amazing.
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