Welcome to the Holy City

Aloha, Shalom and Marhaba! (*There will be bonus points for the first person who can point out which of these two greetings incorporates love in its meaning or expresses love.*)

We spent the whole morning, first walking through the Arab part of town (East Jerusalem), entering the Old City by way of the Damascus Gate and by so doing entering another century. Ali Babba and his 40 thieves could have ridden through the streets on horses with those curvy swords, shouting at us infidels, and they would not have looked out of place at all. Wow. The funny thing is that there's really no real Jewish presence in the Old City. There are quarters for the Muslims and the Christians, and of course there are tons of nationalities and denominations staking claims on the Christian quarter.

We went inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is where they suppose Jesus was taken off the cross, then laid on a stone and enbalmed, and then laid in the tomb, all of which are within about 50 meters of each other. Of course, the church was built over all these sites, but each has something of a shrine around it. The place was packed with Christian pilgrims for Russia, Nigeria and BYU(!), which was pretty exciting to see.

Cruising through the streets, I saw plenty of awesome things to buy and am getting a feel for the exchange rate: about 3.7 shekels to the dollar. And I also learned something really important. The Arab part of Jerusalem (by the way, they call Jerusalem "Al Kuds") is MUCH cheaper to shop in than the Jewish part (the Hebrew pronunciation of Jerusalem is "Yirushalayim"). Eventually we left the old city and explored the more modern, upscale community of West Jerusalem, the Israeli part. It was really beautiful. Of course it all was. I learned how to say "thank you," which is "to-DAH" (it's no "mahalo," by any means, but when in Rome.......no, I'm really looking forward to learning more Hebrew and trying to use it. All the signs here are printed in Hebrew, Arabic and English, the three official languages of the state.

I watched the sun set from one of the terraces overlooking the city. Holy cow. Then begins the call to prayer, maybe the 4th or 5th of the day. It was nice to be alone for a little while. I forget that we can wonder around the center alone because they sure pound the opposite into you about leaving the center. It was beautiful and I think it's what I needed to start developing a connection with this place.

As I catch up on sleep, I'm beginning to appreciate how awesome this really is. 18 hours on planes with no breaks was rough, but this will be worth it. I dare say it will even make the 18 hour return flight worth it.

Love, Allison