Shalom!
The past couple weeks have been extremely emotional and spiritual. I went to Jerusalem for a day tour on the 13th and then came back the next weekend of the 18th-20th. I'm going to combine both experiences for the sake of simplicity.
Jerusalem is a beautiful city located in the hills of Israel. It's on a mountain and during this time of year, it's pretty cold. I love it there though.
It's an upbeat city (like all of them here) that has a sense of uneasiness about it. Everywhere you look there is another pilgrimage group with their bright hats, fanny packs and scarves. The new city looks just like any other city in Israel but the Old City is truly unique. As you walk through the bullet-scarred walls you enter a completely different time period. Cobble-stone streets laden with shops and historical sites. Everything is made of this particular white-ish stone and it brings a sense of community about the place.
We made our first stop in the Jewish quarter of the city where we walked through King David's "tomb", and "the room of the last supper." I put quotations around them simply because they are traditional locations, and most likely aren't the historical location. However the location of the Last Supper is expected to be in the general vicinity of the room I walked through. Which is pretty cool. We then visited the Hurva Synagogue. This synagogue had been destroyed three times in the past wars. It now stands beautifully and has a great view of the Old City from the top.
After lunch, aka an embarassing amount of falafel, we made our way to the Western Wall (Wailing Wall). This is the Western wall of what was the temple mount. This wall is considered the Holiest place in the world for Jews because it is the closest they can get to what once was the temple. Here you can see both women and men alike praying against the wall and placing their pre-written prayers in the cracks of the wall. The wall is literally overflowing with small pieces of paper. It's awesome to see. The wall is divided by gender, and it's sad to see that the woman's side is probably a third of the side of the men's. The Dome of the Rock(where Muhammed is believed to have ascended to heaven on his night journey) is now located on the temple mount and is open to non-muslims only 2 hours a week. We didn't make it to the temple mount but I definitely want to try and get there before I leave. The Dome is certainly a site to see for sure. We then went on a digital tour of what the temple mount may have looked like. The video was pretty cool, and then to bring it together we walked around the temple mount. Here we saw the remnants of the ancient marketplace and road and also saw remains of the Roman structures that were built near it.
The end of this first tour took place at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. My first experience inside can only be described as conviction slapping me straight in the face. Walking up the hill of Calvary and standing next to where Jesus was crucified was nothing short of overwhelming. I couldn't help but tear up. The group we were with was mostly secular and historical and it was upsetting being guided in that way. I was more upset than anything that here, where Jesus sacrificed His life for us, people are leaving without ever hearing the gospel and they are seeing it purely as a tourist location to check off their list. The second visit was much lighter, don't worry.
I visited Jerusalem again, a week later. This was probably my favorite trip so far. Me and two of my friends made a weekend trip in order to do all the Christian sites that we missed the week prior. After the two-hour bus ride we arrived in the crazy Jerusalem bus station. If it gives you an idea of the security here, we had to put our bags through a metal detector (like at the airport) in order to get into the bus station. Intense.
Our first major stop in Jerusalem was to go right outside the Old City walls to a place named The City of David. Here we toured through an underground tunnel that was used to channel water into the city. We caught a glimpse of Hezekiah's tunnel on our way through. This is a water tunnel (the water can go past your knees) that flows under the city. It was too cold to do it, but one day I will. We got some cool views of the new city before heading back into the Old City. Here we grabbed lunch (falafel, again) and went shopping in the shuk. The shuk is huge and they have every thing you could ever want from Jerusalem.
Being on a Friday, things started to shut down and we got out of the cold and rain in order to get ready for dinner. The pickings are slim on Shabbat, especially in Jerusalem, but we found a cute pasta place in the new city to have dinner at. It was dry, warm, and a lot of fun.
We walked through a shopping plaza on our way back to the hostel and it was truly nice to just enjoy being with friends in such an awesome place.
The next day was packed full. We woke up and grabbed some coffee at the only place we could find and then began our walk of the Via Dolorosa (Way of Grief). This is the traditional path that Jesus walked with the cross up to Golgotha. It was an indescribable experience walking that road. Every now and then you would see a group of Christians carrying a cross as they walked up. It was beautiful. At every location it was a constant reminder of how merciful God is and how much pain and suffering Jesus went through for us. I have pictures at every station except the 9th (we couldn't find it!) on my facebook. The second time in the Holy Church was a much better experience. I had time to reflect and pray and just felt alot better about everything while in there. We then walked through the Old City until we made it out to the main street. Here we walked across the way to the Mt. of Olives. After walking through flooded dirty streets (we even saw a dead rat. gross.) we made it to the Church of all Nations. This is a beautiful church attached to the Garden of Gethsemane where is traditionally believed to be where Jesus prayed before being betrayed. After this we made our way up the mountain (literally) and stopped at the church of Dominus Flavit which is where Jesus wept over the destruction of Jerusalem. On our way up the mountain we walked onto the cemetary on the Mt. of Olives. This cemetary is extremely important to the Jewish people and only important figures get buried here. Jesus will actually be coming back right above it!
Drenched and cold, we finally made it to the top of the mountain and visited the Church of Ascension. This ex-mosque is the traditional location of where Jesus ascended to heaven. However, sadly it is down trodden and taken poorly care of. We even got kicked off the property by a guy who was trying to make us pay to visit it. (It was free). After a bus ride back to the Old City we shopped. We met a guy, who we now call "Dad" and spent about an hour in his woodshop learning about his family and his way of life. He was baptist, and got so excited when I told him I was as well. He even let us watch his shop for a little while, we told him we made him a millionare. That might've been a stretch..We also met a family of Arabs who owned a scarf/fabric/jewelry shop and spent a lot of time with them as well. Most of them had spent a decent time in the U.S so it was interesting getting their perspective. They taught us like ten different ways to wear a scarf and were just really fun to be around. Another guy we met along the way was Victor. He was an older man who had worked in the Israeli film industry and apparently is a millionare. He told us about his life and children and how he works in Jerusalem for fun because he is an artist. He sold my friend a plate for her mom and even gave her a free one because he was so nice. It's the moments like these that make Israel so amazing. After shopping we found a daint Arabic cookie shop in the Christian quarter. Here we were offered a free cookie, and ended up buying like ten more. They were delicious. I must get back there so I can bring cookies back to the states. When dark came, we went into the new city to eat at a cute cafe, did I mention it was warm?
The next morning we woke up really early in order to get a head start on the day. We visited the Wailing Wall again, placed a prayer in the cracks, and then made our way to the temple mount entrance. Unfortunately the line was much longer than we expected, and we couldn't get up on top. We then packed up, stopped for brunch at Aroma (a coffee shop here) and made our way to the Holocaust Museum.
If you want a humbling experience, this is the place to go. I don't think I have ever gotten extremely sad so quick in my life. The museum was made beautifully and each room was packed with artifacts and history. We were there for three hours and I could have been there at least twice that amount of time. Pictures weren't allowed inside, but I can tell you it's an emotional rollercoaster. From the shoes, to the gas cans, to the video testimonies of survivors, to the entire library of names upon names upon names of people who died. Video after video showed you the unimaginable, the unthinkable. Humans at their very worse. We watched a video of people throwing emaciated bodies on a truck and saw people getting shot into their own grave. It gives me chills just thinking about it. In the children's memorial there was a dark room where all you could see was blackness and all you could hear was the name and age of children who died. Surrounding the museum is a garden of trees planted in honor of victims, and then many memorials were set up for fighters and others who helped end the war. There was nothing like that experience. I can honestly say I will never be the same.
-Stefani
