Israel, Episode III - Jerusalem is Full of Crazies

I stayed in Israel a few days after the trip while Kate spent some more time with her family and went to her cousin's wedding in San Francisco.

Once the others on the trip got in the security line, the trip officially ended, with the remaining few going their separate ways. Vivi, our Israeli guide, went straight home to pack as she was flying out for a vacation to Thailand for a month later that evening.
Roy and Elaun, my trip leaders, headed back into the city to go to their hotels. One guy went straight to Jerusalem, leaving myself, Lily, and Donna to go back to Tel Aviv on our own. Luckily, Uval, one of our Israeli soldiers, was with us and helped us navigate the train and bus systems to get to our hostel where Daniel, a friend from the trip who left early, was waiting.

Got some errands run, started the search for a laundry machine, and met up with Elaun for some frisbee on the beach with his Israeli friend (whose name escapes me). Then it was back to bed for some much needed rest. The next day followed basically the same pattern: laundry, beach, rest. Though I did meet up with an old friend from high school, Dorit, who now lives in Israel. We went to the Aardvark bar and ran into some of her friends, who included Israel's number one surfer and some guys who were making a documentary on him.

The next day, I headed out to Jerusalem, back to the Old City to see what I missed the first time around... which turned out to be quite a bit. Oh, and it was quite difficult to get there. I took the she'rut taxi recommend by my hostel to get to the train bus station in Tel Aviv, told the driver where I was going, and then, after about 45 minutes on the taxi, asked again how much further it was. Turns out, he completely forgot to tell me the stop and we'd passed it about 30 minutes earlier. So I had to catch a different bus. But I made it in the end, a little later than scheduled, which was only bad as I was meeting an old family friend, Yaeli, who lives in Jerusalem now. Though I still had my cell phone, so coordination was easy. She took me through the Arab souk in the Old City and we ate some delicious fresh hummus with a soft cheese. So good. She also recommended I check out this really sweet souk in the New City, which I was glad I did as it was one of the best food markets I've ever been to.

Then it was time to head back to my hostel, the New Palm Hostel, which was well-located (right by the Damascus Gate), well priced ($10/night), free round-the-clock mint tea (with fresh mint!), and full of insane people (as you shall see). Seriously, Jerusalem attracts all the crazies. There is actually a documented mental illness called "Jerusalem Syndrome" where people who have no prior history of mental illness become, on arrival to Jerusalem, convinced that they are Biblical figures or otherwise involved with paranormal phenomenon. Case in point: one guy in my hostel was a Jew who found Jesus a few years ago when he had a religious experience in which God told him he was the prophet Elijah (and his friend was Moses) and that crop circles were God's way of telling the world that he's angry the Ethiopians are starving. Yes, that's right - crop circles. He has a website and everything. Other memorable crazies were the nightguard who insisted on being in every conversation and (I believe) was a native English speaker... but no one could understand him. Then there was the rowdy Christian youth group of skaters who came back every night with horrible cuts and bruises. And who could forget the two girls from Canada who spent most of their time dressing up like Native Americans and doing photo shoots in the dorm room. Weird place, Jerusalem.

But I had fun all the same. I spent most of my time wandering the streets of the Old City, checking out all the various markets, churches, and ruins. Some highlights, in order of visitation: the Queen Helen Coptic Orthodox Church with its acoustically perfect underground cistern (which I had to myself), the Coptic church with the oversize watch hanging on the altar wall, walking on the rooftops of the Arab quarter, and seeing the procession of monks (monitored by dude in fez with a whip) along the Via Dolorosa as they visited the stations of the cross. I didn't spend a whole lot of time in the Jewish Quarter, because it is, well... kinda boring - at least relative to the rest of the city. I went back to the Western Wall and wandered around a bit... but there's just not much going on and no energy in the place, which is unlike the entire rest of the Old City.

I did, however, walk up the Mount of Olives one day to watch the sun set. I probably should have walked up the hill on the other side of Jerusalem (to have the Old City illuminated by the sun rather than backlit by it) but it was definitely still worth it. The Mount of Olives, for those who don't know, is an ancient Jewish cemetery facing the Old City full of these above ground graves (and enormous millipedes). I had the whole place to myself... except for the Arab family that was trying to get the few other tourists (not me, surprisingly) to take pictures with their camel. The little girls came over and tried speaking to me and, when that didn't work, settled for just staring, which is always strange. But they were nice and the sunset was good.

One thing that was interesting to note about Jerusalem was just the omnipresence of religion everywhere, in all the tourists, all the shops, the hostels, the restaurants... it's not like that in other places in Israel and nowhere in the world have I been in a hostel where one of the opening questions in the common room is "what religion are you?" This was particularly noticeable in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (supposedly built on the site of Jesus' crucifixion) where you got the feeling that for many of the visitors, this was the culmination of everything they were, are, or will be. Hordes of people prostrating themselves, waiting in long lines to touch pieces of stone, carving crosses into walls, practically weeping at actually making it to this spot. Strange place, Jerusalem.

Anyway, my time in Israel was rapidly drawing to a close. I booked a shared taxi to the airport (after searching and searching for a payphone in the Old City), bought a few souveniers (including a travel combination chess/checkers/backgammon set where I haggled the guy down from 220 shekels to 30 shekels), then stayed up talking with a really interesting Belgian guy who worked with the Cirque du Soleil before grabbing the taxi to the airport where Israeli security was suspicious that I could have been in Israel for 17 whole days with only a bag the size I was carrying. They eventually let me through, however, and then it was time to nap from about 3AM to 4AM before catching a flight to Amsterdam and beginning the Europe portion of our trip...