Jerusalem - The Holy Land

August 3-7, 2023

Hi friends and family,

Or Shalom (Hebrew), or As-Salaam-Alaikum (Arabic)! These are some of the more popular greetings I heard in Jerusalem, which truly is a crossroads between different cultures and religions. My perception of Israel had been changed based on what I’d seen in Tel Aviv. The bright lights and electric nightclubs didn’t exactly make me feel like I was in the presence of God. It felt rather capitalistic and similar to many American and other western cities. Jerusalem, on the other hand, was teeming with holiness. In fact, we realized how different it was going to be even before we arrived as we had to plan our trip around what we would do on the Sabbath (or Shabbat), the holy day in Jewish culture that runs from right before sunset on Friday evening to right after sunset on Saturday night. During Shabbat, everything in the city shuts down. And I mean everything. We knew we wouldn’t be able to take public transit or even private taxis on Saturday so we had to plan our trip around that, and that clarified to us how strictly the citizens of Jerusalem adhere to Judaism as a guiding light.

Anyway, my friend Kip and I took the 40-minute train ride from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on August 3 and checked into our hostel in the early afternoon before going to the nearby market to poke around for some food. The market was bustling with tons of vendors selling candies, bread, and other foods. It was a really colorful and noisy marketplace. We stopped at an equally vibrant pita place outside the market and got some shawarma before walking to a nearby park to meet our friends Silke from the Netherlands and Michael from England, both of whom we’d met in Tel Aviv.

We relaxed there for a while, feeling really lazy since it was so hot outside. In the afternoon we hung out at the hostel at the rooftop bar and listened to a great Taylor Swift cover band with Alex from England and Melissa from Colombia, whom we’d also met in Tel Aviv. We enjoyed the music together and then danced in the 90s-themed dance party afterwards.

The next day Kip, Michael, and I got an early breakfast to make it to the Old City of Jerusalem for an 8:30 walking tour. The Old City was interesting because it was divided into four quarters for different groups: Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim. Our guide took us around to all the different quarters and showed us the important religious sites.

If you look closely at the above photo, you can see the crowds of people gathered at the Western Wall, the holiest place of prayer for Jews, besides the Temple Mount contained inside, which has strict entry requirements. The Dome of the Rock (the shrine with the golden top), to the left of the Western Wall, is another very holy site for Muslims, Christians, and Jews.

After the walking tour, we went to a nearby viewpoint called Mount of Olives. On the way back, we passed through the Old City again and got lunch from a good and surprisingly cheap place in the Muslim quarter, which was by far the busiest and mostly densely populated quarter of the city. We were walking around during a call to prayer and the roads were extremely crowded. We were trying to walk against the flow of people and it was nearly impossible to move in the direction we wanted to go. We even got several dirty looks for trying to walk against the crowd, since we clearly stood out as visitors. The Muslim quarter did have some of the lowest prices we’d seen in all of Israel, though, which was otherwise one of the most expensive countries I’ve ever been in.

After lunch, we walked back home to the hostel and did some planning and hanging out before Shabbat dinner in the evening. The food was delicious and I liked the communal feel of it with 50 of us eating together in the hostel kitchen. The hostel employee that kicked off the meal gave a good speech about enjoying the tradition of Shabbat even though he wasn’t particularly religious and it made me appreciate being together with people who were essentially strangers yet felt like friends. I was towards the end of the table and I talked with this older French couple and Australian girl Laura for much of the meal. They were sweet and Laura was an interesting conversationalist. Later in the meal I talked with Kip and this energetic Mexican/Canadian girl named Olivia . A group of us hung out late on the roof afterwards chatting and drinking until midnight.

The next day we got up at 3am to catch a 3:30 bus to hike a mountain called Masada at sunrise. We planned our day pretty well because it was Shabbat and nothing in the city was open. Thankfully there was at least one tour company that catered to tourists and was willing to take us out even though it was Saturday. I was really glad to have arrived early because it was already getting hot when we started hiking early in the morning. The scenery reminded me of the American Southwest, but the area felt deader and hotter.

It was a beautiful hike to the top and we got to see the sunrise over the Dead Sea and the mountains in Jordan to the East. There were also the ruins of a rebel settlement on top of the mountain. I wish there’d been informational signs because the structures were cool and in an interesting location, but I didn’t know what I was looking at.

The next stop on our tour was the En Gedi nature reserve, which consisted of some walking trails and small waterfalls and pools for swimming. The hiking was low key and the water was nice for cooling off.

Our last stop was at a private beach called Kalia Beach right on the Dead Sea. I hadn’t realized how extremely salty the Dead Sea was. I knew we would float on our backs because of the saltiness, but I didn’t realize that it was too salty to submerge our heads. The water was unpleasantly hot, but it was fun to be so buoyant. There was mud by the banks of the beach and we put that on which had a soothing effect on our skin. After taking in enough sun and salt, we went to the restaurant at the beach and hung out there until the bus was ready to leave. It was a fun excursion and we had a good group with Michael, Kip, Olivia, this guy named Philip we’d met in Jerusalem, and me.

When we got back to the hostel, we took some long naps since we’d been up since 3am. In the evening, I went with Michael, Kip, Laura, and a Scottish guy named Tommy we met in Tel Aviv to a soccer game. It was Saturday and public transportation was still shut down because it was Shabbat, so we walked about an hour along the highway each way to get to and from the stadium. I talked and bonded with Laura from Australia for much of the walk. She lives in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney, which I barely got to see when I visited in March, so I would definitely connect with her if I found myself in Australia again any time soon.

When we finally made it to the stadium, the soccer match was a fun spectacle. The stadium was massive and it was probably less than 5% filled, but the fan section had lots of verve and passion with some guys starting cheers and hyping up the crowd all game long. The home team (Jerusalem) won 2-0 and it was exciting seeing the Israelis get pumped up for their team.

The next day I talked with this German girl Malu at breakfast about meeting up for a walking tour of Bethlehem and in the early afternoon a group of us went to Bethlehem. As soon as we got off the bus and crossed the border into Palestine we saw how starkly different it was from where we’d been. The buildings were more run down and the people were a lot poorer. There were a bunch of Palestinians keen on telling us the history of their people and showing us the ways the Israelis had violated and hurt them. We met at the Walled Off Hotel, a museum put together by the graffiti artist Banksy, and walked through to start the tour.

The museum was eye opening. I knew the very broad history of the conflict, but I knew less about the specifics of what was going on and how recently Israel had committed atrocities against the Palestinians (which are still ongoing). Our guide then walked us to a bleak refugee camp. The Israelis control much of the natural resources of the area and don’t provision much for Palestinians, so they live with a scarcity of food, water, telecommunication networks, and other resources much of time.

After the refugee camp, we took a taxi to the more touristy part of town and saw Jesus’s birthplace and some other important religious sites. After the tour, we got dinner at a fancy place and took the bus home.

The bus ride gave another glimpse into the Palestinians’ daily lives as we were stopped when crossing back into Israel for a border checkpoint. The bus was stopped for 10-15 minutes before some Israeli soldiers with rifles came on and told us all to get off and checked our IDs. I didn’t feel physically unsafe, but it was unsettling to have these soldiers with guns hold us up. The soldiers were really young and indifferent; one of them was even wearing AirPods at the checkpoint.

Back at the hostel, there was a big group of us on the rooftop having some drinks and enjoying the music from jazz night. We realized at the end how cohesive and strong of a group of friends we’d met in such a short amount of time. Everyone was easygoing and it was fun connecting with everyone, even if the time together we had was limited. Besides the people being affable and warm, the hostel itself provided a great space that was very conducive to hanging out and meeting new people.

The next day, August 7, we said goodbye to our friends and headed to Jordan. It was sad saying goodbye to everyone we’d met, but I’m glad we met such a solid group of people. Some of the people I’ll miss most are Tommy from Scotland, Laura from Australia, Ellie from Germany, and Melissa from Colombia. The group of us going to Jordan was Michael and Alex from Britain, Kip, and me. We went to the Jerusalem bus station before realizing it was easier to take a taxi to the nearest border and then catch a taxi from there to Amman, the capital city of Jordan. I’ll write about Jordan next post. Thanks for reading!