That's right, The Old City. By yesterday evening, every part of my body wanted to cry as all day I have been backwards and forwards, discovering a portion of what the city could offer. However before all that began, I had an pre-organised orientation to start the day, with our main Geo Eco leader (put simply) telling us all the do's and dont's of the communities we will be staying with.
To clarify, I am volunteering in a town called Mughar, teaching a bunch of Druish, Jewish, Muslim and Christian kids English. The purpose of this is obviously to improve their English, but also to allow the town to experience a bit of foreign influence and essentially support the idea of co-existence (not always so popular in many Middle East countries as you can imagine...)
The orientation was well delivered with lots of advice given and received. A generous souvenir (Geo Eco t-shirt) was provided for everyone in case you had only packed singlets (in the communities you have to dress rather conservatively).
We then had a break where I grabbed lunch with a dorm mate who was off to travel elsewhere in Israel. Lunch consisted of me trying my first ever Falafel (google search commence!). All I can say is 1. Next time I will definitely NOT get so much of that chilli/spicy spread 2. I will eat it for breakfast considering it was so ridiculously filling, I could not even get through the whole thing. But definitely something everyone must try as Falafel's here are like Tim Tams to Australians!
After lunch I continued to meet everyone as we ventured towards the Old City in preparation for a free guided tour. I cannot recommend this tour enough if it is your first time visiting the Old City. Even for the adventurous types - trust me when I say you will get lost and be lost for a while! Hence walking at first with someone who knows the place so extensively will help immensely when you are given free range after the tour finishes. We managed to visit 3 out of 4 of the quarters (Jewish, Muslim and Christian) within the tour and were shown many of the main attractions.
The sun was definitely in full swing throughout the duration of the day, so after the tour a small portion of the group headed off to find what apparently is the town's best hummus! Arriving at the extremely small franchise, we were rewarded with really what could be another breakfast/lunch/dinner combined (for myself anyway) the hummus of our choice, some vegetables, three falafel's in a bowl and 2 pita breads per order.
I managed to eat around just over half of one pita bread with my chickpea hummus. Honestly, it's so ridiculously filling my only advice if you're not too keen to stuff your face full is to share with someone else. There's more than enough to go around! (Ps, it was pretty good but then again I have nothing else to compare it with!)
By this stage it was late afternoon and some of us agreed to meet at 7pm for a personal evening tour of the Old City with our host - dearest Yan (another great Geo Eco associate living in Israel). But when you only have a day left in such a magnificent place, every hour counts! Hence with an extra hour and 15 mins before meeting, five of us headed back into the city to visit really any place we wanted to see. This ended up being the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Its significance? According to the majority of Orthodox Christians and Catholics, this location contains the burial site of Jesus and the Altar of Crucifixion.
I think no matter what your beliefs or denomination, the surreal part of visiting places like this is the feeling you get being in such an authentic location. Even hearing and seeing locals visiting with such passion towards these Holy monuments is riveting as a foreigner.
As time was ticking by, another few km's later and were left with 10 minutes to freshen up back at the Abraham Hostel before commencing on the final adventure of the day. The change in the Old City by the evening is so astounding, it's one of those 'you have to be there' moments. Gone were the crowds, the shop keepers closed up and in many of the dimly lit alleyways greeted us with a fresh breeze of air and a stray cat curled in the corner. This time round we visited once again the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (very different experience at night!), and wandered down the streets of Via Dolorosa, all the way through to each quarter including the Armenian.
A most treasured experience for myself was seeing the Wailing/Western wall up close and personal. Going through a quick security check and covering up any bare shoulders with a scarf, we were rewarded with a very historical feature scaling up towards the sky only a few metres away. It was truly a wonderful moment and once again I cannot recommend visiting the wall up close (not just seeing it from far) enough. A small evacuation drill commenced as an unmarked briefcase was discovered, which is never taken lightly here in Israel.
Back on the cobbled streets we ventured up and down stairways, through more historical sites, into a few shops still open and ended up with Yan buying and sharing a delicious carton of SHOCK chocolate milk to ease our thirst (and sugar fix) away. The reality of these experiences really concrete the idea of 'less is more' for me - as everywhere you looked laughing and smiling faces shone in the moonlight and in small portions of the quarters you were met with families singing together and enjoying each other's company as we were.
I could probably go on and on about what I saw but I think I'd miss out on the free breakfast being offered in about 5 minutes if I did (and breakfast is ever so important after all! ;D). Today we will be leaving Jerusalem and meet our host families which puts a little butterfly in my stomach. I can't wait to see where I'll be teaching/living for the next few weeks!
Ps, I haven't been able to get a USB cable to transfer any photos off my Nikon at this point, so forgive the lack of visuals in this post. As soon as I am able to borrow one/buy one, expect many photographs to accompany this entry!
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