Jerusalem Jerusalem! 🎵

2/3/22

We had our last breakfast together in Jordan before our UK contingent headed to the airport and me and Lena packed and went in search of money. Then we got a taxi to the border crossing between Jordan and Israel. We had to go into a station with a departures and an arrivals desk. We paid an exit tax and then they printed us Israeli visas, which do not go in your passport since many countries do not allow you in with an Israeli stamp in your passport. Then we got on a bus that would drive us from Jordan to Israel. On the Israeli side there was more security where they even swiped your passport! Then we went to passport control and then they called you to do a PCR test. If you’re unlucky or seem suspicious, they send you to the interrogation room first – one of the guys in my room used to be in the US army and they knew he used to be in the army without him saying and he was sent for questioning. Apparently they asked him if he was still in the army, if he had Muslim friends and if he had any Muslim friends that had been to Israel. Strange right?! After questioning, he was let into Israel. We had to wait for a min us to fill up before we could leave the terminal for Jerusalem. We got talking to a guy from Jerusalem who had flown back to Jordan from Dubai with his friend from the West Bank. It was implied that his friend was not allowed to fly from Israel but this was not questioned. We walked to our hostel grabbing giant falafel and bread on the road for £7 for four falafel and bread.

The hostel was huge and the staff friendly. W did hula-hooping while we were checking in. Then we went to the local market for a mooch. It was lit!! People were milling about everywhere. There were lots of little bars with a couple of tables each and they all had good vibes. We got a coffee and people watched. There was a right mix of people, much more than I was expecting! There were some interesting combinations – there were two different groups of military girls, one of which were sitting in a cafe drinking coffee, with rifles on their lap and pink acrylic nails, and the other was chilling in the road, with balloons and a cardboard golden crown for one of their birthdays. The fact that guns seem to mix with social seems very odd to me, although all Israelis have to do a mandatory minimum of two years military service regardless of if they have interest in it or not – normally girls do two years and guys do three and a half.

We headed back to the hostel for happy hour and pool and ended up chatting with three guys from Jerusalem, Yoni, Elai and Abhi. Weirdly Elai had lived in Cardiff and also visited Birmingham (ay ayyy!). Lena and I played pool badly against each other before the boys joined us to speed up the next few games!!

3/3/22

Today was a full day. We were booked on a holy tour of the city. We walked down to Jaffa Gate and met the group for 09.30. It was a very windy day and we watched a Hisodoc guy chase his fedora (big black hat) down the street after it had blown off, only for his kippah (small cap) to also fly off in the process! What a nightmare!! We headed inside the old walled town and began our tour. We walked past a tattoo parlour, which was established in 1300 and was used by Jewish pilgrims to get a Jerusalem tattoo during their pilgrimage. It was still running now! Fairly quickly, we headed to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus was crucified, buried and rose. The church was run by five different Christian groups: Orthodox, Armenian, Catholic, Coptic and Syriac. They all had to agree on any restorations together, before anything could be done. A wooden ladder outside of the church symbolised this agreement. Considering I’m not religious, I was pretty overwhelmed by the church and how I felt walking around inside. It was a seriously impressive place! Pre-covid the whole church was apparently packed the whole time, but when we were there it was nearly empty!

Afterwards, we tried and failed to dodge the rain and wind and headed to the Western Wall and then the Temple Mount. The Western Wall is the last remaining wall of the first synagogue, as the Romans destroyed the original temple. Since the walls are so important, Jews do not like to turn their backs to it, so people were walking backwards away from it and one lady crashed into a plastic chair on her route back!

The site within the original walls is now a Muslim religious site as Prophet Muhammed went to heaven and got told to pray fives times a day here. There are two mosques at the Temple Mount, which only Muslims can go inside though tourists can go around the outside, but Jews and Christians alike are not allowed to bring religious material inside or pray at the site. There is a Muslim guy that makes sure everyone is respectfully dressed before they enter, a security scanner as well as Israeli army who keep it secure. It was interesting to see. The mosque was beautiful! After that, the tour ended and we went in search of a cute coffee shop.

We found a narrow cafe that went back a long way and had a friendly Muslim owner. He had only just re-opened a couple of days prior since Israel opened back up to tourists. He told us he had introduced ‘Salam aleikum’ (peace be upon you in Arabic) to his little patch of the old city and pretty much everyone who went by, made this exchange. He thought it was important to ‘drop peace’ whenever you can! I had a cardamon coffee which is traditional here as well as Jordan and it was pretty good! Afterwards, we wandered a little before heading back to the hostel to chill out before we headed back out to a cocktail bar called Rabbit Hole. It had cool vibes and great cheese and crackers!

4/3/22

After a busy day yesterday, we had chilled plans today. Lena and I headed out to UrBun for coffee and then stopped by a bakery for breakfast before we wandered around the streets, nosied about and purchased bits in a charity shop and then headed to Zara, since Lena doesn’t have one at home in America. There were a few different shops we perused, but we had limited time since it was Friday so things start shutting down in the afternoon. The streets were alive with lots of youths dancing, raising money for charity – it was a good vibe! We had falafel pita from a super busy cafe on the way back to the hostel and then we chilled a little before happy hour at 6pm.

Our roommates Joey (from US) and Tom (from down south in England) were also drinking and Tom’s home friends were also about and their dorm. This made a solid group of Brits, Americans and Europeans, which made for a messy night. We played some pool, drank wine, then tequila then some awful local spirit and then went out. Sadly, we’d been drinking for a solid four hours by this point and I’d not eaten dinner so I didn’t make it to the bar we were meant to be going to! Had my first Brits Abroad vibe in awhile – I guess since literally pre-covid! Wild!!