Shalom!

Greetings from the Holy Land. I wanted to get in at least one post here while I could. It's late, so I won't write long, but I'll try to get in as much as I can.

My dad and I left Cleveland Sunday night and arrived here late Monday afternoon. Our friend Karl picked us up and took us to his lovely home in Jerusalem. It's very close to the Old City (about a mile's walk, which my dad and I did today), and just about two minutes' walk away is a great view of the Old City. His wife and baby son are lovely and it's been really fun hanging out with all of them, as well as the friends that occasionally stop by.

Tuesday was our first full day here and I started it out by going to the Central Zionist Archives to see what I could find for my research. It was an adventure, to say the least. In the end, I was able to find some stuff, despite the fact that the computer search system was in Hebrew and I only had a five minute intro on how to use it. I didn't necessarily find what I originally was looking for, but I found other stuff that I can use, so it all worked out. After nearly four hours there, Dad and Karl came and picked me up, and then Karl dropped my dad and I off near the gates of the Old City. We went in through the Damascus Gate and it was literally like stepping into a different world. The lane was packed with stalls and shops, where the people who live there do their shopping. We started walking, looking for the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where Jesus was supposedly crucified and buried (with a lot of this stuff, my dad and I aren't so sure it's 100% authentic, but it's close enough). Well, we ended up getting quite lost and turned around. We wandered for a long time, but through that, we stumbled upon stuff we probably wouldn't have found otherwise, including a couple Stations of the Cross, the pools where Jesus cured the paralyzed man, and a doorway that announced the entrance to the birthplace of the Virgin Mary (we're really sure that was just a load of nonsense). We did latch on to a tour group briefly, but eventually got separated from them.

Finally, after asking a guy for directions and then buying something from his shop (nothing's free after all), we found the church. It was very interesting and had lots of gorgeous artwork. We didn't bother to wait in the very long line to go into the actual "tomb," but we got the gist of it. After that, we headed back to the gates, got out of the city and eventually found Karl to get back home.

On Wednesday, we went to the Dead Sea and then to Masadra National Park. The Dead Sea was cool. The floating thing was really weird. If you went on your stomach, you'd eventually roll right back over, and if you tried to put your legs down(as though to stand), they'd pop back up. The current was strong too, so we had to try to keep swimming back to where we started from. The shore was really rocky and not much of a beach - for that you had to climb back up a ways and it was a somewhat steep embankment. It didn't help that while we were in the water, some workers came and dug up most of the guide-rails, so we had to stumble back up on our own. My main problem was my feet kept slipping out of my flip-flops. But eventually, I made it up and we head to Masadra. It's the ruins of an old palace/fortress originally built by King Herod. During the Jewish rebellion against the Romans in 66-74 AD, a final band of rebels took it as their stronghold. Eventually, the Romans laid siege to the place and on the night before the final battle, the men of Masadra elected to kill their wives and children and then commit suicide rather than risk becoming slaves to the Romans. The ruins were quite extensive and we spent a good deal of time up there.

Today, Karl took my dad and I to Bethlehem, which is in the West Bank. It was interesting to see life there. We went by portions of the wall, which the Israelis built to keep Palestinians out, especially after the suicide bombings during the second intifada. It's made life very difficult for the residents, who are often cut off from easy transportation routes and often even from their own lands. But the town itself seemed very nice and more like a city than Jerusalem did. Lots of shops and restaurants and things lining the streets. We got to the Church of the Nativity, where Jesus was born, and picked up a local tour guide. He did an excellent job showing us around and even took us in the backway to get down to the cave/stable where the manger actually was. (the line to get in was taking forever) Afterward, he took us to a shop where we could buy souvenirs. It was a nice place and had some pretty stuff. After that, Karl took us to a little place for lunch and we had excellent chicken. Then we stopped back home and Dad and I headed back to the Old City. We went back to the Holy Sepulcher because we didn't go upstairs the last time to see the actual Golgotha spot where Jesus was crucified. After that, we made it to the Western Wall, but we were too late to go up to the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock. We won't be able to go back because it's closed Friday for the Muslim Sabbath and Saturday for the Jewish one. Oh well.

After that, we sat on a bench in the Jewish Quarter looking at our map. A guy came up and showed us some interesting spots on the map and then offered to show us where to go. He took us to something called the Four Synagogues, which I guess was important to them (it's basically four connected worshiping areas for Jews of different heritages, like Armenians). At that point, he wanted to talk about money and after a bit of haggling, we gave him some shekles and told him we were through here.

We got out of the Old City and head to the Mount of Olives, which was across the street a ways. We ended up taking a taxi to the top, trying to get to the Garden of Gethsemane. Well, at the top of the Mount of Olives, there's only a forlorn looking place that has the alleged footprint Jesus left behind on his ascension to Heaven. So we started heading to the Garden of Gethsemane - turns out, it was only about 100 yards from where we'd gotten picked up by the taxi! But at least the walk was all down hill. After that, we'd had our fill, so we headed back to the house. It was a lot of walking, but we certainly saw a lot.

This trip has been really fun and very interesting. I was surprised at how little a spiritual connection I've felt here - I didn't expect anything huge, but I thought there might be something. Instead, I've just been impressed by the history of the place and intrigued by what we've seen. I'm looking forward to our last two days here, and then I'll be happy to go home and see Ronan and Tom. I hope they're doing well and having some fun together!

Well, that's all for now. Shalom!