Jerusalem

A couple of weeks ago Egypt celebrated "Sinai Liberation Day," and in honor of the occasion 4 friends and I traveled to the very country the Sinai was liberated from: Israel. The trip came right after a busy week for me, as my Glee Club friend Trigg Ferrano visited, along with fellow Domer Ellie. Their visit went excellently, and it was quite refreshing to get a new perspective on Cairo from Trigg. However, on Friday night I bid them farewell and headed to the bus station for the overnight bus to Taba, on the Israeli border. Soon I would learn one important lesson in two countries: try not to travel on people's holy days.

For the first hour or so the Egyptian bus played the Quran at excessive levels, completely ruining any chance of going to sleep. I'm not sure if this was company policy or the driver's choice, but it insured that I arrived at the border in a sleepy state. After crossing over without much hassle I discovered a second problem. While buses normally depart from Eilat to Jerusalem throughout the day, on Saturday the first one leaves at 4:30. Eilat is a lovely resort town, but resort towns are really only nice if you happen to have a room to resort to. Otherwise, you're just wandering mostly empty streets, and counting the number of open restaurants on one hand. So after a bit of this I decided to take the 11:30 bus to Tel Aviv, and hope that there were more frequent connections from there to Jerusalem.

Of course, that didn't quite work out either, as the next bus after I arrived left at 8:00. However, I did get to spend a few hours wandering around Israel's largest city, and hoping to surprise my traveling companions, who had come to Tel Aviv a day earlier. Alas, I searched the beaches in vain. Finally at 9:00 I arrived in Jerusalem, to find the city practically dead. After Cairo the place seemed sleepier than a Nebraska I-80 town. I had arrived in one of the world's most famous and controversial cities, but it was a quiet reception.

The next day revealed a little more life. My friends were joining me that afternoon, so I spent the morning going to a few sites that were a little less famous. My first stop was the Garden of Gethsemane, which was just opening. I had the place to myself, which was a pretty amazing experience. There is also a rather new basilica built nearby, on the ruins of two earlier churches. After leaving I climbed up the Mount of Olives, and sure enough I was semi-lost in East Jerusalem. This was actually quite exciting, because I got a chance to use my Arabic to get directions out, and of course enjoy a cup of over-sweetened coffee from some Arab construction workers who were happy with, and a bit amused by, my attempts at speaking their language.

The next day and a half were occupied with seeing the major sites of the city with my friends who had come from Tel Aviv. Jerusalem truly has a ridiculous number of holy sites, to the point that we unknowingly stumbled upon the Upper Room, where the Last Supper is supposed to happen. Of course their were three sites that overshadowed everything else, one from each major monotheistic religion: the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where we got a free guided tour from a very enthuastic Canadian priest in training, the Western Wall, and the Dome of the Rock. All three were amazing experiences, but in different ways. The Western Wall is quite unremarkable in appearance, yet might present the purest spiritual experience, free from the distractions of ornate decoration. The Dome of the Rock is probably one of the most beautiful buildings in existence, at least from the exterior (only Muslims are allowed to enter). And the Church of the Holy Sepulcher packs the most history and holy sites in a relatively tiny, cluttered site. It was much different than any other church I've been in, perhaps because its ownership is divided between five different sects, who do not always get along.

As always in the Middle East, the journey back presented plenty of adventures, or misadventures. We literally caught the bus back to the border seconds before it departed, but the trouble really started when we tried to enter Egypt. First of all Israel has a rather evil exit tax of 98 shekels, which of course is impossible not to pay. Then several people had trouble with visas at the border. Normally they could buy a new one without trouble, but because it was Israel it was more complicated, which really means more expensive. But in the end we all got through and caught a minibus to Cairo, ready to enter the homestretch of the semester abroad.