What a Christmas!

It’s been exactly a week since my last blog… and boy has a lot happen in that time! In my last posting on Christmas Eve, I had explained that we would be spending Christmas Eve in Jerusalem, followed by a couple days at the Dead Sea over Christmas. Well things got just a bit more complicated than that.

Shortly after my last blog was completed, my brother phoned from Canada, to say my father had been admitted to hospital! He was in severe abdominal pain, and they thought it was possibly gall stones…. You can only imagine the thoughts and feelings that went through my head as we tried to continue our modest Christmas preparations: was he going to be ok? Should I go home? What was wrong exactly? Being here suddenly seemed very far away… Still somewhat in shock, I accompanied Gerrit out for some last minute Christmas shopping. We got him an office chair, and for me, a set of computer speakers. I also finally caved to the idea of a web cam (suddenly video Skyping with people back home seemed more important than my own camera shyness). Back at the apartment, I prepared the Slovak Christmas Eve dinner of fried carp and potato salad (see photo of the two of us with our Christmas dinner)… I also got in touch with my brothers for an update on my father… not much had really happened yet, he still didn’t have a phone number to be reached at and was going for more tests.

The last item on our agenda for Christmas Eve was to attend Midnight Mass at “Pontifical Institute Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center” where there was to be an English mass. It was a very interesting mass: about 100-150 of us gathered in an auditorium at the centre. There were people from all over the world there, Japan, Vietnam, Spain (the priest who served mass was visiting from Spain and had only just arrived in Jerusalem that morning), France etc. A camera man was filming the evening, and an obnoxious photographer was also present, whose main subject seemed to be an Asian family in attendance (perhaps an ambassador, or other official?). Before mass began, we sang Christmas carols and various brave groups from the audience got up and sang carols in their native languages. During this time, one of the priest approached Gerrit and I and asked if English was our first language, and whether we spoke it well… and ended up asking me if I would do the second reading! With a little trepidation, I agreed and rehearsed my text. The first reading was done by the important Asian. My reading went very well despite a tiny bit of stage fright and I was very proud of myself in the end (see photo - I am doing my reading at the left hand side). Exhausted but glad that we went, we returned home around 2am.

Christmas Day, we slept in, I finally posted all my blogs and we waited till it was late enough in Canada to phone my dad. He sounded pretty terrible, in pain and grumpy… and still without a definitive diagnosis, though it did seem to be some form of gall stones complicated by pancreatitis (hence the reason he was in such terrible pain). I felt awful for him, but was a little reassured by the fact that things were under way (he had had an MRI, and finally had a room and wasn’t lying in Emerg anymore) and it seemed not to be life threatening. So we decided to proceed with our Dead Sea plans and keep in touch by phone and internet.

As previously mentioned, the weather had turned nasty in Jerusalem, and so as we drove down to the Dead Sea on the evening of the 25^th, it was through varying degrees of rain. To our surprise, there were even some showers once we reached the bottom of the Rift valley at the north end of the Dead Sea. I’m guessing the north end gets occasional rain, as parts of it look more like savannah than complete desert… but the more south you go, the less vegetation there is, except in the irrigated plantations. We reached the Ein Gedi kibbutz at supper time. Ein Gedi is located on a plateau overlooking the Dead Sea. It is in effect an oasis in the desert, fed by waters from nearby springs that have been known to man in the area since the Stone Age. As we checked in, we were struck by how much warmer it seemed here, compared to Jerusalem, and proceed to dinner at the cafeteria in lighter coats. Dinner was delicious, and included 2 salad bars, a variety of warm courses (see photo - these were the rice, grilled veg and pureed yams and potatoes) and some cakes and ice cream for desert. After dinner, we joined an evening walking tour around the “botanical garden”. This garden is interspersed among the buildings of the resort and the adjoining kibbutz (a kibbutz is a sort of Israeli-style cooperative, often based around agriculture, where people live and volunteer). The garden is unique in that it has a huge variety of plants from around the world, and has everything from desert plants to tropical ones all in the same micro environment. It is so unique in fact, that it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site some 10 years ago. The garden tour was amazing… there is very little light pollution in the desert, and so it was a quite dark on this moonless evening and the up-lit trees looked like creatures from fairy tales (see 4 photos - the one strung with lights is a baobab).

After a good night’s sleep (the air is refreshing to breathe here… it’s difficult to describe, it’s just delicious… I read somewhere it has to do with high Bromide saturation or something), we enjoyed a feast of a breakfast, another buffet extravaganza of fresh salads, cheese and fruits, egg pie and Israeli pastries etc.

After breakfast, we walked around the resort, enjoying the gardens by daylight, and astounded by the views of the surrounding mountains beyond the oasis plateau (see photos - the one of the left is of the oasis plateau to the left, the Arugot valley bellow and Mount Zeruya above on the left; right photo - garden flowers and palm tree). By the time we got back to our room, the sun had come out in full, and it was so warm, that we were able to don shorts and t-shirts! The rest of the day was spent relaxing at the Dead Sea. We floated in the salt saturated water, hung out at the beach, played with the salt, covered each other with the mud and relaxed with massages… Overall, it was a “take it easy “day where I tried to think as little as possible (my mind had been swirling with worry for the last 2 days). Instead, I endeavoured with varying degrees of success to bask in the sunshine, to soak in the healing quality of the water and mud and to be in the moment with the beautiful surroundings (see photos - Gerrit and I mudded up; below - Gerrit floating in the Dead Dea and close up of salt crystals with mountains beyond ). My evening update from a still quite painful dad revealed that no gall stones seemed to be present anymore as per the MRI, but the doctors were assuming that that was what had caused the ensuing pancreatitis, and so it was a question of days of fasting, IV fluids, pain meds and wait and see... hmmm…. Gerrit and I spent a quiet evening together in the room, accompanied by a very friendly kitty that Gerrit had befriended… nothing like petting a purring sleeping fur ball when you need comfort (see photo of Gerrit with 2 local feline greeters… the one on his lap ended up having room privileges with us, he was so cute and well behaved!).

Our final day at the Dead Sea was spent hiking in the Ein Gedi Nature reserve. There are trails along two river beds (called Wadi in Hebrew) and up and down 3 mountain peaks in the area next to the Oasis. The park includes several springs with waterfalls whose waters run down the river beds, a number of ancient ruins from various human settlements of the area over the last 20,000 years (see photo of the 2 of us standing in a Chalcolite era temple, with Mount En Gedi behind us), and specimens of the local desert wildlife (we saw bats, Hyrax and Ibexes – see photo of 5 Hyraxes below). We had enough time for a 3 hour circuit before the mandatory exit from the park at sundown (4pm on the Dead Sea in the winter)... the ascent to the top takes some 8 hours… so we just climbed along one of the river beds, then up and over a plateau below one of the peaks and back to the visitor centre through the oases of date palms at the base of the mountains (see photo - Gerrit sitting in palm plantation). By the way, when I visited the Dead Sea with Sonya, I was wondering what the palms were for… it seems they are cultivated for their fruit, the date, and their wood is also used for construction. Other plants grown here include the plant from whose branches they derive Henna dye… and in Biblical times, they cultivated some secret and famous “persimmon” plants (apparently not the same as the present day persimmon) from which they extracted very valuable perfume, the sale of which made En Gedi rich at the time. Post hike (see photo below of the En Gedi oasis on its plateau, sun setting behind the mountains), we dropped by the spa centre one more time, this time to soak in their sulfur spring pools. The water was warm, salty and smelled mildly of rotten eggs, and we were able to float in it like in the Dead Sea. After about 15 minutes of this, I felt a little woozy, and ended up getting out as my face and neck felt flush and swollen…. Funny, I had had no reaction to the mud or Dead Sea the previous day. Luckily by the time we drove back up to Jerusalem, I was back to normal.

Back in Jerusalem on Saturday evening, we got in touch with my brother for a dad update… not too much had changed…. But my brother was wondering about whether we had heard any of the bombing. Gerrit and I both thought he meant the handful of missile that were coming out of Gaza over the last few days… not until we got off the phone with my brother and started reading news online did we understand what he had meant: Israel’s retaliation and bombing of Gaza, with some 200 Palestinian casualties! We had played ostrich while away at the Dead Sea, and hadn’t heard yet!

Up until now, when people had asked how the “situation” was here, I had happily answered that things where really stable and calm, that there were record numbers of tourists around because of just how quiet things were in the last while. To say this shook us up a little would be an understatement. If you study a map of the area, Gaza is just a couple hundred kilometers from here, and the West Bank a mere skip and a jump… Before coming here, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict had weighed heavily on my mind, and what it would mean for us to live here… When we got here, I was thrilled to be able to shove “the issue” under a rock as it didn’t seem to be an issue here in daily life: I explored both sides of Jerusalem, Israeli West Jerusalem and parts of Palestinian East Jerusalem (for instance the Mount of Olives) and for the most part felt I could maintain middle ground, partly hiding under the label of tourist. Beyond the personal safety fears, and the fear of renewed terrorist attacks, I now worry how this will change our experience of being here. So far, it’s been almost surreal to what degree it’s been business as usual. On Sunday night, there was tangible tension in the air, and a discernible increased police presence in the city… but otherwise, nothing… so this is another wait and see whilst biting your nails situation for us.

Back to the original nail biter now: my dad sounded a lot better on the phone Monday, in much less pain and hopeful of getting released after New Year’s. Today, the news is not so good… he had an unexplained fever yesterday and was once again quite uncomfortable… partly due to hiccups that wouldn’t go away. They’ve done more tests, the results of which I will hopefully learn shortly. So the worry goes on.

Tonight is New Year’s Eve…. But just like Christmas, it’s just a regular day here… Hannukah is now over, and the Jewish new year was months ago. Gerrit is at work both today and tomorrow… and I have am supposed to visit the zoo vet tomorrow to see if I can volunteer there…. I have been working with Spay Israel regularly these past couple weeks, but it’s just one day a week… and things with the SPCA continue to develop. If things ever settle down, I hope to have time to blog about our daily life here, and tell you more about my vet adventures thus far! Unfortunately, this isn’t likely any time soon, as we have another adventure just one week away: next Wednesday, the 7^th of January we fly to Holland. We are supposed to spend about 10 days there, as Gerrit gets the final parts of his Israeli visa in place now that the work permit is done... We are also supposed to visit his family and spend some time exploring Amsterdam (which we didn’t get a chance to do much last visit)… but of course we’ll see how the situation with my dad evolves back home first.

So from some rather unsettled times here in Jerusalem, here’s wishing everyone back home a very Happy New Year! May the New Year bring peace, health and happiness to you all, and may the bad stay in the old year. Have some bubbly & kapustnica (Slovak sauerkraut - I've given up trying to make it, it's all pork sausage and pork meat) for us tonight!

With love,

Tereza (& Gerrit)

PS: Below are a few more Dead Sea photos... I

just love them too much not to share....

Merry Christmas!

So I have become wretchedly behind on my blog…. It’s Christmas Eve and I just finally posted the blog about week 2 of our stay here… so if you haven’t already noticed it, please scroll down and also read “Adventures on the Mount of Olives”. Next, you can go on to read the blog entitled “Sonya visiting” which describes some of the adventures Sonya and I had a week ago when she was visiting from Canada. Finally, this last piece is a brief description of our Christmas plans… and of course most importantly, the purpose of this message is to wish you all A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HANUKAH and a restful and enjoyable week with family and friends, irrespective of what religious holiday you may or may not be celebrating!

So for our Christmas plans:

Christmas here is surreal... in West Jerusalem, there is very sparse evidence that Christmas is tomorrow... no Christmas music anywhere, no shopping, no cards, no lights!! Of course, this isn’t entirely surprising, as only about 5% of the population in Israel is Christian, and in fact right now most people are celebrating Hanukah, which from what I can tell has much less commercialism associated with it than Christmas back home, and is therefore much less in your face. In the Old City, the occasional vendor is selling Christmas lights and kitschy plastic Christmas decorations… either because they are one of the minority Christians (Arab, Armenian etc), or because they are capitalizing on the people who are Christian and want to buy such things (most Old City vendors of religious souvenirs, whether related to Christianity or Judaism, are themselves Muslim ironically). Overall, the nicest evidence of Christmas is of course in the Churches, where large advent wreathes are suspended from the ceiling behind the altars… and where there is obvious preparation for a crèche to come soon.

For me personally, the other big thing missing to make it feel Christmassy is snow. This is somewhat ironic, as snow had very little to do with the original Christmas. Up until 2 days ago, the weather here was sunny and warm most days (between 18-22C mid day) and I would have happily traded a day of sun shine for a little snow. Since Monday, the weather has taken what I am told by locals a much more typical turn for this time of year… it is much colder (perhaps only in the low to mid teens during the day), cloudy and also very unpleasantly windy, as if a storm were coming any minute. There has also been more rain, especially overnight and there’s even snow in the north of Israel! To be honest, though I don’t mind the cooler weather, I miss the sun and warmth a little (it was very easy to get used to). Also, I really wish it had waited just a few more days, as it will likely interfere with our Christmas plans as you’ll see below.

Gerrit and I had originally hoped to spend Christmas Eve in Bethlehem, but found out that you need to apply for a ticket for mass at the Church of the Nativity back in October!! Well in October, we were on honeymoon, and then busy packing and getting ready to move... and frankly hadn't even started thinking about Christmas. So, instead, we will be having fried carp and potatoe salad at home and then going to Christmas Eve mass at the Jerusalem church that does mass in English (the churches here have divided things up, such that there a parish/church that does mass in every major language (English, French, German, Spanish, Arabic, Russian etc)). I was actually able to obtain some very fresh carp at the market yesterday… the poor fish only met its end after I selected it… The plan for Christmas day is to drive down to the Dead Sea and spend the weekend there... to make it a bit more special. If we stayed home, there's organizing and cleaning to do... and no Christmas tree, it would just feel like any other day! The problem with this ingenious plan to go to the Dead Sea is that it was hatched before the weather took a wintery turn. Now, I am worried whether it will be nice enough or warm enough to go on nature hikes in the Ein Gedi nature reserve or to swim in the Dead Sea as planned. Also, when it rains in Jerusalem, the water makes its way down to the Dead Sea a couple days later and roads can become flooded in flash floods! So stay tuned… in a few days I’ll hopefully be able to let you know how this Christmas turned out for us.

Sonya visiting

Sonya and Don arrived Sunday, December 7^th. Don is one of the big wigs at Sandvine, and he frequently travels to Israel to coordinate things with Sandvine Israel. Sonya, his wife, has never been here, but has been bugging Don for a while to bring her along on one of his trips over. Sonya and I know each other socially from various Sandvine related events and are part of a smaller group of Sandvine wives that sometimes hang out together and see each other at weddings/baby showers etc. For Sonya, me moving here meant she would have someone to hang out with while Don spent long days in meeting at Sandvine. For me, Sonya visiting meant that I would have an official excuse to temporarily suspend further apartment cleaning efforts and explore more of Jerusalem, in the company of a friend no less! Furthermore, Sonya trusted me to plan most of the week out for us, such that I got to research and organize what we would do and see… Basically, I became her pseudo tour guide!

So on Monday, December 8^th, I dropped Gerrit off at Sandvine, picked Sonya up and with the GPS, schedule and guide in hand, Sonya and I set out on our adventure in our trusted little car. First order of business was to retrace the route Gerrit and I had previously discovered from Mount Scopus to the Mount of Olives. Unfortunately, there was a haze in the rift valley, and Sonya and I did not see the spectacular view towards the Dead Sea and Jordan from Mount Scopus. However, the Mount of Olives did not disappoint, and Sonya got her first overview of the city of Jerusalem. We also had our first of several attempted pick ups/come ons occur here. You see, Sonya exudes a sexy confidence and the local men found her quite irresistible. Two guys in their 30s approached us, asking if we’d like to go for coffee, or dinner… even after we said we were both married, they were not deterred… and somehow the conversation, whether through language barrier or their intentional doing, even veered off towards the topic of sex. For the most part they were polite, and before things got too far, we even posed with one of them while the other took our picture (see photo), but when they persisted, we just ended up saying goodbye and going on our way. Next, we descended down the Mount of Olives along the narrow and steep road that kept Gerrit and I in suspense a week earlier. I tried to play innocent, and scare Sonya a little, but I fear I’m not the best actress. At the bottom of the Mount of Olives, we visited an underground chapel that is the supposed Tomb of the Virgin Mary, and also the cave of Gethsemane, the traditional site of Jesus’ betrayal.

After the Mount of Olives, we finished the day off exploring the Old City, in particular we visited the Christian Quarter and the Holy Sepulchre, and took the time to line up for a visit inside Christ’s tomb, something I hadn’t yet done. It was small, cramped (Sonya bumped her head on the way, and received a “holy bump” in the process) and basically consisted of a stone slab upon which stood various icons, candles and a vase of flowers… a little disappointing on the whole. There was however a very beautiful beam of sunlight coming across one of the cupolas, the Catholikon Dome (see picture) and Sonya, who has a great eye for detail, was fascinated by the tiny Cruisader era crosses carved into the walls of St Helena’s chapel by pilgrims in the 10-11^th centuries (see photo). The souks (or market stalls) of the Old City were unfortunately ¾ closed, as the owners were off celebrating the muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha (this is the "Festival of Sacrifice", celebrated by Muslims to commemorate the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to God; this is essentially the same story as that of Abraham and his son Isaac as related by the Old Testament, only the muslimized version of it). At one of the vendors that was opened, Sonya did however find some beautiful opal earrings to compliment a bracelet Don had previously brought her here.

On Tuesday, we visited the Mahane Yehuda Market, an amazing food market with literally over a kilometer of vendor stalls lining two major avenues and all the small inter-connecting alleyways. Here we had the world’s freshest donuts for breakfast, with the jam still warm and oozy inside them (see photo of the next batch in the frier). We also explored the various famous hotels in West Jerusalem: the Citadel Hotel, modern, great view of Jaffa gate and the real Citadel (an ancient fortress in the walls of the Old City next to Jaffa gate)… great clean bathrooms; the King David Hotel, famous for all the dignitaries and politicians that have stayed there over time and are remember in the main corridor with signed tiles (Bush jr and senior, both Clintons, Jackie O, Gregory Peck, Elizabeth II etc)… wanting to soak up a little of the posh atmosphere for ourselves, we had lunch here, a delicious smoky eggplant soup followed by blintzes and latkes with loads of sour cream (a culinary salute to Yiddish cuisine).; and finally the YMCA, in a art deco building with a very atmospheric Arabian nights lobby. We decided to make the most of the remaining daylight and walk along the Old City walls in the afternoon. As we did so, the sky became increasingly ominous and dark, and soon we found ourselves in a full out rain shower (see picture of the Dome of the Rock in the distance, seen through the rain, from the walls of the city). We ended up having the back track a ways, as the exit at the gate where the rain caught us was closed! Soaked, we returned to our respective showers/bathtubs for a nice warm soak before going out to dinner with the boys (and Hussein, another visiting Sandviner from Canada – see photo).

Wednesday was museum day. First, we visited the Israel Museum. This is the premier cultural museum in Jerusalem, with exhibits about history, archeology and art. Unfortunately, the main museum is closed till 2010 for a major renovation. We did however see the model of Jerusalem in the era of the Second Temple (aka around the time of Jesus Christ and King Herod – see photo). We also took a shuttle bus and visited the Rockefeller archeological museum in East Jerusalem, which house all the archeological artifacts found in Israel before 1948 (see photo of the inner courtyard and tower of the museum). And finally, back at the Israel Museum, we took in the Shrine of the Book (see photo of white building with water streaming onto it... this is part of the Shrine of the Book), the special exhibit built in the sixties to house the Dead Sea scrolls as well as the Aleppo Codex (an ancient Hebrew bible). In the evening, Sonya and I watched a light and sound show projected onto the walls of the Citadel of the Old City recounting the history of the city of Jerusalem… from the first and second temple eras to the Roman, Arab, Crusader and Ottoman eras. It was very well done, and was thoroughly enjoyable, our only regret was that our husbands were not able to make it (this was supposed to be one of the things they were supposed to be able to join us for, as it was later in the evening… but some meeting kept them away).

Thursday, we again immersed ourselves into the history of the city of Jerusalem, with a visit to the City of David museum. This is in effect an archeological dig and visitors’ centre in one, located in East Jerusalem below the temple mount (aka where the Dome of the Rock now stands, and the location of the 1^st and 2^nd Jewish Temples). It is an area that is currently outside of the Old City walls, but was in fact where the original city of Jerusalem once stood, in the time of the Jewish Kings David and Solomon. I had booked us on a guided tour, and our tour guide, a young Israeli woman, told us about the history of the area and archeological ruins we were looking at with such passion and in such an interesting way, she really made the rocks and ancient ruins come alive. Both myself, and especially Sonya, who recently confessed a budding interest in archeology, thoroughly enjoyed the tour. Afterwards, we again visited the Old City, concentrating on the Jewish and Armenian Quarters this time. We saw the Western Wall (see photo), and a piece of the old Cardo (the main street of Jerusalem in Byzantine times). We had lunch at a small Armenia café, and were served delicious Armenian flat bread with finely minced lamb and spices. Sonya also purchased an antique coin made into a pendant, from 68 AD (aka the second year of the Jewish revolt against the Romans, just a couple years before the destruction of the Second Temple). Next, we wandered out of Zion Gate, and explored the sites on Mount Zion (the Cruisader era hall that is on the site of the Last Supper, a tomb that’s been ascribed to King David, and the Church of Dormition, where the Virgin Mary is said to have gone into eternal sleep – see photo of mosaic in the church). At the end of the day, Sonya and Don headed to Tel Aviv to spend the weekend there (think sun, beach and beach promenade).

Upon her return on Sunday morning, we again headed out to the Old City, to see it back up and running as the Eid muslim holiday was over. We were able to walk around the Temple Mount and take in the Dome of the Rock, but on a much cloudier day than I had previously experienced it. I think the Dome shows itself off the best in the gleaming sunshine, but it was nevertheless beautiful and is worth seeing in any kind of weather! Afterwards, we decided to wander some of the busy shopping streets in the Muslim Quarter. Sonya was looking for a present for her two sisters, and besides, the Muslim Quarter is a feast for the sense when it’s fully alive! After a typical middle eastern lunch of shewarma, we happened upon a store with sexy boots and shoes (see photo). Sonya knew she was in the right place… after some trying on of boots, some negotiating and a detour to the bank machine for extra cash, we made off with 3 pairs of sexy shiny boots for the Latchman sister!! We also ventured onto the roof of the Austrian Hospice (a sort of hostel for pilgrims to the Holy Land) located on the Via Dolorosa (a road through the Old City towards the Holy Sepulchre which comprises the stations of the cross) and enjoyed yet another stunning view of the Old City roof tops and neighbourhoods. That evening, Gerrit and I joined Don and Sonya as well as Stefan (another ex-pat Canadian Sandviner living in Jerusalem) and family for dinner with Larry, the head of Sandvine Israel. We had a very enjoyable meal of local cuisine (kebabs, grilled meats, humus, Israeli chopped salad etc)… and I received a very flattering compliment from Larry, who was impressed by my tour guide abilities and pleased that we were immersing ourselves in the local culture, history and taking it all in.

For Monday, Sonya’s last day in Jerusalem, we had saved some of the best for last: we again commandeered the mini bread box car and went for a day trip to the Dead Sea! This was my first trip there (and Sonya’s too of course), but Gerrit had already seen it on a previous business trip to Israel. As we zoomed down the highway from Jerusalem towards the bottom of the Jordan rift valley (remember we had about 1200m to descend, to some 400m below sea level, the lowest place on earth), we were taken with the beautiful barren landscape of rocky cliffs and sand. It was the first time in a true desert for both of us, and we were amazed by just how dry and austere it, yet stunningly beautiful it was! The only people we saw along the way where some Bedouin nomads who seem to live in small clusters in lean-to camps along the road. Their camels and goats were out grazing, but on goodness knows what, all we could see was sand, there was no obvious vegetation anywhere!

Once we made it to the bottom of the valley, the road took us along the western shore of the Dead Sea (aka the Israeli side of it… the Eastern shore is in Jordan). Although we were fortunate that the weather had improved since the previous day and it was nice and sunny, there was a haze, or perhaps some smog over the Dead Sea and the Jordan hills beyond. This just added to the mystique of the place… the blue to turquoise waters, the sandy cliffs, the barren landscape… As the made our way along the lake shore (the Dead Sea is actually a large salty lake fed by the Jordan River, rather than a real sea), we first passed an area called Qumran. This is where the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered by a Bedouin Sheppard boy in a cave, high up on the cliffs over looking the sea. Next, we passed several palm plantations… perhaps these were oases, or perhaps they were irrigated from stored water, I’m not sure. Nor do I know what the palms are for (dates? wood? other?)… but it gives me something to investigate next Dead Sea trip. At some point, the surrounding cliffs which had been a ways back from the road and shore crowded onto the sea such that our little road had to wind its way up and down part of them. In places where the road hit a low spot, there was signage warning of potential flooding across the road. This struck me as rather bizarre… flooding in the middle of the desert? But I quickly remember Gerrit relaying this fact to me after his visit here: when it rains up in Jerusalem, the run off waters rush down the mountains towards the Dead Sea, such that a couple days after rain in Jerusalem, the roads here can become suddenly flooded! After about 25km or so of travel along the sea, we came across the large oasis of Ein Gedi, up on a plateau over looking the Dead Sea. It is centered around a number of natural springs, and currently includes a small kibbutz resort, a desert Botanical garden and the Ein Gedi Nature reserve, a sort of national nature and wildlife park. The resort has also built a spa facility down by the actual sea for guests to enjoy… we were due here in the afternoon for some R&R, but for now, kept heading along the road.

Another 18km or so brought us to Masada, an ancient fortress and palace built in the 1^st or 2^nd centuries BC, perched on a plateau some 440m above the Dead Sea. From the visitor centre at the foot of the hills, we took a cable car up to the fortress and explored the various ruins and archeological digs. We were impressed by the size, sophistication and opulence of the complex: it included several palaces, a large set of storerooms for food and weapons, a synagogue, a bathhouse with hot and cold plunge pools and a steam room, a complex series of cisterns for water collection and storage, and even an outdoor swimming pool! Also impressive were the views of the Dead Sea from this mountain perch (see photo), and the remains on the Roman camps surrounding the fortress, dating back to 70-73AD when the fortress was under a Roman siege (you can see one of these camps on the left side of the photo from the cable car). To Sonya’s delight, we even came across a local archeologist who we immediately both dubbed Indy, since his hat, khakis and strong quiet demeanour were very reminiscent of a certain Harrison Ford character. By early afternoon, it was time to make our way back to the Ein Gedi spa. Here, we took full advantage of what they had to offer: we started off by riding their shuttle down to the Dead Sea itself (the Dead Sea is shrinking at an alarming rate due to drought and overuse of the Jordan River and its shores have receded some 500m in the last 20 years, so that the spa is no longer right on the sea, hence the need for a shuttle). I will never again forget sandals or flip flips when visiting there in the future, the “beach” was one large expanse of crystallized prickly salt! The water was a little on the refreshing side, but by no means cold. We both got in and were soon happily floating along. Due to the 26% contents of salt, a human being floats without effort in the waters of the Dead Sea! It was really cool… too bad we left the cameras back in our spa lockers. Next, we rode the shuttle back up to a large vat of the Dead Sea mud. We got ourselves covered in mud and proceeded to try and take sexy mud photos with Sonya’s cell phone, the only camera we had with us… Finally, after a rinse under sulfur spring shower to get the mud off, and a rinse in fresh water to get all the salt off, we ended our stay with a relaxing Sweddish massage (see picture of us in our bathrobes – very mellow and relaxed after the whole experience). By 5pm when we were done at the spa, it was getting quite dark outside, so we hopped back in the car for the hour and a half drive up hill to Jerusalem. Our poor little bread box had to work hard, but we made it in the end… By 6:30pm we were at Sandvine Israel, where our week of adventures came to a close! We said our goodbyes, and Sonya promised to visit again, perhaps with her sister… What a fun time =)

Adventures on the Mount of Olives

Last week I promised a description of our Saturday adventures on the Mount of Olives. And I will deliver, after a brief over view of the week. This week ended up being pretty similar thus far to last week: Gerrit spent most of the day at work, while I busied myself with getting the apartment civilized.

Beyond that, I spent a much-enjoyed half day walking around the Old City on Wednesday… it started as a simple mission to the tourist office to make enquiries regarding various museums and sites in anticipation of hosting Sonya next week (as I’ve already alluded to below). But you see, the tourist office is just inside the Old City walls, inside the Jaffa gate… and when I found out that I could go and visit the Dome of the Rock, I just couldn’t resist!! I decided to stick around until the proper time… and in the mean time wandered around the Christian Quarter. There, I ended up climbing to the top of the Tower of the Church of the Redeemer (a better work out than any Stair Master!) and was privy to some stunning view of the Old City (again, please refer to the last blog entry for some pictures of this outing). The Dome of the Rock was magnificent, and walking around the Temple Mount was an awe inspiring experience as well. It is in a sense a refuge for the Muslim community: I was there at 1pm, and a bunch of children had just gotten out of school… there were kids running around, boys playing soccer; young girls giggling and calling to other groups of giggling girls… there were old men sitting in the shade chatting with friends, or quietly dozing; a couple families were having a picnic lunch; in one pavilion, a group of women were studying the Koran… it felt so calm, so normal and yet somehow spiritual at the same time… these scenes of normal life within such a holy place just made sense there somehow, as it is as much a sunny, opened garden as it is a place of prayer… and it was in stark contrast to the crowded, dark, harassed alleys of the rest of the Old City. I will definitely be visiting there again.

The adventure on the Mount of Olives happened as follows: on Saturday afternoon, when our neighbourhood was virtually completely shut down for the Shabbat, we decided to go out for a drive, in order to further familiarize ourselves with Jerusalem, and also to test out the new GPS Gerrit had bought. One of the places I had read about that I wanted to visit was the Mount of Olives, and that’s what we attempted to type into the GPS. The GPS informed us it was unreachable… but proposed a route there anyway. So we set off, following its directions. Our side of the city was indeed deserted, and the roads were pretty empty. But the minute we rounded the north west corner of the Old City, suddenly, we were in a traffic jam! We were in 3 lanes of traffic filled with cars, vans and several large tour buses, all converging onto a small single-lane round about. The van behind us decided to let us and everyone else know that he felt the slow pace was unacceptable… and blared his horn repeatedly. Eventually we crawled our way into the round about only to find ourselves yielding to two guys trying to push a large cart of bread through the round about! Tour buses, impatient vans and now bread, all in one large traffic jam. As we ease our way out of the round about, we realized we had crossed into the arab or muslim side of town, which explained why we went from deserted streets to complete mayhem: the muslims celebrate their holy day on Friday, and so on the Shabbat, their side of town is back in business. Also, it was the reason the GPS initially told us the Mount of Olives was unreachable… as it was set to navigate through non-arab neighbourhoods only.

Anyway, we continued along… and things suddenly got interesting with respect to the GPS instructions. You see, a GPS is only as good as the latest maps it contains. Furthermore, we have 3 paper maps of Jerusalem, and we’ve noticed that not only is it difficult to extrapolate from the maps to reality, but the 3 maps are all slightly different from each other as well! So really, Jerusalem is rather a maze, and there seems to be no definitive map of it available! Likely this was also the problem our GPS was having… As we attempted to follow its instructions, it kept declaring “route recalculation” which basically means you’ve strayed from where it meant you to go and it is trying to correct course. Not only were we and our GPS lost, but very quickly we got ourselves deep into the Arab neighbourhood (aka East Jerusalem, whereas West Jerusalem is the Israeli side of town). This was our first time venturing here, and frankly it was rather intimidating. First of all, upon question our Israeli relocation representative about what there was to see in East Jerusalem, he basically said something to the effect of “why would you even want to go there” and basically concluded that we shouldn’t for our own safety. And second, whereas as West Jerusalem was basically a slightly more hectic version of modern Western civilization, East Jerusalem was much more reminiscent of my travels in East Africa, with narrow roads, a chaos of small business owners, garbage, stray animals and people everywhere. Up until this point, I had not really experience any culture shock (both due to the tamer nature of West Jerusalem, and also knowing what to expect), but if there was culture shock to be had, it was definitely here, in East Jerusalem.

At one point, the GPS kept trying to redirect us west, but we decided not to listen, as I have a fairly good sense of orientation and was very sure the Mount of Olives was in the other direction. Eventually we emerged from the East Jerusalem neighbourhood onto Mount Scopus, and found ourselves on the Hebrew University Campus. Suddenly, an amazing vista opened up below us. From inside the city of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus is a smallish hill overlooking the city… a little to the north of the Mount of Olives. But standing on top of it, it becomes clear that it really is a “mountain” as the other slope falls away rather steeply, descending down into an immense valley. In the distance, we could see a second ridge of mountains and in front of them, a large body of water appeared to be starting and continuing towards the south beyond our view. Gerrit and I parked the car and stood there over this amazing view, debating what it was we were looking at. I argued that the water was in fact the Dead Sea with the Jordan Rift Valley surrounding it and that the mountains beyond it were actually across the border in Jordan. Gerrit wasn’t convinced, he felt the Dead Sea was further away. So we pulled out the guide book, studied the map, made guesstimates of distances in the landscape in front of us and more or less concluded it couldn’t be anything but the Dead Sea!! How amazing, we had no idea you could see it, and even the mountains in Jordan, all the way from Jerusalem! It also made it more obvious why the hills surrounding Jerusalem like Mount Scopus and the Mount of Olives actually deserved the designation "mount". I later looked into it, Jerusalem is about 800-850m above sea level, whereas the Dead Sea and rift valley are about 400m below sea level, such that from the valley below, we are some 1200m up. Staring in disbelief at the amazing view, can you imagine my consternation when I realized we had forgotten the camera at home?!?! And ironically, I’ve managed to return to Mount Scopus several times since that day, and never again has there been a view…. since the valley is often shrouded in either smog or under a cloudy front.

Amazing view or not, we still hadn’t reached our target of the Mount of Olives. So we hopped back in the car and continued south. Again we seemed to enter an Arab neighbourhood. Then we drove up to a large wall… which occluded where I thought the Mount of Olives should be. Then we noticed tour buses and tourists congregating around a small gate in the wall. We ventured in… and found ourselves in the Pater Noster cloister. This is a church and convent built around the small cave where Jesus is said to have taught the Our Father (or Pater Noster in Latin) to his disciples for the first time. The cloister walls have the Our Father written on them in countless languages…. We found both Slovak and Dutch… and many others. After walking around there, we knew we must be close, as my guide book was clear that the Pater Noster is ON the Mount of Olives…. But where was the amazing view of Jerusalem that it promised? Back in our car, we headed along the cloister wall and, after rounding the corner, suddenly found ourselves at destination: a lookout terrace just below the 7 Arches Hotel, overlooking the slopes of the Mount of Olives and the Old City below! It was incredible, a much better view than we’d seen before… again my heart cried at the thought of the forgotten camera at home. I have however returned several times since then, so I am including some pictures of this breath taking view in this blog.

On the lookout terrace, there is a Bedouin camel, for the benefit of the tourists… and several men were trying to sell us various panoramas and books about the Old City… When they finally gave up on us, as it became clear we weren’t buying anything, we just stood there, in awe of the view below us. In a little while, an old man in typical old fashion Arab dress came up the hill on a white donkey. He was in a very golly mood, and was very friendly… and for once didn’t seem interested in selling us anything. In broken English, he joked with us that the donkey was an descendant of the donkey that Jesus rode down the Mount of Olives and into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday centuries ago…. And he explained that this is why he had named him Peter (after Jesus’ trusted disciple). He also introduced us to his friend the camel and fed him green cabbage leaves from a large rucksack on Peter’s back. After a while, with some reluctance, we decided it was time to get home again (goodness knows how long it was going to take to find our way back), and besides, the wind was harsh and cold up on top of the Mount. I asked the old man whether there was a way to get down the Mount of Olives towards the Old City (vs the long way we had come). He pointed to the road he had come up on Peter and said "that way". I looked dubiously at the narrow cobble stone road and asked whether we could go down that way with a car. He enthusiastically assured me that yes. So we decide to give it a go. It started off just fine, it first led to a lower look-out terrace, and there was even another car there. But then is turned sharply down hill, and continued between two tall walls.

As we descended along this scary road, we started passing some of the other significant sites on the Mount of Olives: to our left, the vast Jewish cemetery (Jews believe that when Judgment day comes, the souls from this cemetery will be judged first, so that it is both very popular, and very expensive to be buried here); to our right, the Dominus Flevit Chapel and the Church of St Mary Magdalene (Russian Orthodox, in typical muscovite style with 5 gold gilded onion domes - see picture... the road is between the walls you can see in the foreground)…. The further we got, the narrower and steeper the road got. Soon, we were in a place where a car any bigger than our compact Hyundai would not have fit! The prospect of perhaps having to back our way up the hill should the road end or become impassible was quite horrifying. Luckily all ended well, as we suddenly exited onto a bigger road, right beside the Church of All Nations. Phew! Next time, I will likely not seek the advice regarding roads from someone whose mode of transportation was substantially narrower than ours…. After all, Peter was less than half the width of our car! From there, getting home ended up being quite easy… We took a road that followed the Old City walls up and over Mount Zion and eventually lead us all the way to Jaffa Gate. And from Jaffa Gate, we already knew our way home. What a mini adventure for an afternoon! It made me hungry for future opportunities to drive up there, and to actually visit some more of the sites and churches on the Mount of Olives.