June 26, 2007

We woke up late today and headed up to breakfast. All of the sisters that saw us kept asking us, "Are you leaving?" or "You're still here?" I'm not sure how to take that... You'd think they didn't want us here! ;) No, they love us. They were all just shocked that we were still there, since we had planned to only stay a couple of nights then head to Egypt. Plus, there was the fact that we were supposed to check out today...

Around 10, we left to find Mazada tours. We headed toward Jaffa gate, accompanied by another lady staying at Ecco Homo with us... Gloria? I really should figure out her name. She's an archaeology teacher at the University of Toronto, here on a grant to prepare for future grants. On our way, we passed by Shabaan's, who was finally open, and Nassar's. Both recoghttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifnized me and joyfully said hello as we passed. I love being recognized by the locals in the Old City. Parting with Gloria, we went out Jaffa gate and started our adventure to find Mazada tours. With a point in the right direction by a couple of security guards, we found what we were looking for. An hour-ish later, we had booked our trip to Egypt. We leave July 1st. Yay for having some plans! (Plans on when we'll be back to Israel are still a little in the making and are currently waiting on-the-fly decision making.)

We returned to the western wall in time to pick up our tickets for the Kotel Tunnel tour. I went to the washroom while Travis went out to take pictures. (Note: Many of our tour guides use the term washroom as opposed to restroom, bathroom, or WC. Several of us have determined that we like the term and want to incorporate it into American vernacular. So please, join with us in calling it the washroom.) Ok, first, I need to tell you about one of the joys of a city constantly concerned with bombings. We were warned from day one never to leave your bag unattended. Ever. If the guards ever see an unattended bag, they will assume it is a bomb and will blow it up, without checking to see who it belongs to or what it contains. One student lost a very nice camera that way. So, randomly placed around the city are these giant spherical concrete things that are used to blow up unattended bags. It's crazy to think about. Ok, back to the story. So, while I was in the washroom, I guess Travis was meandering about. In his meanderings, he saw one of those spherical bomb-detonators and it was smoking! But, by the time he got close enough to take a picture, it had stopped. ~sigh. Wouldn't that have been an amazing picture?

By noon, we were on the Kotel tunnel tour. I think I have skipped the day that I went on it with the group, so I will describe it here. Then when/if I catch up, I'll just refer to this description. Basically, the Kotel tunnel goes alongside the Western Wall of the temple mount. It wasn't initially a tunnel, it used to be the road people traveled along the wall. However, when the Muslism moved into the city 1300 or so years ago and built the Dome of the Rock, the people wanted their houses to have a clear view of it. So they built arches to lift the ground level so they could see the Dome. Now, what used to be road is currently tunnels. It's a fun tour. They have models that walk you through what has happened to the temple mount from when it was simply Mount Moriah until today. You also walk directly next to original Herodian stones that form the platform as well as see Roman and Byzantine artifacts such as columns and cisterns. It's a very informative walk, though very biased this time through. (My guide when I went through with the Center was much younger and much less biased.) At one point I turned to Travis and said, "He's not bitter, is he?" just as Travis was about to say, "Bitter, party of one." hehe.

At the end of the tour, we came out on the Via Dolorosa, right next to our hospice. Everyone else got an armed guard back to the Western Wall, but we decided to skip out and stay where we were. (Obviously, the walk between the Via Dolorosa and the Western Wall is a highly dangerous walk that requires an armed guard at the front and rear. [rolls eyes] Give me a break. But, if it will make the Jewish tour guide feel safer walking through Muslim shops, then go right ahead.) As we walked back towards the hospice, we noticed that the Prison of Jesus was open for the first time, so we detoured through there. Then we headed back to the hospice where Travis was boring, so I fell asleep. :)

An hour or two later... we headed over to the Garden Tomb to see if we could make a sunrise appointment and to check out where we wanted to shoot from. They said no to the sunrise shot, but we went ahead and looked at spots anyway. After we were done and were being more touristy, looking at the winepress, this Korean Christian missionary who is learning Hebrew and English came up and started talking to us. It was kind of hard to understand him at first, but became easier the more we talked. By the end, he had invited us to meet with him and his pastor for a short 20 minute meeting. We reminded him that we were Christian and were really busy, so politely refused. I felt kind of bad, but not really, considering that if we went, we wouldn't be able to talk about what we believe anyway. So then we went and sat down while Travis took pictures of the winepress from another angle. From the bench behind me came a voice, "Excuse me, but are you Mormon?" Uhhh... you'd think I'd be used to that by now. But how in the world did he guess that? Then to add shock, when we said we were, he said, "Me too!" Woah. That's a first here, to be sure. Obviously we were curious as to how he knew, so he enlightened us—Travis was wearing a BYU t-shirt and I was wearing a CTR ring. hehehe. That was easy enough. And here I expected a "light in your eyes" kind of answer. Oh well. I guess not all recognitions of us being Mormon can be romanticized. His name is Peter and he is from the Philippines. He had brought a Catholic friend of his to the Garden Tomb with him, so we got to meet her as well. He was so excited to see a fellow Mormon. It was cute. After awhile, we said goodbye and promised to see him at church on Sabbath.

On our way back, we bought a pair of scissors in case we needed to adapt our material for props, then found some baklava for Travis to try. Mmmm... I like that stuff. Then came the Internet cafe where we started booking hostels for Jordan and figuring out a tentative plan from there. Not sure where to find a good prayer shawl (or how much to pay) or a new-looking widow's mite, we headed over to Shabaan's for advice. Like typical Shabaan, he pulled out an old, dirty prayer shawl that he sold us for 20 shekels. Not bad at all considering that everyone else sold them for over 100. He also pulled out his "authentic" collection of widow's mites and sold us one for $3. Oh well. We had been looking for fake ones. hehe. As we sat there and pondered over it, he gave us each a coin that none of us have any idea what they are, but it's an ancient looking coin, so good for us! :D

After getting lost again, we stopped for dinner at Amigo Emil's again (the divinely good restaurant we had cheeseburgers at) and this time ordered pizza. Again, really good. Then it was back to the hospice where we stayed up for awhile just talking and laughing, then went to bed.