Jerusalem
Usually we go to nature trips, but to begin with our capital sounds like a good start. Although, this specific post might be interesting to people abroad, so I'll write it in "international" English.
Yet another reason is that Misha, who can't read Hebrew will send me the photos from his cam :)
Participants: Sergei, Olga, Surdin, Yael, Lev, Misha1, Misha2, Puthin
This Sabbath we woke up early, and by ten we have been already to Latrun http://my.homewithgod.com/Israel/latroun/ (hey, hyperlinks are useful! I really do not have something special to say about this place, but it is a nice stop on the way from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, so here it is).
Well, actually there is a funny story about it. Some six (! sic!) years ago, when Misha got his driver license, we where on a school trip, having a stop in the Latrun Armor Corps museum nearby. [Well enough, from now on, you search google, ok?]. We had the urge to celebrate his new license, so in the hour we had, Misha, me and Sotya, ran from the museum parking to the monastery, bought some red whine, drank it really fast, and ran back. Sweating and smelling extremely mint, we made it to the bus, having all the class waiting for us. Our teacher Talya was very amused.
We made our mind to Ein Karem - a small Jerusalem satellite with many churches. On our way there, we encountered Sataf - small water spring you can swim in, extremely nice to refresh yourself in a hot Israel summer.
In Ein Karem we've been to Russian monastery, which is nice and very "Russian". In it we encountered a couple of semi-criminal looking youngsters : "Слышь, чё то туристов понаехало, чё, день открытых дверей что ли?". Sorry, but it is funny only in Russian anyway. In quest for god. yep. There we had a Yemen style launch - malauah and jahnun. With good European cold beer. That's what makes the difference between a good city trip and an average one. A beer in the middle of the day.
From there we continued to "Hadasa - Ein Karem". Yes, the hospital from the news. No nothing wrong, They have a synagogue there, with 14 Mark Shagal's genuine stained glasses. We figured out that it would be probably open on Sabbath, it is a synagogue. But we where wrong. It appears that there is another synagogue in the hospital 20 meters from Shagal's, in which where plenty of people actually. Hmm, maybe it is because paintings with human figures are forbidden in synagogues? What Shagal was thinking? So we saw the stained glass from the outside. It was dark inside, so we didn't see the colors of the glass. Which makes it just watching strange curved metal forms. Disappointed, we went away.
Lev had to pick up his parents from Ben Gurion Airport, and he was the driver of one of the cars, so he took Ilya and Yael with him, and they left.
The rest of us (me, Olya, Misha++) continued to Jerusalem. We've gone to supreme court building and garden. It is really an impressive piece of architecture. The game of semi shadows represents the trouble in coming to a verdict. The Knesset building on the other hand looks like factory. Why didn't they use the famous Jerusalem stone? It was very, hot, I dreamt about ice cream, so we continued to the Old City (the idea was to get inside air conditioned David Tower museum).
We parked near the north gate. "It is a Christian block, it's ok to be there". Right. Very fast we found ourselves in the heart of the Muslim bazaar. I suppose it is not too dangerous for us to be there. Plenty of tourist are going around. But somehow, the local Arabs just seem to smell who are tourists from Russia, and who are Israel Jews talking Russian. And if you'll have one of these nice curved knifes stuck in your back by one of this small boys in T-green shirt with a picture of Dome of the rock, noon will ever revenge you.
We saw a group of chief Christian priests in a ceremony walk, with a younger priest in funny Turkish hat making loud knocks on the floor with a huge stick, making the crowd in the tiny passes to move away. We let them pass and stuck to them from behind. That way, with the ring of bells, we proceeded slowly to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Well, been there, done that. a couple of times. I'm half a Russian, but this place is so dark.. Somehow I have this feeling there not of a spirit enlightening, but of an air shortage.. I don't know, maybe I think too much of it.
We where still hoping to get to David tower. A police officer and some guide told us to go in a specific way, and so we did. It was a Muslim bazaar again, but we where not so stressed by it as before. There where much more tourists there too. But, in some point we made a wrong turn, and continued to the heart of Muslim block. When we realized that, we heard a melody before us, end soon another procession reached us - there were Muslim tourists, singing, smiling, playing a guitar. Something very joyful about "Salam" - peace. We liked that, so we joined them in the middle, as they seemed to be going in the right direction. So we continued walking with the singing party, smiling to the sellers, till we went out of the bazaar strait to the Armenian quarter, the David Tower.
It was 16:30 already, The museum was closed already, Puthin was about to arrive with Surd and Yael, so we waited for them a while, doing little walks to the stores, buying stuff. When we all joined up, we continued to the Jewish block. Here's the place I like. It was Sabbath, so nothing was open, but still, It was so beautiful! Traveling without a purpose through the tiny twisted streets, plazas, roofs levels.. Then we found a good view point to the Kotel (the western wall). (Search for a handwrite on the walls - למצפה). We stayed there for a while, then gone to stand a little by the wall, and gone back to the cars.
note: in Jaffa gates there is an _exit_ from the walls.
After walking by Gye Ben Hinom valley (= gihenom = giena = hell) (really nice place for a picnic, with a natural climbing wall too), we made it to the cars. After a short (about half an hour)rearrangement we all been to Jaffa street, the place to start our journey to the night life of Jerusalem.
note: driving in Jerusalem is OK. Navigating is not. You make the wrong turn, and oops, you're in a tunnel, finding the only exit in the Arab part of town two kilometers away.
The city came to life from the Sabbath, in minutes many cars appeared, people crowded the streets. Alfei Menashe is surely one of the best places to spend an evening. A festival that never ends. We where extremely hungry, so we ate some humus in "new abu gosh", then an ice cream (finally). Me and Olya bought matching bracelets. At end, we concluded the evening in a nice bar (there are plenty) - good music, beer (that came with a funny blue "polish"), nargila under the sky. The perfect ending.
and only then we gone home.
Do you see the length of this post? That's because we where overloaded with impressions. It was like going abroad. "abroad" is merely an attitude, remember.. And I'm glad I've spent the rest hour for making a written memory, that's the proper closing for the day. Without analysis the experience is incomplete, heh?
Yet another reason is that Misha, who can't read Hebrew will send me the photos from his cam :)
Participants: Sergei, Olga, Surdin, Yael, Lev, Misha1, Misha2, Puthin
This Sabbath we woke up early, and by ten we have been already to Latrun http://my.homewithgod.com/Israel/latroun/ (hey, hyperlinks are useful! I really do not have something special to say about this place, but it is a nice stop on the way from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, so here it is).
Well, actually there is a funny story about it. Some six (! sic!) years ago, when Misha got his driver license, we where on a school trip, having a stop in the Latrun Armor Corps museum nearby. [Well enough, from now on, you search google, ok?]. We had the urge to celebrate his new license, so in the hour we had, Misha, me and Sotya, ran from the museum parking to the monastery, bought some red whine, drank it really fast, and ran back. Sweating and smelling extremely mint, we made it to the bus, having all the class waiting for us. Our teacher Talya was very amused.
We made our mind to Ein Karem - a small Jerusalem satellite with many churches. On our way there, we encountered Sataf - small water spring you can swim in, extremely nice to refresh yourself in a hot Israel summer.
In Ein Karem we've been to Russian monastery, which is nice and very "Russian". In it we encountered a couple of semi-criminal looking youngsters : "Слышь, чё то туристов понаехало, чё, день открытых дверей что ли?". Sorry, but it is funny only in Russian anyway. In quest for god. yep. There we had a Yemen style launch - malauah and jahnun. With good European cold beer. That's what makes the difference between a good city trip and an average one. A beer in the middle of the day.
From there we continued to "Hadasa - Ein Karem". Yes, the hospital from the news. No nothing wrong, They have a synagogue there, with 14 Mark Shagal's genuine stained glasses. We figured out that it would be probably open on Sabbath, it is a synagogue. But we where wrong. It appears that there is another synagogue in the hospital 20 meters from Shagal's, in which where plenty of people actually. Hmm, maybe it is because paintings with human figures are forbidden in synagogues? What Shagal was thinking? So we saw the stained glass from the outside. It was dark inside, so we didn't see the colors of the glass. Which makes it just watching strange curved metal forms. Disappointed, we went away.
Lev had to pick up his parents from Ben Gurion Airport, and he was the driver of one of the cars, so he took Ilya and Yael with him, and they left.
The rest of us (me, Olya, Misha++) continued to Jerusalem. We've gone to supreme court building and garden. It is really an impressive piece of architecture. The game of semi shadows represents the trouble in coming to a verdict. The Knesset building on the other hand looks like factory. Why didn't they use the famous Jerusalem stone? It was very, hot, I dreamt about ice cream, so we continued to the Old City (the idea was to get inside air conditioned David Tower museum).
We parked near the north gate. "It is a Christian block, it's ok to be there". Right. Very fast we found ourselves in the heart of the Muslim bazaar. I suppose it is not too dangerous for us to be there. Plenty of tourist are going around. But somehow, the local Arabs just seem to smell who are tourists from Russia, and who are Israel Jews talking Russian. And if you'll have one of these nice curved knifes stuck in your back by one of this small boys in T-green shirt with a picture of Dome of the rock, noon will ever revenge you.
We saw a group of chief Christian priests in a ceremony walk, with a younger priest in funny Turkish hat making loud knocks on the floor with a huge stick, making the crowd in the tiny passes to move away. We let them pass and stuck to them from behind. That way, with the ring of bells, we proceeded slowly to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Well, been there, done that. a couple of times. I'm half a Russian, but this place is so dark.. Somehow I have this feeling there not of a spirit enlightening, but of an air shortage.. I don't know, maybe I think too much of it.
We where still hoping to get to David tower. A police officer and some guide told us to go in a specific way, and so we did. It was a Muslim bazaar again, but we where not so stressed by it as before. There where much more tourists there too. But, in some point we made a wrong turn, and continued to the heart of Muslim block. When we realized that, we heard a melody before us, end soon another procession reached us - there were Muslim tourists, singing, smiling, playing a guitar. Something very joyful about "Salam" - peace. We liked that, so we joined them in the middle, as they seemed to be going in the right direction. So we continued walking with the singing party, smiling to the sellers, till we went out of the bazaar strait to the Armenian quarter, the David Tower.
It was 16:30 already, The museum was closed already, Puthin was about to arrive with Surd and Yael, so we waited for them a while, doing little walks to the stores, buying stuff. When we all joined up, we continued to the Jewish block. Here's the place I like. It was Sabbath, so nothing was open, but still, It was so beautiful! Traveling without a purpose through the tiny twisted streets, plazas, roofs levels.. Then we found a good view point to the Kotel (the western wall). (Search for a handwrite on the walls - למצפה). We stayed there for a while, then gone to stand a little by the wall, and gone back to the cars.
note: in Jaffa gates there is an _exit_ from the walls.
After walking by Gye Ben Hinom valley (= gihenom = giena = hell) (really nice place for a picnic, with a natural climbing wall too), we made it to the cars. After a short (about half an hour)rearrangement we all been to Jaffa street, the place to start our journey to the night life of Jerusalem.
note: driving in Jerusalem is OK. Navigating is not. You make the wrong turn, and oops, you're in a tunnel, finding the only exit in the Arab part of town two kilometers away.
The city came to life from the Sabbath, in minutes many cars appeared, people crowded the streets. Alfei Menashe is surely one of the best places to spend an evening. A festival that never ends. We where extremely hungry, so we ate some humus in "new abu gosh", then an ice cream (finally). Me and Olya bought matching bracelets. At end, we concluded the evening in a nice bar (there are plenty) - good music, beer (that came with a funny blue "polish"), nargila under the sky. The perfect ending.
and only then we gone home.
Do you see the length of this post? That's because we where overloaded with impressions. It was like going abroad. "abroad" is merely an attitude, remember.. And I'm glad I've spent the rest hour for making a written memory, that's the proper closing for the day. Without analysis the experience is incomplete, heh?
posted by Sergei at
4:46 PM
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