My Christmas in Israel

Shalom!

I’ve spent some of this last week trying to organize my thoughts on the 10 days I spent in Israel, but I was distracted by other current events in my life, which I’ll get into in my next post because they’ll be relevant and story-worthy by then:) That’s a little teaser for you…

Going to Israel was one of those vacations you need a vacation to recover from, but those are the kind I like to take. It’s an intense place, with lots of energy, particularly in Jerusalem, where I spent the majority of my time. I saw a lot and did a lot, which took a lot out of me, especially when I started and ended my trip with 36-hour periods without sleep.

My cousin Erik has lived in Israel for the past three years, and since he is my only family this side of the Atlantic, I went to hang out with him over my Christmas holidays, and to take advantage of the opportunity to see such a fascinating country with a Hebrew-speaking tour guide who had a couch for me to sleep on! Erik was in Prague the week before I arrived, so we cleverly timed our flights to arrive in the Tel Aviv airport within an hour of each other. I arrived first, at 4am, to discover his flight had been delayed and wouldn’t arrive till 8:30. I dozed, off and on, for the next three hours, and then was told that the flight had been further delayed till 11. I had been up since 5:30 the previous morning to catch my flight to London, so I was beyond exhausted at this point. If the floor had been carpeted, I would have laid down on it and slept quite blissfully.

Anyway, Erik and I stayed up for the rest of the day, traveling from the airport to his place in Hadera, a town about 40 Km north of Tel Aviv, and doing some food shopping, but little else. The following day we went a little further north to Haifa, a port city on the Mediterranean, and did a lot of walking…we got lost, then found, and visited the gorgeous Baha’i gardens there.

The next day was Christmas day, but I had sort of forgotten about it, even though we had watched White Christmas the night before. That morning, I caught a bus to Tel Aviv to get a shared taxi, a sherut, to Jerusalem, where I was going to spend some time at Erik’s aunt and uncle’s place while he was at work. The stand for Jerusalem was mobbed, and each time a sherut pulled up, it was swarmed with people clamouring to get on it. I was puzzled by this, as Erik had made it sound as if there would be one waiting to fill up, and when I overhead a couple speaking English to each other, I asked them if something was up.

“I think it’s because of the holiday,” the woman said. What holiday is she talking about?? I wondered to myself, racking my brain for a Jewish holiday that fell at this time of the year… When I finally got on a sherut, there was much screaming and yelling between the passengers and driver, all in Hebrew, which I sat listening to in bewilderment. Finally, after the furor had died down, I said to the group in general, “What’s going on?” A man turned to me and said, “The problem is that it’s Christmas day and everyone wants to go to Jerusalem, so they are charging 30 shekels instead of 20, and people are upset.” And then the light went on, and I realized what holiday the woman had been talking about!

Needless to say, it was a very non-Christmassy day I had. I went to the Old City in Jerusalem and wandered around its maze of narrow streets, jammed with shops and vendors and restaurants. I went to the Western Wall, and stood staring in awe. I had lunch in an open-air cafe of hummus, pita, and a myriad of wonderful salads – cabbage, eggplant, pickles, tahini, mmmmmmm. That night, Erik’s aunt and uncle, Audrey and Tzvi, took me along to their folk dancing class, which was a ton of fun. I followed along as best I could, with Audrey muttering occasional instructions to me, and did not too badly, considering the instruction was all in Hebrew. And that was my Christmas day!

I spent three days in Jerusalem, wandering around the Old City. It’s a curious, ancient place, divided into four quarters: Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Armenian. I think there’s something about all these different faiths living cheek-by-jowl in an uneasy sort of truce that creates the feeling of tension in the Old City. I don’t feel qualified to describe the three holy sites within the walls of the Old City, because of their incredibly layered and complex histories, so I will just list them…

The Western Wall (sometimes called the Wailing Wall): the holiest site in Judaism, a place of worship and prayer.

Temple Mount: known to Muslims as the Noble Sactuary, it is considered the third holiest site in the Muslim faith. It has two major Muslim religious shrines: the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque. This site is also sacred to the Jewish faith, but Jews are forbidden to enter it, and the Western Wall is the holiest accessible site for prayer. Temple Mount is one of the most contested religious sites in the world.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre: This is the site where Jesus was crucified and buried, though this has been contested. There is a street in the Old City called Via Dolorosa, which is believed (and also contested) to be the route Christ walked on the cross.

On Friday, Erik and I went to Bethlehem. Bethlehem is in the West Bank, which is under Palestinian control, so it was an interesting experience getting in and out. Erik was concerned because he’s technically an Israeli citizen, and they’re not allowed in to Bethlehem. So he used his Canadian passport, and they basically just waved us through. It was only three days after Christmas, so they must have seen a parade of tourists all week long.

There’s not much to see in Bethlehem, apart from the gorgeous Church of Nativity, which is built over the cave that traditionally marks the birthplace of Christ. We also went to the Milky Grotto and stumbled on a cemetery with the most elaborate and ornate gravestones we’d ever seen. Manger Square is in the centre of town, and there’s a mosque on one side of it; when we arrived, there were prayers being played over the loudspeaker and the square was full of Muslims, just sitting and listening and praying, like an open-air, public service. Felt like we were walking through a church. We had some lunch, and then headed back to the wall, a literal and physical wall that separates the two sides. We were both a bit relieved to get back to the other side.

Friday night is the beginning of Shabbat, the weekly Sabbath or day of rest in Judaism. It starts at sundown on Fridays and lasts till sundown on Saturday. Because work is forbidden on the Shabbat, everything shuts down. Shops are closed, restaurants are closed, buses don’t run – nothing is open. Friday night dinner is an important part of the day, and Erik and I were invited to Audrey and Tsvi’s table. We started the meal with a braided loaf of bread, a challah, and a glass of wine, and ended it with a rousing game of Boggle!

Erik and I prepared for Shabbat by renting a car on Friday morning, and spent Saturday driving to the Dead Sea. Areas where there are more tourists generally have some things open so you can have a meal or get money. We drove through the West Bank to get to the Dead Sea, and then down the coast, and back into Israeli territory, again through mostly perfunctory checkpoints. We stopped off at a rocky beach and climbed in the water and floated around. It really is the most peculiar feeling, to be so buoyant. You feel sort of like you’re bouncing in the water, like you’re sitting on a big ball that’s pushing you up.

We drove back to Hadera on Saturday night and returned the car in the morning before Erik went to work. I went to Tel Aviv and spent the day wandering through the Carmel market, and putting my toes in the Mediterranean. This trip was the first time I had seen the Med, but it was too cool to swim in. I also went down to the port city of Jaffa, pronounced Yafo if you’re in the know, which was like a more relaxed and slower paced version of the Old City in Jerusalem.

New year’s eve Erik and I hung out with his friend Tal, and had a quiet evening, which is pretty much my ideal new year’s eve scene. My flight home left super early the morning of the 1st, so I left Hadera around 1am to get the train to the airport, and arrived in Dublin about 8pm that day.

I had a great time on this trip. It was great to see Erik and have some one-on-one time with him, and I had a great time staying at Audrey and Tsvi's lively home. I loved the food...I was in hummus heaven...wish I could've filled up my suitcase with all the yummy things I ate there. And it was just an amazing experience to be in a place with so much religious and historical importance to so many people around the world.

I created two sets of pictures on my Flickr site -- one for Jerusalem and one for the other cities I visited. Thanks for reading...I know it was a long one.