where am I now

maandag, juli 03, 2006

Jeruzalem

what a great weekend this was!
Finally we were with just 4 volunteers of ein harod and 2 from Geva.
But actually, I think that was just right to do wat we wanted to do : "follow James"(insider).
I don't really feel like writing everything we did, what we ate, who we talked to etc.
But I can Tell you Jerusalem is a city like I've never seen before.
We spend the whole night and day in the old city, walked around in the suq's and on top off the wals around the old city.
Jeruzalem is realy totally amazing. It is absolutely beautifull, there is a really strange atmosphere: hard to define.
We actuallly spent most of the time in The arab quarter, we even slept in the arab quarter.
The first evening we arrived in Jerusalem we got lost the first hour in the suq's : what a labyrinth, and pretty creepy at night.
We've been to the wailing wall, couldn't take pictures though since it was shabbat, also a very strange silent atmosphere there.
My impressions of the city are pretty hard to describe in words, but impressed I was.
Cool to see all those religions living together in the same city: one moment you hear the jews singing, a bit later you hear the arab singing from the minnarets and again a bit later you hear the church bells, very surreal, but... real.
A lot less cool to see, when you're on top of the surrounding walls, is the wall between Israel and Palestine in the distance.
I took a shitload of pictures, too bad I can't put them on the internet.

Sorry for my really chaotic report, but hell... Jerusalem is also a chaotic city.
Jerusalem blew my mind!

1 opmerking:

Jerozolima zei

Yep, Jerusalem is a very chaotic city. It also blew my mind away, such an absolutely amazing place! Good you found your way to the rooftops - that and the suqs below are incredible, a real labyrinth. I spent 40 days in the Old City and must say that although the streets of Jerusalem feel creepy at night they are actually pretty safe. From feeling uneasy at first about walking alone on these narrow streets at night I became very comfortable with this. Nothing bad ever happened. I tried to use every moment of my free time to get to know the city. However, one has to be careful in the crowds during the day. There are pickpockets in every crowd and holy places are no exception.