Jerusalem Act Two, Jordan Act One

First off, I'd like to wish everyone in the States a wonderful Fourth of July. We almost forgot the holiday here as you can image it isn't very well known or celebrated in this part of the world. I hope that everyone had fun, watched a parade or two and ate themselves silly. And now on to the recap...

Jerusalem

I was just re-reading my other blog and apparently went over Sunday (in less detail), but I put so much into this that you can read it again (I don't feel like deleting it).

The first Sunday (well really the only Sunday) that we spent in Jerusalem, we let the Heritage House (the free hostel that we were staying at) cart us along to Neve Yeshiva for girls. This place is a religious school for girls that want to learn about Judaism and have no real background or at least a background of varying degrees. This is also the place that I have an all expenses paid vacation to in September, if (I stress the IF), I decide that that's something I want to look into for a long period of time. So that being said, I decided it was a good idea to check the place out while I had the chance instead of rushing in head long come September. Neve is a very nice little school that's situated a top a hill in one of the more religious suburbs of Jerusalem and as such prefers that its students see the wisdom in covering modestly - three-quarter length shirts and long skirts everyday...in a desert climate this is in my opinion crazy, but it does protect your skin from the sun.

We attended three classes in the morning and then after lunch which was by far the scariest experience (imagine a mental institute where everyone has little plastic plates and utensils and you go up to the counter to see what the food is...there there is a big man that stares at you intimidating and when you ask what is what, grunts and replies "Food!" So you basically point at the more friendly gruel of choice which is then un-ceremonially dumped on your plate and you retreat to a far corner to double check that it really is dead and possibly edible) we spent and hour arguing with the head Rabbi about emotion verses god's will in having to shoot someone. Quite a weird topic you'd think, but we were with another girl, Brittany, who was talking about wanting to maybe join the Israeli army as a sniper, but didn't think that she could deal with killing someone like that. The Rabbi was talking about how if the person were evil then god would sanctify the killing and it would be okay. The rest of us didn't really agree with that.

Basically Neve is a nice place and I think that I could learn a lot from them about Judaism and my heritage and from an Anthropological point of view it would be a great experience, but to put it in Amy's terms, "They're a cult, but they're so nice about it that you won't notice until it's too late." Everyone that I met in at Heritage House (which is associated with Neve) and in the religious Jewish community (that Em and I were apart of for a week) all talk about how they were like us (interested in learning and didn't understand much), but now two/three years later, they are able to see god for what he/she is and to understand the religion and that the Jewish people are the chosen people and will eventually be the only true religion. It's thinking like that that tends to scare me away from learning. I don't want to be only wearing skirts and long shirts, praying non-stop, and believing that the messiah will come and raise the Jews high, and believe that I need to not touch males that aren't immediate family members or that I need to cover my hair after marriage, in the next three years. I understand that this way of thinking gives solace to a great many people, but I still think that they are missing out on a lot that life has to offer because of that same line of thought. Still, who knows, I might end up there in September, and use the experience to learn.

Monday, we convinced Brittany to ditch Neve (she was going for the whole week to make up for some religious classes that she'd missed in Be'er Sheva when attending college) and come tour the city with us. We called up our cousin Chuck and he most graciously offered to give us a driving tour of the city. We ended up seeing a great vista point, a Jewish market place and the botanical gardens (which were really quite dead seeing as it was summer). It was a very nice day and allowed us to see something outside the old city (we didn't venture much outside on our own because there were too many things inside to do).

Tuesday, we got suckered into a walking tour of Mt. Zion (a Catholic church, King David's supposed tomb, a yeshiva, and a mosque), Oskar Schindler's grave (in a very decrepit cemetery), and King David's city. King David's city actually made the tour worth it. We got to go down into the old water system which consists of about a 3/4 mile underground tunnel that was created to hide the water from invaders so that if the city was ever under siege it could survive for a time. This tunnel is about 1 1/2 ft across and varies in height from four feet to about 15 feet. You're also walking through the water the whole time and its pitch black if you forget your flashlight. But it's amazing and I wish we could have gone through a second time. To make the experience better, we turned our lights off and walked in the semi-darkness (using the illumination from the light about 25 meters in front of us). This is definitely a place that you should check out if you're ever in Jerusalem.

The tour also provided us with the location of Hell and the Hill of the Evil Council. Hell (there is a Hebrew name, but I don't remember it, is one of the valleys right below the old city and it got its name because there where a group of pagan people that lived there long ago and used to sacrifice their first born sons to this god to appease him. They had a statute of him where the baby was laid in the out stretched arms, that then retracted into the fiery belly of the statute. And thus you have Hell.

The Hill of the Evil Council is where Judas betrayed Jesus and now is (possibly ironically) the home of the United Nations. Many in our group found that funny.

Wednesday, Em and I we told that if we went before 11am we could go inside the Temple of the Rock, which is the Mosque that was built on the site of the First and Second Jewish Temples and where the Third Temple will one day reside. The Mosque is built over the creation rock, the rock from which many people of many religions believe life was started. That's also why the location is so coveted and so many societies had battled to destroy each other for the chance to built their own house of worship on the spot. We were unfortunately turned away at the door with the explanation that only Moslems that wished to pray were allowed to enter (later in Jordan we were told that that's not right and if we were properly modest we should have been allowed in). So we looked around outside and tried to eavesdrop on tours in the area, but had little success since the ones we found were in Hebrew, German, and Portuguese (I think I understood ever 20 words or so in this language). We wandered around the Moslem quarter for a bit (went through the Shuk) and then went back to the Jewish Quarter where we hit up the Jaffa Gate Museum (aka Tower of David Museum).

At the museum, there was a free tour that we hopped on that lead us through the history of Jerusalem and all it trials and tribulations over the last 300 years. It was very interesting to see how the city was conquered and destroyed and then rebuilt a number of times. And every group that came through left its own distinguishing mark(s) upon the ancient city. We learned that the Tower of David (for which the museum is named and the only tower still standing wasn't even built by David because it was built a thousand years after he died. Many believe that the real Tower of David was just recently discovered in the City of David, further down the hill).

Thursday we hit up the Southern Wall Excavations. These were fantastic and the extra 5 shekels (about $1.25) that we paid for the audio guide was well worth it. We wander around this great ruins, crashed through a kid's bar mitvah (at the Western Wall...pretty neat place to have it if you're religious), eavesdropped on some Aussies talking about their idea of the perfect woman, and generally had a good time. The excavations a great and there are many great feats of human kind that were created that many engineers would have a hard time replicating today. For example King Herod, built the Second Temple and created a grand plaza, Arch, and staircase to lead to it. The arch was destroyed by the Romans, but to just see the remains and think about how it was made is astounding.

Friday, we went to the Wohl Archaeology Museum (if you haven't caught on yet this romp through the Middle East is aimed primarily at Archaeological and Historic sites) and the Burnt House. The Wohl museum sits a top the remnants of 6 dwellings from ancient periods. These homes were part of the Herdonian quarter (second Temple Period) and housed upper-class citizens. Each house had at least two ritual baths and three other bathrooms, water-storage rooms or other purifying decor. Today's bathing conscience citizens have nothing on the olden time Jews.

The Burnt House is a 25 minute video presentation that is situated in the ruins of what is believed to be the home of one of the Top priest during the Second Temple Period. The video tells the perceived story of the Kathos family that lived in the home and how the city was torn between the Zionists and those that thought it was easier to go with the Roman rule as long as they could still practice their religion. This apparently lead to the Zionists sabotaging their own people to get them incised about the Roman invasion that was imminent. In the end the Romans invade and kill everyone in the city and destroy the Second Temple. The Israelis love their drama and the video was entertaining although quite cheesy.

Friday night began our second Shabbat in Jerusalem. This time though we already had families that had request our presence. Rabbi Eli (pronounced El-ly), the Rabbi that Brittany was making classed up for, invited us and about 15 other people to dinner. There we ran into two of the people that we'd meet at the Shabbat Experience three weeks previous while on Birthright. Weird conscience.

Saturday, Chaya, the house mother for the Heritage House, invited us for lunch and so we went. There we met another nomad, Jessie, who is going to go with us and Yanina (another hitchhiker) to Egypt.

Jordan

Sunday, we said our goodbyes and headed to Jordan. We had read online that there was a direct bus from Tel Aviv to Amman, so we headed back to Tel Aviv. When we arrived, not only could we not find the aforementioned bus, but everyone that we asked about how to get to Amman told us that we were crazy and that we'd get killed here. Naturally, we thanked them and went on to ask another person. Eventually we were told to take a bus to Afula, a small, dusty town in the north, where we repeated the question and answer exercise that we'd perfected in Tel Aviv and we told to take another bus to Beit-Shein. There we paid an outrageous fee to take a cap to the border (all of a mile away). At last, the border.

The Israeli side of the border was nice and courteous. They took our money and then left us on our own wandering around wondering where the Jordanian side was, until someone took pity on us and directed us to the bus that takes you the 200 meters or so to the other crossing. There the Jordanians were more than happy to confuse us some more and to offer us outrageous fees to get anywhere in the country. Luckily we found a Tourist Police office that was more than happy to explain where some nice ruins could be seen. One of the officer's told us that he would call his friend in Umm Quis and get us a nice deal on a room. Seeing as we had no real plan of our own we said sure. So Hiring a taxi for a very inflated fee we set off first for Pella (one of the Decapolis...ten great Roman Cities) and then on to Umm Quis. This is where things get interesting.

We had told the taxi driver that we needed to find a bank cause we didn't have much money and he said no problem, so when we get to Umm Quis, which is a very small village he demands his fee and we tell him where's the bank. This leads to.."There is no bank here or anywhere for 40 km." Of course we don't know what to do a the driver says one minute and disappears. In his place two locals show up carrying the worse coffee I have ever had (not even the addict Emmy liked it) and told us in broken English "Don't worry, it be fine." Not knowing what else to do, we forced the black sludge down our throats and waited. A few more rounds of this, interspersed with "We call Essam" (our contact from the Tourist Police) and eventually we give the cab driver all the money we have and take a 3 dinar loan from a local, and are let in the middle of no where with a overly jubilant local as a guide. Our guide (can't remember his name) lets us store our packs in his shop and then takes us to town where we meet who we think is Essam (but later find out is really Essam's friend Abraham). Abraham shows us the place, which essentially is an apartment that has been converted into three different bedrooms each with locking doors and there is a common room, kitchen and bathroom. A pretty nice place. We say we'll take it \, but we have zero money (and I mean nothing...the cabbie took the dinars, American dollars, and the shekels that we had). Essam (who has joined us by this point) and Abraham got into a short debate in Arabic that includes light punching and that we interpreted as "You idiot, you bring people without money here. What were you thinking?" The seem to remember that we are there and smile and say, "Not a problem, we have Visa machine and can charge it, plus give you 10 dinar extra." Then Abraham shells out 10 dinars. They tell us we are their guests, that they will be back in an hour to show us the ruins (at night the park is free and where all the locals hang out) and to relax. We are left to think that either everyone is crazy and have never seen fish-out-of-water tourists before or that they are just extremely nice people. We opt for the lather explanation.

Around 2 hours later, Abraham (who at this point we still think is Essam, cause he answers to that name) shows us the ruins and being that he is an archaeologist as well decides to tell us about them and about all the other ruins we need to see. We end up at Essam's restaurant where we had a great Italian meal and then continue on our tour of the site. Apparently we arrived three days late to see the filming of an Italian movie called, "The Holy Family." For this film, they company built a very convincing set that looked like the ruins, but was made of plaster and wood. So Abraham is going, "Isn't this nice and old? Ha, it is fake" and then hits it so we can hear the hollowness to emphasize his point. It was very funny and Em got a kick out of it.

After the ruins, we were again deposited back at the Hotel and two hours later Abraham and Essam invited us to tea on the roof. I had heat exhaustion (and I've learned my lesson so I'm drinking a lot more water now) and went to bed, but Em joined them. She had a great time and apparently got a little tipsy on local specialty called Arad (a more pungent version of Jaeger...the licorice flavored alcohol). She tripped down the same stairwell twice and broke one of their nice glasses.

The next day, I think we're on to Monday now, we went back to ruins to see them in the light and to travel this colonnaded road we didn't get to go on the night before. Half was through wandering around the place we were joined again by the local that had let us store our bags in his shop the night before. He showed us a couple of the sites we might not how seem otherwise, including a crypt and an ancient Roman gate. He also wandered into a field and returned with what turned out to be a type of cucumber. It was a sweet gesture.

We said goodbye and headed back to the hotel for lunch with Abraham (whose name we knew correctly be now) and Essam. They made us pita with salty pesto (that's what it seemed like to me) and tea. We chatted for a bit, were given a contact in Amman o look up upon arrival and them set out again. We took one of the same buses (really vans) that travel on set routes but pick up and drop off wherever people want. It was interesting cause everyone was looking at us and wondering what two white girls were doing in essentially the middle of no where. So the bus deposited us in Irbid (which is the second largest city in Jordan, but doesn't have much - well that we could see from the bus depot). After finding a bank and then realizing that my back card had expired 3 days previously (at the end of June) we found a bus to Amman.

The contact that we had for Amman wasn't off work for an hour so we wandered around wondering where to go and where there was a public phone to call this guy. It turned out that we stopped a guy on the road who talked to Abdul, our contact, figured out where we needed to be and drove us there. Aren't Jordanians nice? So we meet Abdul who showed us where a moderately priced hotel was located and then took us out on a tour of the town. It was interesting cause, here we are two days into a new country where we knew no one and spoke one words of Arabic and now we have three friends, who have contacts everywhere, and we're getting a tour of the capital city. And for all the worriers out there, we know not to just get in anyone's car or take the advice of just anyone, we sized everyone up first.

Well, Abdul called his cousin, Hussian, who picked us up and continued the tour. They took us to this restaurant that is famous in the area for sharwma and showed us different parts of the city. Apparently it is normal for everyone to pull off the highway and just chill out...watching cars or having bar-b-ques. I'm glad they were driving cause to me it appears that there really aren't any rules to driving in this country. More of a do what you want and hope you don't die kind of mentality.

Hussian decided that he would accompany us to Jerash the next day, another of the Decapolis and the most well preserved. So we set out and explored it. It's amazing in that there are two long colonnaded roads where most of the columns are still standing. Under the road is the old sewage system, and there are temples and churches and towers that are still standing. I know that I'm not doing any of these sites justice with the few meager words, but I can't really post my pictures ye and might not be able to ell I get home in December. So use your imagination or look these sites up online.

Today, Wednesday, Em and I got a ride from a nice tour guide that was staying at our hotel up to the Amman Archaeological Park and Museum. This is another city from the Decapolis. We toured around and even got to see some of the Dead Sea Scrolls (probably just replicas, but still i was cool) and then headed in to town. And that brings us up to the present, where I have been typing this book for the last 3 hours for the enjoyment of all of you. So I hope you have enjoyed it and will leave me a comment or two.