Arrival/Jerusalem Part 1

I intended for Israel and Palestine to be my primary destinations over the course of the year. The plan was to stay in Israel and Palestine for 3 to 6 months, doing a couple of different volunteer stints and having a good look around. Customs at Tel Aviv is notorious, and I had thought long and hard about what to say at the border. Talking to a range of people and doing a bit of research, I decided that honesty was the best policy. Perhaps I was wrong. I got my visa on arrival, but only for one month - a third of what a standard tourist visa offers. I was gutted. Perhaps I should not have volunteered information about volunteering so voluntarily. The customs official leered at me when I told her part of my trip involved Nablus. I am not sure if her look represented contempt, or bewilderment at my honesty. Hopefully I can sort something out down the line to stay longer.

After catching a shared taxi from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem I was pointed in the direction of Damascus Gate, the entrance to Old Jerusalem. Jerusalem was once divided into two, Israel controlling the West and Palestine the East. Old Jerusalem is full of most things famous about Jerusalem, and was intended to be neutral ground. In 1967, Israel occupied East Jerusalem and made it part of Israel, and access to either Old Jerusalem or East Jerusalem was no longer possible for Palestinians living outside the post 1967 war borders. Yet, even though under Israeli control, and even though no other Palestinians can come in, there is still a significant Arab population who have remained living here, and a strong Muslim culture. In fact, everyone is here; Muslims, Jews, Christians of every denomination, and each have their own section with their own distinct flavour within the old city. It is generally common to find a mixture of faiths in any area, though I do not believe it is always in the spirit of solidarity that such mingling takes place. The mixture of faiths brings tension rather than harmony. There are also a bunch of tourists, and a bunch of IDF troops with guns wandering around, so it is an interesting place.

In my attempt to find my hostel I stumbled across this Bar Mitzvah celebration in the Jewish Quarter. 

My entrance to Jerusalem has generally been proceeded by a series of social gaffs, which I may or may not divulge over the course of the next couple of posts. Firstly, I entered wearing shorts, promptly realising that I was literally the only person in the city wearing shorts. I quickly ducked into a back alley toilet to put some trousers on, only to find that customs had put my pack inner into my pack upside down, whether absentmindedly or maliciously I am not sure (there was an Arabic dictionary in the pack). I pulled the pack inner out, thus pouring all my belongings into my pack, and burrowed down for some trousers. Attired in a more fitting manner, I set out to get lost in the city, something I would do a few times over a couple of days. The city is essentially a labyrinth that feels more like a giant market than a city. I eventually found my hostel, and discovered that it was located on the street that Jesus was thought to have walked down with a cross on his back. I briefly thought to myself how appropriate this was before quickly deciding that nothing was really appropriate about such a connection. Significant is probably a better description. My accommodation at Ecce Homo convent/hostel would generally be positive, with the exception of having roosters with no concept of time as my neighbours. I am pretty sure they kept mistaking the Dome of the Rock for the rising sun, which would explain their unceasing crowing throughout the night. Perhaps Jesus used the crowing of the cock to aid Peter's realisation of betrayal because, like me, hatred toward such birds was firmly etched into Peter's mind. Needless to say, I would get very little sleep over the next couple of nights.

View from my hostel.

Having checked in, I was ready to investigate the city in more depth. There were many things to see, and only two days to do it in.