Silent Night....

It's been quite a week and for those of you who have missed me, rest assurred that all is well. I've just come back from a week away. It's funny to say that, sounds like I've gone and taken a vacation from my vacation. I've just returned from almost a week in the Holy Land. I'd heard that getting there was half the fun. First,you need to take a cab from Jordan to the border. Once there, you have to purchase a bus ticket to take you across the border.(This is a 6 minute ride that you wait an hour for.) Once across the border, you have to get through Israeli security.(This can be the tricky part, and requires patience. Like watching grass grow, answering rounds of seemingly pointless questions about your personal life, then returning to watching the grass? This is for you.) Then, you take a cab to your destination. Ours was Jerusalem. From our crossing point, the drive was a little over an hour, but it was Christmas Eve and Jerusalem was in high spirits. We had booked a hotel not far from the Old City and we hit the souks right away. Later that evening, I heard that the crowds in Bethlehem were soaring towards 70,000. That just wasn't my idea of Silent Night, Holy Night, so, after dinner, we headed back to the Old City to see if there was anything going on. The only church open was the Lutheran church, holding service in German for, appropriately enough, hundreds of German pilgrims. This church is, we discovered, just down the alley from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Finding this site at night, when the city was deserted, was really really helpful, because although it was closed, we knew we'd be returning the next day, and during the day, the passageways of the souk are difficult to maneuver, especially if you're not sure where you're going.

At any rate, Old Jerusalem is indeed a city of contrasts, with it's crazy busy markets selling everything from cell phones to spices, and while you're shopping you're heart out, wham! there's another holy site, for one of the worlds' monotheistic religions. It's been this way for 1300 years, so if it ain't broke...