New Jerusalem

As you gathered if you read Matt's last post, the Old City in Jerusalem was fascinating and beautiful but challenging in some ways. The New City in Jerusalem felt like a return to our home planet. A planet where we don't regularly confront issues of religion and identity and tolerance and nationalism and international politics. We were also happy to leave a hostel where our cave/room that was essentially part of the lobby/loud early morning conversation area.

The tourist part of the New City seems to be dominated by the Ben Yehuda shopping street, but there are also quieter places with good bars and restaurants. Although restaurants that served typical Ashkenazi food were not common, we found a friendly neighborhood restaurant--Heimeshe Essen--that served tasty and reasonably priced dinners and take-out.

From right to left: kishke, stuffed carp, sweet and sour cabbage, farfel and Jerusalem kugel (savory, no dairy).

We also enjoyed walking around the different neighborhoods, some ultra-orthodox strongholds, some secular, some historical. In the neighborhood south of the Mahane Yehuda market there are placards describing the lives of the people who lived in the old stone houses. Here's a picture of Matt wondering if he can find the hat that will allow him to pull off this look:

The weather was just about perfect so it was hard to stay inside, but on Thursday we took a great tour of the Knesset (sorry, not allowed to have pictures of that) and spent the rest of the day wandering around the Israel Museum. They have a large model of the Old City in the outdoor sculpture garden that looks so real that when birds land in it, it is disturbing.

Tourist groups admiring the Second Temple Period Old City Model.

To get out of the city for a day, we took one last trip to the Dead Sea area and went hiking at Ein Gedi to some beautiful waterfalls above Wadi Arugot. The water comes bubbling out of the rocks and trees and shrubs grow up around the stream that flows down to the sea.

Green stuff in the desert.

This picture may not look exciting, but fresh water is bubbling up from under this rock outcrop. I'm about to slam my head into the rock trying to scramble out of there.

We're holed up in Tiberias for Shabbat at the moment and starting to plan the last leg of the trip in Turkey and Greece. Hoping all is well with everyone at home.