A brief break, rocks and the footsteps (PART TWO)

NOTE: Blogspot has space limits, and only allowed me to post half of this at a time - sorry to break it up like this! Please read PART ONE first!)

Five:

(Fifth Station, Simon the Cyrene was ordered by the Romans to help Jesus carry the cross)

Six:

(Sixth Station, where Veronica wiped Jesus' face with a cloth. The cloth is on display at the Greek Patriarch Church in the Christian Quarter in the Old City- we'll post photos once we make it there!)

Seven:

(Seventh Station, where Jesus fell for the second time, and is the location of the old city wall, which supports the theory that the modern Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the spot of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection)

Eight:

(Station Eight, Jesus told his onlookers to cry for themselves, and not for him. To give some context here, this is directly across from a brash Internet cafe and souvenir shop, I tried to keep the photos as devoid of that kind of thing as much as possible. It is very strange to see these things and be in the middle of someone's day to day life...)

Nine: Station Nine was the only time I saw something I found completely sacrilegious and tacky. There were three or four wooden crosses leaned up against the wall for tourists to pick up and use as props in photos. We walked around a corner and ran into a group of people laughing and taking pictures of themselves in various positions with the crosses. It was tacky and garish.


(Station Nine, Jesus fell for the third time here. And location of "hey! I know, let's pick up crucifixes and pretend we're being nailed to them! that's great fun". Heathens.)

Ten- Fourteen: These last Stations are in various spots within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I took a couple of shots here, but it was PACKED, and there was some sort of evening mass/ceremony going on. I did manage to get photos of the crucifixion site, as well as the tomb where Jesus' body was laid. There was a very polite line of maybe 150 people, behind police barriers, waiting to go in and kiss a wall of the tomb (for a donation 'fee'). The church itself doesn't look like much from the outside, but the glittering, echoing and impressive inside accomplishes its goal to look and feel overwhelmingly holy. We got to see a procession of some high-up priest with his monk disciples, with incense and chanting - there was a very brusque monk ordering the unwashed masses to stay out of the path of the procession "Can you not see there is a break here?? Stay out of the path!" Granted, tourists can be a dumb lot, and I could understand his frustration. But dude, you're a monk. Chill.


(Outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; The not-well-represented inside dome; the stairs leading up to the crucifixion site)


(Crucifixion chamber; Crucifixion shrine- holy shiny, batman!; Burial and resurrection tomb, with throngs of people)


(Beginning of procession; A priest praying; Proof I was there for reals)

As dusk was quickly approaching, we were a bit hungry and a bit chilly, so we started to look for any open cafe (as I said previously, it's Shabbat, everything is shut). The streets were eerily quiet and deserted, and we were headed out of the Old City when....ta-da! Papa Andrea's restaurant and cafe roof! (that is exactly what the napkins and signs say....restaurant and cafe roof). With an unbeatable vantage point over the city, Lee and I sat outside to watch the sunset, and to hear the Muslim call to prayer (they come from loudspeakers in tall towers all over the city- they're all marked with bright green fluorescent bulbs around the parapets), which is also eerie and amazing. I said to Lee that I felt like I was in an Indiana Jones movie. We were alone on the roof, eating our falafel and shewerma, washed down with large pints of Goldstar beer (a local label), watching the city die down as the noise at the Wailing Wall grew louder and louder. It is apparently the place to be on Shabbat- dressed in their finest of finery, Jews from all over gather here to start their day of worship.


(The dusk view from Papa Andrea's)

We paid up and headed back to the apartment for another really exciting evening of watching American television shows until a reasonable bed time. Today (Saturday) I am trying to get us out for a run (the weather is absolutely gorgeous), and tonight we're off with some of Lee's new co-workers to Tel Aviv to see 2012 - I will write tomorrow about seeing a movie over here, I imagine it's a little different than in other places. I understand that there is an intermission halfway through every film. Exactly halfway. Mid-sentence, scene, shot, whatever, the movie stops and people go get ice cream. We'll see how it goes!