Mazel tov!

As you can see by my post yesterday, I was up pretty damn early due to the time change. Lee (and I have no idea how he managed it) slept until nearly 10am. I'd had a full day puttering around the tiny apartment before he finally dragged himself out of bed! Needless to say I was a stir-crazy mess, and bounced off the walls until he was in a presentable state to go out.

Yesterday's goals:
1) Find Renee a hair dryer
2) Do a bit of a walkabout to see how far Lee's new work is and maybe hit the Old City

We left the house around 11, and walked the wrong way for about 1/4 mile....which would have been fine, had there not been some sort of huge tour group (we're talking like 15,000 people) also on the same street we were, in a massive throng all crowding to go to some event...I haven't figured out what it was. I wish I'd taken photos, but I was having a hard enough time keeping my bag out of potential pickpocket territory, and didn't want to call any more attention to myself. Lee and I stuck out like sore thumbs in this crowd already.

(the kinds of things you see cruising around Jerusalem)

Once we got back on track we discovered that the city is pretty easily navigated, and Lee's office is only about a 25 minute walk from our current pad. He was supplied with taxi vouchers by his company, so he'll be using those for a while (particularly as it's raining here today...or was, the sun seems to have come out now), rather than spend an hour walking to and from work in the winter.

Back when Jerusalem was under British rule, they decreed that the city could be built in nothing but stone (there must have been some good reason for it, I'm sure), and the result is stunning- all of the buildings, streets, walls and landmarks are comprised of off-white stone blocks; the city glows and looks amazing clean, which isn't necessarily the case in some areas.

After another 10 minute walk, we made it to the Jaffa gate at the Old City - the walled in old Jerusalem, which is sectioned into quarters based on religion/region; Breaks are Christian/Muslim/Jewish and Armenian with the far western section being Temple Mount, bordered by the Western Wall (the wailing wall).

(Jaffa Gate, entering the Old City)

It is pretty much how you'd imagine it- narrow claustrophobic alleys, crowds of merchants, peppered with a hefty number of tourists, loud wailing music coming from dark corners, street food vendors (from amazing breads to fresh squeezed pomegranate juice to fry-as-you-watch falafel stands) strong smells of coffee, cumin, sweets, sewer - it was absolute sensory overload. Again, I wish I'd taken more photos, but with the crowds and the mayhem, I wasn't comfortable drawing attention to myself in that manner. I will try to get some when I go back (as I think most of my shopping will be done in the Old City.). It was really amazing to think that people have lived and worked in this cramped area since the dawn of time - and still do. There are homes and butchers and markets that aren't aimed at harvesting the tourist dollar.

(Lee in a quiet alley in the Old City)

As far as the segregation, there aren't any markers showing the borders between different quarters of the city, it seems that the residents know what streets comprise their 'area'. We walked half a block and went from orthodox Jewish territory to strict Muslim streets - Lee said it was an extreme case of culture shock walking around there. I am inclined to agree. We walked through the super-secure metal detector checkpoints to get to the Western Wall - which was amazing. Segregated by sex, men on one side, women on the other, it was a smorgasbord of religious outpouring. There was some sort of bar mitzvah or Jewish wedding going on- men on one side of the fence, women on the other, all reaching over and celebrating. Hundreds of people up against the wall, cramming their written prayers into the crevices, everyone vying to get closer to the actual stones. Amazing
.

(Sign before entering the Wailing Wall; The crowds next to the wall)

We got lost trying to exit the city, which was fortunate as we located a nice fruit stand where we bought a bunch of bananas (1.5lbs for 5NIS or ~$1.50). Once we exited, we continued on our first mission - to find me a hair dryer. We walked through a pedestrian mall of super upscale shops (Lee laughed that it was really strange to see Adidas and Top Shop after being in the Old City, which had nothing of the sort), and came out at a major crossroads. Now, you'd think it'd be easy to figure out where we were based on the hugeness of the intersection and the abundance of street signs. You'd be totally wrong! Even though all the signs are in Hebrew, Arabic AND English, the maps (multiple ones) don't use the same words for the same streets. As as simple example - Jaffa street is also known as Yafa street; Heberon street is also known as Dereh Heveron. Yeah- try to figure out where the hell you are with THOSE kinds of vague directions.

We finally found our way, and stopped for a quick coffee and a bite (both of us were getting a bit worn down at this point), and continued on our way to a pedestrian mall, where we'd heard we'd find a hair dryer (yeah, they're not easy to source here, apparently). After locating a cramped appliance store, I paid 99NIS for a cheap-o hair dryer. That's $30. Really made me aware of how readily available inexpensive goods are in the states, and how much I take things like that for granted. Bit humbling, really.

As we were wrecked at this point, we wandered our way home through some really lovely parks, found the US consulate (where I'm registering today), and collapsed on our couches back at the apartment.

Dinner was WACKY MAC, which was an amazingly good representation of dirty mac and cheese, finished with a bottle of tasty wine, and a full-face crash into bed at 9. I slept awesome last night, and got up at a more normal time for me (somewhere around 6:30am). Tea and breakfast, getting Lee ready for his first day, and off to spend my first all-by-myself day here in Jerusalem.


(it was pretty wacky!)

(I am keeping additional photos here from the whole trip - you can check there to see what I didn't post to the blog!)