Bethlehem

FRIDAY, 15 June BETHLEHEM

The deck outside the dining room at Ecce Homo

It's even quite chilly this morning, the birds are going gangbusters all around in the early morning coolness. A little hazy today, as if yesterday was a special "welcome to Jerusalem present. It's 6 am Friday, and as our guesthouse is on the Via Dolorosa, I am listening to the strains of "Were you there when they crucified my Lord" as a group at the first station of the cross. We walked it in our orientation tour on the first day, but not in a devotional way.

We left at 7.45 for the bus at the bottom of the Lion Gate, and headed into Bethlehem. It's not that far from Jerusalem really, but through a wall and checkpoint - easy enough for us to get through, but significant for the local Palestinian population who need papers (we did need to have Passports with us, though, just in case).

The hills as we travelled were different here than on the other side of town.  There is some vegetation, it's easier to see people making a living (or animals not dying) from these.  Lots of rocks, though, and quite steep in places.

We started at the Herodion, walking up to the top was an effort, but seriously worth it.  Herod built his palace, then had earth stacked around it to form a hill. It was probably the best place we've been to yet to see a bit more of the scale of these palaces - there are a couple of stories of rocks still standing on each other.  You walk down into it and it's quite cool in the shade.  

The zealots got into this palace, too, and there is some damage due to the tactics against them.  There were a pile of cannon balls as we left (okay, round stones that were catapulted in).

We went into the tunnels.  Herod had built an aqueduct to the bottom of the hill, then slaves would bring the water up, then others put it in the cistern.  The ones who knew where the cisterns were never got out of the job.  Because they knew the secrets of the palace, there were killed when they could no longer work.  Herod "The Great" seems such a lovely sort of bloke! (There is actually a story that he took hostages from among the first families with orders that they were all to be killed on the day he died, just so he knew that SOME tears were shed on the day he died.  Apparently they didn’t do it, but I'm not certain there was an overt party either.)  The tunnels got us back closer to the bus, so we didn't have to walk all the way back up to the top of the Herodion in order to get back. That was very welcome.

After this we went into the city to meet with Norah from Kairos.  They have written a document that looks at the problems and issues that exist.  Norah is a gentle, humble and strong person. A refugee.  But she is just as worried about what is happening to the soul of Israel as she is standing against the injustice perpetrated by them.  A remarkable woman and one who I will remember her spirit, if not her face.

We had lunch there with her.

We then headed out to the shepherds fields, which now is a suburb of Bethlehem.  There is a cooperative souvenir shop there. Beautiful things from wood carving to jewelry.  I could have spent a whole heap of money there. There was an absolutely gorgeous Noah's ark there for only US $8600. It would have been too big to bring home.

St Jerome - translated the Bible into Latin

Our last stop was the church of the nativity.  Very ornate and different denominations have jurisdiction over different parts of it.  We saw the stable cave with all its trappings, but I much preferred the less ornate caves around the back.  Nedal (our guide) stopped us in Jerome's cave and talked to us for a bit.  It is unadorned, and the cave outside is the other end of the one considered the cave of the nativity. I could have spent longer here, but the time we had was nice.  It was also cool.

Day Two: The day we nearly killed our guide with the amount of sightseeing we managed...

THURSDAY, 14 June JERUSALEM

The alarm clock started at 3.30am. We are very close to the temple mount and so can clearly hear he loud speakers starting up with the daily Quran reading prior to Dawn prayers.  Lucky us.  Convents have no air-conditioning, so you don't want to close the double-glazed windows to keep out the noise. Our fan is broken.

An early start to go to the western wall tunnel.  We had breaky at 6 am, and the quality of the light was beautiful (took some photos across our view of the old city).  We have excellent views from here. It is so central to things.  Mornings and evenings are delightfully cool. 

For this trip and the following one to the temple mount we needed to make certain we were dressed modestly - no knees or shoulders showing.

It's very moving, women praying there because the archaeologists have found a gate that is closer than the Western Wall to the presumed location of the Holy of Holies, therefore it is considered as close as they can get to God.  It feels terrible to intrude on them, although very interesting archaeology.  Its amazing that the ground level has risen so much, although with the history of destruction makes it logical.

We went up to the temple mount. You are not permitted to take bibles or religious materials as they have had difficulties with Christians going up there to pray for the mosques to be destroyed.  Jews (orthodox ones anyway) are not permitted to go up there as they may inadvertently step on the place where God lives.  The mosque is built in an octagon, which was an early Christian style.  Apparently when they first built churches, rather than meeting in homes, they added up the letters of ιχθυς (fish) and it came to 888.  Hence an octagon was the shape they preferred. we had great views over the city and to the mount of olives.      As I walked around I looked for really big paving stones that looked weathered, because those are more likely to be left over from the Herodian Temple.  Who knows that I might not have stepped in the footsteps of Jesus?  He was at the temple, after all! 

We walked out past the golden gate. This is the one that the Messiah is supposed to come through. The moslems have closed it and now use it as a room so that the messiah can't come in that way.  Of course, we know that he already has come through it.

We then went to the archaeological park at the city of David. They are excavating some houses that were built into the walls of the city.  They are tiny, the distance between walls constrained by how far palm branches could hold up a mud and straw roof until it dried.  They have also found a stepped stone wall that held up a platform for a bigger house. Maybe David's palace?

They still hope to find things in the archaeological record that might point to David or Solomon. David took over the Jebusite city without conflict, so there is no destruction layer, but there isn't any indication of a change in occupation, either, or the grand structures that Solomon is supposed to have built.  Keep digging, guys!

At this location we also entered into the water source tunnels.  There is an earlier Jebusite shaft where the women would have lowered jars down into the spring. We saw where the spring gushes out, very dark and difficult to take photos.  There is also a small tunnel where they dammed up the spring, and then the water would have risen to a point where it flowed along to a more convenient location. It was narrow, with not much room for feet, but wider where shoulders were - not regular walls by any stretch of the imagination.  At various points where there were low spots in the roof, they'd attached cushioning, I thought that would be a great idea for Chris, but there was only one place where I needed to duck.  Some of us may go back to do the "wet" tunnel if we have some spare time one afternoon.

We then had a short bus trip to one of the possible sites of the pool of Shilom (Siloam).  More rubbish than water at this point, but there were stepped structures round it.

Bus back to town for lunch in the central square area.  We had a walk around and found slushies, the remnants of the old wall, and the Roman Cardo.  We gathered at the appropriate time only to visit the remnants of the old wall and the Roman Cardo.  We then headed for the burnt house, which was really interesting.  We had been told we’d have to wait for an English session, so I headed off to use the facilities.  Thankfully I told my ‘buddy’ because they headed  in while I was away and at least they knew where I was (and so did everyone else!).

The burnt house is an excavation that is now in a building, and they’ve made a multi-media display about the fall of Jerusalem.  Incredibly well done, with screens for projection and the filming done on a set resembling the layout of the house and it has reference to the few items discovered there.

The last stop was the Davidson Centre.  This leads through to the southern steps of the temple, where they have dug down to the Roman era foundations.  It was getting pretty hard to keep going at this point and quite warm - we kept looking for seats in the shade everywhere we went.

Came home for a lie down - very foot sore.

Later we headed out with Greg to a little cooperative where they sell work done by Palestinian women.  Lots of tablecloths, various liturgical dress components, bags, etc.  Some of it excellent work.  Mum really had to think hard about which she’d bring home with her.

Okay, okay - try this. First Day of our Holiday

12/13 June  HOME - JERUSALEM

The longest day of my life.  I'm not entirely certain when one finished and the next one started.  We started on the lunchtime bus to Brisbane, followed by a transfer to a bus going to the airport.  One young asian traveller hadn’t been told to change buses for Toowoomba at the Transit Centre, and was rather confused to end up back at the airport where he came from.

Ran into Ken at the airport, then met some others near the check-in.  Greg made it at the time he’d said, but most of us had checked in by then.

Planes are cramped, and sleeping with little ability to recline isn't conducive to actual sleep.  Watched half of Downton Abbey in between drinking and looking at any lights that came up as we passed over Indonesia, Singapore, India, etc. Possibly slept for 3 or 4 hours, but not much.  Of course, chasing the sun (or rather the dark) meant that it was 15 hours through the night, we arrived in the dark at Dubai, then were in Amman by about 9.30 am. 

We were met by a lovely guide, Gehan, who gave us lots of information, possibly too much for our tired minds, but we kept asking questions.  It was really hard to get photos in the bus, desert hills with no planning.  House, desert, house, new road, tents and camels, irrigation business.  Stupid digital cameras take too long to switch on and be ready. I would never try to keep a herd (what is the collective noun?) of camels on a town block not much bigger than ours.

We descended into the Jordan valley.  The country changed a lot, more irrigation for one thing. You can see the hills of Israel in the distance, and our first glimpse of the Dead Sea as we came across. It was very blue and doesn't really look dead at all.  There is a constant haze in the distance, whether pollution or simply dust, or a combination of the two.

Crossing the border from Jordan into Israel took some doing.  I'm not certain which of the checkpoints were Jordanian to get out, which were Israeli and which we're Palestinian authority, but there were lots of them, most with guard houses, razor wire and concrete defensive structures. We came over King Hussein bridge. No water, tiny stream. Not much work in crossing it today, I think the Bible is making a big fuss about nothing - I'd be more worried about snakes in the long grass than the depth of the water.  And I definitely wouldn't be trying to dig around for 12 stones to build a cairn to celebrate the event.  Then again, if God's telling your illustrious leader to do something, it probably makes sense to just do it.

One of the crossing places we got VIP treatment, waiting in comfortable seats in airconditioning, with continual offers of drinks while they scanned our luggage and did something with our passports.

The Ecce Homo Convent is interesting, with many stages of building within it. This means lots of stairs. It's also within the old city, which means a tractor comes to take your luggage, and you walk up and through the Lion Gate to get here.  Most of this part of the city is made up of buildings that have been pulled down and then re-erected many times. Arches that were once impressive become much smaller as the ground level rises within them as each occupation layer is built upon the last.

By this time I'd lost my ankles entirely.  A short lie down with legs on Mum’s port on a table at the end of my bed, then a shower before going our for an orientation walking tour.  The architecture is amazing. A very old city that has been destroyed and resurrected many times, some stone re-used so that you get a price of decorated pediment in the middle of a wall.  Other places an arched opening is "bricked in".  Some stones are so old that you can hardly see the decoration any more.

Dinner started with a cool cucumber soup, which sounds a bit weird, but was really refreshing. Then salad and stewed "granny" meat, with a very light chocolate cake for desert.

Early to bed was essential.  Dinner at seven was about 2 am our time with only a few hours sleep the night before.

**For some reason, blogger won't let me upload photos from my computer.  I haven't tried since this new layout existed.  I have no idea how to get my photos on any of the media that it will permit me to upload to.  So the chance that I'll be sharing scores of photos on my blog?   ....Hmmm.

****Got the photos to work!  So there you go!

So...Not as interesting as I'd thought...

Not the holiday, the blog.

When I logged on to write the first of my scintillating blog posts about the holiday of a lifetime I was confronted by the unexpected issue that the whole of blogger was in Hebrew...  and laid out right-to-left.

I guesstimated which buttons to press to get to log-in, and did so, but when it hit me back with what appeared to be an error page, I was, quite frankly, flummoxed.

It didn't help three days later to receive an email from Google, patting themselves on the back that when a crazy, identity-stealing stalker in Israel tried to log into my account, they stopped her.

Thanks heaps, guys.

So the blog really wasn't as interesting as I was hoping.

If I get organised, I could give some late snippets from my travel diary.  But my proof-reading editing Nazi self won't let me post anything until I've edited it, and I'm back in Australia two weeks into semester, therefore two weeks behind where I need to be, so editing may not be high on my list of priorities right now.

So how much diary should you be expecting for the next little while?

BTW overseas trip was GREAT!  I should tell you all about it sometime...

I just don't know what to do with myself...

Thank Goodness it's Friday.

And I'm not at all cranky at one of my peers who was gloating about having an extension... because HE still has to be sitting at his desk workin' like a dawg.

Now for the weekend of total collapse, followed by madly getting ready for an overseas trip.  Finally, I can start getting excited!

And the chance that I'm going to miss sitting at my desk for the majority of every day and thinking that 11.30pm is an early night?

...Precisely.

It might get interesting here soon.

Situation: End of semester
Sleeps left: 10
Assessment to draft: 4
Assessment drafted: 1
Words to write: approx. 8200

But:
Situation: Overseas Holiday
Sleeps left: 20

But:
What amount of relaxation am I feeling right now?
≈ 0

Oooh, Threat!

I received an email notice from my Internet Service Provider letting me know that this month I'm coming close to my monthly download limit (too many downloads of articles and ebooks for study perhaps?) and unless I want to go to a more expensive plan, my connection speed will be reduced...

... to twice the speed I was getting last night.

How worried am I?