| Submitted by: Mark Nowak United States |
| Submission Date: 11 February 2005 |
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I found another restaurant, but when we looked at the menu -- brain, spine, bull testicles, etc. -- we decided we'd look around some more. For a second there I had a flashback of China. We found a nice informal sit-down kind of place on the street. I was more thirsty than I thought I was. I convinced the others to walk back to the hotel. It turned out to be a little more than I think the others would have wanted -- Dan had very sore feet. From then on I got the reputation of always wanting to walk and saying things like, 'It's just around the corner.'
I bought Sara a scarf in one of the shops in the hotel. Stacy was supposed to call after 10:30, but the phone never rang. I ended up falling asleep with Renegade showing on the television.
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Friday, March 3
MOUNT OF OLIVES, HOLOCAUST MUSEUM, VALLEYS OF ELAH + AYALON
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In the morning, a bunch of us took cabs to the Jaffa gate of the Old City to see a few things on our own and do a little shopping. I was with Naomal, Hiro, Shelley and the Adelmans. It was around 9:00AM and most of the shops were closed, but they were slowly opening one by one. We casually walked through quite a few of them. Shelley was looking for a vest for a friend. I ended up buying a carpet for my friend Mary Jo for $25 which I later found I could have bought for $10 (but I'm not sure I would have found the same color). I also bought a small wooden (possibly olive and/or pine wood) Nativity set for my mom for $18. We ended up seeing a station of the cross or two we had missed the other day.
When we reached the Damascus Gate, I left the others to try to see a few sites that I wanted to see on my own. We were going to try to meet back at the Jaffa Gate at 11:00 AM so that we could take a cab back and check out by noon. I was pressed for time, so I ended up running eastward around the Old City to Gethsemane. I was able to reach the Gethsemane Grotto where it is believed Christ was betrayed and visit the Tomb of the Virgin Mary. Then, I wanted to reach the Chapel of the Ascension at the top of the Mount of Olives where it is believed Christ ascended to heaven. This was no small task. Running up a steep incline, I was constantly out of breath and perspiring profusely since I was still wearing my jacket.
At the Arab village of Et-tur I got somewhat lost -- not sure which way to go since the maps I carried weren't helpful enough. I ended up going down some gangways which made me pretty nervous especially after an Arab boy started following me and asking for a toll. By himself he wasn't a threat, but there were another 3 young men nearby. In fact, the boy slipped and fell (perhaps purposefully) while trying to keep up with my running. Eventually an older man told me the way to go with hand gestures -- even so, I ended up momentarily in someone's yard. I made it to the chapel. It cost me $1 to go inside because I didn't have two shekels and the attendant couldn't make change. The chapel was small. Originally, it didn't have a roof and was open to the sky to reflect the idea of the Ascension, but in later years the Muslims put a dome on it.
I took my picture and started retracing my steps and running down the mount. I had to be careful as I ran because the steepness of the descent made stopping difficult. If I slipped, I was pretty sure I'd roll a good distance before stopping. I entered the Old City at the Lion Gate which was at the opposite side of the Old City to the Jaffa Gate. Quickly moving through the Muslim Quarter, I found myself on the Via Dolorosa taking in more stations of the cross (and taking a picture or two). Then, miraculously, I actually met up with the others in the middle of the Old City. We reached the Jaffa Gate and took a waiting taxi to the hotel. I left a message for Stacy with her roommate Elaine saying that I'd be in the lobby of the hotel until we started our drive back to Tel Aviv, but I didn't see her. I wanted to offer Stacy the bullet I found, so now I had to think of another way to get rid of it. I checked out and left my luggage outside my door.
After noon, we visited the Holocaust Memorial (Yad Vashem) for the six million Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis. It was a very emotional experience. I was impressed with the quality of artwork and the design of the complex. It was very well put together. We saw several works of sculpture. Rami told us that during World War 2 when news of what was happening in Auschwitz got out, a request was made to President Roosevelt to bomb the railroad tracks going to the camp, but it was refused because they didn't want to risk the lives of American pilots. However, they bombed factories that were only some forty miles away.
The Children's Memorial was particularly moving. It took a while for my eyes to adjust to the darkness when I entered the memorial after leaving the bright sun outside. There was a handrail along the wall that helped us move along. Glass walls reflecting the light of five candles create the effect of seeing countless flames which symbolize the souls of murdered children. In the background a voice reads the name, age and place of birth of each child. Rami told us it takes months for them to start all over. Men had to put on paper yarmulkes when we entered the Hall of Remembrance where the names of the Nazi death camps are set in the floor in Hebrew and Latin lettering and a flame in the center burns in memory of the dead. My own grandmother died in Auschwitz although she wasn't Jewish.
We were left on our own to go through the Historical Museum which recounted the events of the persecution of the Jews. It was very quiet inside. The images were difficult to look at. When I got through, I walked through the Avenue of the Righteous where trees are planted for non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews. I took a picture of Oskar Schindler's tree before I met up with the others by the cafeteria. I overheard some men talking about how Oskar Schindler's motivations for saving Jews have been called into question. One of the men said he didn't care what someone's motivations are if he saves the life of even one Jew.
We drove westward back towards Tel Aviv taking time to see the Valley of Elah where David killed Goliath and the Valley of Ayalon which was the land of the tribe of Dan where Samson and Delilah lived. We stopped at the trappist monk monastery of Latrun. At one time the British authorities had a fortified police post in the area. The monastery was nice. The monks may not speak, but they do sell wine. Before we got Tel Aviv, Rami handed us all official pilgrim to Jerusalem certificates.
Back in Tel Aviv we checked into the Hotel Ramada Continental. I tipped Baruch before going up because we were told this was his last day as our driver. I was in room 1016 across from Shelley who had a good view of the sunset. I didn't much like the motion detectors in our rooms. Shelley went swimming in the Mediterranean while I wrote postcards. Naomal brought us some food stuffs to take with us to Egypt since he and Hiro wouldn't be joining us which was regrettable. I would miss them.
Since it was a Friday and Lent, I chose fish at the farewell dinner. Rami sat close by, and I enjoyed being part of an interesting conversation on anti-Semitism. Afterwards, we said our goodbyes to those that wouldn't be going with us to Egypt. Only 26 of us would go on. Perry and Trini weren't going to Egypt either. Those that were flying home had wake-up calls around 1:30 in the morning.
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Saturday, March 4
TEL AVIV -> CAIRO: SUEZ CANAL, ISMAILIA
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I managed to mail a few postcards before we left in the morning. On my way to check out of the hotel I left the bullet on my floor for lack of a better idea of what to do with it. I regret not having taken at least a picture of it. It turned out that Baruch was going to be our driver today after all. Throughout our trip Rami would comment how we were always early when it came to getting started in the mornings. Today was no different, but this time he jokingly suggested we were in a hurry to leave the country. Apparently, he had a cold during our tour, but I hadn't noticed it. He told me at one point that he had a son about my age. I asked him what he did. He said that his son traveled for a while and then took a test that suggested he would be good at art, so he was in art school. One of the other things Rami told us was that the reason Hebrew is written from right to left was because initially most writings were chiseled into stone and most writers were right-handed. In order to see their work they had to write in that direction.
We spread out on the bus since there were only twenty-six of us. I sat in the right side this time, so I could be on the side of the sea on our drive south toward the border. It also meant I'd be in the sun for most of the ride. We drove around the Gaza Strip. We stopped at a little shopping/food place right before the border. Rami encouraged us to buy lots of water before we left because of the long drive we had ahead of us to Cairo and because we couldn't drink the tap water at any stops on the way. I bought cans of apple cider. At the border at El Rafiah (or Rafah) Rami told us that we had to have what you always need at borders -- patience. It wasn't bad. Most of the employees there seemed to be long-haired young women in blue uniforms.
In contrast, when we did cross over to Egypt, the employees seemed to all be middle-aged men in olive uniforms. The border was very well defined. We were told that all the fences were to prevent smuggling since Egypt and Israel had made peace. I tipped Rami and said goodbye since we would be joined by our Egyptian guide on the other side. It looked like Baruch slipped some money into our porter's hands to get our luggage across. I had been warned about tipping (or baksheesh), but I would yet learn just how expected it is in Egypt.
In Egypt, we were met by our guide, the beautiful, dark-haired, always-smiling, always-bubbly Sahar. Our driver's name was Mohammed. We had to wait for other tour groups to arrive because the buses left together in a convoy for safety reasons. Boxed lunches waited for us on the air-conditioned bus. They were pretty good, but since their contents weren't identical it was pretty funny watching people exchange items. We had to wait quite a while, but it wasn't bad. When we did get moving I think there were five buses in all. The drive to Cairo across the Sinai Peninsula would take something like five and a half hours. I like driving, so it was very enjoyable for me. I was on the right side again. There was a real difference in the desert now that we were in Egypt. It was much more desolate for miles upon miles. I saw sand dunes and people on camels while Sahar told us about Egypt and what to expect. After a while, she showed us a catalog of cartouches which could each contain the name of your choice in hieroglyphics. A cartouche is made up of a horizontal bar bound to an elongated ellipse containing the name of someone important, a pharoah or god in ancient times. The ellipse represents the sky, and the horizontal bar represents the earth. The cartouche has them bound together for eternity. I picked out an 18 carat gold cartouche for Sara.
We spent time learning the Arabic numerals. |
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