A Weekend in the Holy Land

Hi friends and family!

Another week’s gone by and I’m happy to say that this was one of my most favorite weeks here so far (as if every week isn’t already fantastic!)

After a few days of class, we were given Thursday off for the Muslim New Year, so I went with two other friends across the border over to Jerusalem. It’s amazing to think how close Amman is to Jerusalem – if there wasn’t a border, it would take only about 45 minutes to drive from one place to the other!

As luck would have it, the three of us managed to get through the border in only 3 hours – from the crowded downtown of Amman, across the no-man’s land and across all the Israeli check points! By that night, we were safely to our hostel and eating a delicious Italian food dinner (can’t go wrong with Italian food, no matter what country you’re in!)

The next day, we woke up early to explore the Old City. The Old City is surrounded by huge walls maintained from the time of the Romans – amazing! Once in the old city, we wandered around until we came to the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock. We were able to go up to the Western Wall, but couldn’t make it up to the area with the mosques because the line was much too long (plus, non-Arab Christians can’t really get in). After that, we went looking around for the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where Jesus was said to have been laid to rest.

Once we found the church, we were immediately surrounded by thousands of pilgrims, all saying prayers and kissing the stone where Jesus was laid. It was a little overwhelming. The Orthodox Church runs the church, so it was interesting to see the way their pilgrims differed from some of the protestant faiths.

We weren’t really sure what else there was to see in the Old City, so we continued to wander until we stumbled on the Austrian Hospice – aka the best free view of the city! It was really cool to see the whole city and the Mount of Olives off to the side.

We ate lunch at a fantastic hummus/falafel place outside of Damascus Gate before departing to Bethlehem for the afternoon. Seriously some of the best food ever. The ride to Bethlehem was super smooth. Once we got there, we were bombarded by a cab driver that tried to take us to the Church of the Nativity (we agreed to this because it seemed like a pretty good idea to get exactly where we wanted to go) but then convinced us to hire him out for the afternoon! This turned out to be a great idea, because he showed us where all the Banksy pieces were in the city, like the one that’s just casually on the side of a car wash.

Getting to the Church of the Nativity was great too – we walked around, got stuck behind some tour groups but eventually got to see the site where Jesus was born. I still haven’t decided how I feel about having spiritual revelations at sites that are so venerated – I’ve never been one to believe that my faith is tied to a location. Maybe that’s just the camp mentality (hey, Lutherdale) but seeing all this pilgrims crying or freaking out or kissing everything in sight almost made me feel less connected and isolated from the space because I wasn’t having the same reaction.  Regardless, I’m still can’t believe I was in the same space where so much happened thousands of years ago (can’t really get that in the states!).

Once we’d seen basically all of touristy parts of Bethlehem, we headed back to Jerusalem by bus just in time for a Renaissance Fair in the Old City! Totally unexpected, but still fun. We ended our day by having a drink with one of our hostel buddies and passing out from way too much walking.

The next day was Friday, and the border closed at one so after a fruitless search to find a T-Shirt shop again in the Old City (that souk is waaay too confusing) we headed back to Amman!

But that wasn’t the end of it. The next day we had a group trip to some of the Biblical sites on the other side of the Jordan River – complete with baptism site and Mount Nebo. It was pretty cool to get to see the river up close for the first time. Did you know the Jordan River is the only river in Jordan? How neat is that!

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend, full of good food, mixed feelings and amazing sights. I’m glad I got to pop over there for the weekend.

There’s only 5 more weekends left here before I head home! Only a few more adventures left to go on… Next up, the castles in Ajloun!!