Busy weekend.

5h Annual Jerusalem Beer Festival!

Let's just say it was quite the experience. Each year the beers of Israel gather together for one giant festival. So naturally, we decided to check it out. I tried (tried = sip) about 5 different kinds of beer, none of which I found very impressive. They had a big concert later in the evening. Everything was in Hebrew, but whoever the band was they must have been pretty well known cause all the Israelis knew the words.



Ryan and Marissa at the beer festival.



The beer festival was Thursday evening and Friday morning we (7 total) were off to Tel Aviv for the rest of the weekend. After many long bus rides we eventually found our way to the hostile. We dropped our bags and went out to explore the city. Tel Aviv seems to be like any other big city on the coast. Cities like that are nice to visit, but I'm glad I don't live there.

That evening we ate at a sea side bar and grill. Hands down the best meal I've had since I've been here. Mmm cheese burger.



And this was our view as we enjoyed our meal. This was the first sunset over the water I had ever seen. Wow, was it beautiful.



Later that night went to the beach to just sit and chat. We took the evening pretty easy cause we had a pretty big day planned for Saturday. Ryan, Josh and I were up before the girls and we were off to Jaffo (Joppa). It was about a 30 min walk from the hostile but it was totally worth it.

Here is a picture looking back to Tel Aviv as we walked to Joppa.



Yes, this is the same Joppa that is in the Bible. Jonah was swallowed by a whale here and Peter had a vision. Nothing like that happened to us while we were there, but we still had a good time exploring and such.

That's Joppa right on the coast and the tower is part of St. Peter's church.



Here's the inside of St. Peter's church.



Not a lot was happening in Joppa because of Shabbat, but that just gave us more privacy to roam around where ever we wanted.

Josh and Ryan as we made our way down to the port of Joppa. As you can see, it's very similar to the architecture in the Old City.



After walking back to the hostile we met back up with the girls and had lunch. The rest of the afternoon was spent swimming and lying around on the beach. Eventually we made it back to Jerusalem and I'll be honest, I feel more at home here in Jerusalem than I did in Tel Aviv. I guess it's a good thing I picked Hebrew U.

Take care.

Another trip to the Old City.

This past weekend Ryan, Marrisa and I went to the Old City for some more exploring. Trust me, there's so much to see in this city. Sometimes I wonder even if an entire semester will be enough to see everything that Jerusalem offers. Not to mention the rest of Israel of even the surrounding area.

Now to the pictures. This is the other dome inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.



Next, we took a short walk over to the Church of the Redeemer.



After paying the price of 5 shekels ($1.25), we were able to climb to the top of the tower and look out over the entire Old City. The spiral staircase was incredibly tiny and it took forever to get to the top, but it was totally worth it.

Here you can see the two domes of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre from the outside. Yes, it's really buried that deep within the city. It's architectural beauty is definitely found on the inside considering you can't really see the outside.



If you look closely on the left side of the picture you're able to see my apartment complex on the horizon. And on the right side is Hebrew University. Yes, I walk that every day.



This is to hopefully put the Western Wall in relation to Dome of the Rock. In case you were wondering, Dome of the Rock is that big shiny gold dome. If you follow the line of trees coming out from the right side you will see a blue roof. Right next to that is the Western Wall.



I hope you've enjoyed this round of pictures. Ryan and I have so much more exploring to do. Garden of Gethsemane, David's City, Western Wall Tunnels, David's City Tunnels, just to name a few and that's only Jerusalem. Many more pictures are yet to come, so be ready.

Take Care.

This post will mostly be about my 12 hour adventure exploring Jerusalem, but first I would like to introduce you to Chocolate Pillows cereal. That's not the official name but look exactly like little pillows filled with chocolate. How this made it onto the shelves for parents to buy for their kids? I'm not sure, but I am sure that they are delicious and make a perfect snack food.



Now onto the 12 hour exploration. Yesterday Kyle, Ryan, and I decided to get lunch together but we had no idea what kind of adventure we were getting ourselves into. We walked to the nearest bus station and took a bus to downtown Jerusalem to eat at the Ye Olde English Tea Room. It's nothing earth shattering, but it was interesting to eat pancakes knowing that the people there considered them to be a "foreign" food.

After lunch/breakfast we walked over to the Old City. After passing through the new outdoor mal we arrived at the Jaffa Gate and headed over to Christ Church. It was the first Protestant Church in Jerusalem and much of the church resembles a Jewish synagogue. Louis, a Christ Church historian, showed us around and gave us a brief history of the church.



After visiting Christ Church we headed through a maze of streets and found ourselves at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Yeah that's it pictured below. The entrance wasn't what I was expecting but looks can be deceiving. This place is huge on the inside.



This dome is much more incredible when seen in person. Pictures just can't do it justice.



I'll be honest, I have no idea what this is a picture of. There was a line of people waiting to kneel in front of this. Please, if you know what this is let me know.



Now don't get me wrong, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was pretty outrageous, but there weren't any tour guides or signs so we didn't really know what anything was. It seems to be a very Catholic place and me not knowing anything about Catholicism didn't help.

Next, we left the Old City and hopped on over to the Garden Tomb. This is one of the places where it is believed that Jesus was buried after He was crucified. Wait, "places" you ask? Yes, the actual site of Jesus' tomb is unknown and all can go off of are best guesses, but this place has a pretty compelling argument. You should visit to learn more.



From the Garden tomb we walked all the way to Ben Yehuda St. and bought some very delicious challah bread for super cheap. And after the bread it was Back to the Old City. Did I mention we did a ton of walking? Below is one of many narrow streets lined with shops in the Old City.



And here are my two fellow explorers. That's Kyle on the left and Ryan on the right. No, they didn't know this picture was coming so please forgive them for not smiling.



But wait there's more! We headed over to a top secret hang out location that is on the roof of one of the buildings in the Old City. We spent some time sitting and talking before we left for Rabbi Mordecai's house. Every shabbat Rabbi Mordecai opens up his home to anyone and everyone to come and celebrate shabbat. He and his family provides a meal each and every week for about 30-40 people. From where we were in the Old City it should have taken us about 15 min to walk to Rabbi Mordecai's house, but we got a bit turned around and found ourselves in a very orthodox neighborhood. Let's just say we were a bit out of place, but after another hour or so we found Rabbi Mordecai's house and enjoyed a wonderful meal. There is a very good chance that we will become regulars to his shabbat gatherings.

We left around midnight and I got back to my apartment about 1:00 am. It was a very long day, but it was totally worth it and I'm sure I'll have similar stories in the future.

Take Care.

This is just a sampling of the beauty in Jerusalem. Although we traveled to the Old City, we weren't there very long. I'm sure I'll be back though considering I'm here for five months. These pictures aren't spectacular or anything but seriously how could you not want to visit a place like this.

After class I headed over to the amphitheater to take a few pictures. Yes, that's the desert on the horizon. The university sits on Mt. Scopus which basically means we can see all of Jerusalem and then some.



Ah yes, Dome of the Rock and just below that you can see the Western Wall (ha-cotel). I'm not sure how close to Dome of the Rock I can get but we went to the Wall and prayed.



Here's a better picture of the Wall. Before coming to Israel I had heard stories of how people will write prayers on pieces of paper and put them in the cracks of the Wall. As we walked closer it was very clear that every crack within arms reach was filled with thousands of prayers.



Hopefully these aren't too disappointing as I realized that I may have talked up some excitement for these pictures. And as mentioned before, I'll be back to take more pictures. Perhaps some with me in them since I was told that those are the ones that I'll wish I have when I'm older.

It seems hard to believe that I'm able to live here for five months. I know this is only the beginning of a great semester.

As always, until next time, take care.

Here are some new pictures for your enjoyment. I'm hoping to have tons more after I go to the Old City tomorrow afternoon.

The view from the window in my room. Although it's not the Old City, it's also not a brick wall.

Here's some kessef (money). Funny story. I spent my first in Jerusalem without any shekels. I couldn't find anywhere to change my money over and the ATM wouldn't take my card. Luckily the mall we went to had a place to change money over and I ended up spending a fortune calling my bank back in the US to tell them that my card was being used overseas. All that to say that I know have access to money while I'm over here.

Now for a few pictures of the apartment. Hopefully you can get an idea of what it's like.

The meetbach (kitchen)

The hedar sha-li (my room). You'll have to PhotoMerge these together in your mind.

That's all I have for now. More to come later. Just a side note, foreign outlets are such a pain. I foolishly plugged my alarm clock into and adaptor and then the wall and in about five minutes is over heated and was dead. Needless to say I learned from that experience and bought an Israeli alarm clock.

Take Care.

I got my camera back from Mike and although my Israeli phone isn't anything special, I decided to post pictures any way. It's your standard Nokia flip phone and the only thing makes it semi-cool is the Hebrew. Enjoy.