OK so I am home. I am very behind on my postings but I do want to let you all know how the end of the trip went. I envision this being a blog that I can use to write about life- my traveling life, the nontraveling, mundane, suburban Maryland life, all of it. But I digress; I am going to finish writing about the trip.
So the day after Birthright, Ilya and I traveled to Jerusalem. Interesting fact about Jeruslaem: Jews pronounce it "Yirousalyim." "Yeh-roos-ah-lai-em." A famous song about Jerusalem is by Naomi Shemer, who wrote "Yirosalyim Shel Zahar," or "Jerusalem, city of gold," a few weeks before the 1967 war against Syria. Israeli paratroopers sang the song as the landed on Jerusalem. It was after the 1967 war, the Six Day War, that the Jewish people had control of Jerusalem once more. Pretty crazy, especially when you consider that ever since the temple fell in 70 AD, the Jews have prayed for Jerusalem to be their holy city. After almost 2000 years, they now control Jersualem. It is pretty cool that the Jews can finally roam freely in Jersualem and visit the kotel. It's what our great-great-great-great-great grandfathers prayed for; to see the Holy Land. And now it is completely accessible.
Ilya and I spent the day wandering in the markets in Jerusalem, through the Jewish, the Christian, and the Muslim quarters. Birthright wouldn't let us go to the Muslim quarter, but we had been told from the soldiers that they had the best hummus and that we would be fine, so we went in. We were blissful that we didn't have to be on a bus, with a micromanaged, tightly packed schedule that began at 7am and ended at 10 pm, so we just spent the day seeing the sights leisurely. We almost took a wrong turn in the Old City that would've led us into Temple MOunt, but a bunch of Arabs shouted, "No! No! Not for you!"
One of the murkiest and hardest problems to solve in the Arab-Jewish conflict is the issue of Temple Mount. Here are the sides:
Before 70 AD, all Jews lived in Israel. They prayed at the Temple, an enormous synagouge which was built at the site where God asked Abraham to sacrifice Issac, and where God established a covenant with Abraham. This is the site where both monotheism and Judaism started- over 4,000 years ago. It is the holiest site to a Jew. So what happened to the Temple? It was destroyed, for a second and so-far final time, by the Romans in 70 ad. The Romans had raised taxes for Jews and prevented them from doing certain types of work, and the Jews organized a massive revolt. The Romans sent thousands and thousands of soldiers into Jerusalem to show them who was boss. They completely destroyed the temple. Reports say there was blood everywhere. So many slaves were taken in that day taht the price of slaves dropped throughout the empire. So much gold was taken from the Jews that the price of gold dropped throughout the empire. For the Jews, it was utter devastation. Their point of unification, the Temple, was now gone. And this is where the Jewish diaspora started. This is the reason there are Jews all over the world, instead of all of them living in Israel.
That is the Jewish side.
THe Muslim side: Muslims don't believe that Abraham was asked by God to sacrifice Issac. THey believe God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael, by his maidservant Hagar. Ishmael is considered to be the father of the Muslims. Muslims believe that Mohammed ascended into heaven from Temple Mount, the exact same spot where the Temple was, and the same spot where Jews believe God established a covenant with Abraham and the Jewish people.
The Temple Mount is beautiful; it is a gold dome that sticks out from any overview of Jerusalem. It is a holy site to Muslims and Jews. Non-Muslims are not allowed to enter Temple Mount. Tensions are so high over this subject that when the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, a Jew, entered Temple Mount in 1998, it set off the second intifada because Muslims were so enraged at (they felt) his desecration of their holy site.
Here is the problem for JEws: the Jews want to rebuild the Temple, to reunify all the Jews again. However, to rebuild the temple, they would have to destroy Temple Mount. So these two beautiful religions are at odds with each other- the Jews cant rebuild their temple within destroying the sacred Muslim site, and by not permitting non-Muslims to enter the Mount, the Muslims are denying Jews a chance to visit their most holy site. So there is a peace, a tenuous peace, but tensions are always high over this extremely heated issue.
So Jerusalem was fun, although we slept in a pretty not-amazing hostel, with a shower that had no curtain and a toilet that made loud noises for 20 minutes after it was flushed.
The next day, we met Ilya's brother and his girlfriend Andrea (!) who were both really nice. We boarded a bus and went to Tel Aviv. It was a perfect day: 75 degrees, sunny, and no wind. Ilya's brother, who lived in Tel Aviv (his internship ended so now he is back home), was nice enough to let me use the Internet at his house so I could find a hostel. Coming to TEl Aviv, I was wildly unprepared: I hadnt booked a hostel, and I didn't know much about the city except that it was full of culture, art, gays, and a beautiful Mediterannean beach. I found a cute hostel in my lonely planet book called Momo's Hostel (fyi: Momo is a Romanian nickname, which is fitting because many Romanians worked there). Promising to meet up with Ilya and his brother later, I departed in a taxi for Momo's.
I got to Momo's, on Ben Yehuda street, and immediately felt at ease. The hostel was filled with funky hippies, wayward souls, people right off of Birthright, musicians, a Norwegian guy who had just hiked Israel from North to South, a 20 year old Australian who just made aaliyah and pronounced everything "amaayyyzing", and nice hostel workers. I went to my room, which was filled with purple-sheeted bunkbeds, rainbow colored curtains, and a balcony that overlooked the busy street below.
I decided to explore the city and get lunch so I headed over to Bogershav street. I sat in the sun and read Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises" while drinking the Israeli interpretation of a strawberry smoothie. I watched people walking by: fashionable young couples, families with young children, bewildered tourists in backpacks looking for a quiet place to eat. I saw a clothing store called "Bee Yourself" on the other side of the street, and decided to check it out.
I waited for two minutes at the pedestrian crosswalk as cars kept flying by. In America, typically, when a person is standing in a pedestrian crosswalk, cars STOP for the person so that they can cross. Not in Israel. They appear to be merely white lines painted across the street. The only time a car will stop for you is if you physically start walking yourself across the street. So after two minutes of sweating in the sun, waiting for the cars to stop, I took a big step and started walking.
I took about two more steps and felt an immense pain on the left side of my head. I fell to the ground and realized I had been hit by something. I saw a motorcycle slowing down about 10 yards in front of me and circle back and realized that the driver must've hit me. I got up, shaken, and see two guys gaping at me on the side of the road. They ask me in English, "Are you ok?" and I immediately start crying and shaking uncontrollably. Two women appear. One gives me juice and a hug, and strokes my back saying "It'll be alright". The driver comes over, and they all point to the pedestrian crosswalk and yell at him in Hebrew. One of them calls an ambulance, one leaves, and the two guys remaining (I was getting slight ghey vibes, and it is they ghey capital of the Middle East, but one can never be sure) stayed with me until the ambulance came. THey tried to make me laugh and calm me down until the ambulance got there. THen, they handed me a piece of paper with their numbers on it, and the contact information and license plate of the guy who hit me. They told me to call them if I needed anything and were off. YAY for nice people who help strangers.
The hospital was an experience. I had a very efficient and intelligent male doctor who made me go to the plastic surgeon to get stitches (EIGHT!) to cover up the gash on the left side of my face. I went to an orthopedic surgeon to make sure that the fluid in my left knee and thigh was not permanent damage (it wasn't). The annoying thing was that all the nurses and doctors were talking aroudn me in rapid Hebrew and I didn't understand a thing. WHen I was waiting in line for the orthopedic surgeon, they called out for me in Hebrew, but since I don't speak it, I missed what they said. Then I heard "ekrlaejkejfklj ANDREA fjdkaflj;daklfj;dl" in a loud angry voice on the loudspeaker, and realized they were summoning me. Not knowing what is going around you, what the doctors are saying, is really really hard to deal with. You feel like you are this chess piece they can do anything with. I was lucky to be in Israel though- they have amazing health care.
As I was leaving, I had to fill information out for the financial lady. She wanted contact information in Israel so in case I didn't pay my hospital bill, for 900 sheckels (300 dollars), she would have someone to harass. I tried explaining that I have ONE cousin in Israel but didnt have her number on me and she did not like that very much. I tried explaining to her that my US health insurance covered emergency situations such as this one, AND that the guy who hit me would have to pay my bill with his insurance anyways, but she didnt listen. She regarded me liek this floozy American tourist who was trying to rip Israel's medical system off. She was very annoying but I kept my cool and smiled. Honestly, escaping with some stitches and some bruises means I was very lucky. I didnt have a concussion, I didn't have broken bones or permanent damage. I was very, very lucky, so dealing with her didn't ruffle my feathers too much.
I hailed a taxi, went back to Momo's, called Ilya and met him, his brother, and some friends a few streets away. We went to a SPANISH bar that had LEGS OF JAMON on the wall. I felt like I was back in Sevilla. We bought champagne and took the plastic glasses out on the streets, where we talked. A drunk guy came up to us and asked if he could hang out with us for five minutes because the cops were chasing him and he wanted to hide so we said sure. He was gone in about two minutes. I met tons of AMericans who were in Israel working, interning, or volunteering. I can see why an American would like TEl Aviv- there are palm trees everywhere, it is warm for most of the year, even in their "winter," there is art and liberal people anda great bar scene. It's a completely different feel than religious Jerusalem. I did see a Hasidic Jew on roller skates pushing a carriage and then saw two gay guys holding hands. That combination would NOT happen in Jerusalem!
