day 91 – ashdod and jerusalem, israel

city of jerusalem

a couple of weeks ago i mentioned that we might not make our port of call in israel since there were a few unfortunate situations recently (explosion in jeruslaem, a few rockets lobbed at ashdod port area), but as the military and police presence were significantly beefed up up, we went ahead anyway…  we weren’t originally planning on it, but since they cancelled a couple of other egyptian ports awhile back, the captain had added salalah, oman and ashdod, israel as replacement destinations… i didn’t want to mention it ‘til after we’d come and gone so no one would worry, and it was truly an amazing day, and i’m so glad i went!  some folks were a little paranoid, though i have decided that i am not going to let any terrorist assholes keep me from experiencing what i want to, because then the bastards have really won, right?  i think we are all vulnerable everywhere all the time, and you can’t live afraid… you have to have a little faith. 

the tour i went on was a long crew tour, 9-6:30, and bob had ipm (boo!), so i was on my own… he gets greece though, next week, and we both have turkey!  anyway, we drove from the port of ashdod to jerusalem, a little over an hour away.  our first stop was an overlook of the holy city and a little bit of history from our tour guide of all the varied occupants, conquerors, kings, prophets and people’s who grudgingly share this city.  temples on top of ruins, churches on top of temples, mosques on top of churches, synagogues, cemeteries, it goes on and on layers and layers into this place… a sacred spot for many of the world’s major religions who all have roots and rituals in this place… to the jews it is their holy land as chosen people, where they come from; for christians it is where jesus taught, healed, suffered, was crucified and resurrected; for muslims it is where the prophet mohammed ascended into heaven, and they all stake their claims in the city and even inside individual sites…

from this overlook, we walked down a steep road, called palm sunday road, where jesus walked to get into town and was greeted and followed by many when he lived here.  we arrived at the garden of gesthemane, where jesus hung out a lot, most notably on the night before he died.  he knew the fate that awaited him and pondered his lot and agonized a bit here.  in this site, the garden, with ancient olive trees, hundreds of years old, there is a large stone he was said to have laid upon, and a church has been erected at this site with this stone at its altar. 

palm sunday road

outside temple of gethsemane

ancient olive trees in garden of gethsemane

garden florals

stone where jesus contemplated his fate

rooftops of gethsemane church and russian orthodox church behind

window inside gethsemane church

after the garden, we went to the old city of jerusalem and walked through the arab quarter and the christian quarter, where we ate a wonderful lunch at a very nice place where you could go up on the rooftop to get the view from above.  it’s a very beautiful place!  after lunch, we shopped in a bazaar and then walked through the jewish quarter and to a place where some excavations are going on (some sort of excavations are continual and always controversial for one group or another in this city) of an old roman road and market place from ancient times.  we continued on to the via dolorosa and the church of the sepulchre, outside where the ancient city walls were, where jesus is said to have suffered the various stations of the cross, been crucified and entombed.  needless to say, it was a bit crowded.  you have to ascend these stone steps up to where he was crucified on a hill, nd there are concave dips in each hard stone step from hundreds of years of pilgrims walking on them… at the top there is a hole in the floor under an altar where you can reach your hand through and touch the ground where his cross was.  downstairs, his tomb had several priests in it, and the line to get in after them was so long our group didn’t have time to go in the tomb, but i did stand outside the rope barrier and take a picture through the door… i laid the objects i bought on the stone table where jesus was laid out after his death before entombment and anointed with holy oils to be blessed there… 

fruits and nuts in market

spice market

very colorful!

i want one of everything...

rooftops in old jerusalem

overlooking marketplace from restaurant rooftop

walking outside old city

church of the sepulchre

door to church of the sepulchre

stairway to where jesus was crucified

site of crucifixion

mosaic of stone he was laid upon

stone he was laid upon

gifts being blessed on this stone

doorway to his tomb

wailing wall

washing area

where i left my prayer, lower crack on the left...

we walked from this church to the western wall of the city of david, the only wall not destroyed, which is often called the wailing wall.  there is a major security checkpoint and military guard at this site.  it is believed by jewish folks and many others that it is a sacred place to make prayer requests, and that requests made here will be honored.  the attached temple site was also where the ark of the covenant lived for a period of time, and scriptures say this is where the spirit of the lord resided.  the men and women pray on separate halves of this wall, and many of the petitions are written on small slips of paper and wedged into the wall.  it is against jewish law to destroy anything with the name of god on it (i.e. these prayers, old bibles, etc.), but rather these items must be buried in holy ground if they need to be disposed of from time to time.  before you approach the wall, there is a fountain where the women wash their hands, and they ask you to cover your hair and dress modestly (some do, some don’t, i did)… and i did slip a small petition in the cracks.  we can always use all the help we can get, right?  and you were all included, too…

after we left the walled city, we came back to the ship, (i wrote my port song on the way home) and i got straight off the bus and onto the bandstand at 7:02 because our bus driver was late.  i did my first set to a fairly full house and then on my break went downstairs for a shower and a change.  with the cultural show at 9:30, it was a bit quiet, but i was surprised to get a half a room afterwards… rare on a lengthy port day!  all day i said to myself, “what an amazing place; what an amazing city!” so for my port song i had to pick a song about another amazing city, “new york new york.”  i can’t really describe how profound not only today but this entire week with egypt, petra and jerusalem have been…. it’s like a history smorgasbord, and my brain and my eyes and my heart are just full of all the wonderful and incredible things i have seen.  there is no way that the pictures or my words can really transmit how awesome this stuff truly is, but i hope you’ll take my word for it.  it has surely been an “interesting time” to travel in the middle east and the holy land, but then, it has always been “interesting times” here… there is never a convenient, conflict-free time to see it, so just go see it if you get the chance… if you wait ‘til things are stable, you’ll never go, and maybe that’s ok, too… i just know that i would regret not going when i had the chance… i would like to come back again and do some overland stuff to stay for a few days and really get more than a glance, but what a glance!

port song for jerusalem, israel

(to the tune of “new york, new york”)

start spreading the news, i’m leaving today

i want to feel the heart of it, jerusalem

prophets, pilgrims and kings, mystics and warriors, too

all built and claimed some part of it, jerusalem

i want to see where jesus walked and prayed back when

and stop at the wailing wall, and slip in a scrawl

and petition mr. a-number one

my dumb little blues are humbled and gone

the people here have gone through so much crazy stuff for so long

and if you’re going to make a prayer

there’s no place anywhere

that’s better than old jerusalem

(inst. interlude)

jerusalem!

i got some keepsakes and icons for dad and mom

made out of real olive wood ‘cause i thought i should

and some incense and perfume that smelled really good

i’m sorry i’m two minutes late; my bus driver wasn’t great

but we saw lots of historical stuff in jerusalem

and someday when

i come back here again

i’ll stay a few days in jerusalem!