Israel Day 2

After loving day #1 in Jerusalem, Will and I set out much earlier on day #2 to see the Western Wall, go through Hezekiah's tunnel and see the Dom of the Rock. Initially, we wanted to see the Dom in the morning, but were retarded and didn't get to see it until it reopened in the afternoon.

We walked to the Old City trying to find the Dom entrance, but finding only an armed guard at one of the exits. The Dom has many entrances and exits, but only Muslims can use the entrances/exits that do not require a medal detector. The entrances are open all day though because Muslims pray 5 times per day. This is very confusing to me, because praying 5 times a day does not seem conducive to working, so I'm really confused how they make any money. Plus, the muslim quarter of the Old City doesn't close down during the prayer times. So either, those shops are run by 'bad' Muslims that don't obey they religious duty and walk to the Dom and pray 5 times per day or the Muslims that own the shops employ non-Muslims to run the shop while they are praying. Either way, all the walking to and from the Dom, cleaning themselves before they pray and the praying seems like it would get in the way of life in general. Oh well...

Anyway, because we couldn't find the Dom entrance, we went to the Western Wall. Will and I entered at a small entrance. When we walked in it was a huge place. Because we walked in the entrance that was small, I had no idea that men and women were separated from one another at the wall. If you enter via the larger entrance, through the Dung gate, men and women go through separate entrances. This made sense to me once I saw the wall because there men and women are separated as well. In fact, the men's side of the wall takes up about three-fourths of the total wall with the women crammed into the remaining one-fourth. The good news for the women is you don't have to have your head covered like the men do. Will said they have paper yamikah's that all the men have to wear. Boy do I wish I had a picture of him with it on!

When you walk up to the wall there are women everywhere sitting in plastic chairs and standing next to the wall touching it. They are all praying and many are cramming prayers written on pieces into the wall.

Next we went outside the Dung gate, appropriately named because way back when all the garbage, etc. was taken out via the Dung gate! We were on a mission to find Hezekiah's tunnel which is how they got water into the city. This was quite possibly the coolest thing I've done on this trip! You pay, of course, and they even sell you a tiny flashlight because it's pitch black inside the tunnel.

When you walk down the stairs to the entrance to the tunnel, you first take a long staircase down. It was steep and the stairs were extremely skinny and since I'd already fallen at least twice before trapsing the stairs, I used extreme caution. If y'all really want a laugh, go look at Will's pictures and you can see the massive bruise I have on the side of my leg because I'm so graceful [http://willcauthorn.shutterfly.com/action]! So...I'm being careful.

As some of you know, tight spaces are not my thing...to say the least! In fact, I all but had a panic attack my last day at the DA's office when the elevator I was in, with 10 other people, stopped. At least that was a decent sized space, this tunnel was a tight fit! So...we go down the stairs and then finally reach the water and boy was it cold. Although because we walked through it for fifteen to twenty minutes, we did get used to it. It was awesome, the flashlights were a must however because there was absolutely no light. For the most part, the water was around our ankles, but at one point it got about half way up my thighs. I know, Becky and Kristi, y'all are thinking, but you're a midget and you're right. But...check out the pictures of Will and his wet shorts and you'll see about how deep it got.

So, the tunnel got progressively narrower and was tall enough in some spots for people of normal height even to stand and especially for me to stand, but in other places I was crouching pretty low. But, I survived despite my fear of tiny spaces and loved every second of it! I'd do it again in a heart beat.

After the tunnel Will and I wandered around the Old City, ate some lunch and waited for the Dom of the Rock to open to non-Muslims. The Dom and surrounding gardens were absolutely beautiful. I couldn't believe the intricate tile work on the Dom itself...it was amazing.

In case you can't tell, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Israel. It was great to see Will and I think he enjoyed showing me around the city as much as I enjoyed being with him. In fact, I already want to go back. Next time, I want to spend a couple of nights in Tel Aviv as well and then see more of Jerusalem and go to the Dead Sea and Bethlehem. Israel is a beautiful country and like I said in my other post, I felt safer there than I do in parts of Atlanta.

I am a little weary of the eighteen to twenty year olds carrying around automatic weapons however. I understand that everyone goes into the army, but it seems to me that a bunch of trigger happy young men and women are not who you would want to carry around those weapons. Just a thought...