Walking on Water, Part 1
I know, I know, I’ve been slacking. So sue me.
In more interesting news, I can tell from my blog statistics that it seems that people have been anxiously awaiting a Holy Land recap. Or y’all just miss me and decide the stalk me on your off days.
Either way, here it is…
The Great Holy Land Adventure Tour Recap.
First of all, a shout out to my travel companions, Claire and Courtney, who were the best. I have learned over the years that travel stresses most people out, and traveling internationally to a decidedly dangerous location just adds to that. Luckily, I have awesome friends, and we had a blast the whole way. Including but not limited to the time we sacrificed our awesome seats next to each other for three middle seats between smelly, non-english speaking men who required seat belt extenders. Yes, that really happened. For 10 and a half hours from Newark to Tel Aviv.
Once we arrived, we were in paradise- and not just because there was fresh air and sunshine, but also, there were palm trees. In Israel. Maybe this doesn’t surprise you as much as it did me, but I was shocked. I’m pretty sure I said “oh my gosh there are palm trees” about 10 times before we even left the airport. But once I got over that shock, and we found the correct method of transportation, we were off to meet up with our fearless hostess Laurin-Whitney (aka Elle Dub) in Jerusalem.
Once we met up with Elle Dub outside of the Damascus Gate, we headed with her to Bethlehem, which would be our home base for the trip. We stayed up late enough to eat our first Palestinian meal, including my first ever taste of hummus (I know, I know, how am I from Oregon if I don’t eat hummus?) before we crashed and slept til noon the next day.
Sunday, we spent exploring the city of Jesus’ birth including Manger Square, the Milk Grotto and the Church of the Nativity, where I got yelled at for my scandalous knee showing, and we still got special treatment for being awesome. Well, really, for Elle Dub’s awesomeness which we attached ourselves to, and took full advantage of. Okay, Elle Dub’s awesomeness, and Claire’s curly blonde hair. Really, I was just chopped liver, with scandalous knees. One of the more interesting facts we learned was about the Christmas preparations at the Church of the Nativity, where more often than not, you can see pastors, priests and other men of the clergy in an all out brawl over cleaning duties. Don’t believe me? Check out this video on youtube.
After gelato and a stop at Dream DVD, we headed back to Elle Dub’s humble abode to plan the rest of the adventure.
Monday, we conquered crazy steep climbing in a dress, the Palestinian roads and floating in the Dead Sea. After picking up our rental car in Jerusalem, we headed east to the land of salt and mud.
On our way, we stopped at St. George’s Monastary, where Claire met one of her many suitors, and he attempted to whisk her away into the mountains on the back of his donkey. Luckily for her, donkey’s aren’t that fast and she was able to convince her future husband to let her walk the rest of the way to the monastery.
After an impressive display of my out-of-shapeness on the way back to the car, we stopped off in Jericho to see Zaccheus’ tree, and sing obnoxious Sunday School songs to other non-english speaking tourists. It was also here that my chopped-liver status was confirmed by a man who numbered us off in order of attractiveness- 4/4 ain’t that bad right?
Further confirmation came when we got to the Dead Sea and every Palestinaian man and his mother (literally, there were moms involved) wanted a picture with Courtney and Claire. Naturally, I found this hilarious, and insisted on taking paparazzi photos of the entire thing.
Around noon the crowd shifted from Palestinians to Jewish Canadian High Schoolers, and their celebrity status faded. After a not-so-graceful float in the Dead Sea, and a head-to-toe mud bath, we packed our sunburned selves back up and Courtney drove us back through the dirty circle to Bethlehem.
Since Elle Dub had to work on Tuesday and Wednesday, Courtney, Claire and I headed north to the Sea of Galilee and Nazareth. Before those details though, let’s talk about driving in Palestine. It is crazy. People are honking all the time, but not because they’re mad at you. They also take all traffic signs as voluntary, including the “one way” down the steeper than San Francisco streets. You also get to drive around whomever you want, whenever you want, which can lead to even more honking and a fair amount of speeding. All in all, it was actually pretty fun.
After a quick stop at Café-Café, we wandered into Tiberias, which we were convinced was more important than it turned out to be. We looked around for old stuff for a really long time, and decided to move on when we came up empty handed. We spent the rest of the day reenacting the life of Jesus, from Capernaum to the Mount of the Beattitudes. Tim Tebow would be proud.
In all seriousness, this was probably one of the top three highlights of the trip. Not only was it incredible to read scripture in the cities it took place, but I appreciated that we got to do so at our own pace, and according to our own desires. There’s a lot to be said for doing the Holy Land on an official tour (like not wasting time in Tiberias) but I loved that we got to dictate our own schedule and spend as much time in each place as we wanted. We also got the chance to dip our toes in the Sea of Galilee in Capernaum, which may or may not have been against the rules, but was totally worth it. Not a lot has stayed the same as it was when He lived there, but the seashore in that city has, and I’m still trying to comprehend all of it.
We grabbed a late lunch in Tiberias at a pizza place- home of tattooed Israelis and delicious milkshakes, and headed to Nazareth. I refuse to drive there ever again. Driving in Nazareth made me want to pull my hair out. The signage is terrible. There are teeny-tiny streets and gigantic tour busses. People block traffic whenever they want, and drive over partitions in little cars like Americans go four wheeling. I was near tears when we finally found the place we were supposed to park for our hostel, which was located inside the old city walls. We checked in, and headed out to see a few sights and grab an incredible 3 hour dinner. Nazareth is known for it’s food, and it did not disappoint. Neither did the dinnertime conversation or my companions. We were the first ones asleep and the last ones awake, and we didn’t even care that our amateur traveler status was exposed.
…This is getting longer than I expected. Tune in later this week for Jerusalem, Ramallah and Tel Aviv.
Either way, here it is…
The Great Holy Land Adventure Tour Recap.
First of all, a shout out to my travel companions, Claire and Courtney, who were the best. I have learned over the years that travel stresses most people out, and traveling internationally to a decidedly dangerous location just adds to that. Luckily, I have awesome friends, and we had a blast the whole way. Including but not limited to the time we sacrificed our awesome seats next to each other for three middle seats between smelly, non-english speaking men who required seat belt extenders. Yes, that really happened. For 10 and a half hours from Newark to Tel Aviv.
Once we arrived, we were in paradise- and not just because there was fresh air and sunshine, but also, there were palm trees. In Israel. Maybe this doesn’t surprise you as much as it did me, but I was shocked. I’m pretty sure I said “oh my gosh there are palm trees” about 10 times before we even left the airport. But once I got over that shock, and we found the correct method of transportation, we were off to meet up with our fearless hostess Laurin-Whitney (aka Elle Dub) in Jerusalem.
(In case you didn’t believe me)
Outside the Church of the Nativity
Monday, we conquered crazy steep climbing in a dress, the Palestinian roads and floating in the Dead Sea. After picking up our rental car in Jerusalem, we headed east to the land of salt and mud.
Further confirmation came when we got to the Dead Sea and every Palestinaian man and his mother (literally, there were moms involved) wanted a picture with Courtney and Claire. Naturally, I found this hilarious, and insisted on taking paparazzi photos of the entire thing.
In all seriousness, this was probably one of the top three highlights of the trip. Not only was it incredible to read scripture in the cities it took place, but I appreciated that we got to do so at our own pace, and according to our own desires. There’s a lot to be said for doing the Holy Land on an official tour (like not wasting time in Tiberias) but I loved that we got to dictate our own schedule and spend as much time in each place as we wanted. We also got the chance to dip our toes in the Sea of Galilee in Capernaum, which may or may not have been against the rules, but was totally worth it. Not a lot has stayed the same as it was when He lived there, but the seashore in that city has, and I’m still trying to comprehend all of it.
We grabbed a late lunch in Tiberias at a pizza place- home of tattooed Israelis and delicious milkshakes, and headed to Nazareth. I refuse to drive there ever again. Driving in Nazareth made me want to pull my hair out. The signage is terrible. There are teeny-tiny streets and gigantic tour busses. People block traffic whenever they want, and drive over partitions in little cars like Americans go four wheeling. I was near tears when we finally found the place we were supposed to park for our hostel, which was located inside the old city walls. We checked in, and headed out to see a few sights and grab an incredible 3 hour dinner. Nazareth is known for it’s food, and it did not disappoint. Neither did the dinnertime conversation or my companions. We were the first ones asleep and the last ones awake, and we didn’t even care that our amateur traveler status was exposed.
…This is getting longer than I expected. Tune in later this week for Jerusalem, Ramallah and Tel Aviv.
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