You pay a very reasonable price and can sleep on the roof under the stars with a view of the whole old city! They also have a variety of rooms, of course, but I didn't even see them, since we pretty much walked in and went directly up the stairs to the top. :-)
There are concerts apparently every night in a nearby building, so you get free music lofting through the air as you take in the scenery, but it’s not too loud that you can’t sleep. Of course you do wake up with the sun, but hey, you’re a tourist—being up early just gives you more time to take in the sites.
As we’d been looking for this hostel that people had recommended, we came across a few others, which we went and visited. The Citadel Hostel also seemed very nice option, in case Petra is full or something, though the people at Petra (both staff and guests) seemed more friendly, and we liked the view better from the Petra roof than the Citadel roof...
Anyway, we had a lovely night and in the morning visited Aroma (remember me mentioning the popular coffee shop?) and I ordered the Israeli breakfast, which consists of about twice as much food as one person can eat, but my friend also ordered food, so we just both did the best we could with our respective portions. It was delicious, though! Israeli salad (read: squared cucumbers and tomatoes), cheeses, eggs, toast, white scooped stuff that’s similar to sour cream, and of course olives. I topped it off with an “Aroma coffee", of which I can’t remember the ingredients, but put together they spell M-m-m-m-m-m, and we were fueled for the day.
I am racking my brain to remember what all we did, but a great portion was spent walking on the walls around the old city. It is a great walk, looking in toward the old city, and out toward the more modern one. Seeing the change in architecture, clothing, etc. at each turn, and reading of some of the history on the plaques along the way is thought provoking and conversation inspiring.
We saw a monument I’ve seen in several other countries. Perhaps my sister or someone will be so good as to post with the name of what they’re called. I couldn’t remember, but they have to do with world peace somehow, and have “peace” written on each side in a different language…I specifically remember seeing one in Ecuador…anyway, I was excited to see it here in what a lot of people consider to be the center of the world, where peace is desired by so many, but still seems a long way off most often.
A few steps down from the peace pole thing, you look on the other side of the wall and see a building that is still covered in bullet holes from, oh dear, was that 1948, or during the Six Day War? See what happens when I don’t have a guide, and I’m antsy to get my blog updated?
Further around the wall you can see the side of the hill that some think is where Jesus was crucified. We know the site was called the Place of the Skull, and this hill has little cave-ettes that make it look somewhat skull-like. It is next to a garden that has an unfinished tomb in it that seems to fit the description of the one Joseph of Arimathea donated. Of course there are arguments against this being the place, but it is a very nice attraction to give you an idea of what it would have looked like 2000 years ago, wherever it was. Our group a few years ago had a great communion together there, and it was cool to see again from atop the city wall.
We walled about halfway around the city, then came down to street level and made our way back across to go visit a 24 hour prayer house we’d heard about. Oh the refreshment! I can’t put words to it, but we will definitely be returning to join in again. I expect I’ll be there several times again before heading back stateside. “As the deer pants for water…”
Then we were meeting at a friend’s house for a late lunch, and were surprised to find that he lives next door to Binyamin Netanyahu, the current Prime Minister of Israel! He told us he can sometimes overhear speeches when famous people come from abroad and present there, etc. How cool is that?
We had a good meal with him, and he showed us his own little suka—nicely done. :)
We were going to go that day to Petach Tikva with my laptop, but after playing on the wall for too long (we had a lot of fun getting creative with poses, etc.), then spending much longer in the prayer house than expected, and finally eating lunch and walking to the bus stop, we realized we’d be cutting it close to getting there before they closed. And I needed to go to Tel Aviv in two days anyway for my Fulbright orientation, so we decided to spend the rest of the day in Jerusalem and head there the next day.
We head over to Ben Yehuda street which is the main hangout for J’lem nightlife. It’s like Old Town Pasadena, and Uptown Whittier, but is blocked off from cars, so it’s all walking. Very nice. My friend introduced me to Burgers Bar. Oh dear. Good thing it’s a couple hours away from Haifa, and good thing I walk a lot here. They have many kinds of vegetarian burgers; I ordered a portobello burger, and then you choose from a myriad of toppings and eat it along with their French fries with garlic dipping sauce. Well, that sounds so easy, but these burgers are so packed full of goodness it’s actually quite a pleasant difficulty to take it all in!
We walked around Ben Yehuda for a bit, and I ended up getting a sleeping bag of good quality and great price! So handy. :)
Walking back from Ben Yehuda we passed through a fancy outdoor mall that was lined with a lot of upscale art, which is mostly beyond my appreciation, but there was one piece I knew my family would appreciate almost as much as I did, so I snapped a shot of it for you:
Then it was back to finish up the other half of the wall, by night. As we approached the temple mount, of course we were not allowed to continue on the wall (security issues galore), so we had to come down to the ground, and we saw that over by the Western Wall (which people here call the Kotel) there was a large crowd. Heading over we found out that some new soldiers were being sworn in that night. It was so great to happen upon the ceremony! So we got to see several units of soldiers become official—their families’ reception of them after the closing looked like an American graduation ceremony.
We passed back through the Jewish quarter (which we’d visited the day before, also), and I think it was then that we went to the Vegetarian Restaurant (MMMmmmmm), followed by dessert, and a roll back to the hostel to digest under the stars.
The next day we packed up, caught a bus to the central bus station, did a little shopping on the way at an inexpensive store we’d seen earlier in our travels, and met up with our friend that had offered to guide us to the computer lab store.
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