Tour Day 1 @ Jerusalem

Disclaimer! The text in the following blog is subjected to the author’s memory. The author, while trying his best to give factual accounts, does not guarantee the accuracy of the accounts. Apologies in advance to those who may feel offended by the inaccuracies.

Terrible start to the tour. Woke up early in the morning, we rushed to take a taxi to the nearby train station only to find that the train is not operating because they are doing rail repairs. Ended up taking the same taxi to Tel Aviv to meet up with the tour group. AND I DROPPED MY HP IN THE TAXI. Sianz.. Still cant find the phone till today.. And the taxi ride costs more than S$100.. Double Ouch!!

No choice, we still have to start our tour since we paid for it already. The tour group was quite cool though, a mini united nations, we have pple from US, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, etc etc and even from Khazakstan and Afghanistan, the afghanistan people ma jiam look like east asian lei, i thought they were japanese initially. Early morning we went to take an overview of Jerusalem. So we manage to have a nice panoramic view of Jerusalem and took some great pics such as this.

The building in the middle with the gold colour roof is the Dome of the Rock. Its the 3rd most holy place for muslims (after Mecca and Medina) as it is said to be the place where Muhammad went to heaven. Its also the most holy place for Jews. However it remains under muslim control as of present times, the tour guide says that you cant remove it from muslims as 2 billion muslims will be angry if you do that. Lan lan for the jews. And we cant visit it since we do not practise Islam.

Such a historical sight, needs me to be in the picture k.

There are a lot of graves everywhere. Jerusalem is like a necropolis. Below picture shows some Jewish graves. There are also Muslim graves and Christian graves. Everyone wants to be buried here for this is the place where the messiah will return.

After the overview, we visited the tomb of David. It is situated on Mount Zion.

You must wear skullcaps (known as Kippah) when entering the site.

I uploaded my first youtube video! This shows some Jews praying at the tomb of David. IThe tomb is covered by the black cloth and divided into 2 parts. The other part is on the other side of the wall where ladies pray.

This is Virgin Mary’s tomb, supposedly coz I cant really remember.

There are some drawings on the ceiling of the tomb. Its Jesus with some people, not very sure who though.

This is the place where Jesus supposedly had his last supper with the 12 apostles. Nothing very special in here.

A random shot of a beautiful structure, one of the thousands you can find in Jerusalem.

Just before lunch, we went to the Yad Vashem. This is the place where the Jews commemorate the victims of the holocaust. More than 6 million Jews perished for the crime of being a jew and 1.5 million of them are children. Its a very emotional place, as I see some Jews tearing when walking through the memorials.. There are so many stuff to see here, you won’t finish it after 2 days I think. And the tour guide only gave us 1 hour +.. Too bad no photos are allowed inside, so only the main entrance can be shown to you guys.

Its lunch time. We spent our budget on the morning taxi fare. So we can only buy some ice-cream (reminds me of Hleb the shit head who went to eat ice cream with directors from Inter on the eve of the match against San Siro at Milan) from the ice-cream man and take nice pictures.

Oh and I saw a group of Jews singing. Very nice and soothing. Until they stopped when they realised that I took their picture. opps.

Its into the old city of Jerusalem in the afternoon. There was nothing outside the old city 160 years ago. This is one of the 8 gates that surround the old city.

We entered via the Jaffa gate. The tour guide keep mentioning the name, because if we get lost from him (which we really did and a lot of other pple too) we will have to meet him at the Jaffa gate. This picture below shows the view when you step in from the Jaffa gate.

When you walk through the streets, you feel like you are walking through some shophouses though. Beware of tourists traps.

The rocky architecture makes the old city SO BEAUTIFUL.

This is the very famous western/wailing wall. The last remaining wall from the second temple of the Jews. Every Jew comes here to pray.

I decided to join in the fun. You write your prayers on a piece of paper and stuff it into the cracks of the wall. Tall people have an advantage here.

I am nowhere as serious as the Jews though.

A family of Hasidic Jews, the very religious and orthodox Jews.

Armed guards are a common sight. I cant find the pretty female soldiers that Prof Liao Kin showed me though. The soldiers are allowed to bring their firearms home I think. They are ever ready.

Next up, the tour guide took us to Via Dolorosa, the route by which Jesus took on the way to crucifixion. This is station 3, where Jesus fell down for the first time.

This is station 6, where a lady called Veronica wiped Jesus’ face on a silk veil. It is said that his features are imprinted on the veil and preserved and kept somewhere. Many Christians and Jews kissed the station for the deed. This is my favourite shot of the day.

Meanwhile, I see people taking a smoke. This instrument is very similar to Chinese 水烟。

This picture show the exact location where Jesus is put on the cross. Many people queue up to get a look and touch of it.

This place marks the position where Jesus is put to rest.

Many people bring stuff from home to rub on the stone where he was put to rest. Make the items more holy ba.

This is the position of Jesus tomb. I got lost from the tour guide trying to get a good picture.

We rushed back to find the tour guide after this as time was up. If you don’t find him by 5 pm, he will abandon you and assume you went back to the hotel.

At least dinner was provided by the hotel. Its a buffet so I took my lunch cum dinner there. And guess what, I have seafood for the first time in Israel. I found some fish. Even though the taste wasnt really great, I took a lot of servings, because I don’t know when is the next time I can get to eat fish again. Wow, this is a really long post, to think I can spend so much time blogging. Oh well, at least it is a cheap form of entertainment.

Conclusion: Jerusalem is a very beautiful city. But for atheists like me, its hard to appreciate the significance. I like the holocaust memorial a lot though, I wish I had more time there. Nxt post will be on the trip to the dead sea, where I had more fun.

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