Israel

St George's Cathedral and College

There was a market happening across the road at the St George's school yard during the weekend. I had a lovely time chatting to the stall holders, all local palestinian women with home businesses. I bought a gorgeous pincushion embroidered by this lively young woman, and some very nice hand cream from another. I also bought her home-made shampoo (for a good price I might add!). However, my hair did not consider this to be a helpful substance at all ... I never knew hair could be greasy, frizzy and static-y all at the same time! I was quite a sight the next morning. Thankfully it washed out.

The last weekend: Jerusalem, and the way to the cross
These photos of the very special gardens & churches at the Mount of Olives

... and more photos of Jerusalem, the shops, the 'wailing wall' and some other special spots

And to finish, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which surely is one of the most bizarre, complex, multi-layered and utterly astonishing places on planet earth.

Saturday 6 May: Samaria and the woman at the well
It was an incredible experience and great honour to visit Jacob's Well, which is set beautifully in a stunning Greek Orthodox church.

We also visited nearby Shechem, now an archeological dig called Tell Balata, exposing many millennia of history, and modern Nablus, including a very moving visit to the Anglican church there.
Visit the Tell Balata website here

Friday 5 May
The Jordan river down to the Dead Sea
It was a very special time for me this morning at the site of Jesus' baptism and John's ministry there. We got there fairly early and we had a lovely quiet space there before the tour busses arrived, including a time of worship & reaffirming our baptism vows ... and in Ben's case, of course, a 'full immersion'!
Then we went into nearby Jericho, the oldest inhabited place on earth, with ruins from one of the very earliest civilisations on planet earth, from 10,000 years ago! Plus of course the various layers of destruction.
The afternoon was swimming in the Dead Sea, and getting a sense of the journey up from the Jordan to Jerusalem.

Thursday 4 May
Birth, and John
Today was thankfully a bit more relaxing, if something of an overdose of churches. The theme was Incarnation, so we were in Bethlehem and the neighbouring village where Elizabeth & Zechariah lived.
and also visited the special site where Mary met Elizabeth

Wednesday 3 May
From Nazareth back to Jerusalem, the Church of the Annunciation and Mt Carmel

Tuesday 2 May.
An incredible day taking us from Jesus' home in Nazareth to the springs of the Jordan River to an ancient fortress. OMG.

Introduction to Bible Lands course, Day One
Monday 1 May
We are in Nazareth, in a nun’s Guest House by the Cathedral of the Annunciation
I am far too tired to write. My brain and soul is completely overwhelmed by travelling 200km through Israel and 4 millenia through time. Today we have driven past or visited the locations for much of Judeo-Christian scripture, and learned more than I was up for in one day about the current socio-political situation, and it has been fabulous but all I need now is sleep!

Photo Gallery:

Assorted Israeli photo details squares:

Sunday 30 April. Jaffa to Jerusalem
Blessed by sleeping till 8am, I had the best morning in Jaffa. I was just totally blissed out, if somewhat overwhelmed emotionally at times.

The afternoon was more challenging, because dealing with public transport when you can’t read most of the signs and people don’t speak much English isn’t easy. It was complicated by people giving us conflicting instructions and too many options … bus or taxi to Jerusalem?? And complicated by Google maps not recognising the spelling of the address of St Georges. And the diminishing battery life on our devices due to us not having the right connector plug for Israel. And me not having a clue what’s with the Sheckel coins. And my computer not hooking up to the hostel wifi … anyway you get the general idea
It took us about 3 hours to:

walk to a bus stop & catch a bus into Tel Aviv station
having decided to follow the instructions from St Georges and catch a taxi, we just could not find a taxi area at the central bus station. Yes I know this sounds improbable, but you must understand that the Tel Aviv bus terminal is really really enormous, more like a major shopping mall over several levels, all a cacophony of people and food (which we couldn’t afford) and people who gave us unhelpful directions or simply didn’t understand what we were asking. So eventually we found an information desk, decided to get on the Jerusalem bus, couldn’t fit on the first one, waited for the second one, paid cash, all good, we were off!
Nice bus drive up to Jerusalem. Most interesting. Kept seeing things that made me go ‘wow’, like a herd of goats or little vineyards tucked in a valley, or old houses high on the hill.
Worked out that we needed to then take the tram to St Georges, 7 stops. Didn’t work out that we needed to buy a ticket BEFORE getting on the tram, so the very nice ticket collector threw us off the tram after only 3 stops – but he did help us buy a ticket at the machine, which didn’t have an English language option and I didn’t have a clue about the coins. Then Ben was hungry. Again – you get the picture. So a most excellent Israeli pita bread was fabulous (thankfully they took Visa), and we caught another tram, with tickets this time
Walked to St Georges, with a bit of help from a friendly bus driver when we went the wrong way … and arrived!! And of course St Georges College is just as wonderful as I had hoped, and more. Our room is spacious and everything is lovely, and there is an awesome roof-top, and there is wifi and power plug connector for NZ and I’ve done the laundry and had a rest and unpacked our bags and now it is time for drinkies and meeting the group – a very small group this time, only 5 others I believe, including a Canadian couple who’s grandchildren live in Christchurch. Lol. It begins. Bye.

Our fabulous morning at the Old Jaffa Hostel, and Old Jaffa:

Gorgeous detail squares from Jaffa, mostly from the Old Jaffa Hostel, but some from around the Old Jaffa area:

Saturday 29 April we travelled from Rome to TelAviv. This involved:

packing up
finding a chemist shop and getting some more medications for my cough
getting stressed about the fact that the money I had transferred into my travel card account had not gone through yet, so we had JUST enough money to cover the Domus account, with some juggling … so we got cash out, and just enough for the taxi – and there was $E10 left over, just enough for Ben to have something to eat at the aiport, and a coffee for me YAY
taxi to airport
finding the Royal Jordan check in desk (not an easy task in such a huge airport)
3 hours at the Rome airport
an OK 3 ½ hour flight to Amman. I watched a sweet movie called Mr Church. Ben watched the stand-up comedy programmes he’d downloaded onto his ipad, so he kept chuckling away to himself. Funny.
Oh but flying into Jordan was very special. The evening was clear (ish, it’s always kind of hazy in this part of the world) and I really did cry to see Israel for the first time – yes I know it sounds corny but it was really moving. Israel has the land between the Mediteranean and the Jordan river, and Jordan is the east side of the river. I was actually looking down on the Jordan river and the wilderness and the hill country, as the sun was picking out the tops of each hill, and the desert stretched away to the east into the haze. Wow.
3 hours in the Amman airport. Did some yoga, hoped it wasn’t culturally offensive, tho the muslim men had their prayer mats and were kneeling too. One guy even got down and did some press-ups, possibly not wanting to be outdone. Ben was hungry. Again. It happens a lot you know! MacDonalds was the answer, and a very welcome meal it was too. (I am putting on weight, but travelling does make you hungry, and you actually want salt I’ve found).
1 hour flight to TelAviv, getting out of the airport at midnight.
More stress about money, as the machine wouldn’t give me any cash from my visa. Thankfully where was JUST enough US $$ left in the other account, which when combined with converting the UK pounds that Ben’s grandmother had very kindly given Ben, was JUST enough for a taxi to Jaffa and the buses to Jerusalem.
(We now have no money at all other than a few measly Sheckels, so hoping that a Monday bank working day overnight will get the funds into our account. Actually though it was a wonderful lesson in trusting in the grace of God. I wasn’t all that prayful about it to be honest, but I was very aware that we did have enough for each step, with just a little left over for food, and that was all that we needed – God is GOOD!).
Anyway, we shared a taxi with some German guy which worked out slightly cheaper for us and it was all good, got to …
the Old Jaffa Hostel. O.M.G. it is even better than it looks on the website. I chose this one for a real taste of Israel, and is sure was. We arrived into the middle of the old district, to a buzz of young people spilling out of cafes, under strings of coloured lights and music playing on the warm evening. Thankfully after about 1am they did start drifting away and it got quiet(er). So, sleep (with the help of my Rome-bought sleeping pills)