I am home now...and finally getting a chance to write about Israel and Petra and funny stuff that was hard to retell....when you're dog tired at the end of the day and facing the peck peck electronic keyboard of an Ipad.
My hub and I miraculously arrived in Israel at the same time. My plane was late ...his plane on time out of Rome.... and there we were in the baggage claim area....staring at each other....well hello there.......which was great.... because we could get our bags and start towards Jerusalem.
A friend of mine here in town who has been to Jerusalem about 20 times, told us to take a "sheroot" to the city...essentially a van/shuttle you share with other folks. Yes, it was cheaper...but most of all ....you'll see parts of the city you'll probably never go to...since the van drops people off right in front of their house.
Our first stop off the Going-to-Jerusalem Highway was near a Kibbutz which looked like a dude ranch... there was a horse on the sign and horseshoe logos scattered around (although I did not actually see any horses). Not quite what I was expecting for a Kibbutz near Jerusalem. We left off a guy who looked like an aging Australian Hippie...and turned back to the highway. That's when I poked my husband's side....
"Do you see that?"
"What?"
"That statue.....is that .....ELVIS?"
We stared wide-eyed with mouths open. Yes....there in the middle of a gravel parking lot....was Elvis holding up his hand as if he were waving to the people on their way to Jerusalem.
I turned around and caught a glimpse of a gas station and restaurant labeled "Elvis Inn." I rubbed my eyes....really.... in Israel next to a dude ranch on the way to Jerusalem? Elvis?
Apparently yes....the Inn and Elvis have been there for many years owned by two brothers Amon and Uri who are ardent Elvis fans.... the place apparently attracts folk who follow Elvis and folks who don't but really can't believe what they are seeing so they go in or stop anyways. Trust me, if I wasn't in the sheroot....I'd be in the gift shop checking out Elvis salt and pepper shakers to see if they have a "I'm all shook up in Jerusalem" label on them. I mean...how awesome would that be...lol.
Although the next stops by the sheroot were not Elvis oriented...they were different in their own way. People were left off deep in Orthodox or very conservative neighborhoods were women and girls on this hot hot day were covered up with long sleeves and long skirts and some men wore Hassidic garb.
When we got to our hotel....we decided since it was getting late in the day....we should make our way to the Old Section of Jerusalem and see the Western Wall at sunset.
By map....the walk was supposed to be about 10 minutes....in the heat and in the way Israel works ...it turned out to be more like 25 minutes.
We eventually ended up in the Arab quarter Souk (long narrow alleyways where merchants have their shops) which we had to navigate through before we hit the Western Wall. My hub was uncomfortable as men tried to stop and show him things or give him their cards....I was fine.... I had been in the Middle East before and knew the hellos and come-see-my-shop and look-at-this-fine-souvenir-were normal banter.
We finally were near the Wall....the Souk ended and we ended up in a small office with a metal detector and an exit door out to the square. We put our cameras and bags through the scanner and then stepped through the opening into a large square. I had seen a thousand pictures of this area.... so it seemed familiar.
The square and the Wall looked much smaller than I pictured it. The light was starting to fade....but there were still plenty of people around.
If you're not religiously conservative....you immediately notice the disproportionate way the area in front of the wall has been divided.
In this rather small space...there's a large wooden fence which divides the square into a men's and women's section. 2/3 of the space is given to the men's section and a high wall separates a much smaller area for the women. You can't go up as a man and woman together to the Wall to pray....you must be segregated. I showed my hub where to go.....then I headed for the women's section.
To Jews....the Western Wall still contains the spirit of G-d so hence is very scared. As I moved to the wall....trying to get into the right frame of mind....I heard wailing....and looked over into the men's section where Ultra-Orthodox men, Hassidim, where crying.
I remember reading some people cry at the wall because they morn the lose of the temple and the closeness to G-d...but I was still surprised to hear the wailing. As I moved into the narrow confines of the women section....again trying to get into a spiritual frame of mind....I heard crying again...this time not from a man.... but from a young girl.
Very thin...covered up with a scarf and long sleeves and long skirt....she was crying into her prayerbook. Actually, she was rubbing her face with the prayerbook and sobbing into it. The nurse in me kicked in....and I wanted to go up to her and say, "Are you alright?"...Intellectually, I knew she was probably in a trance or mild hysteria...which can be a common state for religious people when they are near a holy shrine of their faith......but the sound of her crying....the picture of her weeping and wiping the prayer book on her face....wouldn't leave me.
I approached the Wall which was had two layers of women in front of it. Covered with scarves and holding prayerbooks...they were not moving and it was quite obvious they weren't going to share the space. With some discreet elbowing.... I wedged in between two women....and placed my hand on the Wall.
I began to quietly say a prayer...when I heard this very loud audible "tisk"....apparently one of the women looked up and saw that I had red nail polish on my hands and was making tisk-tisk noises at me.
Hmmmmmm...I'd never read anything to suggest that a hand with nail polish was not permitted...so I tried to tune her out. I closed my eyes.....left my red-nailed hand on the Wall....and tried to find a spiritual doorway. It was hard to find that doorway....probably cause I was looking too hard for it.
I left the Wall...and found my hub....and we stood around watching the parade of people coming and going as the sun set and the square got darker. We noticed most of the people praying where either tourists like ourselves or Ultra-Orthodox/Hassidim in their very distinctive clothes. One man, from a particular Polish sect, walked by with such a large round fur hat on it was startling....it looked like a bear was perched on his head....even more startling was the site of him whipping out his cell phone as he walked away from the Wall...I kept thinking geez if you're going to dress and live like it's 1880 ....you should probably be shouting into a shofar or speaking face to face with someone since cellphones did not exist a 100 plus years ago.
We stumbled around the Old City till we found a restaurant ...correction...smelled lamb on a spit...and discovered we were in the Armenian section of the Old City. We disappeared down an old low arch and some narrow stone stairs and found a dining room with one long table left open. We sat down next to a couple from Toronto. She was Jordanian and he was originally from Canada...they had two small children in tow.
The woman was warm and funny and telling us what mischief and tricks to watch out for....clerks put 112 dollars instead of shekels on your MasterCard bill....cab drivers that don't turn the meter on....all manner of tricks to be played on bewildered tourists. I enjoyed her enthusiasm so much...but I was so tired and hungry at this point from our travels from Rome and finding the Old Section that I realized I probably didn't look very enthusiastic and she grew quiet...if not disappointed in our conversation.
After dinner we struggled home...by that I mean it was hot and most of the trip was uphill to the hotel. Tired ...Tired... I hit the bed and started to drift off...but I heard ......wailing....crying.....and I wasn't sure if the sound was my memory from the Wall or my imagination or something on TV in the next room.
It was ...confusing....and I sunk down into a deep sleep in Jerusalem.
