I woke up and went up to the roof to get one last view of the parthenon before i had to leave Greece. I landed in Tel Aviv at 12:30 but by the time i received my tourist visa, picked up my luggage, and took the train to jerusalem it was around 19:00. A local by the name of Yousef was kind enough not only to show me how to get to the old city but also accompanied me there. I was so hungry and I so desperately wanted to eat shawarma made in the middle east again, but I settled for a falafel by the Jaffa gate of the old city. (wall separating old and new city seen to the left)
The owner of the falafel shop also happened to be Aramean and told me how to get to the my destination, St. Mark's Syriac Orthodox Convent (the location of the last supper). I knocked on the gate and one of the monks came down to answer. In Aramaic I told him I am making a pilgrimage from Germany and he offered me a room to sleep in. (seen here from the courtyard)
The next morning, one of the other monks took us to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and explained to us what happened at each location
for example:
this is the rock that Jesus was whipped on
this is the location of the Crucifixion
the rock where Jesus' body was anointed before burial
the location of the original tomb
and the relocated tomb, housed inside this altar (unfortunately I did not realize the poor quality of this photo until after I returned to Heidelberg)
The monk also explained that the church is shared by several denominations, the Greek Orthodox,
Armenian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Syriac Orthodox, and the Coptic Orthodox Church.
Friday we went to the Tomb of king David. There were two separate entrances one for men and
one for women, and men also had to wear Yarmulkes.
On Saturday the Christians of the city and the marching band gathered by Jaffa gate to greet Jerusalem's newly appointed Coptic Orthodox Bishop.
and followed him to the Sepulchre
Sunday morning we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Sunday Mass. The Syriac Orthodox Chapel contains within it the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, which Joseph offered for the Burial of Jesus Christ.
On Monday I stopped by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre one last time before my flight back to Germany, there I ran into the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, who was visiting with his wife.
Late that night a man named Mike who I had met a few days before offered to drive me back to the airport because his flight was departing the same time as mine.
Originally, I had only planned on staying in Israel from Wednesday until early Saturday morning, I thought 2 days was enough to see what I wanted to see but I was wrong. The city had so much to offer and I was so drawn to its charm. But because I had spent the whole of Wednesday in the airport I was furious at how little time I had here so I extended my flight until early Tuesday morning.
The days were spent sightseeing and walking through the market
drinking tea and eating shawarma sandwhiches on the roof of the Convent, which offered this amazing view.
Although my entire visit was spent in Jerusalem, Israel has a lot to offer in terms of sightseeing and fun. Which is the reason I definitely have to come back.
TIPS: Once in the city one should also keep their passport on them at all times. There are many security checkpoints within the city. For example the Western Wall is only accessible to non-Muslims, while the Temple Mount, is only accessible to Muslims. Both of which are controlled by security checkpoints. One can easily observe the Religious tension and extremely high political tension in the city. Nevertheless I felt completely safe during my entire stay in the city.
