The Holiest place in the world.
A city with enough power to destroy the world as we know it.
Captains Log Day 9 – 2/08/16 1:24 AM. Qatar Airways.
The Holiest place in the world.
It was 1am when we finally landed back in Tel-Aviv from Petra; but, it was also the wrong airport in which we had arrived. Due to the confusion and flight changes the authorities had placed us on a flight to the international airport and not the domestic airport at which our rental car housing all our luggage was parked.
In our 43 hour sleepless bender we stumbled around to find a taxi that would transport us to our car for a reasonable amount of shekles. Not finding any in the airport we ventured out, walking into the terminal roads. Here we finally got a cab.
Once we made it to the correct airport and to our car, the huge task lay ahead to drive down to Jerusalem, a 1 hour drive from Tel- Aviv. Red eyed and sharing the high degrees of exhaustion co-captain Avi took the reins and piloted us to the holy city. Drained beyond comprehension we arrived at our AirBnB which was located in the heart of the city. Struggling at first when we discovered that some other random people had taken our room! The AirBnb apartment was on the first floor, when we arrived we could not find the keys as instructed, so we went to the second floor – here we found the key and started dumping our luggage. Within minutes we hear some men with thick Italian accents saying that’s their room. After initial confusion we discovered that level 2 was their room and 1 was ours. The confusion happened as they could not find the keys to upstairs so they took base in our room rather than reaching out to the host.
Location wise we could not have asked for a better spot however, being the center of the city there was not any parking spot to park our car. We had to call democracy again as the co-captain suggested we just dump the car at any spot and pay the fines later. Both rebel leader and captain agreed that this was not the best way to tackle the solution, and with some help from late night locals we were able to circumnavigate to a 24-hour parking hotel. Here we dumped the car and dead tired took a taxi back to the apartment – the little hand on the clock reached 4. The Scurvy that the captain had had, started to spread, this time targeting the co-captain. He started to feel very unwell. The exhaustion, lack of sleep and cold hot combination started to deteriorate his body. Finally, we welcomed the arms of sleep, as it took over.
With no alarm set we arose to the hustle and bustle of town folk downstairs, the streets calling out our name, we evaluated the health of the co-captain. Both rebel leader and captain could see the flailing co-captain, we both refused for him to leave today, and that they would go by bus to the dead sea. This however was not open for democracy, the co-captain awakening and freshening up to make the journey to another intriguing marvel of the world.
Medication was free flowing, we popped pills like tic-tac’s took a taxi to our car. Not long after we were en route to float in the Dead Sea. For those that don’t know what the dead seas is – It is a body of water that has a very, VERY high salt concentration, meaning that whatever goes into the sea… well… floats. Fun fact: The dead sea is the lowest point on the earth which is not submerged underwater, but is still below sea level – Shawty got LOW. We road tripped through the hottest dessert in the world sitting in our air-conditioned vessel, reaching a public beach, allowing us to swim into the dead sea.
Embracing the 42 degree heat we walked along the beach and found a shaded spot for our stuff, we changed promptly into our swimming gear and walked into the rock filled ocean. First thoughts – ‘There are a lot of rocks, glad we wore those thongs and WOW The water was HOT!!’ It felt like it was 30 degrees, bordering uncomfortable we continued into the water.. all of a sudden I see the co-captain’s feet floating as he is laying back. We do the same and VOILA floating. The sensation of floating and weightlessness like this is indescribable, in short – you just float and can’t sink!
We were doing just that until we hear a shriek from the co-captain, the water had gone into his eyes and he was blinded, we had to swim over and guide him through the rocks to the beach showers so he could wash his eyes. This later happened to both the rebel leader and the captain, definitely not a pleasant experience. Ladies and Gents the Salt content here is VERY HIGH. If you have any cuts on your body – you are not going to have a good time.
Dehydrated, for the remainder of the evening we spent sitting at a beach bar drying up and soaking in the experience. A good day spent at the dead sea we headed back to Jerusalem, hoping the co-captain was on the road to recovery. Completing the dead sea we went to a Jerusulam marketplace that is transformed into a bar area at night – the vibe was indescribable, people came up to challenge the co-captain to beer sculling, however due to his health he politely declined. Once again the vibe was incredible, young, old everyone just on the strip eating, drinking and enjoying. After a nice dinner in which Rebel leader ate a local dish consisting of meat insides, including veal glands, we headed home.
On our last day in Jerusalem the squad completed the ultimate pilgrimage, visiting the holiest places in the Christian, Islamic and Jewish faiths.
Rising early, we packed our bags and started to head out, only to be greeted by the cleaner who refused us to leave our bags whilst he cleaned. Back and forth the conversation went until we spoke to the host who organised for us to leave the bags in the room until we left later in the day. With that sorted we went to join the Holy City walking tour arriving with 2 minutes to spare.
At the walking tour our eccentric guide advised us that this was going to take a lot longer than the advertised 4 hours on the website – it could take up to 6, and asked if anyone was on a tight time schedule – out of the 40 people, the squad were the only ones to raise their hands – we had a flight to catch at 7pm… in Tel-Aviv. We discussed logistics and agreed on where we would break off the tour and complete this exploration on our own.
The tour kicked off with a bang – the first location being the site of ‘the last supper’ astonished we arrived at the site to see an empty room, the tour guide explained the events that had taken place – this location had 2 stories, downstairs which the Jews believed was the burial place of King David, and upstairs which Christians believed was the site of the last supper, the conflict between the two religions continued for many hundreds of years, until one day they decided to go to court and decide who would be able to build a place of worship there. The judge was Muslim, upon hearing the arguments, he realised that they are talking about the Prophet Dawood. He quickly lay his judgement “This should be a mosque” so the room was converted into a mosque. After a long political battle including the pope, Jordan and the Israeli government left it as a blank room, where all can come pray and worship.
We then went downstairs, put on some Jewish Kippas to go and see King David’s tomb, the Kippa Suited Rebel Leader Amit, must be because of his home town Balaclava. At King David’s tomb we saw many Jewish people praying – King David was a great king, and one who brought the people together – they believe praying to him will bring unity to the people and restore the golden times.
The next location we visited has the capability to start world war 3. This site is the holiest site for Judaism and Islam. There are constant protests and riots outside the holy place. It is protected by the UN and as advised even if the opening hours to the place need to change, the Israeli president needs to discuss with the king of Jordan, which is then heard by the US president and then discussed at the UN. This place was religiously and politically volatile and very important to all the parties involved.
The Dome of the Rock – Here the Jews believe that god created the world with the first piece being the Rock that resided here, they believe this was also the spot that God told Isaac to kill his son. In Islam they believe that Mohammad was at Mecca praying and saw the vision of a horse with wings, he was lead to the rock, where he ascended to heaven and discussed with God how many times a Muslim should pray a day. Initially starting at 50 they haggled this down to 5 times a day. This was the rock he rode up to heaven with the archangel Gabriel – the angel footprint can be seen as an imprint on the rock.
The Dome of the Rock was previously a Jewish temple, which got destroyed and is now a Mosque. This was the largest structure in the world at one point, allowing 10,000 people on the floors. It was also the headquarters of the Knights Templar in the middle ages.
People are allowed to enter the compound however not the mosque. Jewish people are strip searched, and escorted by police officers, they are often abused, spat on and thrown shoes at by the Muslims inside. This is accepted practice. Prior to entry a decency police review your outfit and if too much skin is showing escort you to buy shawls and other things to cover up. An Example of this not working was when a Muslim person came up and started yelling at the women in our group “COVER UP –THIS IS A PLACE OF PRAYER NOT A NIGHTCLUB”. There are Israeli police officers inside, however they have no power or authority inside the Dome of the Rock.
Since the Jews are not very welcome inside, they stand on the western wall and pray from the outside, leaving notes for god to answer their prayers and mourning the destruction of the temple.
At this point we departed from our tour, time was running short – we had a flight to catch.
The last place of our visit cannot go undescribed. The overwhelming feeling of the moment still giving me goosebumps. We visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This is one of the holiest place a Christian can visit, it is the place Jesus was tried, beaten, crucified and resurrected. There is not much to say here, this was a religiously overwhelming experience as we touched the stone that Jesus was brought down on and visited the tomb where he was resurrected. Saying our final prayers we left the holy city and headed to pick up our car.
Time was running out, knowing our security experiences we rushed to the airport, first picking up the car and then the luggage. Co-captain avi was on fire – flying down the Israeli freeway like a Jewish person for the kosher section of a buffet. Time was cutting it fine, we knew interrogation was waiting us at the airport. Reaching the rental place using some unorthodox maneuvers, such as footpath driving, we returned the car.
Minor damage meant the insurance we had gotten was a great success and saved us a fair bit. As anticipated several checks and a lock broken open by security later we were the last people to check in to our first of 3 flights to Sri Lanka.
Jerusalem has been an experience like no other. The amount of faith held in one place cannot be comprehended, we leave this place with many requests to god and hearts filled with belief and hope.
