The old city and the lowest sea

　

The flight to Israel was about two hours and we landed at around eleven in the morning. It was a holiday in Israel so none of the public transportation was running. After speaking with the very helpful guy at the information counter, we decided to wait until later that night to take a shuttle to Haifa because the taxis were very expensive and they were the only transport available right away. He seemed to know everthing about Israel and even gave us maps to cover every corner of the country. Out of curiosity, we looked into renting a car with our visa points. We found a decent deal and booked a car for the week. A shuttle from the company picked us up at the airport mintutes later and took us to their office ten minutes away. On our way to the rental car office we inquired about the cost of fuel and were blown away to find out the cost of fuel is over two dollars per liter. Then at the rental office, they told us that the price we had paid with points did not even cover the mandatory liability insurance. Our credit card already has coverage for rental cars but they forced us to buy basic insurance through them. We reluctantly agreed to pay the difference and rushed to Haifa. I hav not been to Haifa in years and a lot has changed since last time I was here. Tyson had to high of expectations for my navigational skills so we found ourselves a little lost trying to get to the Shrine of the Bab. As we approached Mount Carmel we could see the outline of the terraces and we became very excited. As we turned onto Ben Gurion and saw the Shrine of the Bab, it was a very emotional moment. Even though I have seen this sight many times before it is still like seeing it for the first time everytime. As we made our way up to the Pilgram Reception Centre (PRC) we realized that it was already closed for the night and having no phone we had no way of reaching our new couchsurfing host. Luckily there were two very helpful Bahai's walking down the road and they were able to help us get the general direction. After about thirty minutes of driving around and asking for the Technion (trade school in Haifa), we found it. We settled in, showered, blew up the air mattress and went to sleep.

The next morning we woke up early to make sure we could get to the PRC to register for our three day pilgrimage. Because we had only a short period of time we wanted to make sure that we were not having to rush but still got to visit everywhere we were allowed to go. As three day visitors, we have some restrictions with the sites we can visit. The first day we visited the peaceful Monument Gardens. This is the final resting place for the immediate family of Baha'ullah. His Daughter, Son and Wife as well as the wife of his son, Abdul'baha are buried here. After spending some time in the gardens praying, we headed up the paths to the Arc. This is the administrative center for the Bahai Faith. It consists of the Universal House Of Justice, The International Teaching Center, The Center For The Study Of The Text, and the Archives Building. After resting a while back at the reception center, we walked down the street to the resting place of Ruhhyah Khanum who is the wife of Shoghi Effendi. She has a private gated garden that is lined with beautiful flowers and shrubs that seem to frame the marble tombstone.

For lunch we found a shwarma shop that had great food. After lunch we stopped at a grocery store and stocked up on pita bread, lunch meats, fruits and vegetables and headed back to the PRC. We met many people, lots of which were from Canada, but also from around the world. The atmosphere is undescribeable, all the people seemed to be glowing and one can really feel the joy that they have to be on their Pilgrimage. Anytime that you go to the PRC you will always find somebody there, it really feels like a big family and it is the home base for all the Bahai visitors and pilgrims.

That evening was the Ascention of Baha'u'llah in Bahji, Akko. This is where the Shrine of Baha'u'llah is and His final resting place. The event started at three am but we made our way out there at about six pm. Beside the shrine, there is also the Mansion where Baha'u'llah passed away. We had a time slot at nine pm to visit the Mansion, which was very nice. We said some prayers in the room of Bahaullah and then visited the shrine for some time. We went back to the Bahji PRC and had some sandwiches and coffee before closing our eyes in the library for a while before the event started. As everyone made their way out toward the shrine it was a very peaceful atmosphere. The 2000 chairs were set up facing the Shrine which was lit up beautifully for the event. Tablets and prayers were read over the speakers followed by a circumambulation of the grounds. It was a special time and we were lucky to participate in this event. We drove back to Haifa with a few new friends we met.

We returned to our couchsurfers home at around six am and managed to sleep until around eleven am. Where we were staying was nearly twenty minutes from the PRC so after two nights there, we moved to a different couchsurfers place which was right around the corner. We spent the remainder of the day walking up all nineteen of the beautifully groomed terraces and spending time in the Shrine of the Bab and the Shrine of Abdul'baha. Each terrace is different from the last and everything is done in perfect symetrey and with different types of flowers and colours. They are absolutely stunning. As we made it to the top terrace, we ran out of time and had to run back down because we had to make it to a talk at the International Teaching Center. On our way back to the PRC we ran into an old friend of mine and her husband. They live in the Northwest Territories and were on their Pilgrimage. They invited us to meet them after the talk for dessert at a local cafe with some other friends. We grabbed a quick bite to eat from our groceries, and ran up the hill to the talk. The talk was about the progress of the world and service to mankind. It was very nicely done by one of the members of the teaching center.

We joined our friends at the coffee shop, and had a great night with them. We told a few stories about our trip and people seemed amazed at some of the things we have done. A girl we met there invited us over for dinner the following night and we accepted. We were running very late getting to our hosts house that night but he is a very easy going guy so it was no problem.

The next morning we woke up extra early to go to the shrines for dawn prayers which go from six am to eight am. The prayers are individual so when it was eight, I did not realize it and stayed until eight thirty. They would never say anything but rather, they just give subtle hints which I did not pick up. We went back to the PRC for breakfast before we drove to the Old City in Akka. There are many holy sites throughout the city such as the prison that Bahaullah and his family were imprisoned in and the homes they lived in. We could see these places from the ouside since we were not on an organized tour. Akka is one of the oldest cities in the world and has been kept in almost its original state with very little restoration. We purchased some fruit from one of the vendors and also a very expensive glass of cold lemonade. After spending nearly half the day walking around the area, we went to pray at the Shrine of Bahaullah. At the PRC in Bahji, we met some new friends from Austrailia and drove them back to Haifa with us in time for the pilgrim farewell. This is at the end of every nine day pilgrimage, the pilgrims go to the Shrine of the Bab to pray and follow institution members in circumambulating the shrine as a group. Everyone says their goodbyes after spending nine wonderful and valuable days together. The connection that is made with the people within groups is very special.

We went to our new friend, Mona's, house for a delicious dinner of rice with chicken tadik, lasagnea, salad and the best red velvet cupcakes ever topped with a (cream cheese) frosting nine pointed star. The stories that we told the night before about our trip actually gave one of the ladies nightmares. We had to share a few more stories just to reassure her that we are fine. We stayed out quite late once again but luckily our host lived just around the corner from where we were. When we went back to his apartment he was still awake, so we talked with him about our travels heard about his.

On our last day, we made the trip back out to Akka to the Shrine of Bahaullah for prayers, and also to the Shrine of the Bab in Haifa. Even though we had all day to do this, we were still found ourselves rushing to get it done. We stopped in the markets in Akka for a while and also ran into some friends throughout the day. We said our final prayers and goodbyes and I ran into a friend that I had been in Haifa with ten year prior. She is a very good friend and I was very lucky to have seen her before we left at the last minute.

We drove the nearly three hours (should be two if you know the way) to Jerusalem that night and arrived around 10:30pm. Our couchsurfing host from Haifa had contacted his brother and arranged for us to stay with him and his girlfriend for a couple of nights while visiting the ancient city. They welcome us with a healthy meal and a hot shower. We slept very well on the futon and woke up early the next day to explore the city in Jerusalem.

We spent a half day walking through the markets and old buildings. I found a skirt that I was interested in and the man selling it asked a very high price so we told him that we did not want the item. He then followed us saying tell me your price". Tyson said we would pay him twenty sheckels. Well he did not like this at all and he told us to go buy a falafel for twenty scheckles. Tyson laughed and joked about the comment and the guy kept a straight face and told Tyson to get out of his store. Realizing that he was serious, I turned to him and said that he had followed us around the store repeatedly asking us what price we would like to pay. So we replied with an honest answer and he must not be rude to us. He got upset and it escalated from there to the point where I nearly fist fought him and another old man who stood up for his friend. They were swearing, I was shaking and Tyson stopped me mid punch, to which the old man told me to go for it. Then he tried insulting me by making fun of Indians. I started to tell him that I was not even Indian but then I stopped myself since there is nothing wrong with being Indian. I told him in colorful language, that it was none of business where I was from and that he just lost a lot of customers by acting this way. He swore again and I stormed off. Tyson went back to him and told him he was being rude and that he should appologize, this of course went no where but a very nice younger guy from a few stalls down in the market saw me upset and was shocked. He insisted I go into his shop, sit down and drink a cup of water. He asked what was the matter and when I told him he said not to worry myself about these stupid people. He tried very hard to comfort me. When Tyson caught up, we left the area.

The old city of Jerusalem is surrounded by a huge old wall and everything inside of that wall is thousands of years old. It is one of the oldest areas on the planet. It is packed full of unbelievable sites because this tiny area of land is very precious to millions of people around the world. It is the holiest place on earth for almost all denominations of Chritianity, it is the third holiest spot for Muslims and again the holiest spot for the Jews as well as other religions. Everyone believes that they have a God-given right to the land, or they just use religion as a means to gain power. There are four very distinct quarters in the old city. There is the Armenian quarter which only consists of 350 of the 33,500 people living inside the walls. Ten years ago there were still thousands of them but they are quickly dying off. They are a protected peoples in the old city and thus, even though they have such a small population, they still maintain a quarter of the land and will likely do so forever. They have had protection since the Roman days when the Jews were kicked out of the holy land but the Christian Armenians were permitted to stay. There is also the muslim quarter which is populated by 22,000 of the 33,500 people so it is by far the largest group of people in the city. There land is also the biggest part out of the four groups. Then there is the Jewish and Christian quarters which are both significant parts of the city. When one walks accross the border of one quarter to another it is a very astonishingly unique experience. It is like travelling accross the world, absolutely everything changes. The people, the clothes, the markets, the languages, the smells, the sounds and more. Even the energy instantly changes and one will know right away that they have crossed a border.

When we were exploring on the first day we noticed this but did not pay much attention. We walked through a couple huge churches and older buildings but we did not really know what we were looking at. That fact along with our negative experience with one of the merchants put a damper on the whole city and we were dissapointed with our visit. We left the area after only a few hours wondering why people say that Jerusalem is not to be missed in Israel.

We drove just under two hours (it should have been under one hour but we got a bit lost) to Ein Gedi which is the Southernmost part of the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth and is extremely saturated with salt. It is so dense that one cannot sink, even if you tried. It is an undescribable feeling when you go in. This was my fifth time at the sea and I still felt shocked by its effects. We stopped by the spa first which has the mineral baths, private beach area and mud for skin masks. This is the spa I have gone to every time I have visited, but the prices have gone up a lot and especially on Saturdays the cost shoots even higher. There were discounted tickets available at 4pm so we decided to go to the public beach until then. We went into the clear turquise-blue sea and floated on top. This is where some people say that Jesus walked on water, but then again this is where everyone walks on water because you cannot sink so can actually walk on top of the water. As we were floating and avoiding water getting into our eyes, we saw several young people covered from head to toe in mud. We inquired with them and they said that there was natural mud and that we needed to ask the life guard to give us some. The dead sea water and the mud around it are said to have amazing healing powers and people travel from around the world to take advantage of it. So we climbed to the life guard station and he denied us the precious mud. He said something we did not understand so we walked further along the beach and went back into the water. It was there that Tyson spotted tons of natural mud and we covered our bodies in it from head to toe. It feels like a very wrong experience to roll around in mud when we regularly avoid it at all costs. It was lot of fun and there were many other tourists joining us. When we finished and we relaxed and let the mud dry. Just as we were taking photos of ourselves covered in mud, a local couple came by and they were reaching way beneath the rocks searching for something. After a few minutes, they pulled out handfuls of dark blue smooth mud. Now this was the real stuff that gets packaged and sold for tons of profit. What we had on, while still very beneficial for the skin, was dirt compared to the stuff they had. It was a bit emabarrasing but we quickly covered our faces in the smooth, soft, silky mud from under the rocks and the difference to what we had on our bodies was obvious. We probably should have washed off and re applied the new stuff everywhere but we were too lazy and tired from the heat so we passed. After washing the mud off in the sea, our skin was softer than it has been in dozens of years.

The day was extremely hot at 41 degrees celcius and the cool water had felt nice. When we exited the water our skin felt slimy yet also very slightly gritty with salt. And when the water dried, we were left with white salt all over. Luckily they have fresh water showers all around the beach, where we could rinse off before leaving. At one point we were trying to push our legs under water but the density of the water kept pushing our appendages back up. One time, water splashed us in the eye and this is a very painful experience. We had to shut our eyes tight but it was still burning fiercly. We managed to get some fresh water and splash our hands before cleaning our eyes but it was still a terrible experience. Since I had been here several times before, I had warned Tyson not to shave his legs in the last three or four days before coming to the sea and I did not do so either. Any open cuts or scrapes, or even just a fresh shave makes it impossible to swim in the water due to the burning it would cause. Swallowing the water is also very dangerous as the amount of salt in it could be fatal.

We head back earlier than anticipated because there was no need to go back to the spa since we had found our own mud. We went back to the home of our hosts and hung out for a while. They were heading out for dinner but we decided to stay home and cook and relax. We had eggs and about ten pieces of toast each. We did some work on the computor and I passed out quickly while Tyson stayed up doing some research and then joined me a bit later.

In the morning we had booked a tour of the old city of Jerusalem with a guide from the information office. It was to start at 11am but we had planned to show up to the city around 7:30am and see some sights beforehand. What actually happened is that we left the house at 10:45am and got lost trying to find parking. We finally found some meter parking and after figuring out how to pay the fees we ran about fifteen minutes to Jaffa gate entrance to the old city. We were a bit late but managed to catch up with the tour group who had already started. Since we anticipated the tour being about an hour and a half we had bought two hours of parking, but the guide informed us that the tour would be more like two and a half to three hours long. Tyson decided to run back to the car to pay. The next time I saw him was three hours later in the same spot after the tour. He missed the whole thing because he could not add minutes to the parking meter plus he could not find us in the city. I felt very bad during the tour but I took some notes on my hands and managed to explain to him the absolute wonders of the old city. After that tour, I really began to understand why people love the old city of Jerusalem. It is a place full of wonders and unlikely events and more history then the rest of the world combined. It is difficult to tell hundreds of thousands of years of history in a few sentences and I only know a very tiny piece of the information. Our tour guide was very well spoken and I enjoyed the tour thoroughly. Jerusalem and its parts have been fought over since the start of time. This is where the intended sacrifice of the son of Abraham took place, this is where Jesus was crucified and was layed to rest. This is where he was resurected and lived most of his life. This is where Mohammad lived as well as Moses and other holy prophets. So the different quarters of the city truly believe that this is their rightful land. As our tour guide explained, nine years ago when he started these tours a three hour walk throughout the city from section to section was an absolute impossibility. There were dozens of checkpoints, security and passport checks. Certain people were not allowed in certain sections and others were only allowed through during allocated times in the day. He said the hostility was unbearable and there were fights everyday. That day we walked through the sections and while we definitely felt that we were entering different areas, we were free to do so. Although the hostility is still present, and not everyone walks into each other's quarters. People were even questioning our tour guide about where he is from when he was walking through. He was obviously experienced, so he just avoided the questions expertly and we hurried along.

Many pilgrims come here from different religions. For example one denomination of Christianity does their pilgrimage by walking the steps of Jesus as they believe it had happened. They even do so carrying a large cross on their backs as they believe that he did. At one point we saw them attempt to walk into an Ethiopian Church but there was an altercation at the door and they were not permitted to bring the cross into the building. They had to leave it outside the property, walk through the curch without it, and then return to pick it up later. This is due to the different beliefs the catholics have about the cross. This blew my mind that people of the same religion can be so different from each other. The church where Jesus is meant to be burried (of course the coffin is empty since Jesus was resurrected) is owned by six denominations of Chritianity. This does not work well and while inside the church I witnessed a fist fight between two monks who dissagreed on a subject to do with religion. It was obsurd and embarrassing to see. There are several sites inside the old city that claim to be the site of the last supper, atop the mount of olives there are several sites where different churches claim that Jesus resurrected, In Tiberias there are dozens of places where Jesus apparently walked on water. There are several stories and routes that Jesus took when he was crucified, or some people believe that never even happened. Each of these "holy sites" are of course complete with "holy" souvenier shops, "holy" falafel shops, "holy" snack shops and so on. The whole feel of the place is very unfortunate for a city that is truly a holy place.

The Muslims only allow visitors to their mosks during a few hours in the morning. During that time there are extremely thorough security checks and apparently they are checking for the two most threatening items: weapons and bibles. During the rest of the day, non-muslims cannot even go near the entrances. We went and saw the Western Wall where millions of Christians come every year to pray as this is their most holiest place. They place small papers with wishes into the walls. Our tour guide showed us the level of inaccuracy in the information that people have by asking a dozen people why they are praying to the wall. We got a dozen completely different stories. And having a doctorate in religious history, our guide informed us that all of them are historically wrong. The stories like the ones above continued for the whole three hour tour. The old city was once Greek, once Persian, once Roman, once Turkish and so on. Some were in power for a few years, some for longer but there has always fighting. Sometimes the fighting was within the muslims, within the Christians or within ethnicities. The Jewish peoples have been kicked out and re conquered the area several times. At times the whole city became Muslim and at times they were other religions. Many times the wars that were fought were due to directions from higher officials who had very little or nothing to do with the people living in the old city. The people within the walls were often friends, seperated by rules and power hugrey, unjust outsiders.

We started off by learning about the Tower of David which had nothing to do with David but rather when the Romans discovered it, they assumed David had built it and it has kept the name. Another funny story I remember is that when the Turkey won land from the Armenians, they also took their famous Ararat mountain. The Armenians kept this mountain on their flag though. The Turkish were upset about this and wrote a strongly worded letter to the powerful Stalin and asked him to ask the Armenians to take the mountain off their flag because it no longer belonged to them. Stalin wrote back and said, well you people have the moon on your flag, and you certainly do not own the moon so the Armenians can keep their flag as it. We also saw where the war of Independance was fought and where the Jewish people surrendered. There were stories of two people being comrades on the same side of a war, fighting against each other years later in a different war. The turmoil and history in this small city in unreal. There are also about ten cities built on top of one another which is archeologically astounding. There are aqueducts, tunnel systems and Roman ruins below everything. Some of the street stones and buildings remain in their original form from thousands of years ago. Of course we saw the famous site of the last supper (as believed by most Christians), we saw the resting place of Jesus where people were crying and throwing themselves over his tombstones while others were fighting and shoving their way to the front of the line up. The stories we heard during the tour are numerous and the stories that exist are countless. People dissagree about the stories according to what they grew up with and even within religions there are inaccuracies. It seems that many people have blindly followed tradition and it has become their religion. The new testament of the bible either renames some of the important figures, changes details or leaves things out entirely.


"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"