Israel

This guy came up and asked Nikolaus
if he wanted to take his picture.
So he did!

"We are an Easter people, and ALLELUIA is our song!"
    As I get to the end of writing a blog I run out of energy for proofreading, so please excuse confusing format, bad spelling and the like! Homework calls! :)
     Rosie and I had a truly wonderful trip to Israel for Holy Week, and I'm trying to reconcile myself to the fact that I will be unable to convey it to my satisfaction on a blog. We went with some other students here at the ITI, though our group was smaller than planned because of chicken pox breaking out at the ITI just before we left causing several members to stay behind. We ended up with ten people, including two adorable little kids, Ethan and Mickinely (ages 5 and 2 I think.)

On our way to
Jaffa Gate!

     The flight there was made interesting by the extra security involved, which mostly consisted in lots of conversation and questions before we could get on the plane. Apparently that's their main security measure, and other than that there were just extra passport checks (three of which I managed to pass with Mikinely's passport instead of my own...) and the usual weird machines and scanners and such. We were delayed quite a bit flying back because one of our members, Phil, (who had left his wife and daughter at the ITI to help take care of his brother in law, who had a terrible case of chicken pox) was found suspicious and taken through some extra questioning and security which took forever. Slightly ironic because this suspicious character had spent the entire week being the photographer and tirelessly helping take care of Ethan and Mickinely and their mom, Kelly, who's husband is in the military and deployed at the time. Eventually they let him join us again and he popped out cheerfully ready to push a stroller. I got my passport back and we flew back to freezing cold, rainy Vienna, in shorts and t shirts and several of us burnt to a crisp from swimming in the Mediterranean that morning under the Tel Aviv sun.
   

Jaffa Road

     We had two rooms in Abraham's Hostel in Jerusalem about a 25 minute walk from Jaffa Gate. Jaffa Gate is one of the famous gates into the Old City, so called because it was the entrance to the city from the port city of Jaffa (where we got to spend a day on the beach our last day in Israel.) The hostel was simple and friendly, with breakfast everyday (We were there at the time of the Jewish Passover, so there was no bread served but lots of matzah, the Jewish unleavened bread/cracker stuff.) Rosie and I enjoyed going up to the roof to look out over the buildings and pray morning prayers before we would leave the hostel in the morning.
      We got to know our little section of Jaffa road fairly well, since we walked into the old city of Jerusalem nearly every day. The evening we arrived we explored the old city in the dark, and I remember being fairly overwhelmed by everything.

Streets of Old Jerusalem!

The city is so old and beautiful and really different from what I've seen before and so far in Europe. The streets are made of huge, irregular and very slippery stones, and that combined with the sloping streets caused quite a bit of slipping and sliding. We often passed little Jewish or Muslim children running full speed down or up the streets playing and yelling or climbing to the top of a slope and riding down on their tricycles. Of course there are also so many tourists there that the streets of the city are usually packed with shops, stands and workshops, but for the most part they sold beautful stuff (only a few giant, glow in the dark Mary statues...). Mostly there were colorful clothes, paintings, quilts and earrings, hand painted porcelain, olive wood figures and rosaries, icons and generally things that added to the charm of the place.

It was especially interesting to see the Jews or Muslims who lived there, in their traditional garb, selling their own work like olive wood rosaries that they made right there on the street, or young boys with huge wooden slabs on their heads carrying a bunch of bread of various types throughout the city and somehow managing not to knock anybody over or break their necks along the way.

Church of the Nativity

    On Tuesday we caught a bus to Bethlehem in Palestine to see the Church of the Nativity. We got to walk through the main street leading to the church (refusing many a pushy cab offer), and it was fascinating to watch all the different people and see all the weird vegetables and nuts, spices and bread they were selling. The church was being fixed up inside so we couldn't see much because of scaffolding, but we got to pray a rosary in the place that Jesus was born, and after a long wait we made it down into the caves under the church where tradition has it Jesus was laid in the manger.

After our time in there (wearing hot sweatshirts because they don't allow people into the holy sites without their shoulders covered), we explored other parts of the church, like the caves where St. Jerome translated the Bible.

Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

     We bought some strawberries on our walk back through the crowded street, and Rosie and I observed our peculiar and hilarious German friend Nikolaus barter with the seller until they agreed on the price. Rosie and I followed his example for the rest of the week, and after getting over feeling kind of mean for doing it, it was fun to say rather obviously, "20 shekel for this? Well, Rosie, I'm sure we can get it for cheaper at one of the places down the road..." and that usually helped with the issue. It was rather frustrating the way we'd just glance at something and all of a sudden someone popped out of nowhere saying, "welcome welcome whereyoufrom you like the blue one? It's forty shekel but twenty just for you..." But we learned to manage the pressure fairly quickly (sometimes by telling them we'd like them to go away while we look), and we ended up with lovely, not too expensive presents to take home for friends and family.

Bethlehem!

     We walked to a Greek Orthodox church a ways from the Church of the Nativity and took a break from the hot sun while exploring the inside. A friendly Palestinian man gave us a little tour/explanation, apparently the latest version of the church was built in the 1920s, but it is built on top of the little cave that St. Nikolous prayed in as a hermit in the 300's.
We got to go down and see the cave area, and there was a mosaic on the floor from that time or just after. After that Nikolaus decided since we were on an adventure in the Holy Land we had better make the most of it, so he suggested we walk the 10 miles back to Jerusalem.

Taking a break from our trek in an olive orchard. Right on
the border of Israel.

     So Rosie, Nikolaus, Johannes and I began our trek back on foot. We passed the wall between Israel and Palestine and crossed the border following some school kids who showed us how to go about it, and it was surprisingly smooth and uneventful. A few scanners here and there, but there was hardly anyone around. We passed a man selling balloons or something who offered to have his friend drive us across, but we figured we'd explore the walk way on our own.  After we crossed the border we took a picnic break in an olive orchard--they were everywhere, very beautiful and peaceful. We enjoyed walking through the Jewish neighborhoods as we got closer to the Old City again, and we even passed a house with a donkey tied to a fence outside someone's garden. Rosie and I picked some of the many beautiful spring flowers on the way (it wasn't Easter yet, but the world seemed to know what was coming anyway...!).

Jerusalem right inside Jaffa gate.

   
     Our Wednesday adventure began with lots of waiting to figure out whether we could get a rental car to drive to Nazareth, and so after a few hours delay five of us began our drive there and the other five went to the Dead Sea. Our drive to Nazareth was around five hours long because of traffic, so we only had about an hour to spend in Nazareth.

Church of St. Joseph
or the Holy Family in
 Nazareth

Colonnade surrounding Church of the
 Annunciation, with mosaics.

It was a well spent hour, though, and we got to see the village where the Holy Family lived, go into the church of the Annunciation and St. Joseph's (where according to tradition St. Joseph had his carpentry workshop and perhaps where the Holy Family lived.) The Church of the Annunciation had also been remodeled fairly recently, and was full of mosaics donated from all around the world.

Remains of old church, and little alter
where the Angel appeared to Mary.

Mosaics of Mary inside the Church

     There was a colonnade surrounding it with a great display of these, and it was really interesting to compare the styles and see such differences all there together. The church itself had two main levels, the lower one was built around the remains of the church built on the spot where the Angel appeared to Mary. Then there was the main sanctuary above with huge mosaics of the Assumption donated from around the world on the walls. The Church of St. Joseph was very simple and sturdy and beautiful.

St. Peter's church in Tiberius

Sea of Galilee

It seemed very fitting for Joseph the Worker. After our quick visit we drove to Tiberius, about a half hour drive (through Cana!) to the Sea of Galilee. Rosie and I entertained (or annoyed?) our friends in the car with a peculiar mix of Lent songs and Donut Man/Veggie Tales on the way.

Getting ready to swim in the Sea
with Nikolaus!

Sea of Galilee

It was really special to get to see the Sea of Galilee, and we were able to stop at St. Peter's Church right on the shore, since this was the place that St. Peter fished with the other Apostles. It was a lovely little chapel, and a kind nun let us in through a little garden to visit. Then we changed into our swimming things (feeling slightly uncomfortable due to the many people in headscarves and such on this warm, muggy, overcast day...) We had a wonderful, refreshing swim in the Sea of Galilee, and none of us were able to walk on it for long.

Buying some dates!

     Back in Jerusalem that evening we had a dinner outside the old city and dessert of dates that Nikolaus and I finally bought in a market there (we'd been looking all day for some good dates...)

2300 year old Olive tree, Basilica of the
Agony, and the golden spires
are from the Greek
Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene

     Holy Thursday was very long and eventful. We went to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher early in the morning for a three hour Mass, then walked around the Old City on top of the wall from Jaffa gate to Gethsemane, Mary's tomb and the Basilica of the Agony next to the little grove of 2300 year old olive trees.

Mary's tomb, right next to
Gethsemane. 

It was amazing to see the lack of souvenir shops or touristyness around Gethsemane. Not that people didn't go there, it was just really a place of prayer and not so much for sight-seeing. We came back there that night for a holy hour in the very place where Jesus spent that evening in the Garden 2000 years ago, and then we walked in a huge procession with torches and rosaries all the way back up into Jerusalem.

Looking down toward Gethsemane
and the Basilica of the Agony

Gethsemane and the Basilica are on the Mount of Olives right outside the city, and between the city wall and the Basilica is the ancient Jewish cemetery, with Absalom's tomb towering up over everything else. There is also a Muslim cemetery closer to the Jerusalem wall, and a Christian cemetery below that.

Walkway from Gethsemane to Jerusalem.

We visited the Church of the Dormition, the Upper Room where Jesus celebrated the Passover with his disciples on Holy Thursday (which is right above King David's tomb), and prayed at the Western Wall. Walking all day to see these places was very tiring, but so, so interesting.
It was the week of Passover, so there were entire Jewish families walking together everywhere, in their neat, elegant clothes and with their general wholesome way of being.

Jewish family visiting
David's tomb/Upper Room

A cave/church  at Gethsemane

One of my favorite moments of our trip was when we sat up on the wall Easter Sunday praying the Glorious Mysteries while looking over modern Jerusalem and watching a Jewish man playing ball with a bunch of little boys always yelling, "Abba! Abba!", while others bicycled around or the littler ones stuffed grass down each others' shirts until one of them would get angry, and then they'd all work together to get it out again. All with their Jewish caps on (kippahs) (somehow staying on their heads for the most part) and prayer ropes dangling while they ran.

Holy Thursday, we think we were in "David's city."

Olive leaves and
flowers from Gethsemane

     We prayed the Luminous Mysteries on the other side of the city on Holy Thursday, looking over Gethsemane and the three cemetery's I mentioned. It was quite a magnificent view to look out over all that from the Jerusalem wall. The weather was lovely and there were flowers blooming on the hillside below us, and we prayed our rosary while the sun set, and watched people walk from Gethsemane up to Jerusalem, or down through the valley.

View from our Rosary perch

                                    We were looking out over the hills beyond Jerusalem, with houses stretching miles into the distance. We began singing the Salve Regina at the end of our rosary, when the peace and quiet was disrupted by the incredibly penetrating and loud Muslim call to prayer suddenly blaring out in all it's abruptness and echoing through the hills--setting Rosie off into hysterics. We tried to keep it together but laughing is contagious and the contrast struck us as pretty hilarious.
     On Good Friday Rosie and I went to try to join the Franciscans for the Stations of the Cross along the Via Dolorosa, but it was so crowded and there were military people everywhere blocking off random ways, so we ended up making friends with a couple from Spain and having a good conversation with a university student from Germany while we waited and tried not to suffocate in the crowd.

In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Holy Sepulchre

     Eventually it moved and we took turns reading the stations to each other from the Magnificat as we went. We arrived at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which contains Jesus' tomb as well as the rock of Golgotha, and waited in the crowd to go up to the place where the cross had been.

The Basilica of the Agony in Gethsemane 

Inside the Basilica
of the Agony 

View from Jerusalem of the  Mount
of Olives, and Muslim and
Jewish cemeterys

     After that we went back to the Basilica of the Agony for the Good Friday service, which I was very glad of. We had originally planned to go to the one in the Holy Sepulchre, right there where Jesus died, but it was difficult not to become frustrated with the pushiness of people or the lack of prayerful attitude, with the importance of touching the particular places dominating over the importance of God's presence in the people around us. It was still a place of prayer, but the sheer multitude of people meant it was necessary to block off, organize, push people by in a way that seemed a little more like were being sped by some exhibit in a museum. Also, the Sepulchre is shared by many different religious groups with various parts used for different services. Anyway, I was very glad for the Franciscans at Gethsemane who go up to the microphone when it begins to get a little loud and shush people to keep the prayerful atmosphere.

View from the Old City wall!

Some really cooperative people....

     On Holy Saturday we woke up at 4:30 am to go to the Easter Vigil at the Sepulchre. It apparently works better with "local conditions" for the vigil to be at that time, so we tried to fit in some Holy Saturday prayers and reflections as we waited outside the walls for the military to let us in, or while we waited at the Sepulchre for the celebration to start. It was an adventure trying to get into the city, they were letting only Catholics in at first though, so we eventually made it.

They were giving "Catholic tags"  as they let us through the gate to the city, and those became handy for passing various streets when other people weren't let through for some reason. The Gloria of the Easter Vigil there at the Sepulchre was extremely striking for me. I think I laughed out loud! (But nobody could hear me....) It began with deafening bells echoing through the huge church, and then it sounded like some really big person sat on all the keys of the organ at one time and lay there for about a minute. Eventually a melody and singing came out of it, but before that it just sounded like what might happen if you gave some little kids a bunch of noise makers and some really good news. Christ is risen!!

On the way to Easter Sunday Mass:
"Guys, stop! What do you think when I
yell, 'POTATOES!'?"

   

    Saturday we walked about the city celebrating Easter and visiting some churches and the Austrian Hospice, present shopping and buying weird Arabian treats (we all agreed they tasted like soap and had fun arguing about which soap was less perturbing to eat). Flatbread was cheap, so we had plenty of Easter picnics those last few days, usually involving hard boiled eggs and matzah from our free breakfast at the hospice, flatbread, oranges and hummus, pretzels and soap.

Singing in  Church of Notre Dame on
Easter Sunday!

     Sunday we hoped to catch a bus and go to the Dead Sea, but it ended up being too complicated and expensive, so we stayed in Jerusalem. We went to Easter Mass in the Church of Notre Dame right outside the old city, and Rosie and I had had our first cup of coffee in forty days that morning, so the world was bright and beautiful. Mass was so joyful (and in English), and it was so good to sing those Easter songs! Christ is risen! After Mass Rosie and I were singing in the bathroom and two girls from Portugal asked if they could take a video of us singing. So we found a hallway in the building with good acoustics and sang "Now the Green Blade Rises."
By the end there were about ten people in the hallway listening, and then the Irish priest there asked if we'd sing for a group of Jews who he was giving a tour of the church. So he explained to them in Hebrew that he'd come upon us in the hallway and we were going to sing an Easter song. We sang it in the church and then he offered to show us an exhibit they had there of the Shroud of Turin.

Blending in.
Jaffa gate is behind us. :)

So he gave us a high speed tour and the parts we could catch were really fascinating. Then another huge group of Jews walked in to see the exhibit and so he asked if we'd mind staying and singing for them too. We sang it again, and then sang once more so that his sister could record while videoing the various parts of the Shroud of Turin exhibit. Nikolaus and Johannes waited patiently through all this, and eventually we left to have our Easter brunch picnic in the grass.

Shops near the Holy Sepulcher.

It was a really lovely morning, and really neat to meet those people and get to witness to Christ's resurrection for those Jews right in the Holy Land. :)
     On Monday we got on a bus for Jaffa, to the the other Abraham's hostel there, in order to catch a taxi from there to the airport. We arrived and walked to the old town, had another picnic and swam in the Mediterranean!

Jaffa: Port City

     We spent some time helping Rosie find shells with holes in them so she could make some Jewelry, and here in Trumau she's been walking about with lovely earrings that she made from them. When we came back to the hostel (after a long awaited ice-cream stop--Glidah in Hebrew I think...) we found out that our previously booked taxis ditched, so we had to do a last minute pooling of leftover cash to hire three more to get us there on time. It all went smoothly after that. Wonderful Week!
                                                                        Happy Easter!
                                                           Christ is risen from the dead!
                                                           By death he conquered death,
                                                               and to those in the graves
                                                                       He granted life!

Jerusalem Cruisers. 

Thanks, Traveling Buddy!