A Year to Remember : A day out in Jerusalem :)

Well, Jerusalem is an amazing place. Where to begin? Well, after our orientation the day before yesterday (i'm writing this from my project in the Golan Heights, more on that later) for our own volunteering projects, we all headed out with our guide, called Yan, to get some lunch. We ended up at a small cafe/restaurant where we enjoyed amazing Falafel pitas stuffed with vegetables and Humus. We headed back to the hostel to relax before our walking tour of the old city, no big deal really as the hostel has its own roof with sun beds and mattress' for an afternoon siesta.

The highlight of the day was our walking tour of the old city. This is a place to behold, I was amazed at the sheer number of people and empires that have held the city over its 4,000 year history. Everyone from biblical kings to Alexander the Great through to the Ottoman empire (not to mention the countless others). The fact that in some areas of the city you can dig down just meters at a time to discover artefacts sometimes separated by a 1,000 years was truly amazing (only in jerusalem according to Allan our guide). What also amazed me was the peaceful co-existance between the different quarters of the old city (Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Assyrian). Everyone was doing business together and getting along famously, no hint of any ill feelings towards each other at all. After our tour was finished (and 4,000 years of history absorbed) our guide Yan met up with us to take us on his own personal tour. He took us around the local street markets to see the incredible mix of foods and drinks along with impressive methods of spice stacking!

We got some great photos from the roof of an Austrian themed hostel in the Muslim Quarter, the late afternoon scene was perfect for photos. We headed out for Humus pitas after iced lemonade with mint leaves before rolling back to the Hostel at around 8 in the evening (following a briefing on the bus transport to out projects from Yan). It was an amazing day spent with great people and plenty of sunshine.

In the next post, i'll tell you about my journey to the project (which included an unexpected 2 kilometer hike) and our first day of work at our project in Nimrod (the highest settlement in Israel!).