Jerusalem, April 2009.
Even though it's against the Year Course rules, something I really wanted to do was go to the Temple Mount to see the Dome of the Rock. The Temple Mount is only open to non-Arabs for a certain number of hours per day; I think from 1pm to 5pm. Attempt number one was with a too-large group: we ended up waiting for them at a bus stop for twenty minutes, and missing the first bus. When we got on the bus, it took almost an hour to reach the Old City.
Zach and Esti fell asleep on the bus on the way there.
When we reached the Old City, we argued for a bit about which would be the best way to go to get to the entrance to the Temple Mount. We went through the shuk. We got separated at one point, and a few people got a bit lost in between the Jewish and Arab Quarters. We bickered, called each other, and finally reconvened. It was about 4:30pm by this point. When we reached the security stop to the Mount, the guards told us we were too late; it was closed to non-Arabs now. We sadly wove our way back through.
We didn't get to see the Temple Mount or the Dome of the Rock that day, but we passed a model of it made out of Za'tar. How cool is that? Some of our friends, though, were pretty bitter about not making it in time. We still had more time left in Israel, though, and I knew this wasn't our only chance.
On our way back through the shuk, someone came up with a stellar idea. "Well, even though we didn't get to see it today, we should still do something new and exciting, right?" So we wound our way through the Arab shuk until we found a "Hummusia," a hummus restaurant. There the group of us split a couple of plates of hummus with pine nuts, olive oil and ful (a type of legume). We scooped up the smooth hummus with steaming pita triangles and wedges of raw onion, refreshing ourselves with Coca-Cola in glass bottles (the best way to drink it) and wiping our mouths with tiny little restaurant napkins that said "Coca-Cola" in Arabic. We used the last little scraps of pita to scrape the plates completely clean. It was one of the best middle-eastern meals I had while in Israel.
I can't remember when Attempt Number Two was carried out, but it was a success. Jason and I knew attempt number one was a failure because our big group was pretty disorganized.
Between classes in the hostel, Jason and I were eating lunch with our Swedish friends Emilie and Jessica, and my roommate Ali. We started talking about Attempt Number Two, and Emilie said, "well, let's go right now."
"Right...now, Emilie?"
"Sure. Why not." Ali and I ran to our room, threw on some respectable, modest clothes, and went outside to wait for Emilie and Jessica. Jessica ended up not coming with us.
When we reached the gate, we waited in line for probably an hour with other Americans. I had on a kippah (little head covering), but when we got to the front of the line, the Israeli soldiers looked at me funny and said in typical blunt Israeli fashion, "You cannot pray out loud. Why are you wearing that?" I got worried they would stop me, so I took it off.
The view from the Temple mount is incredible. We could see the Catholic church with the bright gold roof bits, and the Dome of the Rock shone like a jewel.
Emilie, me, Jason, and Ali.
And we went again to the Hummusia. So successes all around.
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