Day 3

Greetings! I did not get to post my entry for day 3 last night since a few of us went out on the town – so I now write this on Sunday morning with hopes to post it tonight along with a re-cap of today when we're done. I want to record Day 3 before we start our Day 4 today, however, so I can try to keep them fresh – we see so much in one day it's very easy to get it mushed together. J

Day 3 we left Tiberius and the Sea of Galilee and began our bus ride to Jerusalem. On the way, we stopped at Bet She'an, which was a very large Roman city that was founded by Alexander the Great and destroyed in 749 AD by a massive earthquake. The feeling was similar to Caesarea in that there were lots of huge white columns and ruins all over the place. Its one thing, however, to see pictures of these places and be like "Yeah yeah, I've seen ruins before" but it's entirely another to actually walk through them (in my opinion). Having never been to Rome or Greece to see any of these ruins before, it's spectacular and really puts it into perspective as to how massive and majestic these cities were!

We then got on a fairly long bus ride to Jericho – which is where the famous battle occurred when the walls came tumbling down after all they did was trust God and walk around the fortress! Jericho is occupied by Palestine, so it's all Arab and was a little tense. We had to go through some check points before entering, and our guide wasn't allowed to enter since he's a citizen of Israel (he knew this in advance and made plans for us to have another guide). We ate lunch at "Temptation Mountain" (where Jesus was tempted in the desert for 40-days) and didn't really see many sites or ruins – although there is a cable car here and a few people had time to go on camel rides! Jericho is also the lowest city on earth at 1000 ft. below sea level.

After Jericho we had a long bus ride into Jerusalem. It was quite amazing and impactful as we entered the city. Our guide played some majestic music and really set the tone beautifully as we rounded the corner and saw the hills and hills of houses and people. There are 750,000 people living in this city, Herod's palace is here, etc.

Within Jerusalem we went to the top of a mountain and were able to get a really amazing view of the entire city. We then visited the town of Bethlehem (which really isn't as a small town as the Christmas song says). It's about 40% Christian and 60% Muslim. We went to the Church of the Nativity, which is the oldest church in the world!!! (1500 years old). This is the place where Jesus was born. It was majestic, amazing, holy, and peaceful. This actual church is split between 3 different denominations – Armenian, Greek Orthodox, and Catholic. We walked through the different sections, and were able to touch the "star" that marked the spot where Jesus was actually born. Truly awesome!

Our new hotel is in downtown Jerusalem and is a bit nicer than the previous one. I wasn't really able to capture the décor of the old one – but it wasn't that nice after we stayed in a few nights J. This one is more up to par with a standard hotel and has better food, so it's nice that we'll be staying here for the rest of the trip.

Last night after dinner 4 or 5 of us decided to go "downtown" to see the local people. Saturday night the Sabbath ends and it is when all the Jewish kids go out on the town. We took a cab ride to a local spot called Ben Yehuda which is the supposed hotspot for everyone. We got there at 8pm and there wasn't too much going on yet, but by 9 or 9:30pm it was pretty packed with all sorts of people. The scene is a pretty long & wide street with shops on either side and occasional chairs and pavilions in the middle. The kids walk up and down the street, stop into food shops to get something to eat, congregate in the middle and talk and laugh, etc. As usual, there was a mix of certain Orthodox Jews (dressed in the black suits with black hats and beards) and also "regular" non-practicing Jews who dress like you and me. The energy level was pretty high and it is the equivalent of the mall or a local hang-out on a Friday or Saturday night. There was also a local Korean choir singing on the street singing religious songs (I recognized the tune of 'Lord I Lift Your Name on High" being sung in Korean), as well as a saxophone player further down, some other acoustic guitarists (non-religious music) – so it was a festival/party/social gathering type atmosphere and was pretty fun. We found some hot chocolate, looked at some of the local stuff being sold, and soaked it in. Things got a little tense at the end of the evening when our cab drivers got upset because the ones that brought us to the spot came back to pick us up and we were looking to get a better deal from somebody else. As we walked up the street, they followed us and then started to argue with us and the other cab drivers. Being late at night in a foreign country not speaking the language (and the cab drivers were muslim), it got a little spooky. Things calmed down when we decided to stick with the original cab drivers and got home as fast as we could J