10/1, 11/1 and 12/1: Bible Lands

This weekend I was in Jerusalem. I hadn’t planned to go, but the day before I decided to do it and booked a place to stay and then I was off, and all of a sudden I was there. I saw the church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock, the Temple Mount, the Mount of Olives, Via Dolorosa and all those places in the old city that means so much to so many different religions.  Christianity, Islam and Judaism for all of them Jerusalem is sacred, especially the old city. The old city is divided into quarters: the Muslim quarter, the Christian quarter, the Jewish quarter and the Armenian quarter. It seemed incredible how all these religions appear to be working together in a small place like the old city because they all seem to understand that for the others it is also a holy place, not just for them. The place I stayed was a little hostel practically on the temple mount, or at least right next to it! Which also means that the Western Wall is really close. Because I am not a Muslim I can’t just go to the temple mount, but it was open on Sunday morning so I got to see it anyway and it is spectacular, like the rest of the old city. I meet some people at the hostel that I spent Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday morning with. It was really nice to have someone to share it all with, because it is rather overwhelming. Somehow, all of a sudden, it all wasn’t just stories that I’ve heard more times than I can count, you walk the same steps as history. We walked the old city, the armaments, to the top of the Mount of Olives. I heard of something called the Jerusalem syndrome, where people who come to Jerusalem all of a sudden think they are back in biblical times. Israel has Nazareth, Jerusalem, Bethlehem (Palestine), Jericho etc. all these places I have heard about since I was little. I understand why it gets too much for some, when so much of history, religion, becomes real.