A panorama view of the Old City of Jerusalem, looking north/northeast/east from the Citadel on the western edge of the city (click image for larger version):

It’s impossible to fully convey the experience of Jerusalem in a few blog posts. So all I can do is show a few highlights. On one of my first days in the Old City, I walked the Via Dolorosa (the traditional path of Jesus on his way to the crucifixion), consisting of fourteen “stations,” the last five of which are located in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The Church of the Flagellation:

The Ecce Homo Arch:

Station Four (Jesus meets His Mother Mary):

Station Nine (Jesus falls for the third time):

Inside the Queen Helen Church (Coptic Orthodox):

The courtyard above the Armenian Chapel of St. Helena. The top of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is visible in the background.

Outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Note the “immovable ladder” on the ledge beneath one of the second floor windows, a symbol of an ongoing dispute (since the 19th century) between the Armenians and the Greek Orthodox:

Traditional site of the crucifixion (Station Twelve):

Pilgrims at the Stone of Unction (Station Thirteen):

View above the stone:

Outside the Catholicon:

As part of my trip, I joined a multi-day tour of the Galilee region. The focus of the tour was on sites from the New Testament, since the Galilee was where much of Jesus’ ministry took place. The following few photos don’t really do it justice, but hopefully they give you a flavor of things.

Caesarea Maritima (Acts 23-25):

Nazareth:

Cana in Galilee (John 2:1-11):

Mt. of Beatitudes (Matthew 5-7):

Capernaum:

Boat ride on the Sea of Galilee:

Speaking of boats, in Ginosar there was displayed an ancient boat from the time of Jesus, probably similar to the kind he might have ridden on:

(Scene: early one morning in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. I walk past a shopkeeper ["SK"] selling metal trinkets. *Note: 1 U.S. dollar = 3.5 Israeli shekels)

SK: Hey… hey! Come in here (motioning inside the shop), let me show you something.

Me: (With slight hesitation) okay.

SK: Everything in the shop today is 50% off.

Me: Wow, great.

SK: (pointing to a silver-plated goblet) See this cup? I’ll give it to you for a good price. Which one would you like? The one with the grapevine on it? Or this one with the city of Jerusalem design?

Me: I’m not sure.

SK: (handing the cup to me, and cleverly positioning himself between me and the entrance to the TINY hole-in-the-wall shop) Here, take it, hold it. You want this one?

Me: I really don’t know yet.

SK: Are you a student?

Me: Yes.

SK: You look like a student. Where are you from?

Me: Canada.

SK: Ah, Canada… my cousin lives in Montreal.

Me: That’s great.

SK: Here, you look like a nice person, I’ll give you a good price. Regular price 700 shekels–I’ll give it to you for three hundred. Shall I wrap it up for you?

Me: Uh… wait, no. I’m not sure I want it. (I hand the cup back to SK.)

SK: 300 is too much? Name your price. What are you willing to pay?

Me: (contemplating whether I would want it even if he offered it to me for free) I really don’t know.

SK: This is a good price. I just want to start my day, open my cash register. (*Note: This is a common thing… shopkeepers will want to start the day or the week off with a quick sale for good luck.)

Me: Well, I’m not sure if THAT CUP is what I want. Let me look around and see what else you have.

SK: Sure, you can look around.

Me: (Glancing at the hundreds of pieces of random stuff in the shop) Hmm…

SK: (pointing back at the cup) Here, I’ll sell it to you for 250 shekels.

Me: Um, no.

SK: This is a good price. You look like a nice person. This is a nice cup. Don’t you like it?

Me: I’m just not sure I want it.

SK: What price are you willing to pay? How about 200 shekels? It’s silver.

Me: No.

SK: You from Canada? Where are you from ORIGINALLY? China? Japan?

Me: Hong Kong.

SK: Ah, Hong Kong. Here, 200 shekels, I’ll sell it to you. I just want to start my day.

Me: I understand, but I’m not sure I want this cup. Let me look elsewhere in the shop.

SK: You look like a businessman. I tell you what–150 shekels. This is a great price. Price I give to family and close friends only.

Me: (stalling, trying to find an opportunity to leave) No, I don’t know if I want it. It’s too big. (After all, I would have to stuff it back in my already-full luggage.)

SK: It’s not too big… many other ones much bigger. Come on, one fifty. I just want to start my week. Quickly, I have to go pray soon; if you want it, take it… if not, fine.

Me: (Calling his bluff) Well, if you have to go pray, then I won’t waste any more of your time. Goodbye…

SK: Ok, ok, wait. 120 shekels, final price.

Me: (trying to leave) I don’t think I want it, thanks anyway.

SK: (blocking me) What do you want me to do? I give you a good price. You keep smiling. Just tell me what price you pay.

Me: I don’t want it. I’m a student, I don’t have much money.

SK: Yes, but keep smiling, keep smiling. 120 shekels is not too much.

Me: Well, it’s a lot of money… I’m a student, I still have many days in Jerusalem.

SK: Why won’t you help me. 120 shekels, I start my day, you get the cup. (Showing me the cup again) Here, look at it.

(This goes on for another five minutes; I look around the shop blankly, stalling, while he blocks my way out.)

SK: Ok, I tell you what–one hundred shekels. This is final price. I don’t know what you want. I just want to start my day.

Me: I understand, but I don’t want it.

SK: One hundred shekels, no better price anywhere.

Me: No, sorry, I have to go.

SK: 90? 80 shekels? (Seeing that I’m forcing my way out) Ah, yallah… get lost!

—————————–
My reflections on this experience:
1) Never pay more than ~10-15% of the “regular” price for a souvenir in the Old City.
2) I might actually have bought something if he’d just let me look around his shop.
3) When it comes to bargaining, we Chinese can always hold our own.

Tel Aviv was originally built as an extension of the ancient city of Jaffa (Yafo). To this day Jaffa retains its Arab character:

The clock tower:

The Mahmudiya mosque:

The Church of St. Peter:

View of Tel Aviv from the south:

The flea market! Anyone interested in some junk?

This summer I have the privilege of spending some time in Israel. Having been here less than a week, I get the sense that my visit will be too short to really see everything–but my goal is to make the best of what time I do have!

My trip begins in Tel Aviv: Welcome to Israel.

View of Ben Yehuda Street looking south:

The beach, during rush hour:

Many of the residential buildings in Tel Aviv were built in the 1930′s and 1940′s in the “Bauhaus” style, giving Tel Aviv the nickname “the White City”:

Before Tel Aviv, there was Neve Tzedek, the first Jewish suburb of the city of Jaffa. Today Neve Tzedek is a trendy neighborhood of shops, cafes, and residences:

The first Israeli cinema:

Other highlights included Carmel Market and the Yemenite Quarter, both just north of Neve Tzedek:

we drove up to whistler for a couple of days and had a mini-vacation.

dinner at an irish pub. i had a “steak and guinness pie”, which was as big as my head.

an easy hike to lost lake.

and a visit to the olympic rings.

I was very glad to have my friend Kim help me drive from Chicago to Vancouver last week. Though we were on a rather tight schedule (we covered the entire trip in 3.5 days), we still managed to see quite a bit on the road.

I had to pack the car to the max:

One of the highlights was a short stop at the Spam Museum in Austin, MN:

And of course, lots of diner-food on the road:

A familiar road sign:

Thanks, Kimu, for a great trip!

(You can also see the description of our trip on Kimu’s own blog here)

Near the end of my trip, I made two other sojourns to places outside of central/western Syria where I had spent all of my time. The first was to Palmyra (or Tadmor in Arabic), an ancient oasis city in the desert that once was an important caravan stop. The Roman ruins here give a glimpse into how prosperous it once was:

The Temple of Bel:

The other trip was to Beirut–which is of course not in Syria but fairly close to Damascus and accessible by bus or shared taxi. After making it through a relatively complicated border process into Lebanon, I got to spend a day in this amazing but also war-scarred city:

The American University of Beirut:

And an additional bonus: the museum in Beirut actually did allow photos!

The Ahiram Sarcophagus:

The Batnoam Inscription:

All in all, it was quite a fruitful and exciting trip!

In the course of traveling through all of the sites mentioned in the previous post, I spent a few nights in the coastal cities of Latakia (Arabic “al-Ladqiyye”) and Tartous.

Latakia is on the northern coast of Syria, and is an important and bustling port city:

I naively thought that I’d be able to catch some good views of the water, but after arriving there I realized that the nice beaches are north of the city (near the more luxury hotels), and that the city’s coastline is mostly taken up by port operations:

On the other hand, Tartous, further south, has a much more wide-open coastline. It turned out to be quite a pleasant place to spend some time, especially since it’s famous for its delicious seafood:

I took a couple of side-trips during my time at Tartous. One was to Krak des Chevaliers, perhaps the most famous Crusader castle in all of Syria:

The other trip was to Arwad, an tiny island city about 3 km from the coast, known from written records in the 2nd millennium BC and still today containing remains of the ancient Phoenician walls. Nowadays it is also home to a market and various fish restaurants, as well as some old-fashioned boatmakers:

The boat ride to Arwad is just about 15-20 minutes long and was a pleasant highlight of the trip: