Day 1, Arrival and on to Jerusalem, 4 December 2016

Landed in the Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport in the wee hours of Sunday. (Ben Gurion, the first prime minister, is considered Israel's founder). 

At the first look, what impressed me was the impressively huge stone wall in the arrival corridors. Symbolic of the Western wall in Jerusalem, their holiest place? 

Ben Gurion Airport

Crowd was thin. Immigration and customs formalities were breezy. Officials were, as they are in every airport in the world, indifferent and slow. To escape the awkwardness, I also returned them a stony face and came out. 

Arrival lounge was sleepy, most shops were yet to open. Outside the airport, it was very cold (something like 10 degree Celsius, but real feel was something like 0 degree). 

Like the Indian taxi drivers, (especially the airport species), Israeli taxi drivers seem to smell the gullible tourists from a furlong. One wily guy approached us even before we had our first lungful of Tel Aviv air. Though there are warnings in the airport website not to approach these guys for transport, as the fate would have it, we started talking to him and settled for 300 shekels. 

The taxi ride from the airport to Jerusalem took an hour. The roads were all empty and the driver was not interested in a conversation. But that crooked fellow managed to extract double the amount he had agreed for, at the end of the journey. Surprisingly he stopped speaking his broken English during the post ride negotiations and used pure Arabic only. When I desperately looked for help, staff at the hotel bell desk became busy watching the skies. Too bad. 

That was a very bad first impression and sick welcome to the Holy city. I didn’t expect this in the land of Israel, which had been formed because the world had denied them a fair and just treatment. Most taxi drivers are Palestine or Arab Muslims, who, I think, are taking revenge on the state of Israel this way!

It was 5.00 AM in the morning when we checked into The American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem. I had booked that hotel after reading the Lonely Planet. (Sometimes even Lonely Planet can go wrong, mind you). All guidebooks would want you to choose a hotel for the 'character' and forego the comfort factors. You wont find the Hiltons and Ramadas mentioned. American Colony Hotel was one such 'characterful' hotel. 

American Colony Hotel, Jerusalem. They were decorating for the upcoming Christmas

The American Colony Hotel is an old historic building and there is a long story behind it. It was built in the 1890s for a Pasha. A Pasha is a governor or something like that in the Ottoman Turkish Empire, who ruled Jerusalem before the British. The guy had four wives and this mansion was his Harem. After him, the property had changed a few hands and landed with an American Christian sect that believed that Jesus would be coming back to Jerusalem sometime soon.

Many people believe that Jesus will make a Second Coming and when He does, He would do so right back in Jerusalem again. Why Jerusalem, because people believe Jesus had left for the heaven from there after the resurrection. Obviously, there is a miscalculation here. If at all he chooses to come back, I’m pretty sure, He would appear somewhere in Swiss or Norway. After all He knows Jerusalem beforehand! 

Jesus is yet to come again, and the hotel is still with the sect’s trust. But like all things American, they have become commercialized and the property has become a hotel. It is being run by a Swiss hotel company now. In the name of authenticity, they are keeping the cramped bathrooms and the worn out tiled floors. Not bad, anyway, OK.

By opting to stay there, we joined an elite club of many VIPs who had stayed in the hotel. There was a big list on display that included Winston Churchill, Lawrence of Arabia, Tony Blair, Mikhail Gorbachev, Christiane Amanpour (CNN), Leon Uris, Bob Dylan and many others. I gave up after reading a dozen. ( Being a VIP doesn’t prevent you from making wrong hotel choices, obviously.)

We were there in the hotel lobby on a chill winter morning, shivering. But as the inconsiderate hotel industry would have it, the receptionist wanted us to wait till 12 noon to get a room. (They had unoccupied rooms). After keeping the bags in the lobby, we thought of going for a morning walk to kill time and ventured out a few yards. But Sampoo started shivering with that sub 10 degree blast of cold air and we had to quickly retrace the steps back to the hotel. We paid for an extra day and got a room, slept for a while and readied for our first day in comfort.

Hungry after the overnight flight, we went to the hotel breakfast. Here, something needs to be told in detail about the Israeli breakfast. The Israeli hotels do serve a good breakfast, as we experienced throughout our stay in various hotels in the following week. The breakfast at the American Colony Hotel no doubt neutralized the bad taste of the taxi driver rip off. 

The breakfast we see now in the hotels has its roots in in their early history of settlements. When Jews came in waves to settle in Israel in the early 1900s, they established and settled in collective farming communities called Kibbutz farms. Members of  the kibbutz farms lived together and ate in the common dining hall. (Life should have been good to those people, Couple of old Israelis whom I spoke to later were longing for that kind of simple life in a simple society). They used to take their brunch after an early morning shift and the items consisted of whatever was available on the farm: fresh vegetables, fresh juice, eggs, bread and milk and other dairy products. The trend continues now, at least in the in the hotels.

One thing I noticed was that while almost everything in the breakfast spread is sourced from Israel, the water was from Italy. (Later learnt that the San Pellegrino brand is owned by none other than Nestle). May be a Star hotel's snobby way of serving water to its guests.

A quirky custom the Jews have is this 'Kosher' (Kashrut, they say), It is a religious edict like the Islamic Halal. Pork is forbidden, (no ham and bacon), But fish is allowed.  Milk and meat are not served together in a meal. 

A delighted Sampoo

The green and brown grape like ones are the olives. Bitter. The white chutney in the center is the hummus.

Our breakfast consisted Hummus (a chutney made up of chickpeas (yes, our humble Sundal), olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic), Tahini (another chutney made from sesame/gingelly seeds), Shakshuka, (poached eggs topped over tomato curry), an enormous variety of salads (scorched egg plants were my favourite), an array of pickled fish and various yogurts. It was all served with bread, fruits and dry fruits. I noted many Israelis starting the breakfast with a coffee or tea.

The Pita bread, their widely eaten Arab bread, is a double layered, tasteless wheat roti. It opens like a pocket when you tear it into halves. You stuff Hummus (or any other thing you can) into that pocket eat. Eating without dripping the stuff onto the clothes is an art only the Israelis seem to have mastered.

After that hearty breakfast, I went to do what I usually do after a hearty meal. Resultant gastro-colic wave took me to the toilette. Subsequent feeling of a good relief drove me to a little nap and the attendant spousal annoyance.

After an hour or so, got up from the meditative nap and set out to explore the old city. We started walking towards the old city. The walled city is about a kilometer from our hotel and we were walking through the Arabic neighbourhoods that were no different from many of our own crowded towns. Only difference was the skin colour of the people.  

Graffitti

A church

Another Church. There are a fifty of them like this.

A street scene

First we wanted to check out the Citadel, or the Tower of David. It is a massive fort  in the western part of the old Jerusalem, near the Jaffa Gate. It is located over a prominent elevation overlooking the city. 

Tower of David

This fortress was built the by King Herod in 34-37 BCE. This Herod, a Jew, was the Roman client king of Judea (ancient Israel). He seems to have been a megalomaniac builder, credited with many massive forts around Israel. More importantly, he was the guy, who, fearing that the newly born Jesus would usurp his kingdom, massacred all the kids in Bethlehem (Massacre of the Innocents). 

Flags of the Jerusalem, Israel and the Museum

Though the Citadel started its life as the palace of Herod, it changed many hands, was destroyed and rebuilt and fortified many times. It had been used as a palace by the Romans, Byzantines, Crusaders, various Sultans and is now the home to an impressive Museum of the History of Jerusalem. The museum tells the story of the city in a series of exhibition halls.

In the ticket counter, we met a man who said he was a great fan of Amitabh Bachan. Later we learnt, in Israel, Amitabh and Jitendra are more popular than Gandhi and Nehru. 

ticket counter of the museum

Dale Chihuli chandelier

A magnificent glass sculpture – chandelier by Dale Chihuli was in the entrance hall. There was another work by him, named Glass Grass, a beautiful installation.

A glass artwork of by Dale Chihuly

Selfie with the tower in the backdrop

Panorama of the museum complex

The view from the ramparts of the Citadel was fantastic. 

Golden Dome of the Rock in the back ground. Church of the Redeemer in the foreground

In between the two religious edifices!

From the ramparts

After coming out of the Citadel Tower, we wandered around the old city. Jerusalem’s Old City is small, just one sq Km. (Whole of Jerusalem itself is just the size of Erode and Bhavani put together).

Jerusalem's narrow paved streets

The Old City is wrapped around by ancient massive walls, built by a Turkish Sultan, Suleyman the Magnificent, in 1500s. There are six gates in the wall, all very tall and massive but narrow entryways, teaming with tourists from all the corners of the globe. 

Inside the walls, there are the Muslim, Jewish, Christian and the Armenian Quarters. The Jewish quarters was mostly destroyed by the Arab coalition in 1948 and 1967 wars, it was completely rebuilt and appears a bit modern and spacious, whereas the other three, Christian, Armenian and Muslim quarters are bustling with shops and people in the narrow alleyways.  

Herod's gate

Old city is mostly inhabited by the Palestinian Arabs. (2.5 Lakhs) and the newly developing vast and modern New Jerusalem surroundings have been settled by Jewish. There is visible disparity between the Jewish and Arab areas.

People need one another

Narrow Alleyways

Jaffa Gate

Holy sites of three religions, Western Wall for Jews, Dome of the Rock for Muslims, Via Dolorosa and Church of the Holy Sepulcher are all closely located, within 100 meters of each. We went to the Western Wall first.  

Actually, this wall was built by King Herod, just before the time of Jesus, some 2000 years ago. It was just a retaining wall for the outer portion of Temple Mount. The Temple Mount, a rocky hillock, was the place where the ancient First and Second Holy Jewish Temples stood. (You need to know some history stuff here, it is believed in Judaism that God created the world, collecting dust from Temple Mount. Don’t ask me who created the Temple Mount in the first place. It’s all holy history stuff).

King Solomon built the First Temple, which was destroyed by the Babylonians, and then King Herod built the second temple, which was later destroyed by the Romans, Romans built a temple for their God and Kings, then the Christians came and made it into a church, then, for some time it remained as rubbish dump. In the 7th century AD, invading Muslim Caliphs took over the city and built a dome and a mosque exactly over the very same rock.

Though the Temple had been destroyed, its retaining structure remained and Jews believe that the divine presence existed in the remaining wall. (Even when the Temple was intact in the ancient days, the inner sanctum was barred to all except the high priest. Jews are forbidden to enter it, as they fear inadvertently treading into the sanctum-the holy of the hollies). So, they have started praying at this remaining part of the original structure.

The Wall has become a place of worship and Jews come here to pray and mourn the destruction of the Temple – (that’s why it is also called the Wailing Wall, but beware, Jews dislike it being called like that).

Though the Jews were worshiping, Arab people's houses were pressed right up to it, it was just a narrow 12 ft alley for prayer. In 1948 the Old City was taken by the Jordanians and Jews from there were expelled. But 19 years later, during the Six Day Arab Israeli war of 1967, Israeli paratroopers stormed in and their first action was to bulldoze the neighboring Arab houses to create the big open space, the sloping plaza that is there today.

The Wall, now open 24 hours, is cordoned off by a heavy armed security ring. The area is like a great open-air synagogue. It has separate areas for men and women. Devout Jews could be seen praying, chanting and swaying back and forth, and bobbing heads in prayer. Many are seen pressing themselves against the Wall and kiss the stones. Many  Jews put their prayers and petitions in pieces of paper and stuff them into the cracks in between the stones. (Back home, in Bhavani Temple, many devotees think that by tying a symbolic cradle in the temple’s tree would get them a baby)

When visiting the Western Wall, all are expected to come there in a non-revealing modest dress. A funny skull cap, just covering the vortex, (Kippah) is required for the men folk. Available freely.

The Western Wall

Faithfuls praying in the Western Wall

Afterward, we moved on to the streets of Jerusalem. All the buildings in Jerusalem, old and new, have been built with the pale, beige limestone uniquely found in and around that city, the “Jerusalem Stone”. In fact, there is ans old local law that demands all the buildings to be faced with Jerusalem Stone. Though it is considered a Jewish symbol, (many synagogues around the world are built by it), the stone is mostly produced by the Palestinian stone cutting units from the Eastern side of the city.

 A church

Jerusalem (lime) stone facade 

Numerous churches like this were to be found, on almost every street corner. After struggling to read out their names, I got bored and stopped doing so. But all were practically empty. No one seemed to visit these churches. Virtually every denomination in the Christendom has built a church in Jerusalem and there is considerable rivalry between the various sects of Christianity. (Humans, after all!)

Wandering in the Jerusalem’s streets trying to do a shopping is an interesting experience in itself.  Hundreds of Muslim shopkeepers selling Christian memorabilia for Jewish Currency. 

Colourful Sweets

Sampoo mistook the colored stones for some sweets

Fruits of Israeli agriculture, all giant sized vegetables and fruits

I had been sufficiently forewarned about the haggling skills needed for such encounters. But, Jerusalem guys are remarkable. Shopkeepers around Bhavani Temple are really great, there the folks are endowed with relatively more honesty and integrity.

We had missed our lunch, we were hungry and went to a nearby place called Basti Restaurant. It was just a tourist ripping eatery, having a signboard assuring “ Food is free if you didn’t like it”. We had the chicken skewers, falafel and hummus and orange juices, all exorbitantly priced. The food was OK, nothing exceptionally good. But the location was great for people watching.

Then we wandered back to the hotel, tired of our inadvertent long walks. After some rest, we freshened up and got a taxi (40 Shekels) to go to the market area, Mahane Yehuda. We had chosen the wrong season to visit Israel, the winter, it became dark by 5 PM, seriously restricting our sightseeing and shopping. 

Mahane Yehuda Market is a big market, a souk, (they call it "The Shuk"), where vendors sell all sorts of things, like  bread, meat, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts, wines and liquors; clothing and shoes; A number of food stalls and juice bars were there. Noisy and colorful, it was like our own village Shandais, only slightly upmarket. 

For dinner, we were looking for a restaurant called ‘Machneyuda’ which had been reviewed well by Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor. That restaurant is one of Israel's best, owned by three celebrated chefs. But as that place needed advance reservations and our concierge couldn't get one, we were suggested another place in the same street, owned by the same group. That’s how we ended up in the little nice restaurant called ‘Yudale’.

Yudale Restaurant

Yudale Restaurant

Yudale is just an open plan kitchen. Diners are seated around the kitchen which doubles up as the bar also. We can watch the cooking of our food step by step. There is a sort of college hostel party atmosphere, and the place reverberates with bouts of hand clapping, singing, laughter and drinking led by the chefs. The music was club-decibel level and all the people seemed to be in a very good, joyous mood. 

The menu, which changes daily, is somewhat unique and creative. That day’s menu included the items: "I was like, fry some mushrooms, she was like, add some blue cheese on top" (appetizer) and "Best goddamn apple tart in the history of mankind (for this week)," - which was fairly accurate. We had, and loved, Polenta, (a corn meal dish) with mushrooms and cheese and a fish item, (The son of the king of the sea, Grilled Baby Grouper) as suggested by the chef and that was also too good. It was all good fun. 

I was surprised to learn that the Israeli local brew’s name is Arak! The Chef at Yudale offered me a small and asked me to try and I almost spat it out. It tasted exactly like our native drink, arrack. This Arak is a Middle Eastern distillation. (In Bali also there was a local drink by name Arak). Who adapted whom, it’s a matter of debate, as all are ancient civilizations, you see. 

Thoroughly satiated, we returned to the hotel by a taxi. Needless to say the taxi driver would have cheated us.