Kat's Visit: Part Two

Hello readers!  Let's pick right back up where we left off, shall we? =) Also, a quick note:  most of the pictures in here are stolen from my sister, who is a far more avid photographer than I!

On Saturday we decided to do a couple of tours.  When in the Old City, we'd stopped by the tourist information center and picked up a bunch of brochures.  One advertised "free tour, art, and hummus" -- all good things, we thought!  So we walked downtown to Safra Square, and we took off on a three-hour walking tour of the Musrara neighborhood.  The tour discussed the Black Panther movement in Israel.  Unlike in the United States, where the movement was working for civil rights for African Americans, in Israel the movement fought against the Ashkenazi domination in the Knesset.  There was some really interesting urban art, and our tour guide was awesome -- she always left it up to our interpretation whether something was "art" or not.  The below was next to a sign pointing out a bomb shelter, except it says "ahava," Hebrew for "love."

We wound up at a hummus/falafel joint.  Now, dear readers, I must confess that I lied to you.  Accidentally!  French Hill Falafel is not, in fact, the best falafel in Israel.  It's from this tiny little place outside Damascus Gate.  All the signage is in Arabic, so I don't know what it's called!  But it was amazing.

After eating our delicious falafel, we scurried through the Old City to Jaffa Gate where we were going to pick up a tour of the Mount of Olives.  Sadly, we were the only two to show up, and the minimum they require to hold a tour is four.  Disappointing!  So we went back into the tourist information center and asked for some advice.  They suggested the ramparts walk or Mount Zion.  We decided we definitely wanted to do both, so we saved the ramparts walk for another day and headed to Mount Zion.  There we visited the site of the Last Supper, King David's tomb, Oskar Schindler's grave, and Dormition Abbey (believed to be the site of the Virgin Mary's death, or "eternal sleep").  

Finally we were getting tired and hungry, and restaurants were still closed for Shabbat, so we headed back to my apartment where I ate Ramen and Kat bought falafel from French Hill when they opened.

On Sunday we visited Yad Vashem, which I have written about here before.  The light rail workers were on strike, which made it a bit trickier to get there, but Kat loved the experience.  After a few weeks of my Holocaust class, I saw it a bit differently, too!  I can't wait to spend six hours there with my class at the end of the semester -- I think it will be absolutely incredible.  We didn't finish up until about 2:00, by which time we were both starving, so we grabbed lunch and cake from the restaurant in Yad Vashem, then hustled to the Old City to try and get tickets for the ramparts walk -- we'd been told the last tickets were sold at 4:00.  Alas, we didn't make it in until 4:20 or so, so we just wandered for a while trying to find something to do.  Most things were closing, and we weren't ready for dinner yet, so we decided to walk toward downtown to see what we could find.  On our way out of Jaffa Gate, Kat suggested we check and see if they were still selling tickets, just in case.  And they were!  So we walked the ramparts of the Old City at twilight -- very cool experience.

When we returned to solid ground near Zion Gate, we decided to grab a drink in the Armenian Quarter before heading out to grab dinner.  We went to a really interesting pub and got two Taybehs, one of the big Middle Eastern beers.  Then we headed downtown to a funky soup place we'd read about in my guidebook.  The soup and bread were delicious, and we went home tired and full!

Whew.  Again, that's all for now.  We're halfway through the trip now, I think!  In current events, I had a lovely weekend.  After my tattoo, I had Skype dates with three of my dearest friends at MHC.  I began my internship on Friday, and it was SUCH a joy to be working with kids again -- I never realize how much I miss it until I'm in it!  Then I spent the weekend making chicken soup and corn chowder (yum -- can't wait to try and improve the chicken soup when we run out) and doing my reading and homework for the first couple days of the week.  Last night we got our fifth and final roommate, Rachel!  She is from Boston and spent the last two years studying at UMass Amherst -- oh hey neighbor =P But she decided it wasn't for her, so she's come to Israel to make aliyah!  Tonight is "chocolate night" in the Kfar -- an appropriate date for an event devoted to making chocolatey treats!  After my busy Monday, my week improves -- tomorrow I'll spend the day getting ahead on reading before my one class, Wednesday I'm on campus all day but with a long break, and Thursday I'm done at 10AM!  This weekend I'm looking forward to resuming my internship (and possibly going to the shuk again to buy more soup ingredients), and a trip to Hebron with my friend Steph.  Stay tuned...!