I can summarize my work week in one paragraph. Egypt visa denied. TF application denied. Tour company tries to rip me off. Emails are ignored. Texts are answered. Invitations are made and accepted. Egypt visa reapplied for. Yet another TF application considered. Deadlines loom large in the distance.
But things took a turn when the weekend finally started. And it’s always good when it starts with a drink. Or so I thought. I was torn between going to a party thrown by a colleague/friend from the office Mara, and just ordinary drinking. I ended up going to a bar instead. Finally, I got to try out the Armadillo bar near Sderot Rothschild with my friend Itamar. It was extra nice to have the trusty-old San Miguel to keep me company. And I even got Armadillo stickers they give for free to patrons.
Despite my promise to Daniel not to stay up until 2am Thursday night so I can be in Jerusalem on time early Friday morning, I only managed to get home half past two. In any case, I still managed to wake up and be in Jerusalem by half past nine in the morning in time for our City of David tour. Part of the Ancient Jerusalem National Park, the City of David is argued to be the center of the Davidic and Solomonic kingdoms around 10-11th century BC. It is a mecca for archaeology and history buffs, but a bane mostly for the villagers of the Palestinian village of Silwan, situated at the foot of Mount of Olives just beside it. This is a one of the many contested aspects of the Israel-Palestine conflict. My colleagues at Gisha in fact told me that the 55 shekels I was going to pay for the Guided tour would just be used for more settlement-building in the area.Though I found some of the history revisionist, I just thought it was an incredibly interesting place with all its ancient structures intact. It did have a very theme park-ish feel to it. The ticket booths reminded me of Disneyland.
We had to go through Hezekiah’s underground tunnel somewhere during the tour, hence the wet pants and the claustrophobia-inducing caves.
After making our way back to the Old City, we had a nice pasta lunch in the Jewish Quarter and walked around while waiting for another friend to join us.
When Ashley arrived, we visited the Garden of Gethsemane and hiked (yes, I can’t believe they got me into agreeing to this) all the way up to the Mt. of Olives where we checked out the Jewish cemetery. Much to our dismay, the Church of the Ascension and the Tomb of the Prophets were closed Fridays and Saturdays.
Afterwards, we took a cab (because of my begging, they were ready to hike down on foot) all the way to the American Colony hotel to look around and change clothes. From there, we made our way to the ultra-orthodox area of Jerusalem where we saw Ultra Orthodox Jews hurriedly going home to prepare for Shabbat. Then we walked to the city center where we took a break and had pizza.
Lots more walking later, we found ourselves hanging out at Ashley’s apartment in the German colony area where Daniel played endless guitar as we waited for half past nine in the evening to watch a movie. The three of us caught Sin Nombre at Lev Smadar, a quaint movie house in the same neighborhood, while sipping summer frozen concoctions with Bailey’s. It was in a state of total exhaustion that I surprisingly managed to get back to my Tel Aviv apartment around one in the morning, and slept till noon of today. Finally, some rest.
But now, reality looms large. Deadlines approach. And its my last six days at work. Reflections on those next time.
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