Mount of Olives

Jerusalem 1

My trip to Jerusalem this weekend was amazing!  We stayed at a hostel right inside one of the gates to the Old City, which put us in great proximity to all the tourist sites, the new city, and the mall.  As we got off the bus and walked toward the gate to the old city, we were stopped at about 10 different checkpoints and had to have all our luggage searched. We were completely unaware that a march/protest asking the Israeli government to bargain for a captured Israeli soldier who had been imprisoned for two years had reached Jerusalem right before us. The areas surrounding the old city were packed, and it was very strange to have my bags checked every hundred yards. But we finally made it to the hostel, dropped off our bags, and went out to dinner.  The restaurant we went to had a beautiful rooftop sitting area with a view over Jerusalem and the surrounding areas. We spent the night walking around the new city. 

In the morning we were ready to explore Jerusalem.  Many of the people I was traveling with had been to Jerusalem before, and knew exactly what they wanted to see, but I wanted to hit all the big sights first.  My friend Becky and I walked to the Western Wall, the Wohl Archeological Museum, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, around the Jewish quarter, the mall, and in the souq (marketplace). I got my first shwarma for lunch which was so good. It is made of chicken or lamb, and they stuff that and falafel and hummus and tahina and fries and pickles and cucumbers and tomatoes and practically anything else you could want into a pita.  Its very messy, but delicious. The souq was amazing.  There were vendors selling everything from cumin powder to dried dates to old photographs to hookahs to religious items and everything else in between.  No prices are set, and haggling is an art form that takes a while to get the hang of.  Since both of us spoke a little hebrew, we used as much as we could with the shop keepers, which definitely helped keep prices down.  It also helped that we were both wearing dark skirts and loose shirts, and many people had mistaken us for being Israeli all day.  It was the first time I had ever had to pick and choose when to take my camera out, and when looking like a local was more beneficial than snapping tons of pictures.  We met up with the rest of our friends for dinner in the Armenian quarter.  The food was amazing, and I wouldn’t suggest any other restaurant in Jerusalem over the Armenian Tavern.

The next day we went to the Mount of Olives.  There were so many beautiful churches as well as the garden of Gethsemane. The top of the Mount of Olives had a great view of the Dome of the Rock, and the Jewish graves that lined the slopes.  After walking down and back to the Old City, we walked back to the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and went shopping in the souq before returning to the bus back to the kibbutz.  

The city was beautiful and interesting and it was amazing to see so many very different people living in such close proximity.  The muslim call to prayer could be heard all over the city five times a day from the minarets, on friday night the streets are packed with Orthodox Jews with their hats, prayer robes, and black attire, and the churches are full of Christians waiting in line to rub rosaries and crosses on holy sites.  People spoke English, Hebrew, Arabic, and I even got to use my Russian. Hopefully, I’ll get to return to Jerusalem on this trip, or a trip in the future. 

more Haifa

Haifa

I traveled to Haifa this weekend, and there were definitely some interesting experiences. We used the bus system, that uses nice charter buses and goes throughout the country. On the bus, I had my first experience with Israeli soldiers.  They have off on the weekends, and many use the buses to travel home.  One interesting thing about them is that they aren’t allowed to part with their weapons and have to carry them everywhere. So of course, this means that many of the soldiers that got on our bus had HUGE guns sitting on their laps.  I have never seen guns that large in person before.  When we got to Haifa, we found our hotel which was really nice and pretty inexpensive, which was great, except that it was thursday night and we were staying in the Muslim quarter, which meant everything was closed except the take out chinese place.  The chinese food was actually amazing, and we collapsed into bed for an early night.  On friday we experienced the only metro system in all of Israel, because every time they try to build another, they come across archeological remains and have to stop construction.  Haifa is basically just one huge hill, so the metro runs at about a 60 degree angle up and down the mountain. the whole thing, including the cars, is terraced, which is pretty cool.  We went to the Bahai gardens in the late morning, and after a trek around uptown Haifa, and many stops to look at the map, we found the gardens.  The crowning jewel of the gardens, the big golden domed building right in the center, was under renovation and was covered which was disappointing, but it had a great view of Haifa and it was interesting to see the center of the Bahai religion.  We decided that we weren’t going to stay in Haifa another night, because shabat started a few hours after the tour, and it was hard to do anything but go to the beach, and so we found a sherut (private chartered taxis for 4-12 people) back to the Kibbutz.  No one seemed to know where it was, even though its only 45mins from Haifa, so after driving in circles around residential Haifa, changing taxis, and picking up another driver who said he would give directions, we finally got back to the Kibbutz.  

We celebrated July 4th last night with a welcome party for the people who just arrived for the second session of digging, really good grilled chicken, and some watermelon.  It wasn’t quite the same without fireworks, USA chants, or our annual July 4th party, but it was fun nonetheless. 

Lord and Lady Allenby came to visit our area today.  Lord Allenby is the grandson of Lord Allenby of Megiddo, a World War I general, who fought (and won) at Megiddo. They love to come back and see what we are digging, and explore all the areas even though they are in their 80s.

more Hazor and the Sea of Galilee 

views from Tel Hazor

Today we went on a field trip to two other archeological sites that were being excavated as well as Tiberius, a town on the Sea of Galilee.  It was quite an adventure.  The first site was Tel Hazor, and it was early, the tour was long, and it was hot out and it was really difficult to pay attention, but there were great views from the top of the tel.  We got lost on the way to the second site, and called the director for directions.  Instead of telling us to make the second right, he told us to make the first and we ended up driving our huge tour bus up a windy pass next to a ravine where there was only one lane an no guard rails.  We turned onto a dirt road, passed a herd of cows, and couldn’t drive the bus any further.  We got out and walked down a rocky, treacherous pass to  try to find this site, but the road just ended and we all stood around looking for the site.  We were completely lost and just hoping that the bulls wouldn’t stampede and gore us.   We walked BACK to the bus and went up an even steeper, windier, more treacherous street and finally found a giant man with man capris on the side of the road who turned out to be the dig director.  We finally found the site through a barbed wire fence, large field of mud, and a brush fire.  Then we had to go DOWN the winding, treacherous road at a 45degree angle. It was the most terrifying bus ride ever.  I did however get some awesome pictures.

In my square, we have been digging through the floor of an early bronze age temple, and at the end of the week we found a floor and a wall, from what the directors think is an even earlier temple. It is the oldest structure on the entire site, and is about 5000 years old. We don’t find very much pottery or bone like the other squares do, but that’s alright because we throw a lot of it out after we clean it and look through it.  I have enough pottery pieces coming home with me for anyone who wants one.

The BBC came to film my area the other day for a special they are doing.  It was pretty cool because they had all their cameras set up and their crew was around and they were SO British.  Even though they had no interest in my square, my area will be on tv (in like a year). 

So here are some of the weird things that I have noticed in Israel.

- cabbage is served with every meal, breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Why cabbage I don’t know, since I don’t think they even grow it in Israel, but there you go.

- There is a secret air force base next to our dig site, which no one is supposed to know the location of.  However, when we are at the tel all day we can see the jets rise from the corn fields and hear the booms from when they break the sound barrier.  There’s also an IDF firing range near by and during lectures at night we can hear them. 

- Clouds.  I think we are at a decently high elevation, and so it looks like the clouds are lower than normal and look like they surround us on all sides, especially on the tel.

- Cows.  There are cows EVERYWHERE.  At the back of the Kibbutz, there are cows that roam around, and they even have alarms that go off if they stray.  At the tel, someone’s cows graze all around the site and just eat around the archeology. 

- Israelis have a fondness for cement it seems.  Bus stops, houses, playground equipment, whatever else you can think of, is probably made of cement.

- It has gone up to 108 degrees so far here, and there are still Kibbutzniks that walk around in pants. Chilly here is like 85 and we all grab our jeans, but 108 is far too hot for anything but shorts and tank tops.

- The wildlife here is pretty awesome/gross.  There are huge millipedes, probably a little less than a foot in length and they squirm around everywhere. In the morning you can see their tracks in the dirt, and we have millipede throwing contests where we see who can throw them the furthest off our trowels.  There are also really cool lizards that climb up the trees and run around in the bushes.  The best/scariest of all are the scorpions.  None of the ones I’ve seen have been very big, but i have had a few close encounters.  I brushed over one with my gloved hand that was hiding in my dirt, and had one crawl right up my arm. Another fun thing i’ve found are these large crickets with red wings.  They are exactly the same color as the dirt, but when they jump you can see their bright red wings. 

The first week of digging is over!  I’m a little bruised, scraped, and sore but it is so much fun! 

We wake up at 4am every morning and leave for the site at 4:40. I get to my area by 5 and the sun’s not up yet, but we start digging anyway.  Breakfast is at 8:30 and consists of nutella, tuna, hummus, or cheese sandwiches, so its kind of like first lunch instead of breakfast.  And then we dig until 1 when we go back to the kibbutz and have lunch.  At 4:30 we wash our pottery and bone findings, and have our field methods class at 6.  Dinner is at 7 and then we have our history lecture from 8-9:30.  Its a VERY long day but its suprisingly easier than I thought it would be to have as little sleep as we do.

Its almost 10pm and I need to sleep but I’ll try to post again soon!