Jerusalem Day 1 Part 1

Today I finally made it to Jerusalem and although it is going to be the first of many trips along these cobble stoned streets, it's definitely going to be the most memorable. Not only because of the sites and sounds and smells, but also because my Aunt Maha showed me around and we had a lot of fun together.

We walked along the old streets with our first stop being Al Aqsa, or so we thought. I read about them having 2 different entrances for people. One for Muslims and one for Haramiis (non-muslims). Because my father was a Muslim, the family considers me a Muslim too. Byproxiy, of course I am. Im a muslim, a christian, a spiritualist, a buddist, a hindu, a connected being to the universe at large. But they didn't think so.
I forgot that pants and the like are a no no. Of course IF I HAD MY FRIGGIN LUGGAGE I would have worn a long skirt and lose shirt and not the same old pants I've been washing and wearing.
In any event, my make shift hijab wasn't working for them. And my non-ability to recite the quran on que in arabic had them turn me away from entering the muslim part. BUT MY aunt didn't give up. Hours later, we pulled a 007 and she found a skirt and hijab set, got it, put it on me and we entered from another side. I recited as much as I could and it was more believable with a flowery garb on this time. She refused to bring me through the non-muslim entrance. WHo are they to tell me how muslim I am? Or whats haram or not? Thats up to God, not these bored dudes who sit around telling folks ye or ney on whether they can enter.
In any event, The guy didn't want to really believe it when we were in there and going by the mosque, BUT having a arabic name helped. Thanks Dad!

But I'll write the inside later.

After we were turned away the firs time, we walked around and found these Orthodox Greek Church. There were some beautiful pieces of art in this place and the folks who came through, came with priests and 6 foot tall crosses that they kneeled before as they said a prayer in the church.
It was an amazing scene. Hopefully I'll be able to upload all those pictures soon so that everyone can see the rest.

After that, we made our way down the street to her brothers restaurant Al-Aeata for some Shawarma and coffee. Can you say yummy in arabic? I can't, but it's was Tayaab (good)! So there ya go!

We made out way down and bumped into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where the items of Jesus's last hours are. The stone he was beaten on, the stone that the cross was in, the piece that had the crack from the earth quake, the stone that they washed him on, and the tomb where he was buried and resurrected. When we got to the Church it was already around 12 so it was packed with tourists. We met an older man, Marwan, who gave us an impromptu tour, which was nice because I didn't know about some of the things he told us about and there were no signs of what things were. You're just supposed to know. He smelled sweet like old school pepermints and a hint of sweet Brandy. For a muslim in Jerusalem, thats really taboo, but who knows what Brandy smells like unless they've had it.