omgomgomg Alex got me a Flickr Pro account :X
THANK YOU ALEX I LOVE YOU <3333333333333333
So.. this means that I can upload more pictures from Israel than I thought I would be able to, and in full-res :) However... my Jerusalem pics (posting today) and my Caesarea and Haifa pics have already been resized to 800x600 (I was doing this to save space before)... so those won't be full-res.. but I guess if anyone is interested in getting full-res versions of my pictures, then they can ask me. :)
Day 2 (12/27): Jerusalem
After semi-recovering from jet lag on the second day, we decided to take a bus tour to Jerusalem. It's not that far from Tel Aviv... in fact, Jerusalem is located pretty much in the center of Israel :P
We drove past the modern city of Jerusalem, stopping once to take a picture from afar.
Then we moved on to our true destination, the Old City. It's split up into three parts: the Jewish quarters, the Muslim quarters, and the Christian quarters.
Our tour guide walked us through the city and explained all the history to us... Jerusalem (and Israel in general) has got to be one of the most culturally- and historically-rich places in the world. I don't really remember most of the historical stuff... but I do remember that it was one of the most emotional and spiritual places that I've ever been to, even though I'm not very religious.
First of all, the Wailing Wall (or Western Wall). It's separated into two halves, one for men and one for women. There are people who give you little slips of paper that you can write notes, wishes, prayers on and stick them in the cracks of the wall. They're not kidding when they call this the "Wailing Wall"... people are extremely moved by this place. Clutching copies of the Torah, praying, singing, yelling, crying...
We walked through the busy and crowded Muslim quarters, where I didn't catch many pictures because there were so many people there. The Muslim quarters turned into the Christian quarters, where we followed the stations of Via Dolorosaand ended up at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus was crucified and where his tomb stands.
It was interesting to see the exact place where the cross stood...
After we finished in Jerusalem, we drove to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum. This place is incredible... it is actually really hard to describe without actually visiting there. The most surreal/moving part of it all was the Children's Memorial... it was a completely dark room underground with candles hanging all over the place... and mirrors reflecting the lights. Each light (and light that reflected) represented a child who had died during the Holocaust. There was a voice that read off the names and ages of the children. Terrible to think about how many there were... Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of my own while I was there, but here's a good one.
