12-29-2011
Wow! I am so behind! It is hard to keep up with a journal
while traveling with two babies. But, I think it will be worth it. Christmas
was AMAZING! Being in Israel was a little tough when I’m used to being
surrounded by decorated trees and carols. This is my favorite time of year and
I really missed it. But again…trade-offs! On Christmas Day the kids opened up their presents from their Aunt Bobbie and Grandma Jo-Anne. They also opened the gifts from Brother Timothy. After gifts and breakfast, we drove to Bethlehem.
Bethlehem is currently part of the West Bank (Palestine). It’s really interesting to be there as an American who is free to cross the border while the locals cannot. The city is surrounded by 26 foot walls to make sure that Israeli people don’t enter Palestine and Palestinians don’t enter Israel. But remember, the city is surrounded by Israel on all sides. These people are more or less trapped in their own city.
Right before you take the turn to enter Bethlehem there is a line of taxis and busses and cars on the side of the road. People were standing outside the vehicles shouting and smoking and waving their arms at each other. We wondered if something was going on that would prevent us from entering Bethlehem. I got out of the car and spoke to a taxi driver. “Is this Bethlehem? Can we go there” I asked as I pointed.
“Where are you from?”
“United States.”
“Yes, you can go but you can’t drive.” I was about to
believe him until… “Why is that?”
“You don’t have the right insurance. But I can take you! I
can give you a tour and everything!”
I got back in the car and told Jim to drive us to the checkpoint.
At the checkpoint a woman handed us two packages of candies
and treats. There was one for each child. She greeted us with a smile and said
“Merry Christmas!”
She was standing right next to soldiers with machine guns.
You should have seen our faces. We must have looked so very confused.
Nonetheless, confused as we were by all the commotion, we still felt very
welcome as we entered the city walls.
The city of Bethlehem is crumbling. Many buildings are just
piles of rubble. Some are still (barely) standing while others are literally a
pile of rocks and rebar. Right next to some of these piles we found a sign that
read “Welcome to Bethlehem!” Jim got out to take a picture of the sign and met
another opportunist. This time, we went for it. He was to take us into the city
and show us where we could buy rosaries to be blessed at the church of the
nativity and then take us to that church. We followed his car through the town.
Most roads were less than one lane and made of stones. They were more like
large walkways than streets but the cars used them anyway.
The man had a parking spot saved for his next customer. This
actually proved VERY handy! Bethlehem is very busy on Christmas.
As I try to describe this city and its failure to thrive,
its tiny stone streets, its food carts, the shops….I think to myself “these are
only words”. I don’t know how I could possibly help you “feel” Bethlehem. That’s
what this place deserves. So I hope that anyone who can….will visit this place
at least once in their lives so they can “feel” it for themselves.
We paked the car in the space reserved for us and walked to
a restaurant for some lunch. We ate chicken on a stick, salad, hummus and pita
bread. After lunch we went to the shop
for the rosaries. Now we could walk to The Church of The Nativity. It’s
actually more like three churches rather than one. The Roman
Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic all have use of the church. The
Church of The Nativity is the oldest church still holding services. Most of the
doorways from the outside going in are very small. This is so people must bend
down or “bow” (in reverence) upon entering.
The entrance to the Church of The Nativity is small so you must bow in reverence.
The place of
Jesus’ birth was part of the Greek Orthodox section. It’s funny because I
always had this vision (I figure I’m not the only Westerner) that Jesus was
born outside in a barn. It’s actually more like a cave. It’s warm and it’s dry
too!
It was difficult
to see everything in the cave because there were so many people. There were
monks moving people through and they were not allowing photographs. The
location of the birth is marked by a silver star on the floor. The star has 14
points and the slab of floor it sits on is marble. Above the star are several
silver “lamps”.
Photo op in front of a display in the Church of The Nativity
The line to get
into the cave was very long so after visiting the cave and later putting Holy
water on our rosaries, our day was pretty much over. We headed back to Tel Aviv
without any more attractions on Christmas Day.
The next day, we
did a very minimal walk through of the old city of Jerusalem. The main
attraction was The Western “wailing” Wall. We wrote our prayers out ahead of
time according to the suggestions of other tourists we had met in our hotel.
Up close at the Western Wall
The men and women are separated at the wall. The women’s side is much smaller than the men’s and the women are asked to cover their heads. (Mostly for married women) It was difficult to get to the wall it was extremely crowded. I finally secured a spot at the wall and put my prayers on a ledge of the wall. Since you are not supposed to turn your back on the wall, I carried Chloe and walked backwards most of the way back to mine and Jim’s meeting spot. Apparently he had been waiting a while since it was so much easier for the men to get up to their (much larger) portion of the wall.
The men are on the left and women to the right. The umbrellas show where it is divided. The men's side is actually so large it did not fit in the photo.
Our next stop in the old city was the Church of The Holy
Sepulchre. This church claims to mark the place where Jesus died and also rose
from the dead. It was a bit of a walk from the Western Wall. On the way we
passed hundreds of shops, restaurants and carts. There were people everywhere.
Some were smoking. I don’t know why I was so surprised by this but I was. There
were also bars. We walked some of the same steps that Jesus did when he carried
the cross to his death. After visiting the sacred locations within the old city
of Jerusalem (other than the wall itself), I felt like the whole experience was
much more historical than holy. There was no reverence whatsoever and that had
a lot to do with how I felt about everything.
Unfortunately I don’t have enough time to fully describe
everything we saw in Jerusalem. My highlight of Israel was definitely the
manger. We actually paid the manger a second visit so that we could have more
time and photos.
I think a person needs a good two weeks to really see Israel
and Bethlehem. We only had five days and we spent the first two sleeping. It
was Shabbat anyway when we got there so not much was open or going on. My
biggest surprise in Israel….the wine!
Sometimes toddlers are just done walking...DONE!
The next leg of our journey included an eight hour layover in Paris. We left the airport to have lunch near the Eiffel Tower. It was pretty much the worst lunch ever! Not only was the food just “okay” but the kids just couldn’t handle the crowded restaurant and Mommy just couldn’t handle the kids! It was actually the “lunch from Hell”. Chloe kept pouring water everywhere (including another Patron’s leather jacket) and ended up breaking a glass. Paris was not meant for children! At least not my fun-loving, American “angels”. Oh wait! There was one exception! Across from the Eiffel Tower there was a carousel. Chloe rode it at least four times before we had to drag her away….screaming….literally.
Lame lunch in Paris!
Chloe in front of the Eiffel Tower
Eleven hours in the air took us to Bangkok where we switched planes to fly to Chiang Mai. Jim left his camera on the plane that took us from Paris. We had all kinds of irreplaceable pictures on that camera. We had a picture of Chloe kissing the silver star where Jesus was born…on that camera. It’s gone now. Oh well. At least we were there.
The drive from the Chiang Mai airport to Tao Garden was very
interesting to me. I was here four years ago and this area has grown A LOT
since then! Jim was just here a year or two ago and he says that there is a big
difference from then too! Freeways, shopping malls, the works!
Tao Garden is off the beaten path. It’s such a breath of
fresh air. Both figuratively and literally.
