Day 6 - May 16 - Monday

My Journal Entry:

Today was AMAZING!!! We went to Bethlehem in the morning, which was somewhat like another Via Dolorosa experience - a piece of traditional area crusted over with a lot of gold and hanging shiny objects and a small building crowded with a lot of totally lost people. After leaving Bethlehem we went back to Jerusalem, up to the Mount of Olives where we could overlook the whole city and see all of its sights (and sites) from above. And I got to ride a camel! :D Sitting on its back looking over the city as it lumbered along, I felt like I had been transported back in time. It was awesome! The most amazing part of the day, though, was that we got to go to a place called the Garden Tomb... and it was the most beautiful, peaceful, authentic site I've seen here (aside from the Valley of Elah). Everything there was so real - even if the tomb wasn't the one Jesus was laid in, it was a genuine tomb meant for somebody in that time period. And with the first century believers' cross on the wall right outside it (which is only found in three places - there, a Roman catacomb, and one of the first century churches), a lot indicates that it may have been THE tomb. :) There was no cynical feeling there - only a deep, overpowering sense of peace and gratitude. We also went to the Temple Institute, which is a place dedicated to teaching people about the temple... and reconstructing all of the temple artifacts according to Biblical standards in order to create the third temple "when the time is right". *sigh* Some people just never get it. After our tour there, we went shopping along the strip near the Damascus Gate. I love bartering for goods! Heather and I did the whole "good cop bad cop" routine on a few merchants... I got to be the bad guy who had seen the item cheaper elsewhere and was trying to convince Heather to leave the merchant trying to rip us off, while she played the innocent buyer who was fascinated with their product and really wanted it, but was slowly being swayed by my logic. In the end, we always got the goods for a far lower price than the merchant started at. It was so much fun! After we went back to Yad Hashmona and had dinner, we packed up the vans and left for Tiberius. We are now staying in two apartments across the hall from each other, one for the guys and one for the girls. There are four girls in each of our two bedrooms, so I'm rooming with Val, Lindsey, and Heather. :) Yay!