JERUSALEM

Hello few followers am back to bore you with more of my foreign explorations. Today I finally made it to Jerusalem and bloody hell it was an hardcore and not overly enjoyable experience. I could rant for about 4 hours about, mainly, how truly shit my Frommer's guide book is (although have no right as got it basically half price and thanks to the fragrant emily) but don't worry I wont. I will instead concentrate on the things I DID manage to see despite it's useless WRONG information. I DID see the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, I DID see the wailing/western wall. I DID see lots and lots and then more lots of bizarres, I DID see the Mount of Olives and the amazing city walls. I DID walk around in circles a lot in the blazing heat. It was very strange to come 50 minutes down the road (fabulous scenery on the way) from what feels like a totally European city to then suddenly be on holiday in the Exotic East. I know I should have been excited about following the stages of the Cross etc but I really couldn't make myself care about where Christ fell over and found myself instead, worryingly, getting all excited about treading the same streets that Holeman Hunt and (I'm assuming) people like Byron etc wandered. It was just so damn Victorian exoitca. I know this is really really bad. My great dissapointment is that, geting there after 11, I decided to g to the Temple Mount later in the day as my piece of crap guide book told me it closed between 11:30 and 1:30 and then was open again until 3. HOWEVER, when I got there at 1:30 it was in fact closed for the rest of the day. This means I missed one of the mos historically rich sites on earth due to my shit shit shit guide book. It was only printed about 8 months ago not that much could have changed surely??? OH WELL. So I missed the Dome of the Rock, Solomon's Stables and the Al Aqsa Mosque and loads of other important great things that who the hell knows when i will have the opportunity to see again, because believe me after the journey and general experience i had today i really can't face going back again this week. oh well. Luckily I did have the good fortune of doing the walk of the old ramparts which you can do as an almost complete circle round the old city (well as long as you don't mind scaling a 5 foot fence at one point) and it was really really great. Not only was it a wonderful break from the sweltering and claustrophobic atmosphere in the streets, being cool and calm and empty, but also it provided amazing views not only across Jerusalem but also onto the Mount of Olives, the surrounding countryside and also, thank god, the dome and upper parts of the Dome of the Rock which is fab and covered with gold and gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous tiles. I love tiles. From there the whole place seemed totally magical and holy and ancient which is exactly how you want it to feel. It really was amazing actually and exactly the way you would visualise it all steep steep mountains hazy in the heat with the sound of Muslim prayers being pumped out and the sense that important shit has been happening here for thousands and thousands and thousands of years. The whole day did make me feel depressed as hell about how little I know about either Religion or History though. Ho Hum. Anyway, nothing but bagels when going round as so hot but schnitzel this eve which was nice. xxx