Merchants line the side of the narrow passageways in the Old City
A day in the Old City...merchant shops, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and a song about red lights.
Eventually we came upon the entrance to a church, and went inside. Just within the entrance was a large, wet slab of rock surrounded by candles. Several people where bending down to touch and kiss the rock.
Just around the corner there were about 50 people standing in line to enter a large, stone structure that stood under the dome of the church. Since so many people were waiting, we figured it had to be good, so we stood in line, too. The front of the large stone thing was covered with candles, some of them so large that they couldn't even light the top of them, so they put light bulbs at the top, which seemed kind of tacky in the midst of all the real candles.
After waiting for a while, we finally got to go in the first chamber of the stone thing. By now, we had gathered from those around us that this is supposedly the tomb of Jesus, as revealed in a dream in 311 A.D. to the mother of emperor Constantine. There was another, smaller chamber just past the one we were standing in, and we waited for those inside to come out. An old Filipino man bumped his head on the top of the tiny arch doorway as he exited. We went inside to see a flat stone tomb, candles, and lots of Hebrew writing. Only about 4 or 5 people could fit in the small chamber, and some of them kissed the tomb and touched little crosses to its surface.
We left the tomb and wandered to another section of the church where there was a monk spreading incense before a procession of other monks who where chanting and carrying candles.
Both of us were getting hungry, so left the church and eventually found a falafel stand owned by a man named Samir. It was my first time to try a falafel. Samir took a bunch of green gook and deep fried it, then smooshed the resulting ball in a pita, and filled it with humus, beets, and various salads. It was very tasty. Angie thought so, too. And it only cost 4 shekels. The exchange rate is about 3 shekels to the dollar, so thats about $1.25.
After lunch, Angie found a book about Jerusalem and haggled the price down from 40 shekels to 15. We read in the book that the wet rock at the entrance the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was where Jesus was supposedly laid when they took him down from the cross.
On our way out of the Old City, as we waited for a traffic light to change, Angie began to sing a song about waiting for red lights. The jet lag must be having some strange effects.
Because of Shabbat, not many restaurants were open that evening, so we decided to return to the Italian place where we ate last night.