Israel - Jerusalem

The few days we spent in Jerusalem were probably the most memorable of the trip. After arriving and settling in the hotel, we spent the first day wandering through the Old City. It's hard to put into words how it felt to be in a city with so much history. And trust me, I tried. I started this blog post 5 days ago. So I'm going to just leave the emotions I felt in my brain and leave this blog with some very nice photos:

The entrance to the Old City -- all those markings are bullet holes.

Columns in the former marketplace

What the marketplace used to look like

The Wailing Wall

Thousands of notes are tucked in the Wailing Wall

After walking through the Old City we went to Mahane Yehuda, or "the Shuk" for treats and lunch! It was amazing.

My new favorite food: rugelach

It's hard for me to remember what happened each day in Jerusalem -- they have all kind of blended into one. At some point, I celebrated my very first Shabbat. We went through the prayers, had a big dinner, and exchanged "secret Santa" gifts (ha!).

At some point we had a very candid political conversation, moderated by Neil Lazarus, an educator who immigrated to Israel in 1988. I definitely feel like I have a better understanding of the situation and history in Israel, and even the entire Middle East. There is just so much to learn.

That night we went to Ben Yehuda street for dinner. It was a lot of fun and I had, by far, my best falafel on the trip!

On our last day in Jerusalem, we woke up early and went to Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial and museum. We had a long wait before our guided tour, so we took some photos.

Following the museum we went to the Mount Herzl National Cemetery. The museum and cemetery were obviously very emotional -- the Isarelis we were traveling with had many young friends who have died recently and nearly everyone on our trip had some strong connection to the Holocaust. It was a very eye opening experience for me. If I had lived in Europe in the 1940s I could have been murdered, despite being raised Catholic. 11 million people died in the Holocaust. Is that even a number our brains can compute? That's about the population of New York City and Los Angeles combined, I kept my camera in my purse for the rest of this day.

After Jerusalem, the trip took a different turn and was much less serious. Get ready for some fun, coming up!