Day 2

Today dawns early I am eager to get to the money changer and pay my bill before I met the girls I met the night before for our trip to the West Bank. I had spent 12 hours or so touring around the old city of Jerusalem, and while there I had enjoyed a shower. With a shower that refused to turn off, in fact I had to call the desk and the boy they sent in wrestled with the shower for ten minutes and had to see me in a towel, so it was a rough night all around.
After I was finally clean I wound up going to dinner and buying my most expensive meal, 45 sheks which is roughly equal to 18 dollars for basically a pile of meat. It was also the Jewish holy day, so they kept shooting of firecrackers which to the person who was spending her first night in a city torn by conflict sounded a lot like gun shots. Anyway so this restaraunt did send a runner to pick me up and take me back so I consider the extra price for the escort. Tangently the old city is basically a walking city there are a few roads on the outskirts of the city but in the shok no cars can pentrate, it does not help that none of the streets are clearly labeled or line up with the maps which does not matter since any local giving you directions is not going to know the street names anyway. But the best piece of advice I was given was this, if your walking up hill your headed to the Jaffa gate, and downhill your headed to the Damscus gate. Anyway so this kid took me to a place I could not likely find again for a hundred dollars, and I wound up taking a seat by myself.
These two girls asked me if I was traveling alone and when I said yes they invited me to sit with them. These girls Ellie and Laura were from Bristol, England, and so we agreed to meet at 9:30 the following day. So the at 7 am I rose and packed my bags and showered and ran to the money changer to draw from my newly unlocked card paid my bill and left my luggage in the hall and ate a free breakfast. Which the counter guy gave me, the first of many kindness showed me by these people.
Anyway I was early to the gate and they a bit late but that was due to the fight with the crowd in the Muslim Quarter of the city which is the largest and the most crowded. Anyway since it was Saturday it was the Sabbath for Jews so we took the Arab bus past the check point leaving us in Pakinstan with a bunch of cab drivers offering us rides. Fortunately Lauren was a much better batterer and finally we battered him down to 5 sheks a piece but after five hours of touring we payed him 150 sheks since he took us everywhere under the sun. He drove us to the wall which was just covered in trash and graffiti. Done by Banksy the artist who often draws political and controversial pieces.




Then we saw the church of the Nazareth and the Eastern orthodox site of Mary’s Tomb, the Tomb and Tower of David.