ENG -- Israel - exploring Jerusalem

Our holiday in Israel started in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a city that attracts many visitors, whether pilgrims or those who want to discover tourist attractions. In this article we will tell our experience as tourists, and we will write another article with useful information for pilgrims in Jerusalem.

Without knowing that Friday afternoon and Saturday in the first part of the day is Sabbath, we started our holiday on a Friday morning. Fortunately, by 12.00 we have already arrived in Jerusalem, because Friday afternoon after 14.00 public transport, shops and some restaurants are closed until Saturday night or even Sunday morning some of them.

Our accomodation was close to Jerusalem's old fortress, so the Jaffa Gate (the main entrance to the fortress in the past, and also in the present) was just a 10-minute walk away. The name of the gate and the main street of Jerusalem comes from the Jaffa port in Tel Aviv, about which we will write in a following article.

The first tourist attraction that caught our attention after we passed the Jaffa Gate was the Tower of David. Being located at the highest point of the old city, it was used in the past for defense. Currently it can be visited by tourists for a top view of the fortress.

Another gate through which Jerusalem's fortress can be entered directly into the bazaar area is Damascus Gate. There are altogether 8 gates to enter the fortress, built between the 12th and 19th centuries, and 3 other gates built in antiquity, but which are sealed.

In the old town, small shops and restaurants are not affected by the Sabbath celebration. We were surprised to discover that much of the fortress is represented by a labyrinth of bazaars that make you feel you are visiting Turkey or the Arab countries. Very few products had the prices displayed, and the negotiation are the basis of each sales. We were lost several times in the bazaar streets, but we found signs with indications for tourist attractions or friendly people who gave us directions.
As well as in other bazaars, in Jerusalem the final prices are set by negotiations between sellers and buyers. Most buyers know they can get lower prices than those originally required by sellers, but sellers know that buyers know that too☺. Thus, there may be situations when someone to be happy to buy a product at half of the asking price, but at the same time the seller is happy to have sold it at a price 2-3 times higher. For example, for a mini coin-wallet with Oriental motifs inscribed on it, some sellers asked for 20 Shekels (about 5 Euro), and it could be bought after negotiations with 10 Shekels. But on another street of bazaar, the price displayed was 5 Shekels and the seller was willing to offer 3 pieces for 10 Shekels.
Even if in the images below can not be seen, the bazaar streets are very crowded at the peak hours around lunch, being full of tourists looking for souvenirs and also full of groups of pilgrims. We photographed them during the evening, after several unsuccessful attempts during the day when it was impossible to not catch people inside pictures.

With a history of more than 2 millennia, the city of Jerusalem still houses ruins of ancient buildings. Some of them are columns that survived over time, which delimited an old "bazaar" (a commercial street) used by the Romans to sell their merchandise.

Another characteristic of the fortress is that it is divided into four districts: the Muslim quarter (the largest and most populous, including the bazaar's streets), the Christian district (including the Church of the Holy Sepulcher), the Jewish Quarter (with the Western Wall also known as Wailing Wall) and the Armenian Quarter (the smallest, including residential buildings in particular).

Walking down the old city streets we discovered a place where we could climb some roofs from where we had a panoramic view. Because of the labyrinth of the streets, but also because of the time elapsed from our visit until writing this article, we have not been able to identify it on Google maps to offer you the link. It is good to know, however, that the bazaar sellers in the area told us about that place without asking them the next day we passed there and that we also got directions from their side when we needed .

Even if the animation of the old town on Friday evening did not make you to think about the Sabbath, the crowds of people dressed in ceremony clothes heading in the same direction confirmed that the city is celebrating. They all headed for the Wailing Wall to pray. We were surprised that women and men are separated from a fence, so their access to the wall is done separately.
During Sabbath prayers, to take photo of those who pray to the wall is forbidden, but locals also use the area for celebrating events such as Bar Mizvah when professional photographers are employed and there are no restrictions for tourists. We took the picture below on a day when there was no event around the wall.
Beyond the Wailing Wall (or the Western Wall as it is called), there is the Temple Mount with Dome of the Rock, one of the most important religious sites for Islam, where tourists' access is limited to zones and hourly intervals which are not reserved for prayers.

Jerusalem is associated with religion, but the city does not just mean that. The modern area of ​​the city is full of life. When we arrived, there were street shows, and nothing makes you thinking about of the silence that was about to take place with the beginning of the Sabbath. Apart from walking down in the old city, you can visit the Mahane Yehuda Market (where you can find plenty of spices, sweets, fresh or candied fruits, vegetables, peanuts) or Mamilla Alrov, a pedestrian street where shops and restaurants can be found.
Young locals take every opportunity to celebrate in public through music and dance, as can be seen in the videos below:

You can also read about our First Impressions in Israel or about our trip to Dead Sea.

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