Jerusalem ... what can I say ... this city impresses, overtaxes, fascinates and amazes.
Imagine: You feel like being in deepest Vienna, in the restaurant Mozart gets played, you can order ‚Kaiserschmarrn‘ (cut-up and sugared pancake with raisins), the halls are decorated withs paintings of austrian celebrities (like Sissi and emperor Franz, not Arnold Schwarzenegger and DJ Ötzi!!) and the whole building looks like one of those fantastic viennise coffeehouses.
During our stay we lived in the beautiful Austrian Hospice, which is directly located to Via Dolorosa (Jesus‘ Stations of the Cross).
But then, suddenly, you get back to where you really are. Jerusalem. There are loudspeaker boxes all over the city to garantuee the call is heard by everyone: It‘s time for the muezzin to call up for praying.
We got outside and honestly I have to say that this was the most impressive experience in my life (I‘ve had so far.) This was my first moment in Israel I realised being in a completely different culture. I looked up to the starry sky and tried to soak up the magical atmosphere and never forget about it.
Maybe many of the habitants of Jerusalem (and partly muslim areas in general) don‘t even notice the muezzin anymore because they got used to it, but for me and my friends it was overwhelming and I can‘t even describe why we felt like this. It clarified the deep faith which embosses Jerusalem and showed how different their priorities are setted. Their lifes are builded around believing and it‘s the fundament of all actions. As catholic Christians we belonged to a small minority there and it felt strange to be a foreigner in this moment. On the other hand it was nice to see a respect- and peaceful handling of the different religions (of course there are many political conflicts and overall there‘s military, but I want to concentrate on the positive aspects :-)). The main religions have their ‚own‘ quarters, just like Chinatowns amongst big cities, for example. Partly Jerusalem is seperated, for one there are streets only for muslims and people who are fully veiled, the entrances are guarded by soldiers. First time we saw streets like this we were absolutely shocked because such circumstances are unimaginable in Germany and every country I visited before.
BUT: Jerusalem is a foreign place for us and we don‘t have the right to judge about their rules and lifestyle. Next time we kept in mind that there are places which are simply not freed for us and that‘s ok.
After processing all our impressions we visited the Western Wall, Dome of the Rock, Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Mount of Olives (see photos). Each of them was worth the time. We ate taboulé, drunk fresh mint tea, just sat in the sun and were thankful to be in this exciting city full of great buildungs and the truly realisation of another world we can‘t unterstand if we never explore it. In my opinion there‘s one important point about traveling through such cities and cultures: You have to give it a chance. It‘s foreign and at the first sight much of it seems strange (at least for me), irrational, maybe wrong and dangerous. But we are just visitors and we are not in the position to form an all-embracing opinion about the state of things.
For me Jerusalem exuded a special spirit and a feeling of togetherness and solidarity, despite of all excisting conflicts between muslims, jews, christians and other denominations. Perhaps it‘s because they have one thing in common, one essential aspect: they all have a truly belief in s.th. and whatever happens, it gives them hope and energy.
I can‘t wait to go back there!
Have a nice day, Steemians!
Feel free to comment and to give feedback! :-)
P.S. Jerusalem has another ‚new‘ and modern part with shopping malls, universities, bars etc. We concentrated on Old Jerusalem, so I can‘t give any information about the atmosphere in modern Jerusalem!
!steemitworldmap 31.780158 lat 35.232017 long TRAVELING THROUGH ISRAEL PART II: JERUSALEM d3scr
All rights reserved // All pictures are taken by me // All texts are written by me