Barfing in Ramallah

Last week we took a whirl wind tour of the Holy Land. We visited Masada, Old City of Jerusalem, Mount of Olives, Garden of Gethsemane, Ramallah, Nazareth, Cana, Tiberius, Sea of Galilee, Capurnum, Garden Tomb, Tower of David Museum, Hezekiah's Tunnels, City of David, Bethlehem, Shepherds Field, Church of the Last Supper, Davids Tomb, Qumran (where Dead Sea scrolls were found), and a hike up to a waterfall in Ein Gedi. It was Amazing!

I have debated as to how to 'cover' our trip.
Serious. Funny. Photo Journey. Just the facts. I could take it from so many angles.
Alas, because of the theme of this blog, I must go funny. {Because any trip with our family seems to have its 'moments'.} So, without further ramblings...

Our Top 10 {mis} Adventures in the Holy Land

10. This is a scientific break-down of how we spent our time:
          20% sleeping/listening to the neighbors dog barking
          20% getting lost
          10% at border crossings/checkpoints
          5% arguing about directions while getting lost
          25% at amazing sites of Christendom
          5% eating
          5% in our tiny apartment we rented (we pretended we were living in a box car)
          10% driving around while getting lost
{*none of these calculations are scientific. i just made them up. do they even add up to 100%?}

9. The Temple Mount - a holy site for three religions. Closed again. The last time we visited, tourists were not allowed up on the Temple Mount because there were riots/rock throwing over some excavating being done by one group that the other group was not happy with. This time, closed again because of the eid holiday. Bummer. We'll just have to plan another trip!

8. Apparently there is a brand new, beautiful, fast North/South highway running through the West side of the country. Apparently the Lonely Planet guide we were using was published before that brand new, beautiful, fast highway went through. We saw a lot of back roads. The countryside really was beautiful!

7. If we had not been standing directly on one of the Christian worlds most revered places, I would have had serious words with the rude Spaniard tourist that pushed my dear daughter out of the way at the manger scene. My girl just wanted to see where baby Jesus was born. Mean lady.

6. Because of #8 above, we saw the sunset in Galilee. We didn't get to see the Church of the Loaves and Fishes or the Mountain of the Beatitudes or the Church of St. Peter. Nope. They were closed. But, we saw the sunset. That was nice. Another reason to go back.

5. While approaching the Garden Tomb, my daughter told me she was really glad that Jesus rose again...otherwise we would have to see his bones in the tomb. I agreed with her.

4. We took our own car across the border and covered about 1,000 miles. We love our Hybrid...42 mpg! The border guards however, were not so keen on the hybrid. They kept asking why the only sound our car made was clicking noises. Our battery did its little hum/recharge thing while one of the guards was scanning under our car for bombs. It made for some exciting moments. They repeatedly asked us to start our car...when it was already running. Having out of country plates was also a plus so many times when we were lost and people flagged us down to help us. They all would start the conversation by telling us what relative of theirs lived where we're from and how they just felt compelled to help us. Hospitality is amazing in the Middle East!

3. Signs in English in foreign countries just make me laugh. Here are some of my favs from this trip.

I like people that don't take themselves TOO seriously.

Run out of money? Come get some free change.

What a creative name. What a creative logo. I've never seen anything like it before!

2. The culture-lover in me enjoyed our time in the Old City because you get to watch the three people groups/religions all co-exist together in that small area. Fascinating. Here is my hubby buying falafel sandwiches from an Arab guy whose family had lived in the old city for centuries. Behind them are two Orthodox Jews deep in conversation. Muslim. Christian. Jew. This does not happen many other places in the world.

1. Since we were so close, we wanted to drive through Ramallah just to get a feel for what a West Bank town that is always in the news is like. We enjoyed our little spin around town. When we started seeing soldiers posted on the road every 150 yards, we decided our spin should be over. We wound our way back to the check point at which time I realized I had not given my car sick prone child her daily Dramamine dose. Sure enough, just as we made our way to the soldiers, she barfed. In Ramallah. It was a good way to get the soldiers to hurry us through the check point!

West Bank wall artwork is fascinating!