February 02, 2010
A Weekend Jaunt in Jerusalem
On a whim
I took a quick trip to Jerusalem.
That's right: the Holy City.
I hopped onto Turkish Airlines from Shanghai (on the tail end of a work trip) on a Thursday night and by Friday mid-morning I was in Jerusalem. Woohoo! My first impression: the whole country is extremely rocky. My second impression: all the houses look the same, 1- or 2-storey buildings in the same colour.
As I walked around the Old City, I just kept wondering what it must have been like back in the year 1BC. Some of the streets are so narrow, they look like they've been there forever. But then some of the buildings look new enough that you don't really get the sense of history seeping through the stones. Plus, most of Jerusalem feels quite commercialised so perhaps a traveller making a pilgrimmage may be disappointed. As for me, I was glad I hopped onto the plane. 3 days may have been a tad too short, but I did manage to visit most of the historic sites and to immerse myself a little in the culture.
The only snag was that when I got to the airport on Sunday, my flight was delayed and as a result Turkish Airlines put me onto a different airline to get to my final destination of Shanghai. In the end, it wasn't really much of a snag because I ended up getting home 9 hours before scheduled :) And, I managed to watch Kingdom of Heaven on the plane as well, which was kinda apt.
Photos are here. I only brought my Fisheye Lomo as I didn't have space in my luggage for a big bulky camera. Lomo rocks!
Posted by scrabbyfoo at February 2, 2010 04:22 PM