Day -4

Today was a day spent being a tourist. We walked and walked about the old (walled) city of Jerusalem. I'll post a picture or two and description over the following weeks. A highlight though was a retired jewish woman (American) we met at lunch. She lives in NYC and Florida so nothing unusual yet. "Are you being a tourist?", we ask. "No, I'm here as a volunteer," she says.

Turns out she's here as a volunteer for the Israeli military! For 3 weeks she lived on an army base and helped with communications. She said they do need the extra help, and, yes, the military is on a higher alert over Lebanon.

The first picture is the Cotton Merchants Street. 40,000 people live in the walled city, mostly Arab, so a great many shops are aimed at them, like these clothing shops on this side street. The 2nd picture is of a coffee shop on that street where 2 arab (boiled, not espresso) coffees are being prepared for us. Notice all the carrots and carrot juicer. I should have ordered that!

I forgot to mention that yesterday we walked by the Sbarro Pizza that a suicide bomber blew up 7 years ago. I was in Israel then (up north).