Sydney Brown Bar Mitzva Tour of Israel

I think it's time I admit I'm religiously ignorant. I know very little of Christianity and apparently absolutely nothing of Judaism. I already offended a bunch of Greek Orthodox at the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem by yapping on about how it can take so frickin' long to go through the cave bit where Jesus was born. Well I guess they were French pilgrims and I guess they were praying. To be fair I wasn't being as obnoxious as I'm making it sound like, but it did take them a lot of time to look at these things. Which, incidentally, I never got to see because they were doing what ever religious thing they were doing. I suppose seeing the place where your saviour was born can be an overwhelming experience.

Today I accidentally ended up at the Wailing Wall. I was trying to get in to the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa area, but of course they wouldn't let me in as it was about the time of the Friday prayer (really I was just trying to see if there'll be a demonstration or any other kind of trouble). So I walked down the freakishly narrow alleys of the old city and ended up at a security checkpoint (surprise, surprise!). I went through it and found myself surrounded by tourists and Orthodox Jews. If I ever complained (which I did, a lot) that all the ruins I saw during my Middle East "Odyssey" were, basically, ruins then I think it's only fair that I utter these five words: It's a piece of wall! What I found most interesting was the bit with the excavations that caused the recent al-Aqsa riots and so on.

Anyway, later in the afternoon I got a tour of Jerusalem and for the first time I saw some of West Jerusalem, too. We had drinks at the King David Hotel, which is where all the rich American Jews hang out. There I saw a sign that said "Sydney Brown Bat Mitzva Tour of Israel". I'm sorry, but I laughed.

To be fair, the history of Jerusalem is incredible and it's full of incredible churches, synagogues and mosques. No wonder some people simply go crazy from all the faith that surrounds them there.