Tuesday, February 05, 2013

Last Night in Jerusalem

While we were waiting for the elevator to take us to breakfast, a very tall couple ran into us. We are quite short. After breakfast we walked through thee Machaneh Yehuda market which are a bunch of stalls facing each other. We ran into the tall couple there too.

Then we took the tram to Damascus Gate. We had trouble finding the accessible route down to the gate. I made a dry run first. Then I came back and lifted my girlfriend's scooter over some bumps and tried to steady it as we went down the bumpy ramps. The scooter didn't react well to the ramps or the bumpy road inside the claustrophobic souks. The scooter shut down. I pushed it to the holy Jesus church. It's a cold and cavernous building.

I then pushed the scooter through the souk and up the bumpy ramps. Most people were nice enough to get out of the way. One young Arab guy slammed into the steering handle bars and the scooter crashed into him. Then he got upset, but his friend apologized. I yelled at him to be careful and he got heated, but his friend pacified him.

We tried to make it around East Jerusalem, but the scooter had other plans. East Jerusalem is like a different country. It's majority Arab and the signs are in Arabic. People walk in the street and the curbs are high. I saw two men who were very angry in the short time I was there. The money changer was ranting about Yisrael and a man screamed at his wife and then slammed the car door when he left. The wife was still in the car laughing.

We fly back to the U.S. tomorrow. We tried to change more money for a taxi to the airport but a money changer on tbe cirner of Jafda Road near Jaffa Center gave me a shit rate and then had the nerve to yell at me about it.

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