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1st day – Jerusalem (The Old City)

We arrived Tel Aviv Airport yesterday night on 7 pm. We took a shuttle bus and went directly to our first destination Jerusalem. We were dropped out at Damascus Gate and take a walk to “Austrian Hospice”, this is our housing on Via Dolorosa and not so far from Damascus Gate, just 10 minutes by foot. At night some of us went out to bar, but i was so tired and went to bed.

In the morning we had a day impulse after breakfast before we started our journey through the holy city Jerusalem. We started our journey with visiting the western wall or Kotel, where the jews pray on the wall and then we went to the church of holy sepulchre, where the holy tomb of Jesus located. It was full of people and there was also a mess, so i couldn’t look into the holy tomb. We continued our tour to Mt. Zion outside the old city, where we can found the room of the last supper and the tomb of king David. After we queued for a quite long time we passed through the security check and got into the temple mount where is the famous dome of the rock located. It was a big and beautiful mosque. After took some picture we continued to the Mt. of Olives or Gethsemane garden, where Jesus for the last time prayed before he got arrested. The last destination was church “Dominus Flevit” (The Lord wept) and at night we had a mess in the church of St. Anna or bethesda pool.

 2nd Day – Jerusalem

We started today Journey to Mt. Scopus. Our first station was Auguste Viktoria Hospital, where the palestina refugees being treated. In the Hospita there is a church named Himmelfahrt church, which were build by a german on 1910. From the tower you have a nice view of Jerusalem, the west Jordan and also the wall, which separated west Jordan and Jerusalem. We met a german priest who told us a story about the church and also the political situation in Jerusalem. Then we went to hebrew university of Jerusalem, looked the Ampitheater, which has a nice view of desert of Jordan, and visited the synagoge in the university to find out how it look like. After long exhausting walk from university we came on the ultra Orthodoxe neighbourhood to look around how they are living. I was astounded how conservative they are. Our girl felt uncomfortable there, because the people there looked at them unfriendly due to their dress although they dressed like normal people : long jeans, long sleeve t-shirt, etc. I couldn’t understand of the religion rule of these people. After this uncomfortable moment we were in the traditional market to buy a lunch paket for tommorow. At night we met a priest who is living in Bethesda pool and working for a peace project. This pool was interesting because its connection with the story of bible. We had also a dialogue with him about political situation in the old city of Jerusalem. After all we had a delicious arabic dinner at the old city.

3rd day – Dead Sea

Early in the morning we went in direction of dead sea through the Judea desert, where nothing to see but sand. On the way there we made a stop at the place where the high level is the same of the sea level : 0 m. Because dead sea lies 400 m under sea level. I rode a camel named sushi. Our first stop was Qumran. Here is the place where the dead sea scroll were founded. The history about this scroll and about the Jews sect who lived here with their rules and rituals can you see here. Next destination was Masada. Here you can find a summit ruins on a sheer side plateau high above the dead sea. This ruins are accesible by a cable car, but i and some of friend went up there on foot. It took approx. 30 minutes to be there and 20 minutes to back down. Historically is this place so interesting, you can read here. From Masada we made our way to the shore of dead sea. It was awesome there, i floated at the sea without moving my body, high concentration of salt in water make it happened. At night we were so tired and finished our day with laughing at the lobby of the hospice. 

4th day – Yad Vashem, Chagall Window

Today we just visited Yad Vashem and looked at the 12 colorful windows of Marc Chagall. Yad Vashem is biggest memorial place of the Holocaust in Germany during World war II. There you can find the Hall of Name, where containing books of all those who perished during the holocaust. The windows of Marc Chagall could be find in the synangoge of Hadassah Hospital. This windows tell a story from Jewish bible. After this visiting we had a free time, I went to shop on the Mt. Zion and bought some souvenir. Then I planned to go to the church of holy sepulchre, but i couldn’t find the way to get there, damn, so i got back to the hospice. At night we had dialogue with Jews Rabbi who told us about jewish society and at the end of the day we had another delicious arabic dinner. 

5th day – Hebron

Hebron is a palestine autonomy territory with 200.000 Palestinian and 400 Jews, who are living there. This is the 2nd holiest city in Judaism, because there are tombs of the Patriarchs, more about this city you can read here. We visited this city because we wanted to visit the the family of the member our parish community who is studying in Karlsruhe. After Coffee at his home, his friends took us travel around the city. We visited first the tomb of patriarchs. This tomb is divided in two section : Jewish section and moslem section. First we visited the Jewish section, the Moslem is prohibited to come into this section and we had to passed through security check like in the airport. There is synagogue inside and some of tombs. Then we visited the Moslem section (Mosque). Here we must also passed through a security check. After visiting our guide’s shops and  russian church, where we can found Abraham’s oak. We went back to the family house and had a lunch. The family served us an arabic speciality named “Up Side Down”. It was spicy rice with grilled goat meat. On the way back home, we visited Hebron glass blew factory to buy souvenir and for dinner we had another “Up Side Down” but with chicken. 

6th day – Bethlehem

Early in the morning we checked out from the hospice and travelled with a public bus to Bethlehem. To get in this city we had to pass a big security checkpoint because Bethlehem is also another Palestinian territory. After we put our luggage in house of peace community “Sumud”, we visited caritas baby hospital of Bethlehem. We looked around the hospital and had a dialogue, which told us about history of the hospital and the health situation in Bethlehem. Then we had a presentation in Sumud House about the Wall, which built by Israelis to separate Israel and Palestine territory. After this Presentation we walked along beside the wall and visited the palestine refugee camp there. With the bus we went down town to visit the church of Milk Grotto and the Church of Nativity. On afternoon we had a meeting with the students from Arabic Education Institute (AEI). In this meeting i learned  a lot of thing about their strategy for realization of harmony living between moslem and christian in this city. After meeting we had a mess in chapel of the church of Nativity, this is an experience once in a life time. Then we met with our guest family and go to their house, every 2 of us in one family. The dinner was delicious: Zucchini with filling and a lot of arabic speciality. After dinner we watched TV together. 

7th day – Jericho, Tiberias

Breakfast at the guest parent was delicious. Arabic stone oven bread, salty cheese, etc. We continued our journey with bus towards Galilee. We made a stop in Jericho and visited the mount of temptation, where Jesus was tried by satan after made a fast for 40 days and night. Then we bought food and everything we need in Galilee, because in Galilee we have to prepare our meal by ourselves. Close before we got to our place where we lived, we visited also Tiberias, a city for holiday at the lake of Tiberias (Sea of Genesareth). Then we arrived Tabgha, a Benedictine monastery, place of the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes. We lived there during our visit in Galilee. It was a nice place with “swim drain”.

8th day – Galilee (Sea of Genesareth)

We had our breakfast outside near the “swim drain” because the weather was nice. We started our day with walk through the field in food towards mount of beatitudes, where Jesus made a homily for 5000 people. Some of us couldn’t enter the place church because they dressed too “sexy” and the “holy borders” is knee. We read a chapter of bible, Jesus Beatitudes (Mat 5-7). Then we went to Capernaum through the jungle of banana and herbs. Capernaum was the place where Jesus find the apostles and lived. After lunch was a pool and sunbath time. At night we had a mass at the waterside of Sea of Genesareth. 

9th day – Nazareth

Breakfast time was too short today. We had to be in bus stop at the early morning. With public bus we tried to go to Nazareth. We visited the church of annunciation and St. Joseph church. At the greek orthodox church was today a procession, i couldn’t get in there (too many people). Afternoon we had a dialogue with an Imam from White mosque. He told us about moslem live in Nazareth. We went also back home with a public bus, it took 2 hours to be back at home again. For dinner we had a barbeque. 

10th Day – Haifa, Akko

Early in the morning taxi took us to go to Haifa. We had an appointment with “Elias Chacour”. He is Archbishop of Melkite Greek Catholic church. He is an arabic christian Israel, who built the Mar Elias Education Institute. We had a wonderful dialogue with him and can understand better about the situation of Palestinian in Israel. He also wrote a book “Blood Brother” and “We belong to the land”. This book ist a true story about him as a Palestinian christian, who working for peace in Israel. More about him can you see here. Then we visited Baha’i World Center. Baha’i is the youngest religion in the world and founded in 1844. You can read about Baha’i faith here. After we are finish with Haifa, we took the train to go to Akko. Akko is an old harbour city on Mediterranean Sea. Some of us rode a boat to see the city from the Sea. I lost my sunglasses here. Damn!! But it was also a special experience there. We arrived back at our house late at night and had a new experience dinner with Artichoke. 

11th Day – Relaxing day

Today was a relaxing day. We could do everything what we wanted to do. Some of us rode a bicycle along the shore of sea Genesareth, some of us went to another city. I started my day with Breakfast and then help the Benedictine with working and cleaning on the garden. Like they said “Ora et Labora”. Afternoon I spent my tim with reading book under sunshine and swam in the “Swim drain”. At night we had a last Mess before we finished our Journey. 

Last Day – Tel Aviv, Departure

Early in the morning we had a Breakfast and cleaned up the house. Taxi took us to Tel Aviv. We planned to traveling around Tel Aviv before we fly back to Germany. But we had a problem with our luggage, we didn’t have any place to save the luggage. Because of security reason you can store you luggage nowhere in Israel. We decided to wait and relaxing in the Park in Tel Aviv, because afternoon we had an appointment with a German radio journalist (ARD) to have a dialogue. I and some of friends went to the strand of mediterranean sea, to see the famous promenade of Tel Aviv strand. The dialogue with the journalist was also interesting, he told us much about the political situation at Gaza strip, west bank, etc. We were very exhausted because we had to take all of our baggage with us everywhere we go. After the dialogue we decided to take a dinner an go directly to the Airport. Our plane was 1.30 am in the morning. In my opinion, the security check for check in was to extreme, i think it was to much and unnecessary. It took 2 hours until we finished with check in and got our boarding pass. It was exhausting. 

It was a wonderful journey i ever had. I got a lot of thing to learn, about Palestinian and Israel, Religion living between religions and many others. Message i got from the journey was “We are actually believe in one God, so we should tolerate each other, and live in Peace”. Shalom.

It was so cold and snowy in this march. I and some friends went to Dobel, Bad Herrenalb to sled and there was 50 cm snow.

Just look at here.