Holy Land Christmas

After our somewhat lethargic time in Greece we were fully recharged for our visit to the Holy Lands of Israel, Palestine and Jordan. It was particularly interesting visiting these sites during the Christmas season, and made for both our most and least Christmasy Christmas ever.

In a way it was the most Christmas Christmas we could imagine having. Hard to get more pure fucking Christmas than visiting Bethlehem and seeing the supposed spot where Jesus was born.

This was the spot

Filipino pilgrims singing in the grotto where Jesus was born

We walked the Via Dolorosa, the path Jesus walked to his crucifixion. And visited Mary's and Jesus' supposed tombs (numerous sites around the world claim to have Jesus' tomb...we saw two of them in Jerusalem. The most fascinating claim is in Japan though, which declares that Jesus' brother Isukiri switched places with him on the cross and then Jesus moved to Japan, became a rice farmer, got married and had a few kids.)

Jesus' supposed Tomb #1, in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Jesus' supposed Tomb #2, the Garden Tomb

Tomb of the Virgin Mary, Church of the Sepulchre of Saint Mary

But despite all of this very CHRISTmas Christmas we kept forgetting it was Christmas. Was that there were hardly any Christmas trees? No Christmas songs? The lack of Santa's? Or that all of these Jews and Muslims around us don't celebrate Christmas? Don't get me wrong: we had an amazing Christmastimeholyland2015, but it was strange experiencing this time of the year without so many of these things that we have come to associate with Christmas.

Let's go back to the sites:
As you would imagine Jerusalem was an amazing city. I am not a religious man but you cannot help but be overwhelmed with the religious power and importance of the area and it's endless sites. The old city is divided into quarters: Armenian, Jewish, Muslim, and the Christian quarter. Its a wonderful place to walk and get lost in. Outside of the old walled city is the modern Jerusalem, with Israel to the west and Palestine to the east.

The man is Jewish, the Dome Muslim, and the church Christian, but all their satellite dishes are the same

Western (Wailing) Wall

Dome of the Rock

Church of the Holy Sepulchre - the most amazing church I've seen and will surely ever see

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Damascus Gate to Old Town Jerusalem

We took a bus out to Bethlehem one day, which isn't too noteworthy aside from the several religious sites and the amazing shawarma that we had. Bethlehem is in Palestine, so the bus has to stop at a border checkpoint before re-entering Israel. At these borders all of the Palestinians have to get off the bus to stand in line to have their identification checked by two teenage members of the Israeli Army with automatic guns. The soldiers board the bus to check the identification of everyone on the bus...and do the same for the Palestinians except they have to get off the bus. This and the massive wall that was built around the disputed territories were incredible sad things to see.

Christmas decorations and Mosque of Omar from Manger Square

Church of the Nativity, built on the birthplace of JC

Aside from visiting Bethlehem we also made it out to see Masada and the Dead Sea a couple hours outside of Jerusalem.

Masada is an ancient fortress built on a plateau in the Judaean Desert. It was first built around 35 BCE and was the last hold out before the Romans took the region. Instead of surrendering to the Romans (who had already massacred hundreds of Jews in the region) it is said that the 960 Jews committed mass suicide. Later Byzantine Monks lived here and established a church.

You can walk up or take the cable car, of course, we walked up

Then we stopped off to float around in the Dead Sea. The two of us, along with a very nice Hong Kong couple and a German woman all shared a ride to Ein Gedi, which we read was the Dead Sea's second most popular beach. After we got dropped off we noticed that we were the only people around and that, oh, most of the area was fenced off. Sinkholes! Too much of the groundwater has been getting diverted out and apparently sinkholes have become a major problem and has forced the state to close off the beach and much of the area. But we were still able to find our way down to a sad trash covered beach and go floating:

Dead Sea background info: the Dead Sea is actually a lake and is the lowest place on earth at 1407 feet below sea level. It is also one of the world's saltiest body of water and is so salty that you can't sink in it. The water is thus incredibly slimy and the rocks are sharp since they are covered in salt crystals. It's a surreal place and these pictures only start to convey the incredible weirdness of it all. And the closed off ghost beach that we found ourselves in only added to this weirdness.

Ghost beach parking lot

Floating barrel - the later it got in the day the more the sky and water seemed to blur together

Tel Aviv was far less interesting than any of these other places. Really it's just a ordinary city that likes to think of itself as a super modern and progressive place (hey Tel Aviv your sanitized and very-not-people-friendly modernist bs architecture doesn't make you a modern place!). Maybe compared to the rest of Israel and its neighbors it is, but the city is full of itself and is trying way to hard and failing. It calls itself "Nonstop City" (seriously this is their slogan...watch out NYC!), oh but then everything shuts down for Shabbat at sundown on Friday and doesn't start up again until sundown on Saturday. Modern? Non-stop? Stores say 24/7 but that actually means everyday but Shabbat. Need to get to the airport on Friday or Saturday? Take a $40 cab ride, because transit shuts down at 3pm and doesn't start up for another 24 hours. Sucks if you are a secular Jew or Muslim or Christian or whatever! Nonstop my ass! Progressive my ass!

the 1950s are alive in Tel Aviv!

My thoughts exactly!

We also had a brief visit into Jordan, but we'll be posting something about that next!

-
Jerusalem / Tel Aviv pictures
Bethlehem / Masada / Dead Sea pictures

Athens, and the antidote

Athens: crap city

Sorry, it's harsh I know, but it really is a crap city. It's insanely polluted. There is shit and piss all over. Trash is everywhere. It's covered with crap graffiti. The parks are fenced off and/or in ruins. Athens' sidewalks and crosswalks are for parking (and sometimes driving), but clearly not for walking. Cars and motorbikes have no regard for human life. It's ugly, dirty, nasty, crowded and chaotic and not in a charming way. But it is also Athens, so of course there's quite a bit more appeal to the city then it's current sad state. You know having the Acropolis, the agros, and all of those other incredible ancient Greek and Roman ruins all over town certainly helps counter all that negative. And a few areas do have a lot of character. The white washed Anafiotika neighborhood built illegally on the side of the Acropolis is really something, as is the market and a couple other neighborhoods that we saw more in the middle of town. Plus the gyros and souvlaki are cheap, ubiquitous and delicious. The metro is pretty decent. So it's not all bad, and apparently many aspects (such as pollution and traffic) are far better than they were a decade or two ago. But obviously the financial crisis that Greece is in makes the current city experience much worse, since there's less money going into city services and maintenance. So I don't mean to kick them while they're down, but my statement still stands: crap city.

But let's look at the good. The Acropolis didn't disappoint. The ancient Greek ruins sit up on a large plateau overlooking the rest of the city. The ruins are so impressive and the views so stunning that its hard to stay focused on any one aspect too long. Ohh look at those ruins there...oh man that view....whoa the Parthenon...it's amazing...Oh damn that view!...Whoa what is on top of that mountain out there?...look at those statues!...ohh those people have selfie sticks, get the camera!...wait is that the Temple of Athena?...oh that dog has a puffy tail!

The Acropolis

The Parthenon...still under construction

Erechtheum

And that is just the top of the Acropolis. Here is one of my favorite sights on the South Slope, the ancient (6th century BCE) Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus:

Seats of honor

And here's the newer (161 CE) theater: Odeon of Herodes Atticus:

Maybe a few more ruins? The Ancient Agora:

so many ancient things in this picture

Temple of Olympian Zeus:

One more. This is the Kerameikos, an ancient burial ground with some burials that date all of the way back to the 12th century BCE.

And here are a few slightly more contemporary highlights of Athens:

The memorable changing of the guard at the Greek Parliament

The peaceful/beautiful Anafiotika neighborhood

Some actually good street art

Pittaki Street - it lights up at night, though we unfortunately didn't get to see it

...
Nafplio: The anti-Athens

After all that smog, chaos and excrement we were ready to escape Athens for a bit. And we chose the perfect place (during December at least): Nafplio, a Peloponnesian coastal city about two hours outside of Athens. That clean coastal air! The calmness! The walkability! We went there at a great time during their off season, so it wasn't as expensive, crowded or touristed out as I'm sure it would have been a few months prior, but for us it was our much needed anti-Athens and we loved every minute of it. Here are a view sights from Nafplio:

Bourtzi, a Venetian castle built in 1473 on an island, just off the Nafplio coast:

The Nafplian coast:

note the abandoned coastal hotel to the right and the fortress up above

Abandoned hotel on the beach

And the main highlight: Palamidi, a huge Venetian fortress built in 1714 on a hill above Nafplio:

Not far from Nafplio are some very important ancient Greek ruins. This first one we went to was Mycenae, which is ancient ancient Greece, like 15th to 12th century BCE ancient...that's a thousand years before Plato. Incredible seeing something so old.

We then headed out to see the far newer Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus and the ruins of the town of Epidaurus, which are merely from the 4th century BCE.

ruins of Epidaurus

the Epidaurus Stadium

Thus ended our time in Greece. We had a great time and saw some amazing sights, but unfortunately spent too much time in Athens. When we go back (oh and we will go back one day) we'd love to see some of the islands, more of the coast and maybe some of the northern part of the country.

-
more of our Athens pictures
more from Nafplio and surrounding