The Holiest Place for Christians in Jerusalem

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher

Our first day in the Old City of Jerusalem was a somber day retracing the steps of Jesus carrying the cross down the Via Dolorosa (Way of the Cross), ending at the crucifixion and burial site inside The Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

The Church is regarded as the holiest site for Christians around the world. It's one of those places where we would love to return and bring Mike's very devout Christian mother to, who can truly appreciate the significance of this place. (Akiko's mom would also have enjoyed the visit, but she's already in heaven. No need to visit Jerusalem anymore!)

We found a great iPhone app called "Jerusalem Old City Audio Walking Tours" that helped give us perspective on these important landmarks while we walked. As a side note, the app has several wheelchair accessible guided tours!

We know it's not the same as being here, but perhaps you could get a feel for the Via Dolorosa (Way of the Cross) walk and see the sites inside The Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

History of the Holy Land at Israel Museum

Cool artwork at the Israel Museum

Instead of scrambling to the Old City on our first day in Jerusalem, we decided to start our orientation of this Holy place at the Israel Museum.  We felt it was important to get a good understanding of the historical events that have shaped this part of the world since the beginning of time; how all three monotheistic religions - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - consider Jerusalem one of the holiest places on earth; and the development of the Israelites and Jews to present.  

Having grown up Christian, the whole experience at the Israel Museum was surreal because we were able to see archeological evidence that corrobates much of the stories we read in the Bible.  Not that we ever doubted the stories, but it brought everything about the inhabitants in this region to life from a non-biblical perspective.  It was neat to see how the Canaanites and Phillistines lived; the emergence of Israelites; inscriptions pertaining to King David and King Solomon; the Romans and King Herod; and how the Jews have gained and lost Jerusalem many times over centuries.  

Safe Arrival in Jerusalem, Israel

With all the current extremist tensions going on in the Middle East, embassy attacks around the world, and Israel ramping up to protect themselves from Iran's nuclear "program", we knew security would be tight at Ben Gurion Tel Aviv Airport. So, we are happy to announce that we safely arrived in Jerusalem without any problems.  In fact it was one of the fastest and smoothest customs, security, and immigration processes.  Of course we landed at midnight and there weren't too many people arriving at that time so that probably helped.  We were pleasantly surprised that there were no lengthy security checkpoints and "interrogations" by the immigration officers.

We were quickly out of the international arrival lobby and on our way to Jerusalem.  We easily found the Nasher Taxi Shuttle service, right outside baggage claims.  These 10-seater vans drop passengers off in front of their home or hotel, 24/7 for 62 shekels/pp.  We got on the one going towards the Bak'a neighborhood of Jerusalem, gave them our address of the apartment rented through Airbnb, and we were on our way!  It's a much better option than taking a taxi for 200-300 shekels.  Although, we've been told that the shuttles sometimes deny taking passengers to the Muslim-based, East Jerusalem addresses.  Knowing this, we made sure to find an apartment in West Jerusalem.  

Jeff, our Airbnb host who is American living in Jerusalem, offered to let us in the apartment when we arrived in the middle of the night.  Isn't that the best service, ever?  Otherwise, we would've had to find a hotel at 2 am, then move to our apartment the next day.  

The studio apartment is very cute, cozy, comfortable, and quiet. It has air-conditioning, a huge plus in this Middle Eastern heat.  We've heard more American English being spoken by residents in this Bak'a neighborhood than we have anywhere else in our entire trip thus far.  It almost feels like home, except that everything is written in Hebrew without a single English translation, so thank goodness people can communicate in English, because we sure can't read anything around here!

Door to our studio apartment on Shimshon Street in Bak'a neighborhood in West Jerusalem.

Lovely private patio outside of our room.  Also a great place for hanging our laundry in this Middle Eastern heat! 

A really nice bike and walking path near the apartment. 

Digging into a falafel sandwich! 

We anticipate an enjoyable stay in Jerusalem! 

Cost: Istanbul for One Week

This is going to be the shortest write-up on our budget thus far.  The app where I keep track of our spending crashed and I lost everything.  I thought I had the data synced to DropBox, but it is unrecoverable, at least by way of just the iPhone or iPad.  

So, this is just a guesstimate but in the 8 days spent in Istanbul, we spent big...waaaay over our allotted $150/day budget.  Even though we found a budget apartment for $68/night, we probably spent an extra $20-30/day on admission fees to attractions that weren't budgeted for.  Food and drink costs, although normal for someone just coming to Istanbul on vacation, felt outrageously high for those of us who have gotten used to cheap food and beers.  We spent double the amount we normally would have on food/drink.  The other major cost was the $350 private market and food tasting tour by a well-known food writer.  It was a worthwhile splurge for us foodies, but a definitely budget buster.  Aside from the overnight train from Sofia to Istanbul, we barely took public transportation in Istanbul so our transportation cost was minimal.

If we sat in our apartment and didn't do any sightseeing, we would've stayed on budget...which would've been ridiculous.  Overall, we think we spent a total of approximately $1760 or $220/day.  Not bad for one of the most touristed (therefore, non-budget) destinations along our round-the-world trip.  

Our next stop, Jerusalem, will be even more costly, but after that, we should make up financial ground when we get to Thailand = cheap.