Wednesday 9 May 2012

Final Day

Today was my final day in Israel before heading to Egypt in the morning, and it held one of the most sobering experiences not only of my trip but of my life, I believe. The day started out at the Garden Tomb, where a UK Christian Charity established in the late 1890's believe they have found not only Golgotha but also the tomb that Jesus Christ was buried in. I'm skeptical about all of this, but it was interesting and the garden was beautiful. We had a communion here and Pastor Jonathan talked, as well as Lonnie, Nathan and Grant, and we heard Mickey's testimonial which was amazing. From here, we drove to the Jewish Holocaust Museum.

I wish I could properly describe how this museum effected me. This was one of those life changing moments I think people have. You spend your high school years and even my first year of university learning about the Holocaust, WW2 and Hitler's Nazi Regime, but to see it on such a great scale from the Jewish perspective brought me to tears. As a history major I have a vested interest in this, but as human beings we all should have a reason to be moved by this. After the time spent going through this giant museum, which I could have spent four or five more hours in, we went to the Children's Memorial, which was pitch black, with numerous candles reflecting off of mirrored walls, looking like millions of little lights. I did a terrible job of describing this, so a photo is below. It was simply breathtaking, and heartbreaking.

After the museum, we had a chance to explore Jerusalem on our own. My Grandparents and I made our way to the Old City of Jerusalem and walked through it, passing through the Armenian Quarter and ending up in the Jewish Quarter. We spent quite a few hours here, looking at the hundreds of different little stores selling everything you could imagine. We bought many souvenirs today in the Jewish Quarter for our people back home.

This will most likely be the last time I'll be posting on this blog until I get back to Canada on Sunday night, and at that point I'll post for the missed days. I leave in the morning to drive to Egypt, and there is very little or no internet there. Lots of photos and writing will be posted Sunday night.

I'm sad to be leaving Israel so soon, but I have a plan in the works that will hopefully find me back in this beautiful and simple mesmerizing country sooner than later.. but that's all speculation for now and I'm working on living my life one day at a time.

Shalom!






1 comment:

  1. Zoe, I have loved reading this and even found myself in it as one of the old people who found you fascinating.
    But where are the Egypt impressions?

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