Day 21 - Adventures with shopkeepers

I slept until about 11 am on Saturday, despite a brief awakening at around 8:30 when Ben called me to say hi :). Once I woke up and showered, Debby pulled out some rustic bread, jams, and jaffa oranges, and made coffee. She sliced the oranges and said, "Here. Try this orange juice." They were delicious. We chatted a bit more until her daughter, who was visiting a friend in the same building, called us. We met her at her car, which she had parked in her mother's space (since Debby doesn't have a car), and drove to the restaurant.

The place started out as a coffee shop , and still had that sort of look, but smelled wonderful and had a really exciting menu which made ordering difficult. We got a salad as an appetizer, and I ordered game-hen "meatballs" in a tomato, ginger, and coriander sauce over mashed potatoes and shaved celery stalks. It was delicious! I was tempted by about 17 other things on the menu, but was happy with my choice. Debby's daughter was delightful, and we had a great chat. After lunch, they dropped me off about two blocks from the Old City. I wanted to wander a bit and buy some gifts, so in I went.

The streets were mostly empty, except a few children playing between services, until I reached the shook, where there were some tourists. I think this was a good day to shop, though, because while there were a few other people around, the proprietors of the stalls were relatively desperate for business, and I think I didn't go two steps without an individual salutation to see a specific good in a shop. Eventually, at a stall where the goods were particularly colorful, I let myself be guided in. He got me a chair, offered me some coffee, and began showing me everything he had, asking me what I wanted, how many, etc. At first I said one small one, then went up to one small and one big one. He then said he'd give me the same price for two large ones, which he said was the original asking price of the small one. I whittled that price down by a third or so, then decided to only get one and practically forced him to give it to me for less than half the price he was offering for two. I felt good about that.

At another shop the man behind the counter was young and very polite. He showed me just about every piece of jewelry he had, patiently, and gave me a bottle of cold orange juice to sip as I was served. I ended up buying something other than jewelry, but he gave me his card and told me to return any time I was in the city.

After a few hours, I grabbed a popsicle and sat for a while, then exited the gates and began walking back towards Ben Yehuda Street, past which was the central bus station. I sat to rest once I got to Ben Yehuda Street, and planned to grab some food and wait for it to open once it got dark, but a man around 40 years old sat down and started talking to me. He asked me all sorts of questions, making me relatively uncomfortable. I excused myself from this interaction and started walking back in the direction of the Old City, at which point I called Ben. As we chatted, Jodi, an Australian student who lives in my dorm, walked by and invited me to join her.

We walked back to the Old City to meet Nina and Dave, then turned around and walked back in search of dinner. Night was falling and stores and restaurants were beginning to open up again. As we walked through a side street of bars and restaurants, Dave saw a stand selling hookas and began a discussion with the seller. Jodi moved on to the next table, which contained jewelry, and I followed soon. Both of us rejoined Dave and Nina in a couple of minutes, though, at which point the oddest part of my day ensued.

I watched as the jewelry seller talked to the other people at the table, who were pointing at Jodi and me. He yelled over, "Did you look at the rings? Did you take a ring?" Jodi said no, as did I. He came over and brought me to the table, showing me an empty hole in the ring display case, and asked me again, loudly, if I had taken a ring. He then reached into my skirt pocket and removed a ring! This is when the real yelling began, about how I needed to pay double (200 shekels) or he'd call the police. I wanted to shout back that I didn't take his stupid ring and that he could try calling the police, but what I did was beg him to stop and tell him I didn't have enough cash on me to pay him. Jodi came over when she heard this hullaballo, and I reassured him before the two of us returned to the hookah table.

Dave was settling on a hookah and price, and the seller was allowing him to test a comparable model, so we had a few more minutes to kill before the purchase would be complete. Of course, during this time, the jewelry seller came over a few times to yell about me stealing his ring. The hookah dude asked me if I was ok, and told me the jewelry guy was sort of crazy. This made me feel a little bit better, as I was quite shaken. I felt not only scared but guilty, and as we left, Nina reassured me and commented that I had had quite a sketchy afternoon.

On the advice of Jodi's friend who lives in Jerusalem, we decided to eat at a cafe which doubled as a bookstore, which was hidden up some stairs at the end of a small alleyway nearby. The three of them all ordered shakshouka, a sort of Israeli breakfast dish consisting of tomato and eggs and sometimes a vegetable, like eggplant. I had never had it, but tried all of theirs as I ate my eggplant/egg/feta cheese puff pastry and salad. Then Nina and I split a brownie with some ice cream on top (her idea, not mine, but I like the way she thinks) before heading out.

We walked down Ben Yehudah Street, now buzzing with activity, and were forced to weave our way around bands of street performers, tourist groups, and random sculptures. Jodi left us to go see her friend, and we relocated Yaffo Street and eventually made it to the central bus station. The buses going straight to Rehovot had already left, so we took one which went through Ramla and then Rehovot before reaching its final destination. In line we ran into Tess, who had stayed the weekend in Jerusalem with some friends she had met as exchange students at Brown, her undergrad.

When the bus came, Tess got swallowed by the mob because she had to put her large bag underneath the bus, so it was a lucky thing when she got on the bus (and a long, tense wait until that finally happened). I had saved her a seat, though, which she eventually worked her way back to, and we chatted for about half the ride until my parents called. Toward the end of the ride I said goodbye to them, though. I went to the front of the bus to ask the driver to stop at the Weizmann Institute for the four of us. He did, and he waited for Tess to grab her large bag, both of which were lucky.

We got in to the building and parted ways. Ari and Oren's door was open, so I sat and chatted with them about their weekends a bit before going to bed. The following would be in Ari's blog, if he had one:

"So my brother was visiting for the weekend, and we were driving with our uncle. He's kind of old, and he's very Israeli in his driving. We're on the highway, and we miss the exit. No, we don't back up. He TURNS AROUND and starts driving, against traffic, on the highway. Luckily the oncoming traffic slowed down a bit. We then went up the ramp where traffic would come onto the highway from the exit we're trying to get to. It was really lucky that no one was coming in the opposite direction. I was in shock. I didn't realize fully what had happened until later."

Keep in mind that Ari was the one who was very near sick due to our dear friend Nick's driving on the way to and from our hike in the north. I can only imagine his facial expression during all of this.

Anyway, more photographs! Enjoy Jerusalem's architecture.

The building on the right houses Debby's apartment

You know you're nearby when...

View from just outside the walls

A deserted alleyway

Very old street signs