Last day

So last night I finally got to do laundry. Yay! It was so gratifying, I could almost go and wash all my clean clothes again tonight. Ah, nesting...I miss those little rituals of home. I also had my first proper bagel in months (with smoked salmon and cream cheese, of course), and split a waffle with halvah gelato with Stephanie. All around, a good night in central city.

Oh, and I finally got to the Temple Mount, but it was a total anticlimax because I was so obviously unwelcome. Any time I looked too closely at the mosque (and god forbid I should walk toward it with anything resembling interest), a bunch of old guys shooed me away. I think the closest I ever got was maybe 20 meters from the door. Sweet. So I was there maybe 5 minutes, took a picture of the Dome of the Rock, and then left.

I also walked the Via Dolorosa, which was also kind of anticlimactic because nearly all the chapels were closed (well, closed to me, not to tour groups...grrrr). But there were a few very lovely ones that were open. And as I reached the Holy Sepulchre I somehow ended up chatting with a bearded fundamentalist dude (and I use the word intentionally) from San Francisco. He was one of those "Jesus is far out, man" kinda guys, so he was interesting to chat with for a little while. But his arrival was definitely the end of the more contemplative phase of my walk.

After the Via Dolorosa I went to St. Anne's church, which was really cool. They have a great archaeological excavation there of the Bethesda pool and baths. Lots of stairs and levels and funky bath archetecture that's all way below street level. Archaeo-nerd's delight. It started pouring, though, so that was the end of my excursion and I had to hustle home through flash flooded streets to dry off until the rain cleared. Freak storm, everybody's talking about it because apparently it never rains like that here....

I had hoped to make it to the Galilee and Nazareth today, but it just wasn't meant to be. Alas for colds taking up several days of good travel time. I had lots of last minute errands to take care of. Post office and the like. But I did squeeze in the time to go to the Armenian Church of St. Jacques for mass. It was really interesting - lots of monks bustling around in voluminous black-hooded robes. Plus, they sing the whole mass, which was really beautiful. I don't speak Armenian, so I had no idea what they were saying, but it was lovely to sit there and listen to the music and look at all the gorgeous artwork. I thought for a second there that I saw a miracle going on with a picture on the wall (baby Jesus appeared to be holding a flickering light in his hand). Turns out it was just a little lantern and the angle I was sitting at...plus the fact that without my glasses, it turns out I'm blind. Oh well.

Tonight will be a mellow evening. Lying low, packing up, getting ready to move on. It's kind of sad, but I'm excited to get to India. I'll have to spend tonight planning out my Mumbai itinerary and figuring out where else I'm going to go...so exciting!