Jerusalem of Gold

Early start today to go to Jerusalem but not before I take a driving lesson? Yes that’s right. We decided we'd hire a car for our trip to the south but my mum insisted I take a driving lesson in this country with crazy drivers, not to mention I’ve never driven on the opposite side of the road. The lesson went well, I think my biggest challenge was mentally converting the km sign posts to miles and trying to look at the right wing mirror instead of the left one all the time. Pretty good overall.

I drove us right to where we caught the bus to Jerusalem from Tel-Aviv, very convenient and then an hour later we arrive into the holy city. I forgot just how crowded and busy the central bus station here is. And I was excited by finally being able to get on the trams! They were still testing them last time I was here. The excitement wore off very quickly as we soon realised we needed to buy tickets from the machine and only one of which was working so there was a massive queue with very impatient Israelis and we missed 3 trams.

Arrived into the old city just in time for our Jerusalem free tour. This was a smaller group than yesterdays and the tour guide wasn’t as enthusiastic. I don’t think our tour guide from yesterday could be beaten. He was simply put it, incredible at what he did. Anyway, we ventured into all 4 quarters of the old city and ended up pretty hungry by the end. We finished in a hummous bar which didn’t do the best falafel. Such a disappointment.

Next onto the old city markets. Got myself a new pair of sandals, maxi skirt and earrings. Love haggling down prices. Helps so much when you actually speak the language compared to when I was in China where it was so much more difficult to haggle! And the shopkeepers couldn’t quite tell where I was from meaning my British accent is not as prominent, woo!

Thought I knew the way back to the tram station from a different exist to the one we came in from. Turns out I really didn’t. Got lost for a little bit and about an hour and a half later we somehow ended up in Ben Yehuda St. Easiest way to explain this street is kind of like the Covent Garden of Jerusalem. A lot is going on here. And yes we had falafel number 2 of the day.