Bartering for a Drum

I needed to get a drum this year. These things are for sale everywhere around the Old City and I really don't like the plastic and metal drum that we have at school. I had a little time to spend before going to the Jerusalem Food Festival on Wednesday.

Brian and I went to shop around a bit.

My strategy for bartering requires knowing a bit about the value of the item in the first place. So I checked at a few shops on the main street to see what they would quote me. Without even trying, one guy worked his price from 150 down to 100 sheckels. For similar drums I was quoted as much as 400 NIS (for those keeping score at home I had heard anywhere from $28 - $112.

We finally found another shop that had a few of them for sale. I started looking at what he had and found a few that I wanted to buy. When I asked for prices, he wouldn't give me one until I picked one that I wanted.

I finally decided on one and here is where the fun began.

(This isn't direct quotes, but the gist of the exchange)
Salesman: 200 sheckels, but a special price for you. 170 sheckels.

Me: Really?! This is two pieces, it's not very good. This other one is the same and is broken. I will pay you 70 sheckels.

Salesman: This is a good drum! For 70 sheckels is a small one that you bring back for kids. This is a real drum. 120 sheckels.

Me: That's way too much money. I can spend 75 sheckels.

Salesman: No, no, no! 100 sheckels.

Me: The most I can spend is 80 sheckels.

Salesman: That's not enough. 90 sheckels.

Me: 90 sheckels? Not low enough.

At this point I turned and walked out of the shop. Slowly making my out, I could hear the guy coming out of his shop telling me to wait. I said to Avner, "Tell me if he comes out of the shop after me."

Brian said that the guy was coming out. I turned around and as the salesman was waving saying, "Come back, come back, come back."

I walked back to his shop and he said, "Okay, okay."

Just to make sure we were agreeing on my price, I repeated, "80 sheckels?

Salesman: Okay. Yes. 80 sheckels.

I thought I did a pretty good job with that one, until he started cracking jokes with me as we were exchanging money. I'm pretty sure that I paid more than it was worth, but I'm happy with the price that I paid for the drum.

Jerusalem Food Festival

On Monday we got an email from one of our staff members about an Old City Food Festival. I had to go.

Starting at the Jaffa Gate Plaza there were about a dozen different food booths selling everything from Kubeh (something like a corn dog but with a meat-ball inside instead) and stuffed grape leaves to candied nuts and olive oils. The city was packed with people trying all of the different foods available.

The four quarters of the city had different foods that were intended to represent the different cultures in the old city.

I tried a sugared, candied walnut thing in the Armenian Quarter. There were other things there, but I wasn't really ready to have a real meal that early in the night. I walked around with some friends for a few hours and we tried a bunch of different things.

At the Austrian Hospice, in the Christian Quarter, I split an apfelstrudel while we sat on the roof of the hospice. While we were ordering we listened to a string trio. It was a nice little taste of Europe in Jerusalem.

Near the Damascus Gate, there was no food, but live music. Some people singing in Arabic and some people dancing. There was a food market, but it was really similar to everything you can buy in the shuk. Nothing too impressive there.

Just off the Cardo was a recreation of a 2nd Temple Period Market (536ish BCE - 135ish CE). The kids' arts and crafts looked like they would have been a great way to entertain ourselves for a little while. But we were hungry and wanted to get some real food.

The Hurva Synagogue Square had the most booths selling real food. Moroccan Doughnuts, Kubeh, Soups, Chicken and Rice with different flavorings, Crepes, Popcorn and I don't even remember what else we could find. So much food and so many people. It was a great atmosphere to be in, especially as the live music was wrapping up for the night.

When I went the second day, I had a stuffed peppers, grape leaves and kubeh at the Jaffa Gate. We didn't explore nearly as much this night, but we spent a lot of time listening to a live performance. The band was pretty good and one of our instructors showed up to listen as well. It was a lot of fun and just one of the random things that pop up around here.

Third Time's The Charm

As it turns out, The Dome of the Rock/Al Aqsa Mosque Plaza is in fact open from 7:30 AM - 10:30 AM Sunday through Thursday to allow visitors to see the plaza. It tooks us three tries to figure this out, but we found the entrance, which is just outside the Kotel Plaza near the archeological park. There was a line that took us a few minutes to wait through to get access to the long bridge that takes you up to the plaza.



When we got to the top, the sights were incredible. The massive plaza extends incredibly far and is full of trees and beautifully designed courtyards. There are tons of ritual washing stations for Muslims to purify themselves before entering the Mosque or the shrine, places that non-Muslims are not allowed to enter.

It was amazing to get close to the Golden Dome. The exterior work is so impressive when you are standing at the base of the building. It was absolutely incredible. I want to understand what the writing means that encircles the building. Unfortunately I don't have the words to describe how amazing the site is. I will have to ask the following pictures to try to do the plaza justice.



When we were asked to leave the plaza before Prayer started, we walked back to the Kotel so Kaitlin could walk down to the wall. I was again frustrated by the fact that I couldn't go to the wall with her. She echoed similar sentiments about not having the space to actually get right up to the wall because the Women's Section is so much smaller than the Men's Section.



After finishing up at the wall, we walked back up the long way towards the Jaffa Gate. Kaitlin was excited to look around the Citadel. For 30 sheckels for an adult, we had an incredible two and a half hour tour through their history exhibit. It was incredible to fly through a lot of the history that I had studied this year. I also felt validated since a lot of the information that I had been telling Kaitlin was elaborated on. She had a great time learning about it.

The view from the top of the tower was incredible! It was a different look at the city and we had it framed for us in the history of the space. A great way to end our time in the Old City.

The Old City Again

After realizing that the Dome of the Rock Plaza was closed on Saturday, we wanted to try again. This time we went with friends.

Before we needed to meet Jay and Bryce, we wanted to walk around for a little while in the old city. We took a route avoiding shuk in the Old City to end up in the Kardo (the old roman thoroughfare that used to hold shops). As we were wandering through the shops we bumped into them and headed in the direction I thought was towards the plaza.

It turns out to be a lot harder to navigate the old city than I anticipated. Instead of immediately finding the entrance to the plaza, we found my favorite Falafel place in the entire city! I will talk about it later when we get back into the shuk (market). After stopping to reorient, we backtracked towards the Via De La Rosa to find our direction. We ended up outside the Austrian Hospice, a place I had been earlier this year with HUC (blog post here). I ran in to get some directions.

The only way for us to access the plaza is right next to the Kotel. After going through the checkpoint, we walked to the southern edge of the Kotel to find the entrance. We were informed by the security guard that it was closed to visitors at that point. I was confused because the websites I consulted said we should have been able to get up at that time of the day.

The security guard that we talked to didn't give us any good information so we kept looking around for the entry point. When we went towards the archeological park we were stopped by somebody more knowledgeable. We asked him when we could go up and he gave us an exact set of times.

At this point we went back towards the Kardo to do a little shopping. Jay and Bryce wanted to grab lunch at a bagel place in the Jewish Quarter. Kaitlin and I wanted to grab a falafel so we went back to this shop we had rediscovered earlier. I'm so glad we found this place!

There is something special about their spices and the way they put everything together for you. It really is the best stuff you can find. Near the Damascus Gate street, just off of the Via De La Rosa there is a point at which two roads come together and make a nice little square. The falafel shop is right on the corner. For 7 sheck you can get a really tasty falafel. Right next door is a great coffee shop.

I had never had their coffee before, but I bought a half pound so I can make turkish coffee. I was excited at the chance to pick up that coffee and have a great falafel with Kaitlin. She really seemed to enjoy the falafel too. And after that we walked through some of the shops. Kaitlin ended up picking up a couple of gifts for her friends and family back home.

Afterwards we looked in to renting a car to take down to the Dead Sea and Masada the next day and I showed her my campus. I don't remember exactly what we did the rest of the evening. I think we cooked dinner and hung out at home to get ready to head south the next day. This was when we had some issues with the internet and I took her to Cafe Yehoshua to have a hot chocolate and use their internet to plan the route.

As you can read later, it probably would have served us better to research more than we did. We had a few issues with the car and getting around Jerusalem and to Masada.

That's all for now.

Shabbat with Kaitlin

We slept in a little on Saturday. I made some pancakes and we had a nice big meal together to celebrate New Years and finally being together. It had been way too long.

We decided to go to the old city and walk around since most things are closed on Shabbat here. It was pretty quite in the the shopping areas and it was nice to walk around. We tried to get to the Dome of the Rock/Temple Mount because it is supposed to be incredible up there. There were specific times that we are allowed up there because we are not Muslim.

There were a few routes that we could have taken, but apparently only one is the right way up. We never found it. Instead we checkout out the Kotel, but didn't walk down to it. It was Shabbat, so pictures were not allowed. While we were wandering, I showed her the Kardo (the shopping area in the Jewish Quarter) and we explored a little bit more.



While circling the streets of the old city we found an ancient city wall from the 1st Temple Period. Think 900's BCE for the rough time period. It was pretty cool to find that.


It was about that time of the night for the sun to go down. On of my friends had sent out an email that there would be Havdallah (A Saturday night service that puts an end to Shabbat), so we walked that way. For dinner we decided that it would be a great idea to go down to Emek Rafayim (German Colony Area) to have dinner.

At Cafit (a dairy only restaurant down there) we ordered Cheese Burgers. No, not a hamburger with cheese, but a burger made entirely of cheese. It's a fried stack of cheese served on a bun like a burger. So incredibly tasty. If you have the chance, I would highly recommend picking one up.

That about did it for Saturday.