The Golden Gate

Today, after skyping with Gabby :), my mom, Ellen, and I decided to walk to East Jerusalem again. We walked through the Old City to get the Damascus Gate. Because we got hungry when we were around the Damascus Gate my mom took us to the restaurant that she and my dad went to a few weeks ago. The restaurant was called Abo Ali. (Pronounced Abu Ali) The first impression of Abo Ali is sort of creepy. You have to walk down a dirty and grimy set of stairs. But once you make it down the stairs it turns into a normal Arab falafel restaurant. We didn't want to push our luck so we kept our hats on even while we were eating. The food was amazing! The falafel balls were small, but super crispy and hot. The hummus was also really good because they put extra garbanzo beans and olive oil on top of it. The pita was nice and hot and the pickles were fresh. It was definitely one of the best meals I've had here. Though my favorite meal was definitely the burger at Selina! After a good lunch my mom and I wanted to take Ellen to the restaurant we went to in East Jerusalem with the amazing fresh squeezed juice. The apple juice was just as good the second time as it was the first. :) After the juice we wanted to walk to the Gethsemane garden that is right in front of the Golden Gate. The Golden Gate is the gate where supposedly the Messiah will return. The Messiah is a different person/icon in each religion. The Golden Gate is completely barred up and nobody can go through it, so people can just look at it from the path 15 feet away from it. On the way up to the Golden Gate we walked through the Gethsemane garden. The garden is at the foot of the Mount of Olives and where supposedly Jesus and his followers prayed the night before Jesus' crucifixion. It is also where Virgin Mary was buried and was taken to heaven. Now, Gethsemane is part of a Christian graveyard. Walking through it was very interesting even though we didn't know all of this information about Gethsemane when we were in it. From Gethsemane we walked up to the Golden Gate. Standing in front of the Golden Gate was pretty fascinating because this is what 3 major religions are all about. They are about the Messiah returning, and the Golden Gate is where the Messiah is supposed to return. The Golden Gate isn't really made of gold, or at least the outer facade of it isn't. The way the gate is shaped it looks like a huge version of the Ten Commandments. Something that really got me was the fact that this is one of, if not the most important part of quite a few religions and there is trash and other litter all over the area and the cemetery right in front of and next to this supposedly holy gate. Unfortunately we only brought one camera because we didn't think that we would do all of the stuff we did today. And that camera ran out of battery part way through our adventures today so there aren't a ton of pictures. This was definitely one of the most interesting days that I have experienced in Israel. I hope (actually know) that we will go back to the Golden Gate (with a working camera!) more then once.