up at 5am, bus into old jerusalem which is a divided city, the armenian, christian, arab and jewish quarters, we wander through the small ancient winding streets, the armenian section is filled with russian orthodox people wandering around in their black outfits, we wander through the christian section and see the place where a virgin was born, we see where jesus upset a few traders, we see where he spoke some wise words, we wander the stations of the cross and see where he was jailed, the arab quarter is a shit hole, dirty, stinky and filled with manic people attempting to rip you off, it's hostile and volatile, as they swarm out of their mosques filled with hate and throw rocks at cars and passer by's, yeah really classy. the jewish quarter is impeccably clean and interesting with museums and ancient temples and markets and stores and a big wall, the only standing wall left from the temple of solomon who i have to admit is one of my esoteric heroes, but my over all impression is the whole of the old city is just a bunch of rocks, the buildings are amazingly designed but fucking hell, what's all the fuss about?
these religious nuts drive me mental, a kind of glamour is cast and people get all weird, my mum, dad and martin have a strong connection with it all but i feel sadly empty, to cling to these ancient relics is unhealthy. to incite hate and violence is madness, the whole bunch of them are like ant's over a cupcake, sucking any real spirituality from the place.
new jerusalem is much better, in fact it's beautiful, very clean, amazing architecture, modern art everywhere, great looking girls, i'd live there if it wasn't surrounded by the fruitcakes. the only thing i came away thinking about was how cool jesus was, when he tipped over the market stall, i would have done the same thing.