Went to Israel! I am leaving for the US on Thursday :-(

I said goodbye to a bunch of people over the weekend. Today I am going to have lunch with another Turkish friend and go the Grand Bizarre to pick up a t-shirt for a friend at home (yeah - that's you Pat! :-))

Here is a quick run-down of what I have been doing, I have been slowly uploading photos and I will write in more depth about everything when I have some time - maybe on the flight back!

My best friend and his mother (Galina) visited me in Istanbul for three days. Igor's mom went back to Israel and Igor and I flew to Izmir, Turkey and saw Ephesus! It was amazing but HOT! About 100 degrees in the shade...but there's very little shade there. I wore a goofy white hat which helped and I did take an umbrella but it was no help as the heat reflected off of the marble and stones, so heat was coming from above and also from below. I wonder if the temperatures back several thousand years were cooler there? Anyhow, the ruins were awesome and we also went to see where Mary supposedly went to live in her later life, a house in the mountains close to Ephesus, and to the archeology museum which has items from the city. Izmir is a nice city, the cab drivers are honest :-) and it's much quieter than Istanbul. It is Turkey's 3rd largest city.

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR (I've always LOVED this movie!! I once had a party, someone put on this album and we ended up each taking characters and reinacting the entire opera...just a spontaneous thing.)
JUDAS (What a voice!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytNoiQ8LkS8

After Izmir we flew to Tel Aviv, Israel. The first day Igor was there and we drove all day stopping to see many things! The ruins of King Herod's palace were really interesting. The entire time there "King Herod's Song" from JCS was running through my head: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb_9uH-ELJE I loved the Old City of Acco as well and the B'hai Temple in Haifa. Galina gave a tour of the Old City of Jerusalem the next day (she lives in Jerusalem and is also very knowledgeable about religions, art, history, etc.), which is fascinating but also confusing! Different groups of Christians have different ideas of where Mary was buried, where the crucifiction took place, etc. etc. etc. The confusion reaches a peak at the Church of the Holy Sepultre: On a hot summer day in 2002, the Coptic monk who is stationed on the roof to express Coptic claims to the Ethiopian territory there moved his chair from its agreed spot into the shade. This was interpreted as a hostile move by the Ethiopians, and eleven were hospitalized after the resulting fracas.[3]
In another incident in 2004 during Orthodox celebrations of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a door to the Franciscan chapel was left open. This was taken as a sign of disrespect by the Orthodox and a fistfight broke out. Some people were arrested, but no one was seriously injured http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Holy_Sepulchre Hmmm..I don't think this is what Jesus had in mind? (I hope nobody takes offense to this, but I don't believe Jesus was divine and I don't think he intended to start a new religion. I do believe he was a great man. Just my opinion.)

The next day Galina took me to the Dead Sea Scroll museum and swimming in the Dead Sea, and I really enjoyed the scenery on the way there! I think swimming in the Dead Sea is more dangerous than swimming anywhere else. I saw three people being rescued during the 1 1/2 hours I was there. The problem is...you don't SWIM in the Dead Sea...and if you try you get into trouble! The idea is to just float around slowly and it's very relaxing. We also took a hot mineral bath before we went in the sea and we slathered black Dead Sea mud all over ourselves, it is supposed to be very good for the skin.

Oh - about the Golden Gate: In Jewish tradition this is the gate that the Messiah will enter...so from Wikipedia: Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I sealed off the Golden Gate in 1541, allegedly to prevent the Messiah's entrance. The Muslims also built a cemetery in front of the gate, allegedly in the (mistaken) belief that the precursor to the Messiah, Elijah, would not be able to pass through, since he is a Kohen. This belief is erroneous because a Kohen is permitted to enter a cemetery in which primarily non-Jews are buried. Crazy, huh?

The next day I returned to the mayhem of Istanbul, which used to be Constantinople, which is where the Nicene Creed that Christians recite was finalized at the Counsel of Constantinople in 381 :-) More details later!