Jerusalem

What a journey!

Kris and I left Salt Lake Saturday morning (June 6th) and headed East. We were lucky to make our plane. We arrived at the airport an hour early, but the line to check in was the longest I've ever seen! Luckily we were told of some not so well known kiosks upstairs and made the flight. Eventually the plane landed in the middle east-Tel Aviv Israel to be precise. We were travel worn, and hungry, but very excited to be in the Holy Land. We eventually found our way to the Mount of Olives Hotel, but we had to change drivers in Jerusalem. Apparently our Israeli driver was not too keen on traveling to the East (Palestinian) side of Jerusalem. We switched cabs and made it. This would be our first, but not last, experience with the sad division among the people here. We arrived Sunday afternoon and were fortunate enough to catch a piano concert by Israeli pianist Gil Shohat at the BYU Jerusalem center. This center, on the Mount of Olives, was amazing. There was an incredible peace there, and it afforded a breath-taking view of the old city. I couldn't help but put myself back to the time of Christ and think he was seeing Jerusalem from this same prospective as He was on this same mount.
We ended the evening dining at Pasha's, a great restaurant serving delicious Mediterranean food. The Humas and flat bread here are incredible; smooth is the best way to describe it. The lamb is also very good. This is the evening is also were we met our new taxi friend, Mahrer, a friendly Israeli-Muslim who would do a lot of driving for us. He was conveniently parked outside of our hotel. I love it when things just work out like that.
There are a lot of cats here. They are everywhere you go. I think it is like an independent cat colony. They have no owners, and definetly don't pay taxes, but they roam the city non-the-less. I slept like a baby this first night.