{israel 2012} The Old City; Jerusalem

The Old City was hot. A congested labyrinth. People, produce, and products tucked in every nook and cranny. The stale air was ripe with the pungent scent of foreign spices and body odor, somehow neither good nor bad, just different.

The tour was free. Winding us through the labyrinth with an air of confidence. Bestowing us with more information than we could possible retain. A sense of detached wonder filling our chests. Overwhelming us with the importance of the man who once stood here, walked here, died here.

People shouted and beckoned as we meandered past. Showing wares made in China, bought in Israel, taken home to America. But the only things purchased that day were watermelon flavored ices and cold bottles of water.

Some things were similar (drinking wine with your mates at sunset). Some things were different (graffiti marking an important journey to Mecca). But we hugged it all close, reveling in the new and the familiar. Simply taking it all in. Because at the end of the tour we could only take away stretched minds and empty water bottles.

{originally posted - 6.21.12}