Sensory Overload

Well, I'm here. The 11 hour flight from Philadelphia was an excruciating time. The seats were pretty small and the nice lady from Philadelphia next to me & I jostled for space the whole way over. I guess I slept about an hour or so, but I didn't really start feeling the effects until a couple of minutes ago.

I ended up taking a sherut (share-taxi) from the airport to the Damascus Gate (pictured above), when I walked to my hotel. I walked right through the middle of the Muslim Souq (marketplace) to get there. The souq is chaos personified. Besides the vendors selling their various wares, there were kids on bikes, people using wheelbarrows to deliver goods, road maintenance crews and trash collectors, families out for an afternoon stroll and tourists everywhere. I have a feeling that if I hadn't been so tired, and traveled as much as I have, I would have found the scene downright overwhelming.

I checked in at my friendly hotel, The Hashimi Hotel, which comes highly recommended by guidebooks. The Hotel has a magnificent view of Temple Mount and The Dome of the Rock from it's third floor breakfast room.

I dumped my stuff in my room and headed out to use what little energy and sunlight I had left. I wandered through the souq some more, marveling at the array of goods available.

I found my way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchure, the church built on the site where Jesus was crucified. I intend to go back with a guidebook and really do this building well, so today I just wondered around in awe taking pictures.

My last stop was at the Western Wall. I didn't go down into the plaza, but intend to tomorrow.

Here's a link to a gallery of today's best pictures.

http://s1038.photobucket.com/albums/a463/esmith7273/Israel%202010-%20Day%20One/?mediafilter=images

I'm crashing pretty hard right now. Tomorrow's going to be a busy day, and with some sleep, my post tomorrow should be a little more coherent.