Dark Shikari
Caldari
Imperium Technologies
Firmus Ixion
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Posted - 2007.07.08 12:22:00 -
[3]
 Originally by: lofty29
Originally by: Dark Shikari
Originally by: lofty29
Lo Dutch \o
Nah, it doesn't work without both words.
True  So how's Israel?
Its an interesting country.
Its a mix of cultures. The most prominent is probably the "culture of globalization" as one might call it; the Domino's Pizza, the countless American and European brands everywhere, and the Hebrew ad that has the phrase "GREAT SHAPE" in English in the middle of the Hebrew text.
Then there's the mixed cultures. Arabs quite often live side-by-side with Israelis, and signs are quite often in two languages (though not always in all three, English, Arabic, and Hebrew).
Jerusalem is very different from the rest of Israel that I've been to, which is mostly like any other Western country with a bit of Middle-Eastern flavor (Sprite, for example, has its named transliterated into Hebrew and restyled to fit the original font style of the brand).
Jerusalem... for one, its a very touristy city. Everything is set up for that reason. There are huge, huge half-kilometer-long market streets with nothing but hundreds and hundreds of shops selling everything from cucumbers to souvenirs. There are often 17 shops selling the same set of touristy shirts (like "IDF Intelligence: My job is so secret I don't even know what I'm doing!") They'll try to rip you off too if you don't haggle; its quite fun, in a way.
The holy sites... some are more tourist-oriented, others are more religion-oriented. The thing that really made me cry deep inside was when I was walking the path that Jesus walked. According to the texts, he fell three times along the path. Of course, at each of these points there is a small church. I walked into one of these churches and saw a beautiful mural and sculpture portraying his fall.
I looked to the right. Down some steps, in the middle of this church, was a souvenir shop larger than the holy room itself. 
The Western Wall was better I think, as it wasn't commercialized. There was a somewhat touristy tour of the inside of the Western Wall, through a series of tunnels and arches created by everyone from King Herod to the Romans and the Crusaders and the armies of Saladin. There were two things there that struck me as utterly amazing. The first was, walking down towards the Western Wall itself underground, standing in front of me was the biggest block of stone I'd ever seen in any construction: over 600 tons; a single unbroken block of stone, assembled along with thousands of other similar blocks over two thousand years ago to build the Second Temple. Later down the tunnel there was an uncovered section of road; the blocks of stone there were the same blocks that markets were set up on and deals were done two thousand years ago. There's hardly anywhere else in the world, I think, where one can see and touch such artifacts. The pyramids are one thing; but they are nothing but tombs. A market street so old that there are literally multiple layers of civilization above it is another.
If you're thinking of visiting Israel, go to Jerusalem. Its a hell of a city. On one hand, it feels completely modern; on the other hand, you can walk down streets filled with many of the same sort of shops there would have been two thousand years before. Its both modern and ancient, combined.
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