brianna kay: Ramparts Walk

Almost every Sunday is considered our free days. We can do whatever we want to all day. A lot of professors here suggest that we do the Ramparts walk or the Tower of David museum to get ourselves more acquainted with the area.

The group I went out with stopped by the money exchanger to trade some US money for some Israeli Shekels. We then wandered through the old city for a little while and stopped at a Lutheran church to take a quick peek inside. The churches and mosques here are breathtakingly beautiful. They all have really high ceilings, stain glass windows, and beautiful murals. I wasn't sure if we were allowed to take pictures inside this church so I only got pictures of the outside. After that, we made our way over to Jaffa Gate and bought a ticket to do the Ramparts Walk. The Ramparts Walk basically allows you to walk around the Old City's walls. I thought this was the coolest! We walked the northern portion of the wall and got some amazing views of West Jerusalem, the Old City, and especially the Dome of the Rock. The whole northern portion and some of the east/western portion took us a couple hours to walk around. The only draw back was the heat! It was a seriously so hot yesterday and I forgot to wear sunscreen so my neck got a bit sunburnt.

We finished walking the wall around 12:00 and we found a little shop that had ice cream and popsicles just outside of one of the gates. My first purchase in Israel was a Magnum Bar and it was a great purchase. I think I am going to try to avoid going out during the middle of the day during my free days, because it is just so hot and you come back dripping in sweat! It is great.

P.S. I am so happy that pictures are working! They warned us that the internet was too slow to upload anything. But I learning a bit of patience and it is paying off!