Shabbat,shopping,supper and singing

July 24, 2010
Today was Shabbat again so hardly anything is open. We took it easy in the morning, then went out to the courtyard so Michele could do her paparazzi work, with limited success as most people do not appreciate us lurking around taking pictures of them and their children. We went in and had our favourite meal, salad with hot mushrooms, tomatoes and fried cheese. We then spent 3 hours inventorying our purchases and trying to fit them into our suitcases. At 3 p.m. we caught a bus uptown and had coffee on the terrace of the King David Hotel. It is a spectacular old hotel with magnificent views of the old city. It was fun pretending to be upscale, and we really enjoyed when a group of Jewish people sang their prayers on the terrace. It wasn't so enjoyable when a grumpy European told them that he didn't want to hear them.
Then, for lack of anything else to do, we headed back to the old city to shop as the Christian quarter shops are open Saturday, closed Sunday. I found a bigger suitcase to pack my, and Dixie's (which she forgot in the taxi) shofars. We then went and had a nice supper in a cozy restaurant. It was starting to get dark and we were warned to stay out of the old city after dark, so we left and sat outside the walls to watch all the various Jews, in their wide array of garb, hurry by to get to the western wall.
After a respectable amount of time continuing our paparazzi habits, we walked down to Ben Yehuda street. We were surprised by how close it is to the old city, it seems to take way longer on the bus. It was pretty deserted at 8:20 when we got there. The only place open was McDonalds so we took Michele there for her bathroom break and for some ice cream. When we came out there were a couple more stores oped but very few people, then we heard some lovely singing coming from an upstairs apartment so we stood outside and listened. The songs were Christian ones we knew, sung in Korean and a lady sitting outside told us they were warming up for singing at 9:00 on the street. We then lurked about until they came and the performance was amazing. They have powerful voices and an obvious love for the Lord. Many others stopped to listen and clap along. We met a lady we knew from King of Kings church there as well and she gave us all hugs. It is great to belong to the family of Christ!
At 10 or so, we decided to go home and were once again shocked to see that the streets were now thronging with people and shops were just opening their doors. the bus ride home was as crowded as we have ever seen it, with peopel packed into the aisles, standing everywhere. This never ceases to amaze us little country bumpkins!