Jerusalem, Jerusalem!

  This has taken me quite a long time to post. The 2 weeks since Easter break have been incredibly busy for pretty much everyone here. But now I find myself with a free moment.
  The last two weeks of Lent (24 March to 8 April) was St Andrews' scheduled spring/Easter break. Needless to say, all of us JSAs took trips we would never have the opportunity to again. My trip began in Rome on the first Saturday, 24 March. The flight to Rome was fine and through my window-side seat, Italy literally appeared golden, the sun setting over its green hills and the Mediterranean. Everything was going well, and I couldn't help but think my trip blessed. On my cab ride to Sant'Anselmo, the Benedictine seminary I stayed in to visit Br Cassian, however, my trip appeared doomed. After landing, I walked with my duffel to the taxi stand. I was ambushed, though, before I reached it by a man who seemed, in all honesty, to be a cab-driver. He proceeded to tell me that where I wanted to go would be very cheap and he led me to his car parked in a sea of taxis.

An obelisk so old the
Israelites leaving Egypt
might have seen it

  My first clue should have been when he muttered to himself that he had got another fine. I thought nothing of it, though, and got into the car. He told me to sit in the front seat. Everything was going well until he stopped on the side of the highway to plug in the address I gave him. It was here that I noticed that this 'taxi' had no ticker. He was no taxi driver. Having watched the movie 'Taken' a few weeks before, I couldn't help but think I was being kidnapped. Or at least scammed.
  It was the latter. He tried to charge me the extravagant amount of 75 euros for the trip that should have cost 40. I still ended up paying too much, but I was able to talk him down.
  After this, my stay in Rome went incredibly well. On Sunday, I went to Mass at St Peter's with my friend Tom from Holy Cross and we church-hopped around Rome. He was able to show me his favorites and then some. On the other days, I went to the Vatican Museums, the Palatine Museums, the Colosseum, St Peter's again, a lot more churches, and various gelaterias.
  One note about the churches: there are literally churches steps away form each other and any one of them anywhere else in the world would be world famous. In Rome, though, they are par for the course, as they say.
  My trip to the airport after four and a half days in Rome was uneventful compared to my trip from it. This was because I had Br Cassian with me.

The Pantheon

  For just over the second half of the break, Br Cassian and I traveled to the Holy Land. Our plane got in just after 3am. With our rented car, we promptly got lost making our way up to Nazareth, where we would spend our first two nights. The thing about Israeli roads is that they are not clearly marked; and the thing about Googlemaps is that its directions for Israel are incredibly specific. Their directions give the impression that everything in Israel is incredibly well-marked that even an idiot could find it. Despite what you may think of me, these overly specific directions were of little help at best, the roads and even highways leading into Nazareth and Jerusalem being vaguely marked.

The Vatican

  However, without much incident, we did make it into Nazareth just in time to catch our hostel's free walking tour of the old city. We were incredibly glad at this, because without it we would have gotten even more lost on foot than we did in the car. The tour showed us a few cites of the city, suggested some more, and gave Br Cassian and I a few ideas of where we might eat.
After the tour, we explored the city on our own, spending perhaps the most time at the Basilica of the Annunciation, where the angel appeared to Mary according to tradition. The Basilica, like most major churches in the Holy Land, seems to have been built in the 70's, and as such it is rather ugly. Nonetheless, it is a very prayerful place and we were glad to have found it.
  The next day we went up to the Sea of Galilee (more a lake than anything) and went to the Mt of the Beatitudes, the chapel of the Primacy of Peter, Mt Tabor where the Transfiguration happened, and the Church of the Multiplication of the Fish and the Loaves, a Benedictine-run church and monastery that is the dependent house of where we stayed in Jerusalem.

Grotto of the Basilica
of the Annunciation

Leaving Nazareth after Mass in Arabic on Palm Sunday at the Basilica, we drove down to Jerusalem and again got lost, only finding our way by speeding after another Budget rental car to our drop-off point there.
  We then caught a cab, a licit cab, to Dormition Abbey om Mt Zion where we stayed for Holy Week (after they graciously cancelled my reservation at the Armenian Guesthouse in the Old City).

First thing worth taking a
picture of in Jerusalem

  Jerusalem is really inexpressible. There are tourists everywhere, and 'tour guides' willing to lead them around the city to boot – much to our annoyance, but (except for the Way of the Cross we walked on Good Friday) they do not detract from the atmosphere of history and the huge events that took place there.

Western Wall

  We explored the various holy sites and churches that Jerusalem and the surrounding area, including the Mount of Olives, have to offer. We even went to the Israel Museum, which has millennia-old archaeological artifacts tracing the history of the Holy Land from before man came to occupy the area. They also have a to-scale model of Jerusalem as it may have looked is Jesus's day, complete with the Temple and Golgotha.
  The last few days in Jerusalem, the Triduum, Br Cassian and I took it easy, because on Good Friday night, after the Way of the Cross and a long nap, we passed the night in Vigil at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where both Calvary and His tomb are. It was interesting to see both the Greek Orthodox and Armenian Catholic, who share the church with the Roman Catholics, liturgies there. There is some animosity between the 2 groups, though. At one point, every altar needing to be incensed, the Armenian and Orthodox deacons met, and, instead of ignoring each other and stepping aside, they played chicken, incensing each other until one gave up.

The tomb at night

  After the night in the Holy Sepulcher, it was Holy Saturday, and the Roman Catholics prepared for the Easter Vigil at 7.30am. After a three-hour long Mass (considering it was in Latin it could have been much longer, but there was no homily and they did speed baptizing), both of us went to our respective beds and passed out for the day.
  On Easter Sunday, after Mass and two big meals, it was time for me to get to the airport 7 hours ahead of time so that I could pass the security that, as I had been told, would take a while. This is the one disappointment I have of the trip. Both times at the airport, I was neither detained for very long nor subjected to the incessant and repeated questioning by different airport and governmental authorities. If that is my one regret about this trip, though, I don't think I can really complain.