Old City of Jerusalem Scavenger Hunt!!

 

OK, you ready to go on a scavenger hunt in the Old City of Jerusalem?? We had 3 teams of 4 students.  The purpose is to get the students a little used to being in the Old City, which is a short 10 minute walk from our school. I was the leader in our group cuz they figured I knew my way around a bit. It was a photo hunt...where we had to take pics of a few dozen things on a list, and you get a certain number of points for each one you find.  So one student took the pics, and the other three of us posed in the pics. That's Daniel and Miriam with me, and here's a sampling of the pics that Parker took on Sunday...

So here we are posing in front of a 'minaret', the tower you see above me in the middle of the pic. You could call it a  'steeple' of a Moslem mosque - from which they blast their calls to prayer 5 times a day, and believe me, there's lots of them in Jerusalem.

So we had to make a 'pyramid' in front of the Jaffa Gate, one of the main entrances into the Old City. You can see the gate just behind the goofy lady posing on top of the two very accommodating students. (I told them there's no way I'm gonna be on the bottom!!)

We had to take a pic with an IDF soldier. We didn't want to ask this guy to pose with us, cuz he didn't look like he was enjoying his day (check out his expression...you can click on the pic to enlarge it:) So we just kind of saddled up next to him and played tourist. This was taken just inside the Jaffa Gate.

Well, then they made us enact a medical emergency in front of the Old City Clinic. In case you can't tell, Daniel is severely choking. I am giving him the best super duper Heimlich maneuver ever, and Miriam is hysterical!!

Next up, we had to have a pic with one of us talking with a Greek Orthodox priest. This guy was quite agreeable...I never did ask Daniel what it was they were talking about!

A visit to an Old City Shop...we had to exchange dollars into shekels there (which we did cuz we needed to, anyway), and then we could get 10 points for each of us who wears a 'Kaffiya'... an Arab head covering...and the shopkeeper was kind enough to dress us up. Don't we look spiffy?? Didn't seem to very flattering to me...

We took pics of these shopkeepers, didn't really ask em if we could, but we needed it for our points.

More points for a picture in front of the bell tower of the Church of the Redeemer. This church is right around the corner from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where many believe is the actual place Jesus died, was buried and rose from the grave. It's just amazing to be in this place where all this happened. This is also an awesome tower to climb...just ask Michael, he's been up there...

Who knows what a falafel is??  Kind of like an Israeli taco.  Has deep fried chickpea balls in a fresh pita bread with hummus, salads, pickles etc, etc...so YUMMY.  We had to take a pic with all three of us eating it. I think I look like a rabbit about to chomp down.  I didn't really bite it though..I handed it to Daniel and Parker (the cameraman) to eat...cuz they'd never had a falafel before. They both agreed it was outstandingly DELICIOUS!! mmm I do love falafels:)

Needed a picture of garbage in the Old City. That one wasn't hard to find. Garbage in bags like this one, and garbage not in bags were both plentiful and easy to find.

Pic of a Spice Shop....smells sooooooo good! There's lots of fragrances around the Old City - some good, some not so good, some wonderful...it all mingles together to become this uniquely distinguishing Old City smell that you never forget once you experience it.

We needed a pic of a 'Via Delorosa' sign...well that's it up there, above the shirts..can you see it?!?

There's LOTS of cats in the Old City, and very few dogs. We needed a pic of a stray cat. They're all pretty much wild, and we saw several but they wouldn't cooperate and hold still enough for a picture. So FINALLY, we saw this cat sleeping on top of the garbage can. We didn't get too close, just close enough for a pic - didn't want to wake the wild thing up! 

A Fire Hydrant?? Yup, needed a pic of a fire hydrant. This yellow thing looked like the best candidate. Good enough for us...

OK, I know I looked confused. We needed a pic of some policemen. Again, we didn't want to ask to pose with them. Didn't seem 'kosher' to us...so Parker snaps this random photo to meet the requirement of a police photo.  Lovely...

Going through security to get to the Western Wall part of the Jewish Quarter. Needed to pass through there to find the Zion Gate, next on our list. Israeli police checking our bags...

So here we are standing outside Zion Gate, the gate that leads to Mount Zion, where our school - JUC- is. We were to take a picture of the star at Zion Gate. It was a big one...I guess we found it!

 

So did our group win the scavenger hunt?? No, sorry to report. But the competition was fierce, and we did come in a close second place!! Hooray for US!!! And I loved showing those 'kids' around the Old City of Jerusalem. Hope you enjoyed it, too:)