American Studying in Amman, Jordan: October 2016

As far as religious cities go, Jerusalem is by far the holiest one for Christians. I've never considered myself to be religious, despite having a certain amount of upbringing around the christian faith. I do however consider myself spiritual in way that is significantly different from any of the monotheistic religious. With that being said I had quite the profound experience when I entered the tomb of Jesus. Located inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the tomb was covered in protective scaffolding. The line to enter was long, but moved quickly enough. We were guided by a large man who pointed in the direction of a small hole, where we were required to duck in order to enter. The room was dead silent and small, but in front of us lay the tomb as well as a quaint shrine devoted to Jesus. In all honesty I'm not one to pray. I never feel that it is fair to pray when I have done so little to show I deserve the completion of a request. Instead, I sat there silently and did my best to show respect, I'm hoping the respect was mutual.
After visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre I knew it would be impossible to top it, but going to the Dome of the Rock was a pretty incredible experience as well. Unfortunately I was unable to enter, because I am of course, not Muslim. The architecture and mass were still a spectacular sight none the less. There were numerous churches to visit even the place of the Last Supper, but one of my fondest memories was climbing the Mount of Olives, where the famous Jewish graveyard is located. From the top of the Mount you could see all of Jerusalem surrounded by the great Ottoman walls and even the glowing gold dome of the Mosque. The sun began to set and the call to prayer echoed throughout the hills.
The second most important city to the Christian faith has to be Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. The group made its way to the Church of the Nativity and was able to get a tour guide for about 2 dollars. His name was Sammy, and was extremely educated on the temple and spoke great English. He explained how difficult it has been to find work, due to the low number of tourists and was grateful for any amount of money we could give him. After visiting the birthplace of Jesus we wanted to see the walls surrounding the city. Many different graffiti pictures illustrated the struggle of those living within the fortifications. Foot traffic was dense and moved quickly, while salesmen lined the street trying to sell anything from socks to toy guns; silverware to fresh lemonade; fine Jewelry to simple scarves. It was pure chaos and to top it off a faint scent of rotten vegetables was inescapable.
That night we made our way to one of the more American bars in Jerusalem. We struck up conversation with one of the locals who was originally from America, but moved to Jerusalem. He was a proud citizen and bragged about Israel and the valor of the soldiers who have protected it, as well as the tree planting programs. There was a stark contrast between the Palestinian and the Israeli. I was able to visit the Holocaust Museum before I left for Tel Aviv and it was certainly powerful, but we arrived late in the day and our time there was cut short due to the scheduled closing.