Dome of the Rock

After a long week, we had a pretty empty afternoon on Thursday. A group of us wanted to go to a Russian church that is a few blocks to the right of the Center. We had to walk through the Orson Hyde Park to get there, and on our way though, we met a group of gardeners. They were taking a little lunch break and were eating pitas with some interesting dipping sause. They started talking to one of the guys in the group, and before we knew it, we were eating with them and spending quality time with our new Palestinian friends! Since my hair is slightly red and no one in the Middle East has hair that color, one of the older guys sat there petting my hair for a good five minutes or so. They also think my name is really funny since they can't say it, so they decided that they liked the name Molita better. We had to cut our visit short since the Russian church was closing soon, but we did promise to come back this Thursday and we're bringing dessert!

After a short visit to the Russian church, we made our way to the Temple Mount to see the Dome of the Rock. Today, they don't let any non-Muslims into the Temple, but it was really cool to walk around it and be up there. It is so beautiful and we were there on a cloudless day which made things so much better. They asked us to cover our hair, so we wore our scarfs for most of the time, but I did manage to get a few pictures without it on, which I'll post as soon as possible!

Tomorrow we're spending the day walking through Hezekiah's Tunnel and going to the old city of David. I'll post pictures tomorrow night!