Just a Stroll

Holidays in Israel mean lots of down time. For the past month it has felt like every other day is a holiday. To be completely honest I'm glad the chagim (plural of holiday in Hebrew) has come to an end. Don't take that the wrong way. It's been absolutely lovely to spend the High Holy Days in Israel for the first time. Rosh Hashana. Yom Kippur. Sukkot. Even Simchat Torah, where people dance in the streets celebrating the end and beginning of the reading of the Torah, was an experience I would never trade. During these holidays EVERYTHING is closed. So while you have tons of free time, so do the people that work at the various places you would want to visit. Everybody wins I suppose. But there is only so much relaxing you can do. At some point the relaxing becomes not relaxing. It's a strange phenomenon. It is an opportunity to be creative with entertainment. However I usually end up on a walk to explore the neighboring areas. Rachel, Rachelle and I walked to a beautiful part of Jerusalem on Thursday afternoon. Situated on a hill opposite the walls of the Old City, Yemin Moshe, is a neighborhood worth exploring. Established in 1891 to alleviate the overcrowding and unsanitary conditions of life within the walls of the Old City, today it is one of the most expensive areas of Jerusalem. We only walked through a fraction of the neighborhood and it was enough to be completely sold on moving in ASAP.