Israel. The center of the world.

Today I have the organised excursion to Jerusalem. I needed to wake up early, and fortunately the breakfast was already served. Honestly, February is the most convenient time for excursions, because other time it is much more crowdy, and there are a lot of traffic here. Moreover, it is extremely hot in summer.

Well, the collecting of the tourists started from Netanya, so I had the opportunity to choose the better seat in the bus. Then we drove into Tel Aviv to pick up other people.

Our guide is "all-knowing" Sarah. She tells us a lot of interesting facts about the country, the people and its history. For example, the population of Jerusalem is about 800 thousand, in Tel Aviv live 500 thousand people. Overall, Israel has population of 8 million.

Sarah is not like a tour guide, who only points to some attraction. She also tries to show us the meaning of some matters. The another thing about her personality, which I liked the best, was that she did not want to impose her own opinion. In fact, all the historic events of the ancient times cannot be proven. And this is our right to believe or not.

Jerusalem counts more than 4 thousand years of history! And I am absolutely happy to see and feel the history with my own eyes. At the beginning of the 20th century there was a great influence of Great Britain here. And English people made many good things for Israel. So it is a highly developed country now.

The temperature in Jerusalem is very changeable, and the wind is extremely strong. That is why you should take a jacket to be on the safe side.

There are three main mountains in Jerusalim - the mount of Olives, the Temple Mount and the Mount Sinai. And as you can guess, all the important holy subjects are located in the Temple Mount.

The old part of Jerusalem divided into four parts - Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Armenian. We were in the first two districts. Of course, we visited the Holy Sepulchre and the Western Wall, where I could put my and my friend's notes in.

Miraculously, we should not stay in the queues while entering the holy places as people usually do.
By the way, it was not obligatory to cover the head in the temples. At least, I haven't noticed any troubles connected with this matter. I would say, Israel is not a strictly religious country.

As usual, we had a stop at the souvenir shop, where the prices are twice expensive. This time I avoided the mindless spendings.

The interesting thing happened to me while I was leaving the old city. Suddenly one man with a black hat sneaked up to me and covered my wrist with a red thread. Then he asked the names of the members of my family and said his prayers. In a minute I realised that it was done with some intention. Actually, I was obliged to give a banknote.