Last night was another late one. A small group of us wandered up to Zion Square and surrounds for a bite to eat and a beer. And another beer with a free shot. And another of each. And more beer. Then some beer. Finally, we drank beer. We found an amazing bar with no seats, no toilet but beer at 8 Shekels for a large bottle. OK, technically it was just a shop but seeing as there are no laws regarding drinking on the street, or night suddenly became a lot cheaper.
We sat on the steps outside of the Tower of David Museum until shortly before sunrise. I keep forgetting that this means it’s hard for me to get to sleep as I’m still crashed out on the roof. So I snuck into my sleeping bag at around 5:30 and woke at 11:00 stewing in my own sweat. Niiiice.
I caught up with Dawud, one of the guys from the night before, and we walked back to the museum which this time was open. For 30 Shekels (20 for students) it’s a very interesting couple of hours, detailing the history of Jerusalem as a city from its tiny beginnings to the huge place it is now. It’s an interesting story and pretty much involves different groups of people kicking the previous “tenants” out every few hundred years and converting the existing religious buildings into different ones. Or burning them to the ground. Whatever took their fancy.
The building housing the museum is the Citadel of the Tower of David which has been restored incredibly well. Starting this weekend, the excavations area on the center is being used to host some kind of modern music concert thing with some bizarre instruments. These are permanently fixed into the surroundings and give a very unusual feel to the otherwise sedate setting.
The whole thing’s definitely worth a visit. Nicely laid out, plenty of information without an overload and a good variety of ways of presenting the details. Some of the forced perspective sculptures are very cool!
Looks like I’m off out for food and beers again later. Oh dear. Especially as one of my bank transfers seems to have been delayed for no readily apparent reason and I only have £2 in my current account. Argh.
