Day two
We slept like logs in our room. It was nicely heated, cozy and just enough for the two of us. In the morning I opened the sliding window and saw the olive orchard right in front of my porch. Flo rushed out and quickly brought a hand full of black olives that we love most. She gave it to me to eat. It was a treat to see it so in a hurry I grabbed one and bit it. The bitter taste of the olives spread all over my mouth and started penetrating to my intestines. It was so bitter and unlike the olives that we have ever tasted. Then we understood that it had to be pickled before we eat it.
With the same bitter taste in our mouths we left for breakfast. It was the typical kibbutz style breakfast. The kosher meals were offered. For those who don’t know what it is, and for those of you who are too lazy to look it up on wikipedia let me tell you what it is. It is a way of diet organization. Specially the way the Jews organize their food. Milk based food such as cheese, butter, and a host of others are never mixed with meat, but fish can be eaten with it. The cooking is separate, the dishes they use for it is not used for meat and vice versa. Usually there are two milk meals and one meat meal. They are extremely particular about it and maintain it religiously. We had our milk meal with a lot of salads and a made ourselves sandwiches.
With our bellies full we left for Akko a neighbouring town. As we drove along we saw that we were approaching a sea. And guess what, it was the Mediterranean sea. There was a huge brown wall that hid our view of the sea, and a beautiful boulevard that had a string of palm trees and beautiful apartments overseeing the sea. We drove through it and parked in front of a Byzantine church and started walking.
We first went to the old harbour, it had some fishing boats that were floating and young boys standing with their fishing rods. There were several romantic restaurants offering hooka and lovely food. As we walked by the path way naturally led us to an ancient temple. It could have easily been about 3000 years old, it formed the base for a church that stood right above it. We learnt that these churches were built during the crusades. The way led us to a beautiful school run by the Franciscans. It had a board that said 1217. That was a really old school. This was one of the remnants of the crusades. They never got cleansed when the Turks took over this place.
We did then move along the souks (narrow streets which we can also call markets or bazaars). It resembled a street with shops except that it was on a slope. You could find all kinds of things from fruits to sweets, clothes to curios, souvenirs to spices. It is a find all spot not only for tourists but also for the locals. The narrow alleyways lead to another and there you could find a lot more interesting shops. Looking every shop would take a few days to complete a good inspection since we did not have the time we had to move on. We enjoyed the sea shore, the views and then decided to go to other places.
The drive was about forty minutes. It was a completely up hill drive. Guess where we were driving to? It was the real Nazareth. As we approached it we saw the dome of the church of the annunciation. We stopped to take some pictures of the town. The entire hill was covered with buildings. As we drove by we found that the place was so hilly that there was almost no vacant land to build any more. It instantly reminded me of Ooty. We tried had to find a parking spot and parked the car.
Waking uphill we landed up in the Church of the Annunciation. This was the real place where the Christians claim that Angel Gabriel appeared to give the new of the conception. This fact was contested. The orthodox Christians claim that the angel first appeared to Mary near a well. She was so scared that she ran away to her house then the angle appeared to hear again in her house.
The house looks like a cave, with a flight of stairs leading out of the place. It was made with rocks and with very minimal facility. Just above the room there is a well and a storage area. It gave a clear picture of how people lived during those days. A beautiful church is built above the cave. It contains the pictures and statues for Mary from all over the world. It was interesting to find how each culture sees Mary. For example Mary from Japan had a flat nose and was wearing something like a Kimono. Where as Mary from Venezuela carved out of black wood. Walking and seeing the different pictures and statues we came to a glass case. It lit up automatically with the motion sensor. It had the images of Mary from China, and on the right it the statue of Our own Lady of Vailankanni. (it was a beautiful statue in must say, unlike the one in the US). It was a surprise to see this. Well India had to be represented.
We moved out of the Basilica and decided to walk around the town of Nazareth. Around a corner we landed up in a bakery. The baker immediately recognized us and asked if we knew Chori, Chori. For a moment we were startled. He was asking us about bollywood. It is had to believe how Bollywood has penetrated into the hearts of these people. Jew or Arab they all know Bollywood. They don’t know the actors, don’t even remember the names of the movies. All that the remember is the songs and dancing.
We decided to eat a traditional meal with them. It was like a combination of pita bread with naan topped with a green spice tasted like our curry leaf with till. It tasted yummy. As we stood there waiting for it to arrive, we met a couple. The woman had just been to India and she was so excited to see us and said that she was going to visit us again next year. They said that they come every year to Nazareth to see the parade and relax. We had our lovely pomegranate juice made from those humongous fruits. (honestly, each fruit was the size of a large coconut, well I could hardly hold one fruit with my palm open wide). He also said that it was a good fruit for men. He meant that it was natural Viagra. We had a good laugh and continued our journey.
The narrow streets, ups and downs, peddlers and hawkers trying to pass through the crowds, sweet vendors enticing the old and young, street musicians playing to get a shekel, the gas balloon sellers were getting the attention of the children with their spiderman, dora, dogs, horses, lions sponge bob, fairies, butterflies, and other lovely creatures, carols being played loud from the speakers, the mullah was calling for the afternoon prayers and people were all gathering around the main road to witness the parade. You could see that it was chaotic.
The waiting went on for about an hour, the crowds were getting denser. The police patrols arrived. The waiting continued. At a distance we saw the flags coming towards us. It was flanked by a band and all the religious leaders lead the parade. Three huge camels, followed by a crib, a band, and a band again, children dressed in funny clothes, towers of balloons were released and the parade was really on.
Just when you wanted it to end, another group of people were just beginning to walk. Santas were everywhere they filling crowds with joy. People of all faith just gathered in the main road to celebrate Christmas. It was remarkable to see the children who were all out to enjoy themselves in the this town of Nazareth.
I could imagine how this town could have been during the times of Jesus, hilly, rocky, and cold.
We got back on time for the Christmas eve service. It was an international group with Germans, the Dutch, and a few other nationalities. The Service was in English. Children from the only dutch family had made beautiful angels and presented to all those present. The choir sang a few songs and a modern version of the nativity play was performed. It started with Joseph calling out to Mary in the Romeo calling out to Juliet style. Mary comes running and is all so happy. Joseph suddenly gets a call to leave for work. He packs his baggage and immediately leaves for work bidding farewell to Mary.
While he is gone, the angle appears and the Annunciation takes place in a shadow play. Mary is petrified. She is also happy that she is pregnant and looks at herself in a mirror and performs a short dance reciting the Magnificat.
Joseph returns from his journey and finds his wife pregnant. He is shocked and not convinced of her explanation. He restlessly goes to sleep when the same angel appears in a dream to explain. He accepts the situation and decides to move on with life. Now a messenger comes on a bicycle with an announcement saying that all those who are from the clan of David have to be enumerated and hence have to go their places of origin. Joseph with his very pregnant wife tries to move. On the way she develops a lot of pain and has no place to peacefully give birth. The play ends here with an announcement to look beneath the chair for a note. The audience pull out the note from under the chair, read it and do what is written on it. It mostly said, “walk out of the room, go to the coffee corner, then to the toilet corner and then get back into the room and sit in on the opposite place to where you were sitting earlier”. The audience did the same waited for the play to end and it ended right there with the silence.
