Jerusalem--First Impressions of the Old City

Another excerpt from my journal, August 31st, 1989. It was our first full day in the Holy Land. After an orientation at the Jerusalem Center, we took a walking tour of Jerusalem.

"...we went through Damascus Gate into the Old City. What a place. Narrow streets, lots of people, shops and peddlers with everything from gold and silver to olivewood to leather to T-shirts to [cassette] tapes, to ice cream, pop, bread, spices. Strange smells, kids selling postcards that you kind of felt sorry for, beggars, tourists/pilgrims, priests, and pickpockets....We left through the Jaffa Gate and walked Ben Yehuda and King George Streets. We caught an Israeli Egged bus home for about 55 cents--one shekel, ten agarot."