I ended up at the Kotel

Lazy me. I decided not to go to the pool today. Ours is opening, G-d willing, on Friday. I'll save my 11/12 ticket for next year.

But I did go to Jerusalem. I was hoping to see my visiting kids and had to cash a dollars check. Well, I called the place that claims to cheerfully change your money, but they weren't "home." They didn't sound very cheerful, and I certainly wasn't cheerful when I realized that they didn't advertise hours, nor phones for each office. And the phone they do publicize, not only, wasn't answered, but they still haven't returned my call.

Not wishing to waste any more time on it, I went to the bank. That didn't go very efficiently either. I was sent up and down and to all sorts of different lines until I found the right clerk, and then I paid a hefty amount of "service charges" and just deposited the check, no cash in hand.

Being right near the store where I had bought my new cellphone, I went in to get the cord I needed to plug it into the computer to use it as a "memory" and get the pictures off. Did that.

Then I reached my kids who announced that they had "other plans."

So what else was there to do but go to the kotel?

Do I look like a tourist?


As soon as I got to the Old City, I was "accosted" by a man saying:

"Do you need a guide?"

Gevalt! I was probably wandering around the old city before he was born

As usual I took the route I loved to go when I was here as a student. There's a road that skirts the inside of the Old City Walls. You enter from Jaffa Gate, veer right and follow the road past the post office and police station.


It will take you all the way to the Kotel.



While walking I'm reminded of why we didn't stay in the Old City. It was our first home in Israel, as new immigrants. Soon I was pregnant, and I couldn't imagine where I'd be able to wheel a baby carriage.

How could I sit in a park and meet other young mothers, when there was no park and only a handful of young families, at the most?


So we left.

I wasn't the only one on my way to the Kotel, late this morning. There were lots of school groups for end of the year festivities.


I got there and entered the small room on the side of the Women's Section. I've always liked to sit there.




When I finished my T'hilim, Psalms, an old woman turned around and offered me some fancy cookies.

"You must have one. They're from a wedding."

For some reason, I felt that I had to accept one; it would have been insulting not to. She offered some to the other women nearby.

"I'm from Sderot," she said. "We're being attacked all the time. It's terrible. Boom! Boom!" She emphasized.

I asked her if she was in Jerusalem just for the day, or longer.

"We were put up in the Shalom Hotel. The conditions are wonderful. Maybe you'll take another cookie?"

She was obviously a poor woman, who spoke unclearly, due to the fact that there were thin metal posts in her mouth in lieu of teeth.

I excused myself and made my way to the bus. It seems like every time I need that bus out of the Kotel area the stop has moved. B"H, I found it, and the bus arrived immediately. So off I went to the bus station.

Suddenly it occurred to me that I ought to take pictures with my cellphone. So I did. With my new cord, I can transfer data to and from the phone. The plan was to copy both sets of pictures onto a CD once I got home.

Notice, I wrote "was to copy." When I got home I tried plugging the phone into both computers and they both "told me" that I needed some software. And they couldn't find the software online. So until I get the software or find out what else I should be doing, the pictures are staying in the phone.

Who said that life was easy, simple, uncomplicated? Whoever said that is lying!