Koula in the Garden of Gethsemane

Koula, 94.7 presenter and F&HE blogger, is loving all things food-related in her travels through Turkey, Greece, Italy and Israel…

Sunday 9 September

Everyone was feeling a little flat today, considering we’d only had five hours from the time we arrived at the hotel until we needed to be in our tour bus again. We started our sightseeing and filming at the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem – the place where Jesus ascended to heaven.

Then we drove to the Garden of Gethsemane and although the area was swarming with tourists, I took a short walk around the back of the gardens on my own to get some peace and perspective and absorb the enormity of what had happened in this spot all those years ago.

From there, we passed through the border post from Israel into Palestine to go to Bethlehem – with the massive wall separating the countries covered in graffiti.

There were several churches built around the spot believed to have been Jesus’ birthplace. Although it was incredibly special to be in the vicinity of something like this, the thousands of tourists and the mass produced tourist relics (bottles of sand from the Garden of Gethsemane, wooden crosses made from olive trees in Gethsemane, holy water) did detract from how personal an experience like that should be.

Wrapped up late afternoon so we could all get some rest!

SOURCES
By Serdar Yilgoren