An angel in Jerusalem

After the Christmas excitement fizzled out, the little town of Bethlehem slowed it's pace as the tourists dispersed. I hung around for a couple days afterwards, enjoying the more mellow atmosphere. I met a Canadian traveler, Kate, at my guesthouse. In my experiences, Canadians are usually pretty down to earth peeps. Kate was no exception. Naturally, we got along well.

Me and Kate

In true traveler style, I decided to spontaneously change my plans and head north with her to the town of Tiberias. Kate enticed me to go to this town by telling me this is where Jesus had walked on water. What the heck, I was up for an adventure, so off we went. We caught a 3 hour bus to this city on the sea of Galilee. On the bus, I sat next to a baby-faced girl, no older than 18, with an AK47 nonchalantly resting on her lap. In case you didn't know, It's required of all Israelis to join the army after high school.

Sea of Galilee

After arriving in Tiberias, me and Kate set off by foot in the cool night.... with no hotel reservation. We found a hostel with vacancy without a hitch and were shown to our room. We shared our room with Debbie, a bubbly girl from Minnesota! We had plenty to talk about. Debbie is one of the most upbeat people I have ever met. She kept us rolling in laughter. After plenty of girl talk, we settled in for the night and made an early morning rise to go site seeing. The next morning, we bargained hard with a taxi driver and were able to get a fairly decent deal for a ride to the Sea of Galilee. Here, we saw where Jesus walked on water. We also saw different churches where He gave sermons. It was all so unbelievable.


After 2 days and plenty of girl talk, I parted ways with Kate and Debbie and headed for Jerusalem, the holiest city on earth. This city had me very intrigued. To be in a city that has so much history is incredible. I picked to stay in a hostel located inside the old city walls, where a lot of the holy sites were located. The old city is beautiful, albeit a little touristy.

Streets of Jerusalem

As I was searching for my hostel upon arrival, an elderly gentleman, 80 years old to be exact, came up to me and asked me if I was from Scandinavia. I laughed and said, "um, no not really, I have Scandanavian blood, but I'm from the US". This old man talked about a mile a minute. He had a big white beard and piercing blue eyes. He was slightly hunch backed and was wearing a sweater with high water pants. I had to stifle my laughs of his appearance. Don't get me wrong, he was a cute little old man, and I really do love old people.

The "old man" or the angel?

He asked me where I was going and told me he knew exactly where my hostel was and that he would bring me there. In the time it took for us to reach the hostel, he filled my head with endless knowledge of Jerusalem and of Jesus's death. He conveniently had documents in a folder that showed hologrammed images of the sheet Jesus was buried in. You could see the perfect outline of Jesus's body and even blood stains from the thorns of his crown. How could I have gotten so lucky to run into this little guy? So it goes with my traveling life. As he rattled off numerous ancient history facts, my mind drifted off as if I was in a college class, and I wondered if this man was an angel. He was beyond helpful. He had an indescribably strange energy to him. Then my mind drifted off to other possibilities, like if he was going to ask me for money after this educational detour to my hostel. I shamed myself for thinking such a way about an innocent elderly man. When we arrived at my hostel, he shook my hand, said God bless and nice to meet you, and off he went. I still had a huge smile on my face from the whirlwind of it all. He sure was full of energy for such an old man.


Later that day, I walked the same street as Jesus did when he was brought to crucifixion, the Via Dolorosa. As I walked along the ancient stone street, images flashed in my head of Jesus carrying the heavy cross. The old man informed me that it weighed 150 lb. Jerusalem can be a bit intense for Christians. I could see the Mount of Olives in the distance, where Jesus ascended into heaven.

Mount of Olives

 I saw the church where He was buried and touched the stone where He was washed before burial. 5 people are allowed at one time into the small room inside the church where Jesus was buried. I shared the space with 4 other tourists for 5 minutes as we all prayed in our own unique ways. It seemed like it was all a dream.

Site where Jesus was buried

The stone where Jesus was washed before burial

The next day, I visited the room of the Last Supper. I was one of the only people in the room as I paced on the marble floor, picturing Jesus eating with the 12 disciples in this very spot. It's difficult to wrap your head around a fact like that.

Ths site of the Last Supper

 I was trying to get a good photograph of a mangy looking stray cat. Jerusalem has no shortage of stray cats.

Mangy cat

As I was crouched down, something catched my eye and I see the old man scuffling into the room. I did a double take. What the? How could this be. He must have known I was here. He reminded me of the old man on "Home Alone" that Kevin was afraid of at first but actually ended up being a good guy. He was carrying a sliced hot dog in a plastic bag. Again, I silently laughed at his appearance. He greeted me and then started to feed the hot dog to this cachetic cat. The cat purred as it gobbled up this tasty meal. He told me nobody feeds the cat because it smells so bad and is so dirty. This was a good man. Anyone that has sympathy and compassion for vulnerable animals is a good person in my book. Once again, the old man filled my ear with more knowledge, this time it was about the Last Supper. After a while, speaking in his mach 10 speed, my eyes glazed over as I lost place in the story. The dates and names began to blur together. I stepped back to distance myself from him due to the putrid smell of the hot dog, but he kept stepping closer to me. He obviously didn't know I was vegetarian. I think only Americans undestand the concept of personal space. I peered deep into his baby blue eyes, saying in my head "Are you an angel? C'mon, tell me who sent you here today?" I found it a little peculiar that I ran into him a second time. But for whatever reason, there he was, to fill me with unlimited knowledge of the holy land. Throughout the day, his voice would enter my mind as I passed by certain sites that he had talked about. Maybe he was my educational angel. I guess I'll never know....