let's go to jerusalem
i packed extra layers, an e-reader, a notebook, and a phone charger in my backpack; wore my finest wolf-ears and -tail, and went to the train station; four minutes until my train
jerusalem, war etc, religion
went to the old city and the western wall. took that time to write in a journal, leave a note in the wall, and adamantly refuse offers for jewish missionary stuff, and read all of kohélet from my phone cause they had a billion prayer books but somehow no single old testament????
then i took a walk around the old city, and around mt zion, where there used to be a weird jewish cult that i read about in a book
at every turn i'm constantly reminded of how this city is split up into warring factions -- border police at some tram stops and at the western wall; bullet holes in the ancient city gates; old barbed wire fences on some buildings; a constant anxious thought in my head along the lines of "wait does this street lead to the Other part of the city? how will they take to a random israeli waltzing in like they own the place, wearing wolf ears and a long bushy tail? will something Bad happen to me if i go there?"
religion, mh-
kohélet is the perfect jewish text for a months-long existential crisis btw; highly recommended
+
as for my costume -- the responses from people so far are overwhelmingly positive, probably because there's a big costume-related holiday next week
a bunch of kids asked me all kinds of questions, i let one of them try the ears on
the woman at a tourist shop told me all about the costume-holiday religious stuff that i "really should attend" (lol)
a tourist-bus driver honked to get my attention, then waved and smiled as his coworker took a photo
a bus full of schoolchildren knocked on the bus windows and waved
a random street vendor said just "nice!" (in english)
and a woman at the train station asked me where i bought the things (bruryah, at the dizengoff center in tel aviv)