"Um...these are old."

Spent yesterday wandering the Old City with Rebecca - very different to see it this time around, because it was actually full of tourists - last time we were there, it was eerily empty. I love wending my way through the suq - it's like being in a cross between Target and Aladdin, with enough medieval memorabilia to fascinate me all day long. I also managed not to buy anything, which is quite a feat in itself.

I realized that I am a bit of a tourist attraction - particularly with little kids (they're more blatant, at least) - people will just kind of walk by and stop and stare at my hair. I'm thinking of dyeing it dark brown, not that I'd really blend in anyway, but...

We went into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which might be one of my new favorite places. It's a collage of different time periods, and different conquerors, each adding a separate piece and separate style so that the entire building is a patchwork of history. As you walk along, even the graffiti is historical - carved into the pillars and walls are hundreds of crosses - marked by the Crusaders! And as you walk through, high on one pillar someone has carved a name (blurred now), and the year 1449.

As you walk through the streets, there are things dating to the Romans, to King Herod, to days and people that I imagine rather than study. It rather puts things in perspective, to see that, despite its age, this city is still alive; it just takes each piece of history, and integrates it into the puzzle of the whole. It makes you wonder a bit what our age will leave behind.