Yad Vashem and street life in West Jerusalem

One of the things I considered to be a "must see" here in Jerusalem is Yad Vashem, the world holocaust memorial museum. Since Sean and I both love history, and we've both watched a lot of documentaries on WW2, we had to visit! From our hotel in the fun Nakhalat Shiva neighborhood, we jumped on the Metro and rode it to the end of the line to get to the museum. It's set high on the side of Mount Herzel, and the natural beauty of the place is great!

We noticed a bunch of Israeli Army soldiers on the train with us, and they all got off at our stop. They were VERY young! We chatted with one of them, and she told us the female soldiers serve for 2 years, the males serve for 3 years, and if you enjoy it, you can renew and stay in the Army. Evidently they were visiting the museum for the day, too. They were all very polite and quiet in the museum.

There was also an actual holocaust survivor at the museum today, and we both shook his hand. We purchased the English audio tour headsets, which were almost too informative! They went into great detail, and were actually so lengthy that we ended up having to take them off and go through the last bit on our own so we could get out before the museum closed for the day.

Photography isn't allowed inside, but their website has some good photos of the exhibits.

I can say that it was tough to see some of them, especially the exhibits about the mothers and children. There were a couple of times where I had to turn off the headset and step away so I wouldn't cry. Sure, we learned about the holocaust in high school, and in college, but this was so much more information! There was a nice display about Oskar Schindler (the movie Schindler's List was his story) that showed a copy of his list, and an enamel bowl that was made by the Jews in his factory. Here is his memorial tree in the Garden of the Righteous Among The Nation's, which is an area to thank non-Jewish people who helped the Jews during the holocaust.

I'm going to be a little political here... Please, do not EVER compare an American politician, or an
American political party, to the Nazis or to Adolf Hitler. Just don't. There is no comparison to the evil, hatred, and ruthlessness of that man. The ideals that he and his fellow sympathizers stood for, and their deliberate destruction of and disregard for human life, should never be seen again!

Anyway, we walked out of the museum to see a beautiful sunset over the valley. It was a very moving experience!

We hopped back on the Metro and returned to our fun little neighborhood. Sunday nights are great for the street activity here, and people were out and about! Many of the streets here are closed to cars, and are only accessible by pedestrians. The streets are full of shops, small restaurants, etc. It's really nice! This is Ben Yehuda Street, which quickly became our favorite!

We have seen LOTS of street cats here. We took this photo in the morning on our way to the Metro. The cats were meowing and waiting for someone to feed them! They are wary of humans, but not really feral. Still, I wouldn't touch them, especially after the cat at Petra.

Dinner tonight was a lamb burger for both of us at the Israeli fast food place Burgers Bar. It's not worth a picture, but it was tasty!

Tomorrow is our tour of the Old City. I'm already excited!