*Trying a new layout of putting the pictures first rather than the text*

A group of us went to the main shuq (outdoor market typical in the Middle East) in East Jerusalem today.  This is exactly what I thought of, pre-trip, when someone mentions Jerusalem.  Hijab-adorned women and kippah-wearing men mingle lazily along the outer edges of the market.  Inside, it’s reminiscent of a circus.  People yell (mainly in Hebrew, though Arabic and some English were heard, too), children run between people chasing plastic toys, and a burly Jewish man chops bloody fish heads to sell to and elderly Muslim woman.  Jerusalem is turning out to be a city of contrasts, yet the city still functions, maybe because it has to.  The city is like a rusty cog – if you had to check a box on whether or not it works, you would choose yes, but it staggers, struggling for a future undefined.

Anyway, enough of that.  The general breakdown of the pictures (I realize now putting the text first might have been a better idea):

1. Walking to the shuq in East Jerusalem
2. Stores like this lined the outside the market.  Fruit (especially dates and strawberries) was really inexpensive.
3. A little bread store selling phenomenal (thank you Roger for enriching me your vocab) pastries for 1 NIS (about 30 US cents)
4. Entrance to the shuq
5. Everyone loves chocolate
6. Narrow streets curve and bend with people buying and selling local wares
7. Hello ceiling
8. Hello person
9. Narrow, narrow streets
10. Rep your city, yo, even in the Holy Land