Israel: Day Five
February 21, 2008
I was in a T-Shirt today. And when that wasn’t enough a light sweatshirt was enough. The weather was beautiful today. Now this is what I expected to find in Israel. The wonderful weather complimented an even more wonderful day.
First we picked up my cousins Netta and Alon, together we spent the morning over at Yadvashem, a museum remembering the Holocaust. Although I prefer the one in Washington D.C. this one had some great content. Along with the great content, it had something that the one in D.C. lacks, a children’s memorial. Inside this dark, candle lit room they read the names of every child that died in the Holocaust. It takes four months to complete the list. In one word: powerful.
After dropping Alon off at the bus station, Netta showed my father and me around the old city. We went walking through the markets again. Stopping to take a peek from the roof of an old building. We then continued down through the muslim quarter.
We stopped for lunch at a small humus place. Very tasty, but not very filling. Then Netta told me we had to stop at a small photography store. There is a small story behind Netta’s relationship with the shop keeper. Apparently two years ago she stopped in and started chatting with the man. He then invited her upstairs and showed her his gadgets and the dark room. Well, she hasn’t stopped in to say hello in the last two years. But, he recognized her right away and invited us in. After admiring his works and chatting with him he then invited us upstairs. He pulled out camera after camera and talked technical with my father through his thick Armenian accent. He showed us his dark room and his large negatives in which he practices the equivalent to an ancient art of Photoshop. He explained how he removes lines from peoples faces etc. Then he started showing us prints from his grandfather’s negatives. I asked, “When was this taken?” “One thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty Seven.” He then rattled off the date for every picture he pulled out of the developing trays. After some more chatting he invited us to have some tea. The tea was wonderful. Unlike the Lipton crap we half heartedly serve our guests in the states. This was brewed and served with gratitude, it’s people like us that support him. We sat drinking tea and talking about all the best places and times to shoot throughout Jerusalem, and slowly people started to trickle into his small store. Our presence attracted more and more customers until the store was jam packed. We bought two prints, each fifty sheckels. We left 120 sheckels, about $40.
The rest of the day paled in comparison to our meeting with this wonderful man. We continued walking throughout the market eventually making our way back to the hotel. Time to edit the pictures!
-Aaron Snyder
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