Bethlehem

Birthplace of Jesus 

One of the destinations that I was especially anticipating to visit during my trip to Israel was the Palestinian governed city of Bethlehem.  For Christians, this is an important holy site since it was here that Jesus was born.  Located on the West Bank, Bethlehem is separated from Israel by the 500km Israeli West Bank barrier.  Built by Israel, the “wall” (also known as the Apartheid Wall and barrier) prevents Palestinians from crossing the border.  It is filled with graffiti expressing discontent and loss of freedom but also the need for peace.  Coming from Jerusalem, I could quickly spot the difference in wealth between Israel and this Palestinian-administered city.  Bethlehem’s streets are lined with fast food and souvenir shops in buildings that look aged and forlorn while buildings in Jerusalem are often brand new, streets are sparkling clean and many five-star hotels and high-end boutiques can be found on main arterial roads and side streets.

The highlight of Bethlehem is the Church of the Nativity, Jesus’ birthplace.  Built in the 4th century and reconstructed in 565AD, this site is religiously significant to both Christians and Muslims.  The holy site is known as the Grotto and the church sits atop the cave where Jesus’ birth took place.  Administered jointly by Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic authorities, the church is designed like a Roman basilica with a low entrance door, known as the door of humility.  Once inside, it’s not difficult to spot the line up to take a glimpse at Jesus’ birthplace.  The exact spot is marked by a 14-pointed silver star on marble floor and surrounded by silver lamps.  Another altar marks the site where newborn Jesus was laid in the manger.  It was pretty weird how I got a rush of memories of singing Christmas carols kneeling at this spot.

Jerusalem, Israel

 Holy City

Sites connected with Jesus’ life and death can be found through Jerusalem such as where Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection took place.  Having been to a Catholic school when I was little, it was quite interesting to walk along the footsteps of Jesus and pass by the 14 stations of the Cross.  One of the most amazing sites for me was The Church of the Holy Sepulchre as this is where Christians believe to be the place where Jesus rose from the dead.  There are over 30 chapels and worship spaces inside the church. It currently is the headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem and control is shared between different religious groups including Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and Oriental Orthodoxy.  The guardians of the main door of the church are actually the descendants of two 12th century Muslim families.  It is interesting how each religion involved is responsible for a specific part of the church and co-exist in the same church.

We came across many groups of pilgrims, from Ethiopia (the country apparently sponsors devoted followers to visit Israel once in their lifetime) to India.  I especially love the Christ Pantocrator mosaic and despite the crowds and echoes in the church, I was awashed with a sense of peace inside this church.  Some of the most important Christian relics are found in this church, including the anointing stone, on which Jesus’ body was laid before his burial and it is a tradition for pilgrims to bring objects and say their prayers at this spot.

 More on the rest of Israel in my next blog!

Holy City

Jerusalem

Being the holy centre of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Jerusalem is a pilgrimage site for millions from around the world.  As a non-religious person, it still felt like a spiritual journey visiting this historic and contentious city.  Over 1200 synagogues, 150 churches and 70 mosques are found within the city alone!

 For Jewish people, the creation of the world over 5000 years ago began with the foundation stone on Mount Moriah under the Dome of the Rock (that’s the famous gold top you see in postcards of Jerusalem) on Temple Mount.  Jerusalem was established as the capital by King David and it was here that the First Temple was built by his son Solomon.  By 586 BCE, the city was besieged and inhabitants exiled to Babylon.  In 538 BCE, the Second Temple was built, but Romans destroyed the Temple completely in 70CE.  The only remains of the Second Temple today is the Western Wall.

 Also known as the Wailing Wall, which stems from the practice of Jewish people coming to the wall to mourn the destruction of the temple, the Western Wall has separate sides for men and women.  The wall is always lined with people offering their prayers and you can see prayer notes wedged between the crevices.  Measuring 57m long and 18.9m above the ground, the wall used to be part of the city walls.  Not surprisingly, the whole city of Jerusalem and Israel is a rich archaeological site.  We came across plenty of archaeologists doing research during our short stay.  One of the cool things you can see at the Western Wall are the Bar-Mitzvah celebrations, a coming of age festivity for boys when they turn 13.  For the ladies, as we can’t really see what was going on the other side of the wall, there are rows of chairs to stand up on to peek over and there’s plenty of candy thrown over as a sign for good blessings.  In addition to Bar Mitzvahs, we also came across many interesting Jewish traditions.  For example, synagogues are built with the Holy Ark facing Jerusalem and daily prayers are recited facing Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.  Mizrach plaques can be found in Jewish homes to indicate the direction of prayer.  Another neat tradition is the Shabbat day of rest where traditional Jewish people devote their time and energy on their families and religion.  Shabbat falls on the seventh day of the week.  One of the restrictions include not lighting and extinguishing fire, so in modern times, this means using preset timers for lights and even elevators are set to stop on every level so there’s no need to press any buttons connected to a power source.  Israel doesn’t have very tall buildings, or else a simple ride on the elevator could take way longer than expected!  There is of course no driving allowed, so we could see lots of people walking on this day of rest and there was little traffic on the road.  Don’t expect hot food to be served either as everything that needs to be cooked would have been prepared the night before!  More to come on Israel on my next blog!

Petra, Jordan

Lost rose city

Gods worshipped by the Nabataeans were represented as pillars or blocks, hence the numerous blocks of rocks which appear everywhere at Petra.  Many of these have been decorated with sculptures believed to be water gods as water was so sacred for Nabataeans. The Nabataeans also have the custom of burying the dead in half-excavated caves.  We did climb up to some of the tombs, including the Urn Tomb.  They look quite magnificent from the outside but are pretty much empty except for some wall sculptures in some of them.  Weather and time have done some pretty strange things to the rocks.  The most magnificent structure at Petra (and likely the most famous) is Al Khazneh, also called the Treasury.  Bedouins, a desert-dwelling ethnic group which has been living in the area, believe that the Treasury contained treasures, but a graveyard has been unearthed from the ground of the Treasury, so it is also thought to be a memorial for royalty.  The real use of it remains unclear.  Further on from the Treasury is a magnificent amphitheatre surrounded by tombs, the Street of Facades, and the Great Temple of Petra.  The Great Temple of Petra is the largest building in the city of Petra and it’s pretty cool to still be able imagine what existed here from the wide steps leading to the supreme sacred area and the mirror arches spanning both sides of the temple.  All in all, I was in awe with this amazing place, especially how it has been carved into a whole city with just rocks.

Petra

Lost rose city

Visiting Petra in Jordan brought back memories of watching Indiana Jones and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, especially when I heard the echoes of horse hooves in the darkened passages of Petra’s famous 1.2km gorge known as the Siq, bringing shivers of excitement down my spine as I walked down this mysterious passage.  As I visited pretty late in the day and the sun’s rays were hitting the rocks from different angles, it was fascinating to see the red, pink, orange and golden hues in the different shapes and forms of rocks that make up Petra.  The half built, half carved ancient city of Petra sits on the south of Amman on the edge of Wadi Araba’s mountainous desert, and is surrounded by rose coloured mountains, hence the magnificent rose colours seen in the rocks of what’s left of this city.  Built with a combination of Ancient Eastern and Hellenistic architectural traditions, this city was established as early as 312 BCE as the capital of the Nabataeans, before it was annexed into the Roman Empire.  Because of its strategic location, Petra was the centre of caravan trade for Chinese silks, Indian spices and Arabian incense.  With a fortress like formation with towering rocks and as the centre of commercial routes passing through to Gaza, Damascus, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, this was a successful and prosperous city until the Romans took over later in history.  Being a desert city, water was vital to the Nabataeans and the ability to harness the water from the frequent flash floods enabled the Nabataeans to control and make use of this valuable resource.  The extensive water system built by the Nabataeans can be seen in the Siq which gets as narrow as 2m wide at its most narrow point and up to 7m at other points. There are remnants of channels, tunnels, and even elaborate cisterns and reservoirs beyond the gorge.

The Dead Sea

Gem of the Middle East 

This June, I had the chance to experience the Dead Sea for the first time in my life when I travelled to Israel and Jordan.  As a non-swimmer, it was pretty cool floating on the water without fear of sinking!  But you’re so buoyant on the water that it’s kind of difficult to stand back up, hence the handles around the beach area leading into the water!  My favorite time to take a dip in the water is definitely right in the morning before things start getting hazy in the scorching heat and right before sunrise.  With Israel and Jordan bordering its sides, you can enter the Dead Sea from either countries.  At a density of 1.24kg/L, or about 34% salinity, nothing survives for long in this body of water, which explains the name, but at the same time, it is also a magnificent resource especially for the cosmetics, agricultural and tourism industries.  I can tell you from my first hand experience that my skin felt super smooth after soaking in the water just for less than a minute.  The whole idea of thalassotherapy is all about using Dead Sea water to bathe to heal health problems such as allergies and osteoporosis.  There are even entire cosmetics companies, such as the well-known Ahava built around Dead Sea products.  Not surprisingly, the Dead Sea has been a shrinking resource, going from a depression of 395m in 1970 to 418 in 2006, at a drop rate of 1m per year.  From the production of potash for fertilizers, to extracting mud for the cosmetics industry, this is definitely a very valuable resource that is disappearing fast!

Helsinki: Design capital

Eco, functional and cool! 

What do Angry Birds, Marimekko, and The Moomins all have in common?  They’re all from Finland!

 It’s not hard to see why Helsinki took the title of World Design Capital in 2012.  From traditional Finnish designs to contemporary and modern trends, design is woven into the city’s urban and cultural fabric.

 How I came to know a lot about Finland’s treasures is also through Finnair’s specially painted aircraft with well known Finnish brands and characters.  What a great international ambassador!  Too bad I didn’t catch a flight with special designs – but maybe next time!

 Don’t think that the designs, whether it’s furniture, homeware, fashion and more, only look pretty. They’re super functional and many are eco too.  One of my favorite brands that I came across while strolling around Helsinki is Globe Hope, a Finnish fashion brand that designs and manufactures beautiful products from recycled and discarded materials.  It’s so amazing how old materials can be turned into the most fashionable bags, accessories and clothes.

A celebration of life

The Vigeland Park, Oslo

There’s no lack of artistic sculptures in Oslo, adding a lot more warmth to the city and complementing the abundant pockets of green space in the cityscape.  Being the world’s largest sculpture park made by a single artist, Oslo’s Vigeland Park was considered quite avant-garde at the time it was created in the 19th century.  Home to 227 granite and bronze sculptures, the sculptures were created by Norway’s famous sculptor Gusrav Vigeland,  I really like how there is a display of so many different emotions in the sculptures, not just facial expressions, but also very expressive body language, ranging from the affection between humans to the experiences of a child from birth to death. The focal point in the park is the cycle of life monolith which is a huge monolith of bodies with circles of statutes depicting the cycles of life.  With 121 figures carved from a single granite block of 17.3m, it shows Vigeland’s interpretation for the human’s longing and yearning for the spiritual and divine.  One of my favorite sculptures is the Wheel of Life, which displays connecting humans through happiness, sadness, anger, and fear.  It is also a symbol of eternity in the use of a garland of women, men and children holding hands.

Vilnius

City of churches 

The snow only got heavier as we got into Vilnius from Riga.  It almost felt like Christmas in the middle of April!  With 65 churches nestled in the historic Old Town of Vilnius, which is listed on UNESCO’s World Heritage sites, it isn’t hard to miss the various types of cathedrals and churches dotted at almost every corner.  Amongst them, Vilnius Cathedral and St. Anne’s Church are the most well-known. Vilnius Cathedral is the main Roman Catholic Cathedral of Lithuania and has over forty frescoes and paintings dating back to the 16th century.  Even the coronations of the Great Dukes of Lithuania took place in the cathedral.  St. Anne’s Church is a signature red-bricked Roman Catholic church built in a gothic style.  Vilnius University also lies amongst these beautiful historic buildings.

 After a walking tour of the Old Town in the morning, we headed towards the famous island castle Trakai in the afternoon. Located in Lake Galve, this 14th century castle is a real life version of Lego castles that I used to love building as a kid.  Complete with a connecting bridge, defensive towers, movable gates, stables and more, the castle did serve a military purpose at the beginning and later evolved into a summer residence, a prison and now a tourist location!  It was pretty cool seeing locals fishing in the middle of the frozen lake-must need a lot of patience for that, especially in the freezing cold weather!

As my trip in the Baltic countries wraps up, I head to Oslo-a beautiful city filled with artistic sculptures!

Riga

A touch of Latvia 

As the capital and largest city of Latvia, Riga has a historic area-Old Town Riga, which gathers some beautiful architecture.  One that stood out for me was the House of Blackheads in Town Hall Square, which was rebuilt in 2001 to commemorate the city’s 800th anniversary.  Originally owned by a merchant guild, it currently serves as a museum and concert hall.  It was destroyed in 1941 and buried by the Soviets in 1948.  Ironically, it sits next to the Museum of Occupations, which houses information boards and exhibits on what the Latvian people endured during the Nazi occupation followed by the “Russification” of the country when the Soviet Union took over the country.  Hundreds of thousands of Russians moved across the Soviet Union to Latvia to work during the Russian occupation.  Today, about a third of the population in Latvia are made up of Russians, and half of the population speaks Russian.  We weren’t surprised to see Russian on the streets and in cafes.  But beneath the calm surface, there are many ethnic divides between Russians and Latvians and language is just the beginning.

 By the time we made it to Rundale Palace, a beautiful baroque palace built in the 18th century just outside of Riga, it was snowing like mad and summer time is definitely a better time to visit the palace when the flowers in the gardens are in full bloom.  But the snow didn’t ruin our spirits as the palace is splendid inside, especially the detailed ceiling paintings in the ballrooms and halls.  There is even a dedicated space that house porcelain pieces.    

 My trip in the Baltic countries continues on with Vilnius!