we went up and had a delicious dinner of chicken at a local restaurant on thursday evening, then stayed in an atmospheric ottoman era mansion-turned hostel in the old city called fauzi azar. while there i ran into a random friend from college! on friday morning we visited the church of the annunciation, the main sight in nazarath, which marks the spot where mary learned of the impending birth of Jesus. interestingly, various artists representing numerous countries around the world were commissioned to create artwork depicting mary and the Christ child: these culturally disparate visualizations are positioned around the church and the courtyard. there are many other less famous churches, monasteries and mosques sprinkled around the city as well. we then visited nazareth village, a replica/reenactment of first-century nazareth. though it sounds childish, it was actually very well done, and our guide had many an explanation of Jesus’ various parables and how they would have been interpreted in the context and customs of the time. i really enjoyed it. then i climbed a huge hill for a view over the city before attempting to return to beer sheva, which was complicated by the fact that shabbat was looming so the buses had already stopped. managed to get home via three sherut (shared-taxi) rides and eight hours later. nice weekend!
