Janna's Jerusalem Journies: Old City Adventures (Part 3)

Girl’s day! Tuesday was miraculously NOT a holiday (well technically it was but people have to eat so they had to open things) so Skye got to go to the archives to work. When you walk around in the Old City there are some very awesome holy sites to see, but there is also a lot of shopping. There are tons of vendors, with all, basically the same stuff. I believe I mentioned this in our first experience in the Holy Lands. Some of the items were cool and made in Jerusalem, things that makes sense to buy in the Old City such as, nativity scenes, rosaries, scarves, menorahs, jewelry, etc. But they also had plenty of things straight from China that you could find in a dollar store deep in the heart of Texas.

Well, Tricia wanted a Nativity and I wanted a few gifts for people as well. Remember Skye and I also saw David’s Tomb and the room of the Lord’s Supper? But those ended up being super fast, so Tricia and I decided to have a shopping day, and on the way out check out those sites.

Shopping was exhausting. As you know from my apartment blog, I’m not afraid to barter. And the place for bartering is the Old City. I hate it. I hate bartering. Just give me a fair freaking price, and I will pay it. I didn’t care for it in Mexico on our honeymoon either, but I was good at it. The key is to ALWAYS be ok with walking away. And seriously, be ok with walking away. You can get the same thing in the next store. And they know it.

The first store we went into, we found a cute and good sized wooden nativity scene. He told us the price in Dollars. 210. Ok, seriously who would pay that? It wasn’t very big. We told him our absolute max was 50$. He kept asking us to tell him our max price. 50$. 50$. 50$. What part of 50$ don’t you understand? He went all the way from 100$ to 65$ and everywhere in between. Every time we began to walk away he went lower. Finally we had had it with him and decided to just leave no matter what. I started to walk out, Tricia followed, but the old man grabbed her arm and pulled her back! What the heck! And he still didn’t offer what we were asking, 50$, which was our maximum. I grabbed Tricia, put my arm around her and we walked out. As we left, he said, “fine 50$” and we both thought…no freaking way! If you can go from 210$ to 50$, there is no way it’s even worth 50. But like I said, the key is to walk out and be ok with it.

The next guy was much more reasonable. Started with a lower price and wasn’t so stubborn about meeting us half way. We got the nativity for 50 including a little mini one.

We were feeling pretty good about it and stopped in one store for post cards. It was 2 shekels for one post card. I began counting out my change, here the lowest coin is a 10 cent piece, and they also have a ½ piece which is like a 50 cent piece. After watching me count it out, the guy slammed it back in my hand and said, “we don’t take gold” so I said “fine!” and I slammed down my post card and left. That pissed me off.

So we find different post cards. I also felt like looking at some necklaces at the same place. The guy went on and on about how his store was all about hospitality, that he had southern hospitality like in Alabama. I told the guy what I was willing to pay for the necklaces, and he looked me in the eye (or tried anyways, he had two lazy eyes) and asked me, “are you normal, or are you not normal”. He wasn’t even willing to barter with me, so I said I’ll just take the post cards. Then he tried to charge me 5 shekels for two, so I said, “no way at the other place they were 2” He said, “fine then 4” and I said, well, I only have 3 shekels, so I’ll just get them somewhere else. So as I walked away, he said, “ok ok ok fine 3”. So I said, “ok” counted out my ‘gold’ and gave it to him. He threw it back into my hands (some went flying) and said, “bye bye”. That’s some southern hospitality, let me tell you.

At this point, I’m furious. SO done with these idiot vendors. We walked into one more place, a bigger place, and the guy of course greeted me like some rich American, like they always do (uh yeah…I’m unemployed and my husband is a grad student….so rich). I flat out asked him if he was going to be mean like every other vendor there. Of course he said “no no no no” blah blah blah. Well, he was telling the truth and he offered me exactly what I was going to offer him on the stuff I bought, so I didn’t even have to barter. That was pretty relieving.

We also went into a place where Tricia got a flag, and that guy was married to someone from Osh Kosh, Wisconsin! Ha! Small world! He was nice and met us half way with bartering also.

We shook off the stress of shopping in the Old City and I showed her David’s Tomb and the room of the Lord’s Supper. It was crowded when we first got in, but we left and came back a couple minutes later and it was empty. That was nice, and made for some awesome pictures.

We headed home for an afternoon of doing hair and nails. I love me some girly days!

Stay tuned for Old City Adventures Part 4!