Shop til you drop

I've done some wandering in the souk (marketplaces) around here. They are rabbit warrens, and very loud and busy. We tried the other night to get to the Church of the Resurrection, but managed to take a few wrong turns and did quite a lot of souk window shopping (which is funny, as they don't have windows!) They are all just small shop openings in stone buildings, but when they are closing they shut their big wooden or metal shutter doors . The shop keepers are all very keen to have our custom...yesterday one of them tried to sell vestments to one of the priests in our group, telling him that the Pope had bought his vestments there also! We somehow doubted it, as the vestments were a little lower in quality than those that I think the Pope is used to, but maybe it was his little bit towards creating peace in the land. Who knows!

Favourite sights in the souk include one part where I walked past a carcass of a sheep in one window, opposite a window full of 'skater' gear, next to a shop selling big trays of heaped spices, and a lolly shop, where all kinds of lollies, including turkish delight, were in big open baskets.Very colourful, We also stopped inside a very little shop and had some authentic coffee, with cardomam. I think it was responsible for my sleepless night.. The image here is of a little shop in the via dolorosa, directly opposite the Ecce Homo convent. I was in there yesterday talking to the man who was offering me amazing discounts due to his friendship with the Sisters. You can see the arch in the image which is part of a bigger triple arch, (Hadrian's arch) one of which is inside the Basilica of Ecce Homo.