Shuk adventures on a Friday - Machane Yehuda

When entering Jerusalem there is an analog clock stuck to the side of a cliff with two electronic clocks, one above and one below. These clocks tell when shabbat starts and when it is finished. Shabbat runs from Friday evening to Saturday evening, making the weekend in Israel Friday-Saturday. Friday is spent preparing for shabbat, and Saturday is spent not doing anything and waiting for the end of shabbat, so people can start doing things again. During Shabbat the entire city of Jerusalem shuts down. No buses run, shops are closed and the only places that remain open are those willing to fork over hefty fine to do so. Today is Friday. In Jerusalem shabbat started at 4:24 pm and will go until 5:44 pm tomorrow.

In preparation for shabbat everyone stocks up on enough groceries that, heaven forbid nothing were to reopen after shabbat, their families would survive for the next month or so. Today Laurel, Miriam, and I along with the rest of Jerusalem's citizens descended upon the shuk for our shabbat necessities. Shuk means outdoor market, and THE shuk refers to Machane Yehuda. We went with a simple list for tonight's dinner:

1 Sweet Challah

1 Bottle of Wine

Dried tomatoes

Pine Nuts

Pesto Sauce

4 Fresh Tomatoes

1 Onion

1 large box Marzipan Rugelach

1 Parve Cake

The total cost for everything was 100NIS, which equals about $25. Because we are young and willing to brave the throngs of people pushing and shoving, this was a good deal. Let me explain a little more about the Shuk. There are rows of venders all selling the same things, yelling at the passing customers. "Barekas Cham! Barekas Cham! Barekas Cham!" This.. means Hot Barekas, repeated until we were out of ear shot. As Laurel and I speak only a little Hebrew, only 1/2 of the words yelled at us were understood. I could catch the names of different vegetables, the prices, but I didn't know what else was being verbally thrown at me. There were also so many people rushing to get their shopping done, that it felt like Laurel was a salmon going upstream against the current! After many near crashes and a few awkward side steps from "Men Who Don't Touch," we got onto the 18 bus and 45 minutes later arrived at home.