We popped on a local Nazarene travel bus to Nazareth this morning which takes about an hour from Tiberias. It’s not exactly a sleepy hollow of carpenters chipping away at olive wood, nor is it an aesthetically delightful vision of prayer, contemplation or solitude. Nope. If you decide to jump on a donkey and visit, expect boy racers roaring by on motorbikes and a mish mash of modern structures built like a precarious jenga tower and your must have souks and abandonned vehicles strewn across every pavement – oh well, ‘sabbaba’ as they say here.
We naturally gravitated towards the old town Church of the Annunciation and St Josephs where it’s thought Joseph had his workshop and of course where Jesus grew up. The church is a structure built upon a much older church and sits near to an archeological ruin of the village of Nazareth. Its wide octagonal centre is built on 3 levels which is entirely facinating compared to our familiar gothic or neo-classical structures, my only grumble is the distinct lack of marauding donkeys baying to set off to Bethlehem on a whim. I do feel this would add to the already frenzied pilgrims.
The place is alive with every nationality. There was a mass in Japanese taking place and a few religious tour groups singing tunefully outside next to their contries gifted mosaic. All was well when quite suddenly a hoard of chinese visitors arrived like a swarm of locust and decended upon me as I quietly gazed at a robust statue of Joseph sporting shiny golden patches of well rubbed bronze knees. In the footsteps of many other excited and faithful souls I reached out to also rub his knees in what felt a bit more fetish than worship…but who am I to judge the rubbing of Joseph’s knees, so I dutifully rubbed both knees when the swarm hit! Thankfully for your benefit I captured the moment on camera. A rare piece of footage capturing the devout behaviours of chinese pilgrims in the last stages of holy land fever. Enjoy!
Leaving Nazareth behind we caught the 31min late 431 bus back to Tiberias and having grabbed our bags are now currently travelling in a ramshackle minibus that skidded to a stop in front of us as we approached the bus station. The driver could only scream ‘tel aviv, tel aviv 40 shekels’. We jumped in and should….I say should get there an hour earlier given he seems to be a wannabe Lewis Hamilton. Our journey will end in Tel Aviv but already plans are being hatched to walk the Jesus trail, scale the Golan heights and nip to Petra. Let’s hope we can find another miraculously priced (£85.00rtn) flight to lure us back. This is your Holy Land pilgrims, Maddy and Sharon signing out. Peace be with you.
Sharon Gallagher 