Jerusalem in lights

To start off our free day this week, we went to Dormition Abbey. It’s very visible in the Jerusalem skyline. I took this picture from far away today during our field trip in a different part of the city.

Dormition Abbey commemorates Mary, and claims to be her final resting place. It’s a relatively new church, built in the 1900s.

Main hall of the church:

Lots of pretty mosaics.

In the basement of the church you can see the tomb of Mary.

For our next activity we took a trip back to the Western world! We went to Mamilla Mall, which is an outdoor mall in West Jerusalem.

It was like being back in America!

I was surprised to find American Eagle in Israel.

I bought jeans and Harry Potter in Hebrew. I’d say that was a successful outing. It made my day to be in a modern mall!

Usually we’re not allowed to be in the Old City after dark, but they made a special exception on this day so that we could go to the Jerusalem Festival of Lights. It was amazing! The Old City is already so cool during the day, so adding light shows and displays made it even more exciting. 

Old City walls by day...

And at the Festival of Lights!

A street in the Jewish Quarter we walked through earlier in the day...

And the same street at night.

It was like Christmas! Oh wait, that’s ironic.

I'm so glad we got to go! Thank-you BYU JC security for letting us out of prison for the night (there are a lot of restrictions on leaving the Center at night, makes me feel like a child lol).