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January in Israel is very quiet. When I went to the Old City of Jerusalem on a Monday morning, I was greeted by at least five anxious tour guides. I had already decided what I wanted to see and did not want a guide, but I am an easy touch for a legitimate request. My tour guide was a man in his mid-40's who explained that tourism was down 80% since the Infitada began, and he was willing to give me a tour for whatever price I thought was fair. I ended up spending 3 hours with him and paid the equivalent of $40 - which I thought was fair, and for which he was very pleased. He did an excellent job of giving the perspective of an Arab man living in Jerusalem his whole life. With him as my guide, I was able to see the Muslim Quarter - which I would not have done on my own. This is contrasted with another guide I trusted later in the day. He was in his late 20's and was hanging around the Christian Quarter. He had a poor tale to tell - his baby was sick with cancer and he needed to give tours to make enough money to pay for the child's medicine. Whatever - I took the bait.

When he couldn't tell me what kind of cancer the child had - and he had to think about whether it was his daughter or his son - I knew he was not to be trusted. I made sure we agreed on a price before he began what ended up being a 45 minute tour. We agreed to the equivalent of $10. At the end of the waste of time, he claimed we had agreed to $100! At this point we were outside of the city walls, near the Mount of Olives, and it was nearly dark. I told him he was wrong - and there was no way anyone would have agreed to that price - and proceeded to the Gate where some Israeli soldiers were standing watch. He was immediately uncomfortable with that situation and relented. All of which is to say, beware here as much as you would any other city in the world. It is important to know that, due to the political climate, the Muslims would not allow non-Muslims to visit the Temple Mount. The police were friendly enough - they just had their rules.

It was a strange experience to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre with NO ONE else around. From the travel shows on television, I expected at least someone else to be visiting but I entered alone. After five minutes, other people trickled in but it was still quite strange. The Old City was fascinating yet somewhat depressing. The merchants were quite persistent in their "marketing". Most were fine if you turned them down, but there were a few who were really annoying. There was one shop keeper in particular - he sold wooden carvings in a tiny store 30 yards from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He was very kind and went out of his way to make sure we found our way to our next stop. The rest of the country was equally interesting. The cities I highlighted above are also worth the drive - you can easily do all of your traveling with Tel Aviv as a home base and returning there in the evening. My experience with the people of the country was informative. The Jewish Israelis were generally very, very reserved. I attribute this to the history of violence in their country. The Arab Israelis were generally very friendly despite what appeared to be the weariness that comes from living in eternal limbo.