Day 3 in Israel. It’s time to say goodbye to Tel Aviv and go explore the rest of the country. Our next stop is Nazareth, a very important city for the students who study religion among us. This the place where Jesus lived and where he was raised. The angel Gabriel came to his mother, Marie, to tell her she was expecting a baby. The angel told her he was going to have a great destiny and that she had to call him Jesus. Marie was shocked, but she listened to the angel and nine months later Jesus was born.
We left for Nazareth with a cab for seven people. We were going to take the bus, but when we look back, we were glad we didn’t. It took us two hours to get here, traffic wasn’t all that busy, but we had to look for the street of the Pilgrim house. Funny thing, they don’t have street names, they only have numbers. Very confusion for us Belgians. We don’t understand how they get from one place to another without getting lost. Israelis are very good drivers, they can fit a car into a place that’s only 1,5 meters. We were all very impressed.
We arrived at the Pilgrim house ‘Abuna Faraj’ and were pleasantly welcomed by sister Martha, a very charismatic woman who has a glow of serenity around her. It was a nice change to the hectic city of Tel Aviv. We went to our rooms, unpacked our bags and off we went to visit Nazareth.
First stop was Nazareth village, a replica city of how people used to live in the time of Jesus. 
They wear the specific outfits, use the same materials and utensils & do the same jobs. A guide gave us a lot of information that was useful for students religion. The guide told us about the fact that this land has never been touched before and every plant that grows there is original vegetation, so Ashton was very happy to hear that. We sat in the synagogue, looked at the animals and enjoyed the view. 
After this tour, we went on to see modern Nazareth. We walked through the streets and fell in love with the sweet and delicious cookies and (free) apples. This city makes us very happy, everyone is so nice, they always smile, are ready to help and offer us free things. You can feel the warm culture they live in. 
We walked straight on into the ‘souks’ to see how the people trade and try to make you buy everything in their shop. Sadly for us, most of the stores were already closed when we arrived, but we still had the chance to walk through the maze of little alleys. Seriously, if you want to go into a maze to lose yourself, visit Nazareth, it’s everything you’ve ever wanted!
After searching and walking and roaming the streets, we finally found our way to the Saint-Gabriels church. We expected it to be bigger, but it was in fact a small and cozy building. We then walked further along the Paulus the sixth street to visit Maria’s well and proceed our way back to the basilica of annunciation. It’s amazing to see all the little restaurants, the shops (that are open till late, very nice for girls like us) and the people who wave or say ‘Salama lei kom’ when you walk by. We’ve already learned some Arabic words, but we are not sure how to write them, so we’ll save that for later.
The basilica of annunciation is a very large and impressive building. Everywhere you look, you see images of the virgin Marie, donated by different countries. We couldn’t go underground to see where Maria lived, b
ut we went to the church. We entered at the end of a mass and were able to catch a glimpse of how devoted these people are. It’s nice to see how they still make you feel welcome, even in a place that is so holy to them. For us it’s also very strange to see Arabic Christians. When we think about Christians, we think of western people, but here you see there are a lot of Arabic Christians.
After a very productive, but tiresome day we decided to find a local restaurant were we could eat until we dropped. We weren’t that hungry because we ate a lot of cookies, (we can’t help ourselves, we’re still addicted to sugar.) but we still enjoyed our meal.
The walk back home was very steep, but we still managed to laugh and crack jokes with each other. That’s necessary, we wouldn’t want anyone to feel sad. 
As an end to a perfect day, we had a conversation with sister Martha. She told us a lot about Elias Chacour and the Pilgrim house. You can find a report below.
This was it for today, but tomorrow we’re going to Haïfa. Let’s be honest, a good start predicts the rest of the journey!
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