We stayed two nights in downtown Jerusalem, just off the Jaffa (or Yafo) Road, and I'm so glad that we can sleep through anything.
The hotel was right next to a Moroccan restaurant.
The first night there was some sort of party going on, with loud drum beating and general noise. This didn't bother us a bit. We went to sleep, but I woke up at about 1:15 to a cacophony of loud yelling. Actually I thought some sort of riot was going on outside, so I got up to look and saw lots of people milling about and what at first I thought were police cars.
No, the police in Jerusalem have far worse to deal with than night noise! The white cars outside were taxis, with their bored drivers hanging around waiting for the party goers to finish yelling and go home. I went back to bed, MP3 earpieces firmly in place, and listened to Chuck Smith teaching his way through the Bible at Calvary Chapel. Wonderful.
Alan woke up at 3 and 4 am, festivities still going on at full volume.
The next morning we asked the receptionist: what on earth was going on outside last night? She had no idea, not living there herself, but she said: 'You know you are in the downtown area here.' Yep.
The second night there was no party,but sometime in the early hours a weird noise woke us both up. There were about 6 or 8 voices and a flute playing a mournful tune. The voices were not singing, but howling, wailing,screaming. It was the most awful sound i had ever heard.
They were all howling together, but not in unison, just for as long as their breath lasted. We assumed somone had died and the mourners were letting the whole downtown area know. It was like a sound from Hell. I just prayed for those people that they would come to know the Savior, put my earpieces in place and concentrated on Chuck's teaching until I fell asleep again.
* By the way you can download all of Chuck's Through the Bible messages free on the Calvary Chapel website. I just love listening to them.
