Destination

• The sidewalk and an older roadway hug the hillside, as if wheat were planted on the valley floor. The only other pedestrians have climbed down from the buildings between Hertzog and David Shimoni (a very long street named for a poet http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/shimoni.html ) to parked cars or bus stop.
• My way stays secluded beyond the YMHA (folk dancing twice a week, Hebrew classes, and other activities) almost to Paht (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/gazelles.html ) where competing restaurants serve some of the best felafel and salads in Jerusalem. The best salads (finely chopped tomato and cucumber dressed with lemon juice and olive oil, thinly sliced fried eggplant, hot pickles, tehina, pickled carots ...) are at felafel stands and where they cook on p’telia (about which more later). From here down to the mall there will be no food or drink – but it’s only ten minutes. Walking on an abandoned strip of road, I skirt Katamon Het and Katamon Tet (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/katamonim.html ), then bear left on a short stretch of a road named for the Beitar sports league.
• For some time now the view has been dominated by Jerusalem’s most controversial residential building. I assume that the architect, and those who’ve bought apartments in it, like it. Everyone else I’ve talked to says, "hideousl." Tower after tower juts above the ridge line, hiding dark green groves and defying all the neighborhoods that modestly hug the hills. In winter cold wind rushes below the extra rooms connecting the tower tops. Do these have glass floors? Holyland Towers sticks out like the Elvis statue at Neveh Ilan.
• Look away to the soccer stadium, Istadion Teddy (http://www.blogger.com/(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Kollek_Football_Stadium ). A side path zigzags down through a landscaped garden.
• Across the street is the mall (http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Middle_East/Israel/Jerusalem_District/Jerusalem-1708549/Shopping-Jerusalem-Kenion_Shopping_Mall-BR-1.html ). Beyond is the green-glass technology park, where the British Council now has hits library ( see the beginning of http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/walking.html ). Farther down, the train station (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/trains.html ), and even farther the Biblical Zoo (http://www.blogger.com/(http://www.jerusalemzoo.org.il/english/upload/ ), then more Judean Hills. But I have arrived at my destination. By now the sun is hot, and I cross at the light to welcome air conditioning.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox