Walking

• I have an hour. The air sparkles, cool and bright. I’ll walk from the top of the hill, down, down to the mall (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/driving-distracts.html ).
• Above the top of Derekh Aza , where ben Maimon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maimonides) St. feeds into Agron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gershon_Agron), is the Terra Santa building. After the Mt. Scopus campus became inaccessible, the Hebrew University held classes here. Here also were the British Council Library amd offices of Magnes Press. Now all have moved out; the huge building is refurbished and dedicated once more to the purposes of the Franciscans, who own it. For the first time, after years of walking on one side of the building or another, I notice the statue on the roof.
• Keeping it on my left, I walk down past the Prime Minister’s Office’s sentry box. If no self-important politicians or foreign visitors are scheduled to drive in or out, you can walk on Balfour (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/balfour.htm ) St.
• Across the street, ben Maimon veers right. With a slight zig, I continue on Derekh Aza, along an ancient route to the sea. Between the two streets is a restaurant's a table-filled triangular patio. Below that is a hole-in-the-wall pizza place where they squeeze fresh fruit for juice.
• A little farther down I once saw two mounted police, exercising or training their horses ( http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/two-horses.html ). But only once.
• Past the electrical supply shop (open at odd hours) and a dark shop selling candy, wine, soft drinks, and liquor is a florist that sells Brenner’s magnificent chocolates. You can also buy these near the top of the escalator at the mall.
• At right angles to the sidewalk, a dressmaker’s display case shows a witty shirt. Opposite that one dressmaker's form wears a beautifully draped jersey dress and another a top and skirt. The shop (Meshi, but the sign is in Hebrew only) is set far back from the street at the end of a narrow walk. I have never gotten up the nerve to go in. Just beyond is a tailor.
• A tiny restaurant on the corner of Radak (http://www.ou.org/about/judaism/rabbis/radak.html) St. offers sahndveetch tuneesayit (but only when the owner's grandmother pickles lemons). A Tunisian sandwich contains boiled potato, tuna, hard-boiled egg, spicy red sauce (harissa), and other ingredients (http://www.balagan.org.uk/food/tunisian_sandwich.html ). I’ve tried that at home and never come up with anything as good.
• Trees and shrubs spill from gardens over the stone walls that mark the sidewalk’s inner edge. The facets of the limestone facing (each building has a different style) and the subtle color variations break the monotony of the three and four-story structures (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-jerusalem-neighborhood.html ).
• To the right and to the left I notice two buildings where curves add interest. It is as if a tower climbs, embedded, up the side, but stops at the roof line.
• Cafes and sports bars are on both sides of the street. (See the end of http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/performing-arts-in-jerusalem.html ) In the evening this stretch is almost as lively as Emek Refaim ( http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/emek-refaim.html ).
• The fruit stand on the left is said to have the most expensive fruit in Jerusalem. People from the American Midwest don’t think it’s expensive.
• A bookstore across the street puts out bins of used books in several languages.
• I stop at the traffic light. In four minutes I’ve also passed three hairdressers, a copy and print shop, a pen shop, two banks, a convenience store that sells home-style takeout, a waffle shop, a pharmacy, another convenience store with a video automat, a real estate agent, a travel agent, and Lekhem Tooshia (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/shifon.html ), which, in addition to bread and cake, sells good, if idiosyncratic, bouraykas.
• On the sidewalks are women pushing baby carriages, an old man with a walker, middle-aged women in sequined cotton-blend shirts and slacks, here a young woman with arms bare to the shoulder blades and her midsection taking in the sun, there a girl her age in long sleeves and a denim skirt almost to the ground -- only their long straight hair is the same (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/comfort-relativity.html ), a middle-aged woman in hijab, men in short-sleeved shirts, others in black suits and black hats, at least one third of all of them talking on cell phones -- I count six languages in three blocks.
• The neighborhood is proud and clean. Signs on the garbage cans (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/frogs.html ) say the days of the week when they are emptied. Any trash that falls outside them is quickly tidied. In every block there is a bench or two. (In contrast see http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/love-and-darkness.html
• I am one twelfth of the way.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox