From the Mount of Olives

So this is at the Mount of Olives, you know, popular hang out place for Jesus. Yeah. I was there.

So next to me is my cousin Johnny and in the background is ah, what's it called... oh, The Dome of the Rock. To the left is popular Jewish site, The Wailing Wall.

Yeah. Jerusalem. One of the, if not the most, important cities in all of the world and I was there.

Also, not pictured is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Home to many a famous relics and holy sites such as, rock where Jesus was laid and anointed. Calvary and the the tomb where he was buried.

It was amazing to see all this personally. Though the Russian/Greek Orthodox priests were rude and a nuisance and the sheer number of tourists, especially not christian tourists was unnerving. I mean, you got to the Dome of the Rock and they say, "You're here after visiting hours (the morning) and you're not Muslim so go away." And even if you're there during visiting hours, you can barely get close. You go to the Wailing Wall and you cover your head and go to either the women or men side. You respect the places. But at the church, anyone walks in and it feels lieka theme park.

But all that aside, it was quite awesome to see these seriously holy places.

At first I was like, yeah right. It's like another piece of the true cross in which there are so many of them you could build Abe Lincoln's log cabin with them. But then, you figure these are major spots. Those people who knew Jesus aren't going to say "ah, where'd we put him again?" If you can find your quaint great great grandparents gravestone, you sure as hell should be able to remember where Jesus was buried.

And even over the centuries it would be hard to mix up. It's not like the place he was crucified got lost somehow. You figure, today we accept that where people say the Battle of Agincourt or even something as old as Marathon happened, that it happened there. Because people remember and they pass it down. Plus, as for Calvary, the Romans killed about everyone there so I'd expect it was hard to miss. This stuff would have a serious fan following from the moment it happened. So why wouldn't these places be the real deal.