23.04.07, Jerusalem

In the morning Mira drops me off in the Israel museum. There are the Qumran scrolls there, in a special little building all by themselves. It's interesting to see that the letters have not changed much since then. I have finally remembered all the Hebrew letters but of course can't read the thing anyway. There is also a lot about the life of the people in the Qumran community, which seems to be pretty miserable even by the standards of 2000 years ago.

There is also a model on Jerusalem during the Second Temple period, a lot of Jewish art, and a small but good collection of art from Asia, Africa and Latin America. There is a lot more, but I don't have time.

Mira said that there was supposed to be a siren and a minute of silence at 10 in honor of the fallen heroes (it's the Memorial Day), but it happens at 11 instead, and catches me in the most unfortunate position. Out of necessity I honor the memory of the fallen heroes while seated, consoling myself with the thought that the fallen heroes don't really care anymore.

I come outside to wait for Lyonya to pick me up, and notice that one of the numerous Israeli flags that look like Finnish is in fact Finnish and belongs to some Finnish tourist group.

We go the the airport to pick up my parents. The Tel Aviv airport, unlike all the other airports, does not permit firearms on premises and puts up signs to that effect. Benka and Oska take a very long time to come out, because they are stuck behind a long line of really weird Argentinian Hassidim.

One of the Argentinian Hassidim wanders into the women's bathroom and does not seem to notice it.

We come back to Jerusalem and have a dinner with all the relatives (Mira's mon Sara also comes), catching up on a lot of family gossip.