Hostel living is great as long as a person knows what he or she is getting into. The internet is an excellent tool for booking places, but only if the bookings are sound. Our time at the Citadel Youth Hostel was not what we'd agreed to. When we arrived, we were not given a four bed room as booked, but delegated to the ground floor in a muggy, cave-style 12 bed dorm, with questionable beds, no clean sheets and 8 other people - one of whom was a monumental snorer - and a bathroom that was as primitive as we'd seen on our entire journey. Needless to say, morning found us a little tired and further frustrated when told that the room we booked would not be ready for us that day either! We decided not to let it stop us from enjoying Israel, but instead shrugged it off as another "adventure". Luckily, our bed mates were very nice, even snoring man, so that, at least, made it bearable. We headed out to the Al-Aqsa Mosque early in the morning. We used the Lonely Planet Guide of Israel to help explain the history of the site where Mohammed made such a place in history for Islam. To get to the Mosque, we went up a long ramp and, while walking, we looked down on the wailing wall. It was strange to be at these two sites simultaneously, but it certainly explains much of the tension in Jerusalem and beyond.Afterwards, we switched gears and followed the 14 Stations of the Cross through the crowded Via Doloroso streets. The streets were jammed with multitudes of the faithful - all three kinds. Muslims called out from their shops, while black clad Jews with tall hats hurried to meet with family members for the holidays. Pilgrims retraced the last steps of Jesus, carrying crosses and praying at every station. At the 5th station, we happened upon a pharmacy and Barry went to ask about tooth cement. Two days earlier he'd broken a tooth. The pharmacist didn't have cement, but pointed us 50 metres down the street to a dentist. We followed the directions, went up some very "rustic" looking stairs and found ourselves in a run down narrow hallway with 3 doors. Someone told us that the dentist was behind us, coming up the stairs. A few moments later, we met our first Arab-Israeli dentist. He promptly took Barry in and worked on his tooth, checking with Margaret every few minutes for approval. One hundred fifty shekels later - the shard of Barry's broken tooth pulled, the tooth repaired with a filling, and our dental worries lighter - we were back on track. We ended off at the Church of the Holy Sepluchre, the site of the last 5 stations. We felt pretty good, considering we'd explored 3 of the biggest and most diverse religions on the face of the planet in the space of 24 hours. We decided that we'd splurge and try out a city bus tour, recommended by the snoring Brazilian we'd met the night before. Bad idea. The bus was forty minutes late and when it showed up, it was packed. The upside was that, while investigating when to catch the bus, we met a fascinating woman from Washington DC, named Jennifer Allen who had worked all over the world for the U.S. government as a telecommunications specialist. She shared some interesting insights into how very unreliable the media is. Having been in 65 countries - during some pretty intense events, we might add - she says she no longer watches the news as what really happened rarely makes it into the average person's living room. We already knew that media constructs "reality", but it was good to get a reminder. Our good luck with interesting people didn't end there. While waiting to actually catch the bus, we also met an interesting man from South Africa, who made the waste of time quite enjoyable. A second bus arrived, but it was also completely full. Further frustrated, we checked the time. The dentist had suggested Barry come back in the afternoon to have his tooth checked, so we abandoned the bus idea and we went back through the maze of marketplace kiosks. Re-finding our dentist turned out to be harder than we'd anticipated but, eventually, we did. The dentist wasn't happy with the result of his work, so he took out the amalgam and replaced it with composite material. Another 50 shekels later, we left once more, and tried to catch the tour bus, once more, re-meeting the South African. When that bus also did not show up, we gave up and went to find a pub. Along the way, we bumped into the Minnesota couple (Ross and Annetta), who invited us to join them at a restaurant. We ended up at a roof top restaurant, looking down on Jerusalem, enjoying Arab and Israeli beer and the company of our new friends. Jerusalem and Israel may not have been our best experience but we can't say it was boring and we certainly met some interesting fellow travellers along the way.