PHOTO ESSAY: A walk through snow-covered Jerusalem

I’ve often felt — for better or for worse — this is a city where common sense doesn’t apply. It’s part of what makes Israel so great, this stubborn refusal to go with the flow.

And I suppose I’m another one of Jerusalem’s ‘meshiggenes’. Instead of going out to enjoy the snow for half an hour, maybe an hour, I traipsed all the way to the Old City from Katamon to see it in white.

I’ve lived in the Old City, so understand this: there are three kinds of slippery. Regular slippery, then snow slippery, then Old City stone slippery. Walking in the Old City when it’s raining is treacherous enough; attempting to navigate it in icy conditions is downright daft.

But hey, I had to get some snaps. And so I put on a warm hat, gloves, thermals, the works, and set out.

And what fun it was!

I smiled as I saw young women dancing carefree while white flecks descended from heaven and music blasted from their portable speaker. I laughed as two shirtless teenagers chased each other with snowballs in hand. And when I saw a man attempting to push a broken-down car, I just threw myself at his Mazda, and together we pushed it to the roadside.

As I entered the Old City, I saw border policemen taking photographs of each other, cherished memories of a rare Jerusalem snowfall. And I realised that though the bus services had all been terminated early, literally dozens of other people were determined to get to this, our holiest of places. Meanwhile, about a mile away, around 100 people partied in a tunnel at Gan Sacher.

And as I trudged back home at midnight, wet through and frigid to the bone, I shook my head in disbelief as a young man around my age wheeled his bicycle uphill – what on earth was he thinking taking his bike out in the first place?

Oh, Jerusalem. Never change.