Yom Kippur in the Old City

I had a dream of spending the holiest day of the year in the old city where I could go down to the kotel and pray where the Beit Hamikdash once stood. Luckily for me there are people like the Gershaw family in this world!! Mrs Gershaw invited me to stay with her and her family in the old city to spend Yom Kippur with them!
The bus ride up to the old city on Friday was pretty long and rough because traffic was insane. I think there was even some accident on the road but I don't know for sure because the bus driver told the lady who was telling me about it to shut up :} ...Israel. I took some funny pictures because I was really bored. (o btw, i'm going to upload some pics soon)
Anyways, I met Rochel Gershaw, age 12, by the Beit Cneset HaChorba and she took me to the home we stayed at. It was beautifully designed (of course...) courtesy of Mrs. Leora Gershaw :D and staying there was B"H very comfortable. The veiw from the roof is also really amazing.
I accompanied the Gershaw family to friends of theirs for the Seudat Hamafseket, and I daresay we left a few pounds heavier than we came. :P
I wore all white when we went to Kol Nidrei and Maariv at Birchat HaTorah (the aish Hatorah shul) down the block... stoney road... alley way??? lol- wtvr. The davening there is very serious but I the strongest adjective that comes to mind is inspirational. The chazan really had a power to move people with his beautiful voice. That made the whole thing really wonderful for me.
Michal Gershaw and I woke up at 4:00 am to catch the Netz Minyan at the kotel. It was chilly but that was good since I'm not sure how else we would have stayed awake. :) It was my dream fulfilled to be there... and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to have done it.
The rest of the day passed by quickly, between sleeping and davening, and ended with a dramatic crescendo of Neila. After which I proceeded with the Gershaw family to Rav Green's house for Havdala and the break-fast. Which was also a wonderful opportunity since the Green's will be moving to Pheonix, Arizona in only a few short weeks.
A huge Thank you to the Gershaw family and every other person who was involved in hosting me and helping me acheive my dream Yom Kippur.

As an afterthought, I wanted to share something with everyone that I found really interesting but true. It was something Rabbi Wallerstein said at the shiur he gave to the sem on Motzei Yom Kippur...
He mentioned that this Yom Kippur felt very different to him... that it wasn't as scary. Not as serious or sad. He said that it worried him a little how unemotional he was during the tefillos compared to past years. And interestingly enough, most everyone else in the shiur felt the same way.
Rav Wallerstein was quick to reassure us with his theory about why that might have been. He said that since this year, Yom Kippur fell out on a Shabbos, there was an extra measure of Rachamim Min Hashamaiim and therefore the Yom Kippur judgement itself was not as scary.
And I thought that was cool and reassuring so I wanted to share it with anyone else just in case they felt the same way and were nervous about it too.