The Final Day

Technically, Friday was our last day in Jordan. We wanted to make the most of it, so we all woke up early and made our way to the Al Hussein mosque to visit it before the Friday prayers started and it would have been impossible to get inside. Zaynee led us on a quick walk around the park where the mosque was, until it opened at 10:30am. It was such a nice day compared to yesterday!

Family

...plus Azhar!

When the mosque opened, we joined our newfound American friends, a brother and a sister who were loud but nice, and waiting to enter the mosque as well, and went inside after covering our heads. I expected it to be a bit more intricate, after seeing the mosques in Turkey like the Blue Mosque, but it was rather simple. 

Mom in front of the mosque 

Ready to go inside!

The men and women separated to see the separate facilities and Mom and Zaynee led a short prayer for us before we headed out. It was a nice way to start the day.

Inside where the men prayed (Dad took this for me!) 

We were given clothes appropriate to pray in

After seeing the mosque, we asked Ghamid to take us to our favourite place...Starbucks! Mom was craving a coffee, and Hanaa was desperate for wifi. We hung out there before walking across the street to the Taj Mall. Then we discovered that it's closed until 2pm on Friday. In Jordan, Friday and Saturday is the weekend, and since prayers are on Fridays, most things stay closed until later on. It was almost like how everything shut down in Vienna on Sundays, except they did end up opening in the evenings here!

Our favourite place!

We ended up just wandering through the closed shops in the Taj Mall, before heading back to Ghamid.

Walking back to Ghamid across a bridge above the highway....

The next area Zaynee took us was called Jabal Al-Webdeh. It's part of the historic old town and was really quite nice, despite almost everything being shut. Then we stumbled across a shop called Jo-Bedu with the coolest graphic shirts and cards. We spent a few minutes in there and all came out with purchases before heading to get flowers for the Mansaf dinner we were going to tonight at the family's!

The cool t-shirt place!

It was trying to be "Parisian" at Al-Webdeh

We changed quickly at the Kindi, and Zaynee forewarned us that we were about to be so full after Mansaf. This is a typical Jordanian dinner of rice, lamb, nuts, and fermented dried yoghurt that the Bedouins eat. The main thing is that you eat with your hands! Well, one hand. In your dominant hand, you take a piece of lamb and roll rice and yoghurt around it into a firm ball, which is much harder than it looks. Then, you use your thumb to almost flick it back into your mouth. It was quite a process, but we all tried it after Alaa demonstrated how to do it! The food was delicious and definitely made us so full. 

The glory of Mansaf....

Alaa and Ali teaching Dad how to roll Mansaf balls

WE SURVIVED!

We hung out with the family for the last time and said our heartfelt goodbyes. They definitely made our stay in Jordan so much more fun than if we had just come alone. Hopefully they'll make it over to stay with us in America! We packed up the Kindi, and Zaynee took us to Mecca Mall to go souvenir shopping at a souk (market) there, before we headed to the airport with Ghamid, Sabri, and Alaa.

Our last evening with the family

Spices at the Mecca Mall Market

Al Afghani Market/souvenir shop

Our 3am flight was not enviable by any of them, but they were all good sports and drove us to the airport at midnight where we said more goodbyes to the boys and especially to Zaynee. We only have three weeks until we see her back in America, and she only has three weeks left in Jordan! She will make the best of it, and I'm sure she will end up visiting the family again after getting so close to them all. They made our experience, as well as hers these last six months, wonderful.

Jordan was such an amazing trip and experience. Not only did I get to see Petra, that I've been dying to see since I was about 14, but I got to visit the Dead Sea and so many other important sites! I also experienced the Middle East...this is definitely not like Dubai, which is so Americanized and modern. It was great to get such an authentic taste of what the Middle East is like, from dealing with the traffic, water shortages, no heating, falafel and hummus for breakfast, copious amounts of mint tea, and lots of dust and sand, as well as everything being an Arabic, a language that we can not only not speak, but not even read because of the different script! I'm incredibly proud that Zaynee has managed to spend almost seven months in this country, which is so different from America, and has become so fluent in Arabic. I loved visiting for a week, but I wouldn't be able to do any longer! Visiting a developing country was eye-opening, and the experience was definitely made better thanks to our new local friends!

Museums and Family Night

Last night, as we were headed back from Petra, we stopped off at the airport to pick up Uncle Azhar! He flew in from Saudi Arabia, where he works, so he could spend three days with us. We were all very excited, especially me since I didn’t see him when he visited America in October. He took Zaynee to Dubai about three weeks ago, so she had gotten to see him recently too.

It was cold, raining, and miserable in Amman when we got to the airport, and when we left it. We were so exhausted that only Dad and Uncle Azhar went out to eat dinner that night (at somewhere called Chile House of all places. Uncle Azhar loves American food, even though this was apparently gross.). Zaynee came back to the hotel right before they did and we got some well-earned rest after our eventful day at Petra.

The next morning, Zaynee left early for school and we slept in until about 9:30am. Zaynee had written down where Ghamid was to take us today, so we went to the car at 10am to see where our first destination was. It was breakfast, thank goodness. The place she had recommended, Abu Jabbara, was a traditional Jordanian eatery. So traditional that they had no English menus! Uncle Azhar, despite living in the Middle East for more than 10 years, has picked up absolutely no Arabic. Therefore, he pointed to the falafel and hummus on the menu and asked for “aqua” to drink. They managed to understand our miming and we ate lots of hummus, pita, and falafel for breakfast. It’s interesting that they have absolutely no sugar in their morning meal. I suppose you can get your sugar from a sweet black mint tea that most people drink, but it’s definitely not the same as a doughnut!

The meal for five of us came to 9 JD…we were pleasantly surprised, since we left a lot of hummus and two lone falafels. The next stop was meant to be the Jordan Museum that we had missed a few days ago. But Ghamid deciphered Zaynee’s itinerary wrong and we ended up at the Royal Automobile Museum instead. It wasn’t a problem, because we had wanted to go there. It was the perfect day for museums: the rain hadn’t let up and now the whole place was foggy as a cloud descended onto us.

Inside, the museum, I made a friend with the ticket guy who kept asking about the GRE and how he could get his PhD from America. His English was quite good…I think he just wanted to practice. The museum itself was incredibly cool. I’m not really a car person, but these were amazing! There were so many old cars that basically detailed a short history of Jordan, because they were all used at some point for significant historical events. There were Cadillacs, Lincolns, Rolls Royce, Hummers, Porsche, Ferrari’s and more. There was even an aqua-car, which was used by King Hussein in Acaba and could go from land to the water!

Once we had finished exploring the old-fashioned cars, we finally made it to the Jordan Museum. It was basically a recap of all my Anthropology classes, including an exhibit on Petra. I really enjoyed learning about anthropology concepts from the Jordanian part of the world. The Dead Sea Scroll exhibit was especially relevant, after learning about them extensively in high school and now visiting the Dead Sea myself!

Mom very interested in the Petra exhibit

Zaynee had budgeted us to go to a mosque, the Hussein mosque, but the schedule got all messed up and since its Thursday, and basically the start of the weekend in Jordan, the traffic was very heavy. We didn’t want to be late to go to her University, so at 2pm we decided to miss the mosque and drive over to her. Ghamid said it would take an hour and we needed to be there at 3pm. It took 25 minutes and we were stuck waiting in the car with him until Zaynee was ready (by 3pm luckily!).

She showed us her University campus, which was basically a parking lot with some beige buildings around it. Lots of Jordanian students at Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT) were just hanging around in the parking lot. Apparently that’s the thing to do! We went into her cafeteria, which was honestly quite dire, and had pumpkin and pecan pie to celebrate Thanksgiving with the rest of the American CIEE students. It was nice to see Eitan, Nick, Emily, and Katherine again, as well as some of Zaynee’s professors, before we headed home during rush hour traffic.

Traffic was so backed up, as is the Jordan way. Additionally, some streets were filled with water from the rain because there is no drainage system here. Zaynee explained that Jordan doesn’t actually get much rain, not enough to have a functioning drainage system. So getting to the Kindi took over an hour (though we did stop to buy some baklava). Once we finally arrived, we dressed up for the Thursday night dinner with Zaynee’s host family’s extended family.

We went over to Suhair’s father’s place (the grandfather), who lives in a beautifully decorated apartment below Suhair’s family. There were so many aunts and uncles and the cutest little children. They have this big family tradition every two weeks and it’s the highlight of Zaynee’s week! We had a great time chatting with them, playing with the kids, and of course eating the delicious Jordanian food prepared for us. After eating, the men and women “naturally” split on either side of the living room while the children played. We discussed random things while the men spoke of politics and business, among other topics. As one relative, Suhair’s sister-in-law Rana, described them perfectly: “Every week we have Al Jazeera; this week, we have BBC—we just changed the channel!” It was hilarious!

Extended family night!

Muhammed, one of the cutest 3-year olds around!

Mint tea

The evening ended many hours later, after dessert, mint tea, and hookah for the adults. Mom, Dad, and Azhar left with Ghamid for the Kindi while Zaynee, Hanaa, and I got ready to go out with Sabri and Alaa. They were taking us out to see Jordanian nightlife. I wasn’t too excited for it; I didn’t think it was going to be super special based on Zaynee’s comments, but I was happy to go out anyway. The Arabs take a long time to get moving and then there is never a cemented plan of action, so we sat in Sabri’s car for a while, then ended up at his house in Abdoun and met his family, drank some mint tea, and finally made it out on the town. Hanaa, being underage, hadn’t ever been to a bar or club, so Zaynee hit three birds with one stone and took us to Books@Cafe, which was a gay bar and club for Hanaa to experience. Alaa and Sabri were very uncomfortable with the idea, but did it for us. We sat together in the café area and had milkshakes and fries—very American. We just sat and chatted before leaving the smoky bar, but it was fun. Driving around with the boys was quite an experience and we were out very late, but it was definitely worth it. It was nice getting to know them better, and having Sabri practice his limited English with us.

Petra: "A Rose-Red City Half as Old as Time"

I vividly remember Dr. Bedell's class in 9th grade where she described the wonder that is Petra. Her stories of when she visited, the accompanying photographs she took of the beautiful rose-stone city, and the history of this incredible UNESCO World Heritage Site all drew me in and I have been wanting to visit the archaeological park since then. Today, I finally got to see the wonder of Petra. 

We left Amman in a torrential downpour at 7:15am. Apparently, Petra wasn't supposed to be getting much rain today, but I was still disappointed that we would be going on a grey day. The point is to see the sun hitting the rocks and making them turn rosy-pink! I slept off most of my sadness in an uncomfortable position in the backseat for the 4 hour drive. When we were half an hour away from Petra, we drove straight into a low-hanging cloud. We couldn't see beyond 5 meters in front of us and had to take it very slowly. We were all worried that it would be the same in Petra and we had just driven 4 hours for nothing! The unease was palpable in the car...

However, we soon burst from the cloud and on the other side, we could see the city of Petra spread out across the valley below us. It was a cute city, with buildings the same as the ones in Amman. Ghamid drove us down the winding road and dropped us off at the gates of Petra. The visibility was clear!!

Even though I had learned a lot about the Nabataean city of Petra in class and seen it in pictures in Zaynee's blog and Facebook, I was shocked with how large it was. It was also amazing to see how many foreign and cultural influences were included in Petra. The Nabataeans were open to outside cultural influences, and accepted them as their own. Therefore, there are classical styles, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and local styles of artwork around the city. We first came across this when we got to the As-Siq. This is the ancient main entrance of the city of Petra. It was incredible: it's a 1200 meter long, deep and narrow gorge in the rosy colored, 80 meter high rocks. The geological formations were beautiful, with smooth rounded rocks in multicolored strata and carvings such as camel caravans or elephant faces in the stone.

It took quite a while to pass through the Siq, and at times it became a ferocious wind tunnel, but as soon as we exited, we were directly in front of the Al-Khazneh (the Treasury). It is the most beautiful monument in the city. According to the guide we got: "The architectural style of it was quite unique in the ancient world. Main inspiration was Hellenistic, Alexandrian Hellenistic, plus that unique encompassing Nabataen artistic touch." It was literally breathtaking. It was carved in the 1st century BC as a tomb for an important Nabataen king. Lucky him!

Camel chilling in front of the Treasury!

Hanaa had a fit of excitement because lots of camels were wandering around in front of the Treasury. I took lots of photos of her with the camels, but she really wanted a selfie with one, for some reason...and ended up with this gem that I can't stop laughing over. We left the camels alone afterwards.

Either he's trying to imitate her typical "selfie" face or he's trying to bite her HAHA

Me in my traditional Jordanian head scarf and my unamused camel friend

We continued past the treasury, dodging Bedouins trying to put us on their camels and donkeys or sell us trinkets we didn't want, and walked past lots of little shops set up. Hanaa managed to find a sterling silver bracelet with lapis lazuli stones, and Dad managed to haggle it down for her. I was more interested in the views. They were all so stunning and such an incredible archaeological feat! We saw the Obelisk tomb and Triclinium (a chamber with three benches where sacred feasts to honor the dead took place annually for Nabataens), the High Place of Sacrifice and Urn Tomb, the Theater (similar to the amphitheater), the Palace Tomb, and the Colonnaded Street. It was literally so amazing that I can't put it into words; so here are a few of the hundreds of pictures we took today.

Pano of me climbing up to the Urn Tomb (in my headscarf! It kept me warm and kept the blowing sand out of my hair!)

View of the Palace Tomb

Urn Tomb up close

We had a buffet lunch at a restaurant near the base of a gigantic mountain, upon where a monastery sat. Zaynee said it was definitely worth hiking up to the top, but Mom and Dad decided to have some mint tea instead, since we had done a lot of walking and climbing. So Hanaa and I braved the 1.6 mile hike up ourselves. It was so difficult. We are both relatively fit (her more than me probably) but we still had to stop about 10 times to recover from the steep steps and sloping stone footholds. We finally made it to the top and saw the monastery...before seeing that there was a higher viewing point above us. 

Climbing up to the Monastery

Mountain Goat friends on the trek up

The cutest little Bedouin we met on the way up

Hanaa and I twinning in front of the Monastery

After coming all the way up, we didn't want to miss out on the topmost point. Hanaa and I hiked up and were rewarded with amazing views of the Wadi (valley), Petra city, the Monastery, and other valleys and gorges around us. It was almost like an older, bigger version of the Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA. The top was incredibly windy, even after sweating on the way up, and we nearly got blown off. We took that as our cue to get down and start the descent. 

Monastery from the Viewing point

Me at the very top overlooking the Wadi!

Hanaa's favourite part of the day was next. We met Mom and Dad half an hour later with a Bedouin holding onto two camels. For 25 JD (Dad was an expert haggler), Waheed and Sourjan (the camels) took us back to the Siq. I hadn't ridden a camel since I was 6 or 7 years old in Dubai, and Hanaa never had. She was too young in Dubai and was put on a donkey instead (lol). This was finally her chance to ride a camel! She chose the big one and we made our way back past the Nabataen carvings to the Siq on camelback. It was so much fun (and a nice rest for our legs after that strenuous hike)!

Me riding Waheed

Our new rides: Waheed and Sourjan

Riding off into Petra

Mom and Dad, who walked, caught up with us at the Siq and we tiredly plodded through the gorge. It took much longer on the way back, and when we finally came out the other side, we still had one more hill to conquer. Mom couldn't do it. All day, repeatedly, she had said she was not going to "ride on the back of a beast," be it donkey, horse, or camel (all of which were available), but now she changed her mind. Men with horses were waiting outside the Siq and she picked one named Casper and his owner, Ishmael, walked her up the hill while we took photos of her. Mom says she is very glad she didn't have to walk that last stretch. Poor Dad walked the entire way back and must be exhausted! He deserves a massage at the Dead Sea if we go again...

Mom riding Casper with the sunset over Petra behind her

It had been an incredible trip to Petra, and I'm literally so enchanted by the mythical multicolored sandstone and Nabataen carvings. The "rose-red city half as old as time" truly captured my heart and I know I won't be forgetting those breathtaking views anytime soon. And Hanaa will always remember her first camel ride!

Camels in front of the Treasury

Holy Sites and a Dip in the Dead Sea

We haven't quite been able to recover from our jet lag because we are sticking so closely to Zaynee's packed itinerary. We are so lucky to have a local here! This was another early morning, as we had to drive all the way east on the Dead Sea Highway. Our first stop was supposed to be the Baptism Site of Jesus Christ, some 2000 years ago, but Dad and Ghamid found a little road-side shop that was selling swimming trunks and other goods. Dad had forgotten to bring his, and Zaynee had scheduled us to end the day at the Dead Sea! So for 7 JD (Jordanian Dinar), Dad got his swim trunks and we continued on our way. It was quite a sight to see little shops like this on the side of the highway...but they're perfectly normal and everywhere! 

The place Dad found swimming trunks on the side of the road...

As we got closer to the baptism site, we saw how high tensions were in this area. By this, I mean that there were various check points where military officials stopped our car, talked to Ghamid and sometimes inspected the car from all angles. They all dressed in camo and held machine guns. We were only going to see the Baptism site, not cross a border, but since it is so close to Israel and Palestine and the West Bank, security measures are incredibly tight. You read about this kind of stuff, but you never fully acknowledge it until you confront it. 

Anyway, we made it through the check points and to the ticket office in the middle of nowhere for the Baptism site. There were a few other tourists milling around, waiting for the bus to collect us and the tour to begin. We all clambered onto the bus and bounced our way down a dirt road in the middle of the desert. Our tour guide was nice enough, but he was a bit hard to understand and didn't know English perfectly. He did a fine job pointing out Elijah's Hill in the distance, where Elijah is said to have ascended to heaven. There were 6 different denominational churches there that we could see. The bus continued on through the desert and let us off at a dirt path where we went on foot. We walked to the site of Jesus' Baptism, where there were three churches built one on top of the other. Steps led down to the actual site of His Baptism, which was really cool to imagine. It seems like such a random and far-out place to do it! There's nothing around!

Site of Jesus's Baptism! Down the stairs and on the left side between those two square bricks, John baptized Jesus

Mosaic of the baptism

Another mosaic

We continued on the walking trail and went past a beautiful gold-domed Byzantine/Greek Orthodox church. Hanaa was so impressed. It really was pretty, but after seeing a billion churches in Vienna and around Europe, this small church didn't really compare!

Gold-domed Byzantine church (the Russian wouldn't get out of the way)

Then we walked down to the Jordan River, which was right across from Israel. We could see the tourists on that side touching the river, as we were doing! It is the only part of the Jordan River you can touch, as a reminder to the Baptism that took place, because the rest of the river runs through a military no-man's-land. 

View of the Israeli side of the Jordan River

Touching the Jordan River with Israel in the background

Luckily it wasn't too hot or too cold, so the walk was nice and the site was amazing to think about afterwards. There is so much history in this country! Thank goodness I had performed in Jesus Christ Superstar about 7 years back...I actually remembered most of the biblical references and significances that we were seeing today!

Our next stop was Mount Nebo, where Moses is said to have seen the Promised Land and is apparently buried somewhere around here. The drive up the mountain was long and winding, and very steep. We passed lots of sheep, a few camels to Hanaa's delight, and lots of Bedouin tents set up in the cliffs. It was amazing to see that people actually lived like that!

Bedouin live up on this mountain! (can you see the Dead Sea in the background?)

The top of Mount Nebo was quite small, but offered some pretty views of the surrounding areas. We could even see the Dead Sea in the distance, way down below us. There wasn't too much to do, so we took a few photos and headed back down the mountains, towards the Dead Sea!

Hanaa and I had been very excited for the Dead Sea part of our trip. Everyone goes, though most visit from the West Bank, rather than Jordan. So we were going to be unique! Dad and Zaynee had booked us day passes at the Mövenpick Resort and Spa, so we could enjoy the fancy resort and all the amazing amenities by the Dead Sea. It was incredibly beautiful, seeing the infinity pools with the Dead Sea behind and the cliffs in the distance!

The resort was gorgeous!

Unfortunately, it was rather windy and not the warmest day ever. We were really hungry and ate some wildly overpriced poolside food that was pretty bad, and that took up most of the time the sun was out from the clouds. Literally, as soon as Hanaa and I changed into our swimsuits, the sun was hidden by an ominous black cloud that stretched for miles. It was so sad. Nevertheless, we were NOT about to miss out on the Dead Sea and ran down to the beach to step in. It wasn't very cold, luckily, but it was so salty and the waves were picking up. We didn't float, but could totally tell that swimming would have been impossible had we been able to go all the way in. 

Next, we found a mud pot full of Dead Sea mud, which is said to have amazing healing and beauty powers. Hanaa and I covered ourselves, like we did back in Italy when we visited a sulfuric bath in 2003, and even Dad put some on his face! It was very good at protecting us from the wind!

Once we had showered, we ran up to the winter pool, which was heated to 33 degrees Celsius (about 96 Fahrenheit), and jumped in so we didn't freeze. We stayed in there until Zaynee arrived from her classes and joined us, doing another mud covering with us and watching the sun set over the Dead Sea as it slipped out from behind the clouds. 

Sisters in the Sunset 

Such a beautiful sunset

Before leaving the luxurious resort, we had dinner at Luigi's, an Italian restaurant. Mom is sick of and from Middle Eastern food, she preferred to have pizza instead of falafel. So we opted for Italian, which was actually very good. After rounding the night off with gelato in the hotel, we met up with Ghamid and we set off back for Amman. Being at the Dead Sea with the entire family was such a fun and relaxing way to end the day of sightseeing!