Final Week in Jordan

***Photo links added!

It's funny, blogging about Jordan when I'm now in India. Guess I'm spoiled from living in Cairo when we had internet all day every day. Which means a quick summary on our last week or so in Jordan. (fyi-Jordanians love their king and feel that he really cares for them. It's nice being in a country where the people like their government.)

We discovered early on that, while Jordan is way more organized than Egypt in many ways, it doesn't seem to have a good public transport system (ie: bus) from anywhere other than Amman. It would take a good one two days to travel from Dana to Madaba by bus and since we didn't have the time, we did what's more popular: We hired a car from Dana to Madaba. It is more expensive this way, of course, but we were lucky in that Roger decided to join us and shared in the cost.

Walid, our driver (or Hajj Walid, the title "hajj" for those who have made the mandatory trip to Mecca which he has, 5 times), suggested a visit to Karak and the Dead Sea, both being on the way to Madaba. Sounded good so we all agreed. Karak is the largest Crusader built castle in Jordan. It's huge! It's also made from bits of Roman and Nabatean temples which was a common practice everywhere (remember: mosque made out of pharonic temple). Everyone ever since has added on to it and it was 7 stories high until a pasha blasted it to bits to rout out the rebels. Here we had our first glimpse of the Dead Sea. We had an hour and a half at the castle, but I would've liked at least another half hour.

The Dead Sea. We have all heard of it, but I never really knew where it was until researching Jordan. In fact, there's a lot about Jordan I didn't really know about until we got there, like how so many biblical events happened there. On our way to the tourist beach we got a closer look at the sea and Lot's wife. Yes, Lot's wife as in turned-into-a-pillar-of-salt. At the beach we had fun learning how to float in the water and "swim" without splashing the foul water into our eyes and mouths (bleh. it tastes awful). I even paid (3JD) to get all covered in stinky, oily, black mud. (Hey, some people pay big bucks for this at home!)

Anyway, we eventually reached Madaba which is famous for its mosaics, another thing I hadn't known about Jordan. The mosaics decorated the floors of fancy homes and Byzantine churches. When Islam became popular in the area the iconoclasts demanded all images be obliterated from everywhere, and it was interesting to see how the mosaicists tried carefully to cover-up the people and animals in these mosaics. This is a pretty neat art form. I've only seen pictures in textbooks and did the usual making of a mosaic from paper in art as a kid, but seeing how huge some of these got to be and how small the tiles, I developed a real appreciation for all their work. We spent all of one day wandering around and seeing these works, starting with the mosaic of the Middle East which is believed to be the oldest map of the Middle East known. Some mosaics escaped being changed over because they were under years of dirt and debris and some are still being discovered to this day, especially when someone decided to re-do their bottom floor.

Amman. Amman is a very Western city, which means to us that it's clean, streets and sidewalks are well-paved, everyone obeys the traffic laws, and no one pees in the street! (Really, I never saw anyone pee in the street anytime in Jordan unlike Egypt, East Africa, and India.)We even got to use crosswalks and welcomed the sight of the green man (the light that tells you when to cross the street). We were there for 3 or 4 nights. We wandered around the downtown area. I loved the Jordanian galabeyyas, but didn't buy any. Things were more expensive here than in Egypt so I didn't get any big souvenirs, just a few chachkis- prayer beads, zip pouch, earrings, bracelet, brass donkey ornament. (Remember how I said Jordanians love their king? Here is a pic of Froody eating at a falafel stand under a picture of the king.)

Another day was spent looking at the Roman ruins in the heart of the city: the nymphaeum, the Odeon, and the Roman theatre. At night a friend of a friend of my father-in-law drove us about Amman. That really showed us how big a city it is! It's also built on hills (which turned our wanderings into butt workouts!) Essam took us to see some great views of Amman at night and some expensive villas and chi-chi shopping. We were very greatful to him for giving us so much of his evening after a busy day at the office- the Ministry of Environment.

The next day took us to Jerash, the largest Roman ruins I've ever seen. It's a whole city! Three theatres, a main street, temples, large nymphaeum, and a bath house. After the second hour, Froody was pretty much done with ruins (remember, we've been seeing ruins for 3-4 months now). After the third, I was done, too. We both liked the first hour: seeing Hadrian's gate and watching some Roman re-enactments at the Hippodrome (the smallest in the Roman Empire so far).

Well, I'm hogging the lobby computer and Froody is talking about lunch, so I'll sign off now and try to come back and link up to some pix- including me in a bikini. XD