I have nicknamed Jer "Ricky Bobby" as we are generally running late to things, compounded by getting lost by the signs which are only in Arabic. And our GPS is no help here. And jer does an average of 120 km/Hr no matter how steep or windy the road is ;)
The water is so buoyant once I got in water over my head I literally could not touch the bottom. Even when I tried to pencil myself down. U just bob on the surface like a buoy. I could not get my head underwater!!!
Looking across the dead sea is Isreal.
Madaba is most known for the tons of Byzantine mosaics that are amazingly perserved in churches and random houses. It also has a lot of religious history - the river Jordan was birthplace of Jesus, Mount Nebo - the peak Moses looked over the Promised Land and the alleged site of his burial place. So remember all the "pictures" you see in the churches are actually mosiacs composed of thousands of individual tiles.. |
| The Church of the Apostles is famous for it's central mosiac depicting that is a personification of the sea. |
| The Church of the Map is located in the St George's Church which houses a Byzantine mosiac map of the Holy Land. This map was accidentally found during a renovation and was supposed to direct pilgrims to sites of biblical significance, it is the place that led scholars to discover the birthplace of Jesus. |
| This Desert Castle looks like a serious fortress, though scholars think it was most likely an inn or meeting place for local bedouin leaders. Prolly also built around 710. |
This desert castle is located in Jordan's only oasis. Though the oasis is now really just a trickle since the late 80's as almost all the water was diverted to Amman for drinking water. This castle was also built by the Romans, and is most famous for its occupation by Alexander the Great in 1917 during their final attack on Damascus which saw the collapse of the Ottoman power. The first pic shows me trying to open the swinging doors to the castle. They are made of rock and weight one ton each!!! The second pics shows another door in the castle that weighs 4 tons and requires a machine to open.. The 3rd pic shows the horse stable. There were rocks with holes carved out of the middle to tie the horses up to. The 4th pics shows the room that Alexander the Great stayed in. Top floor leftmost room |
Qusayr Amra was built as a bathouse, between 711 and 715. The interior walls are covered with extensive frescoes. But doesn't this also look like the childhood house of Luke Skywalker in Tatooine as well???? |
Jerash is one of the best-perserved Roman cities in the Mediterranean. It was built in 170 BC. The site is HUGE, and I cant belive how well perserved it still is. Especially since you are free to roam wherever you want within the city, you can hike anywhere and climb on anything. I guess if Jerash has stood there this long what's a few hundred thousand tourists a year gonna do? |
While the food in Africa was good - lots of curries and chutneys amd fresh tomatoes and cukes. The food In Jordan Is spectacular - fresh pitas that are the squishiest, yummyest things, fresh hummus amd olive oil, salty fried cheese... And u can get like 4 pita falafels for 1 dinar.
The driving in Jordan has been... Interesting. The lines on the road seem to be solely for decoration. As no one ever uses a lane, in fact it seems to be some kind of sport to see of u can turn a 2 lane road into a 4 lane one. Amd don't get me started about rotarys. Walking is an even scarier adventure than driving, because there is no yielding.
While jordanians use their horns almost as often as they breathe, I'm not exactly sure if blinkers even work. I havent seen one used yet!!!
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And just In case I didn't get enough of lady gaga at home - it seems Jordan plays nothing but Rihanna and gaga. So I lost count of the number of born this way plays at something like 30 in the 3 days we have been here. Amd did I also mention when that song comes on the amps go to 11 ;)
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