Jerash

Now the sun is shining.....
Well really its not because a cloud has just come and decided to rain upon us, but in a happiness way the sun is shining and the birds are singing and all is right in the world. I'm sorry to shock you all with the last blog..... WHAT a day!
And then on Friday I was in the hotel in Amman and I met two really nice American guys that live in Ugander (not sure if that's how you spell it) in Africa. I asked them if they wanted to go to the Dead Sea and Jerash with me the next day. We went out for dinner and had hummus, bread, another bean dip, falafel, chips and Coke (it was all they had that was cold Erik.... I'm sorry) and tea. It was FANTASTIC and for the three of us it only cost 5JD (Jordanian dollars) which is like $8 Australian. We went back to the hotel and started chatting with a Jordanian guy that works at the hotel. We all got on well and so he took us out to the Irish pub a 5 minute cab drive away. It was good fun even if his jokes were a bit rude and he called me a Muslim for not drinking to excess. We had a great night getting a cab back to the hotel at 12:30 where the Jordanian dropped us off and then said he would catch the cab home. We all went straight to bed - as for me my body thought it was like 9 in the morning. So half an hour later there is a banging on my door, I open it up and there is someone from the night shift at the hotel and a police man. They are saying that the taxi driver wants more money (he already got 3JD which is the right amount for the ride) but he says he wants more. The police man then wakes up the boys (Phillip and William - the Americans) and takes one of them to the police station. Will ends up just giving the driver 10JD so that he can just go back to sleep. After this I can no longer sleep and spend the rest of the night trying to get some rest - that night has to be one of the worst nights ever -touch wood I don't have any more like it.

Sorry I should probably put in some paragraphs.

So the next day, Saturday (I have to put here that right now I am eating Jordanian pastries which are so good - like the Greek baklava ), so on Saturday we all go to Jerash all four of us plus the driver (the fourth passenger is Meg an Australian who works in London). Now Jerash is just amazing! A whole Roman city right next to a modern town. I have never seen such wonders! You just feel amazed that people thousands of years ago and with no cranes or electric saws created such ingenious architecture. It was so much fun walking around imagining what it must have been like. I have also learnt two words that make my life so much easier - "Shukeren" which means "Thank you", and "La" which means "No". Put together or separately you can scrape by. Also Meg is learning Arabic so when I'm with her she can understand what they are saying - most on the time if it's a guy its "My dear, my love".

We then went to Mount Nebo which is where Moses first saw the Promised Land. Unfortunately he died before he reached it. We then went to the Jordanian River to where Jesus was baptised (Phil filled a bottle with holy water) and I saw Israel for the first time. The river is the border and so Israel was only two meters away. There is a map of the Middle East in the hotel which doesn't recognise Israel only Palestine.
We then went to the Dead Sea. It is so much fun floating in the Dead Sea. The water feels thick and presses in on your legs as you wade in. When you get up to you waist you just sit back and float.
But it gets in to every cut! Cuts I didn't know I had. We then went back to Amman and I went to sleep.

Today, Sunday, Meg and I got up lateish and just walked around the city. The weather was great it only started raining 1 hour ago. We stumbled on a great market where I got some oranges (which I ate sitting at the Roman theater in Amman) and just took everything in. Amman is a modern Arab city not like Cairo at all. I then went to the Roman theater where I talked to Oma and Opa on the phone and Mum, Dad and Sasha. By the way I want to thank everybody for your emails - I appreciate every one! Sorry that it is too hard to reply as I only have so much time on the computer. Talking of time I should go soon. I then went to the citadel where there is a great museum (wonderful statues and mosaics) and some more ruins - the best being the Temple of Zeus.

Ok time's up.

I love you all. Thank you for all your support and I'll try to keep you updated.
Please let me know how you're all going.
Hugs and kisses, Cush.

Update on Cairo and Amman-Jordan

Here are some updates on where Acushla has been staying in Cairo - great hostel, and Amman. Also included are the transcript of the chats we have had at night. (actually I could not load these)

She has asked for them to be posted.

Osiris in Cairo and Farah in Amman

Good news is she has met another Australian young woman who is doing the 21 day Intrepid tour with her. 

The tour starts tonight.

 Fiona

Well howdy!

Hi guys I hope you are all well and looking after each other.
I am great and have finally had time and energy to sit down and type. At the moment I am in Amman, the capital of Jordan, having arrived a couple of hours ago. It is 5:43 in the afternoon here on my second day. The flight was good but it was such a relief to see the sun rise again because I had spent nearly 24 hours in darkness as i followed the night around the globe.
Instead of repeating myself I am going to post an email I sent yesterday to Mum, Dad and Sasha . Since yesterday things have changed and I am well and happy. I am just about to go out and eat.
I was not in a great mood when I wrote the email so take that into consideration. Happy reading...


Hi guys. The flight was great, except for the whole being on a plane for 22 hours, my butt was SO sore! Sorry was that "TMI", anyway so the connection was fine and I had the pilot and one of the flight attendants thinking I was pretty cute. So everything was splendid, I even got to sleep on the plane to Egypt a little. I got stopped at Customs because I didn't put an address on the entrance form (because I am travelling and don't know where I will be all the time) but they soon let me through. Finally got out in to the arrivals lounge and guess what???!!! There was no one there to pick me up! No nice little sign with my name on it. So I waited and waited and rung the hotel which told me that I hadn't organised a pick up so I got them to send out a guy and then I waited and waited some more until nearly two hours after arriving in Egypt I rung the hotel again and they said that they had sent a driver out but he couldn't find me so he had left. At this point I am finally in tears (proud to note that I had sucked it in until then) at which point a guy comes over asking what's wrong saying that he can get me a cab (which actually consists on him getting some guy that can't speak English to get his friend that can't speak English either to drive me).

At this point I really just what to get to the hotel so because they can't speak English the address has to be translated into Arabic which OF COURSE is translated wrong so that after picking up two other passengers (who also don't speak English by the way!) we get completely lost!! So here I am braving the crazy death trap they call roads ;) and because the driver didn't have his seat belt on having to listen to the the car alarm beeping at him so that he would put the seat belt on - this continued through out the whole saga ( as I AM a sensitive muso this got me very annoyed). Anyway back to being lost.... then I am trying to call the hotel on my mobile so that they can talk to the driver and direct him to the hotel but my phone won't work! (no idea what's wrong with it as it was working at the airport - that's why I couldn't ring you which I have been trying to do) so I finally get the driver to call the hotel so he gets the directions....... but the other two passengers want to be dropped off home so we go in the opposite direction to where the hotel is to drop them off. At this point I am back in tears because it has been one and a half hours since I left the airport! So we're back on the way but the driver and his mate are hungry so we take another detour to get them some food. I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO over it by now.

We finally make it to the hotel, I tip the driver (by the way he wouldn't accept my first tip - how rude) put my heavy bag back on and go up the rickety lift to the 12th floor but getting out of the lift are the owners of the Osiris which for some reason starts me crying again. So I get to the Reception in tears and check in but my room isn't ready yet and all the men are giving me strange looks as they just can't handle a crying woman in their foyer. So i store my bag and go on to the roof where I try again to ring you with no avail. So here I am sending you an email - it is now 11 o clock (I got to the hotel at 10:15 only four hours after I arrived in Cairo). I don't have enough time to really do anything before I have to leave tomorrow. I'm sure I'll think of something.

I send all my love to you all, Acushla.

PS - the staff here seem really nice and the building is amazing (even if the rooms are really small)

PPS - try calling me on my mobile or you could ring the hotel and get to me that way, love Cush xoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxo


Update........

Since this morning it has been great! I wandered the streets of Cairo and an Egyptian showed me around which was great. I have slept in a foreign country which is surprisingly exactly the same as sleeping at home. I had better go now and eat some dinner.

love you all lots.

PS - if you want to know more I am going to put my internet conversation with Mum and Dad in a link so that you can read that if you really want because it is too hard to write the same thing again and again.

Love you all, Acushla

New link

I have added a "interesting links" section to this blog. It is situated on the right side of the page. I have just put a link up to my itinerary - the link is cunningly called "My Itinerary", so you can have a look at what I'll be up to.

It's party time

Only two weeks to go and so it is time to send out the invitations. My Bon Voyage Party is on Monday the 24 from 4:30 at my place hope to see you all there!

Three weeks to go.

Three weeks to go and counting!
Bought the Intrepid tour to Egypt and Jordan and this week I have purchased a ticket with a bus company called Busabout.