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 3
JD 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 10
JD 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.
