Part 2 of filling in the gap.
After getting back from Istanbul LATE Monday night (Tuesday morning class was productive...), we took it easy the next weekend. Friday (November 5th) we took a little daytime outing to the Baha'i Gardens!!!!!!
Againnn, siiigh. Actually remember this was actually the first time, my visit with Anna was the second time, so this one was much more exciting. JK, I don't want to get in trouble...
Since I already touched on the Baha'i Gardens I'll be brief, although one thing that was cool about this was that we showed up during an actual tour, which allows you to walk down the top 9 terraces, in the actual Gardens. You can see the top 9 terraces here... (the somewhat hard to see, canvas covered structure in the middle of the picture is where the gold dome is supposed to be... closed for rennovation, booooooo. The other 9 terraces continue after the dome, you can't see them in the picture).
The tour was free, as is entrance, because the Baha'i faith is run completely on donations, but only donations from Baha'i, so we aren't even ALLOWED TO PAY... awesome!!! I love the Baha'i.
The Baha'i is a very nice faith actually... the are very peaceful and they love everybody. Actually that's pretty much true, they believe in all the prophets from all the religions, so nobody is really "wrong", and they actively try to avoid conflict. Baha'is from all over the world come to volunteer at the gardens, but none actually live here because they do not want to stir the pot by adding another religion to the tense mixture... I think that was pretty much the explanation. Anyway it all sounded very nice, and I can see why they are so peaceful if they all just come to these Gardens and listen to the running water and look at the pretty plants, I know I just wanted to take a nap on the grass.
We are not allowed in the archives, but they still look cool.
Does this scene look familiar?? It's almost like deja vu... I can't put my finger on it... it's almost like... 2 posts ago... or something... ahh I can't put my finger on it.
Anyway if you want more pretty gardens, the rest of these aren't up yet but all of the pictures from when Anna and I went are in the album of her visit.
Mooooovin on.
The rest of the weekend was quiet. If you don't really plan ahead it is easy to get stuck around campus / nearby because the busses stop from Friday mid afternoon until Saturday night / Sunday. Shabbat. The cruelest trick in Israel, you wait all week for the weekend, then weekend comes... and you can't get anywhere!!! I guess we manage... but still...
So one weekend of rest was enough we decided, so next Thursday (the 11th), Dan and I hopped on a bus from Haifa to Eilat, just for kicks.
I won't include a map, but Haifa is almost as far north on the coast as you can get, and Eilat is in the southernmost tip on the gulf. 6 hours on the bus. Good weekend plan right?
Upon arriving we took a short taxi to the Yitzhak Rabin crossing and walked into Jordan!! The border crossing is a peculiar experience. It seems like it should be a tense experience, and in some ways it is. Barbed wire. Machine guns. A weird walk through purgatory as you cross in between the two countries on foot with nobody around and just a fenced in path. At the same time it is strangely casual though. One of the guys with a machine gun was wearing a striped polo shirt (was he supposed to be there??). The Jordanians joked with us and made fun of us etc. The checkin seemed kind of haphazard... I don't really know what to think. All I can say is that it makes a big difference that the two countries have a formal peace between them... cause it's either that experience or the one you get on the other borders (Lebanon, Syria) where, you know, you get arrested / sent back. I take my wins where I get them.
From the border we took a 2 hour taxi to Petra, which was our ultimate destination for the weekend. Petra is a popular destination from Israel, even more so after it was put on the new list of the 7 wonders of the world. Very exciting.
Basically it is the remains of an ancient city that used to be a big trade hub back in the day... but the cool part is, the city was naturally hidden by a giant, long, narrow split in a mountain, and the city consists of facades and rooms carved out of the side of the cliffs. Soooo cool.
Dan and I went down on Thursday, but Mike and Jon had to meet us the next day because of their classes. The benefit of going down on Thursday was that we got to catch the last showing of the weekend of Petra By Night. Petra By Night is when they set up little bag candles all along the walk through the canyon and into the opening at the end in front of one of the main buildings, called the Treasury.
Walk in.
This was the scene when we arrived at the Treasury.
Once here everyone sits down, gets really quiet, and the Bedouins bring you tea and play some music on their traditional instruments, and sing a song or two. Did I mention... sooo cooooll???
Plus, also included in this trip is the
You look around, see the sand, candle lit stone facade, Bedouin music, eerie silence, stone cliffs, look up to the night sky, back to the sand, Holy &$%! I'm sitting in the middle of the desert in the middle of Jordan!!!!!!
moment.
Friday, we returned.. this time, Petra By Day. I just made that up. It's just normal Petra.
Here is the very same Treasury, by day. If anyone has seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, you will recognize it from about 45 seconds of footage in the ending scenes. The people here LOVE THAT. They are obsessed. I hadn't seen the movie but our hostel showed it at night. They have a "vote" every evening on what to watch. Guess what is always watched.
We found Jordanians to be very nice. Every night our hostel made us an all you can eat buffet.... um... favorite hostel ever? Quite possible. They know the way to my heart.
Roman theater... but carved out of a cliff!
Urn tomb... carved out of a cliff!
Guide: Ya you can check it out if you want. Just make sure you have plenty of water... tourists tend to get lost up there, but you guys look young and fit.
As Dan likes to point out, we focused more on the "young and fit" and less on the, "people get lost up there".
We also had about a liter of water between us.
Hmmm..
Of course we went. We were having trouble finding the entrance, and I jokingly pointed out some sort of rocky ledge. We tried it out and it actually kind of worked... which should have been a bad sign, but at the time, it seemed ok...
I wouldn't say we got lost per say... but we did scramble all over rocks without much idea of where we were going, with the constant, "well we can just check over here", mentality digging us further and further into our hole of doom. For over an hour...
On the plus side, we saw all sorts of cool formations off the beaten path from where all the tourists go... those little carved houses in the side of the mountains are eeeeverywhere!!!
So obviously we didn't die, but we almost did. Totally. It was intense. We made it out on our last sips of water and drops of hope. Enough drama.
Besides the Treasury, the other highlight is to do the 800 (time consuming) steps up to the Monastery, which is enormous and also awesome.
And we went to the "Best View in Petra" sign to look out over Wadi Arabia.
The next day we did a little more Petra stuff, but not too much, the one full long day took care of most of it, and you can only hear / see so many rocks in one blog entry.
Another highlight was the election of a political candidate in Wadi Musa (the town you stay in when you visit Petra) while we were there. Dan and I were very disappointed that we missed the celebration, but Jon and Mike were able to stop by while we were doing some additional sightseeing. To celebrate, they killed 10 camels and a lot more goats and made a feast. Yahoooo!!! My kind of party.
We all went back together on Saturday night into Eilat, walked the boardwalk a bit, then rested up for our marvelous 6 hour bus home. This was one of those vacations that you need a vacation from when you get back... but totally worth it, very beautiful and unique. Everyone should go! (Stephen's Travel Agency).
For everyone doing the math, you already know that the next weekend was November 20th... which is when Anna arrived!!! Therefore, the gap is filled, and blogging will henceforth resume in December. Chilling I know. (that one is for Mom)
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