Oh yeah, just got back from Jordan, no big deal

Since I last blogged, I have been to Jordan and back! And it was incredible! Before I get into any of that however, I have not told you all about my weekend last weekend. On Saturday it was the Sabbath and we went on a field trip to the Garden Tomb after church. They don’t know for sure where the tomb was, but this tomb is extremely near Golgotha, so it is definitely a possibility that this was the place. The garden around the tomb is very beautiful and the people who run it are extremely nice and welcoming. We first had a little presentation from our tour guide, Richard and it was very uplifting and full of good information. Something that really surprised me though is how small the tomb was. I guess I was just expecting it to be bigger. It was probably like a 5 foot by 8 foot room, separated into two smaller chambers. We then sang in the garden a bunch of hymns and it was overall just a really uplifting experience. I really want to go back on a weekday though when it isn’t as crowded.

The next day we had a free day and a group of us decided to go out to the city. We tried to go to the dome of the rock, but it closed before we got through the line so I will have to try again for another day. We then went to the tower of David museum, which was really cool, but then it started to downpour rain and it was freezing cold. So the museum would have been more enjoyable if the weather had been nice, but we just stuck it out. We then went to a pizza place called Jacob’s Pizza to get some lunch and some shelter from the rain. Afterwards it was raining too hard to do much else, so we ran home while getting soaking wet.

Now onto Jordan. We left early on Monday morning to cross the border. It doesn’t technically take long to drive from Israel to Jordan, but with border control, it took us about 3 hours to get over there. When we finally got to Jordan, we met up with our tour guide Yousef. He was with us throughout the remainder of the trip. Jordan requires tour guides with big groups in order to protect their economy since the main source of income comes from tourism. Yousef was really great though, so it was good to have him around. So we started our tour with a trip to Mount Nebo, which is where Moses went to visualize the promised land, even though he never actually entered it with the children of Israel. The view from the top was of course incredible and the weather was gorgeous.

We then went to Madaba, where there is an ancient mosaic floor from a Byzantine church showing a map of the ancient world. They have now rebuilt a church over the floor, but the floor remains the same and is very intricate and detailed. The map of Jerusalem is how archaeologists learned about the Corda (main road) of Jerusalem and how it reflected the pattern of ancient Roman cities.

Our next destination was Machaerus- where the palace of Herod (son of King Herod who tried to kill Jesus as a baby) lived and beheaded John the Baptist. In case you don’t know the story of how John the Baptist was beheaded, you should definitely look into it because it is quite the drama. Oscar Wilde actually wrote a play about it, which I also highly recommend. Either way the palace was very cool, even though it was a lot of ruins. The columns were still in tact though! And you could see the basic layout of the rooms. After this site, we took a long drive down to Petra to spend the night and get prepared for the next day.

We stayed at a hotel called La Maison, which just means “The House” in French for those of you wondering. And it was a really cool hotel. When we drove up the workers were playing drums and flutes to welcome us with drinks and snacks. It was pretty cool! We then went inside and ate dinner, which was very delicious. During the dinner they had music playing and such and it was just a very cool experience. Somehow the dinner then turned into a dance party. Two of the workers were playing traditional flute and drums while the chefs and other hotel workers showed us traditional Jordanian dances and sang songs in Arabic. It was so cool! And so fun! The workers were hilarious and didn’t hold back in showing us their moves.

The next morning we headed to Petra- the historical site, as opposed to Petra the city, which we were already in. The site was an extremely short walking distance from the hotel, which was really cool. And of course Petra was amazing. It is kind of hard to beat that, right? In order to get to the site, you have to walk through the Siq, which is just a big slotted canyon. You eventually get to the end of the canyon though and boom… there is the treasury- which is the iconic part of Petra that everyone recognizes. Watch Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade for a further reference- it is where he finds the holy grail. Petra is a Nabatean city and full of buildings and other things carved into the side of mountains. I can’t imagine how long it would have taken them to carve a building into a mountain and then make it look as beautiful and ornate as it does. Truly incredible. And as usual, my words or pictures do not really do it justice. We then hiked up to the monastery which was an extremely hard hike. I think I wanted to die multiple times during it. And my legs were soar the next few days from it. I didn’t die though (fortunately) and finally made it up to the monastery, which was HUGE and very impressive.

Here I am in front of the Monastery- looking like Indiana Jones!

This is me with the guards at the gates of Petra

Travis and I riding camels in front of the treasury!

After looking around the monastery, we went back down the mountain while taking pictures along the way. Once we got to the bottom of the mountain, we had lunch at a restaurant there, which was very delicious. After we were done eating, we started to head back to the treasury, while viewing everything on the way. Once we got back to the treasury, we rode camels! That was definitely a highlight because I have been DYING to ride a camel. It was a very short ride, but hey I still rode a camel. And got some pretty cool pics out it, which is what is really important, right? We then headed back and drove up to Amman, the capital of Jordan, which is where we stayed for the rest of the trip.

It was an extremely tiring day, so I basically went right to bed after we ate at the new hotel in Amman. So the next day, Wednesday, we went out and toured around Amman and some neighboring region. An interesting fact- around half of Jordan’s population live in Amman. So yeah, it is a really big city. We started our day at the King Abdullah Mosque, which was soooo big and pretty. I’m a huge fan of mosques because they are so beautiful and ornately decorated. All of the women had to wear scarves over their heads and then they gave us there black cloaks that we had to wear as well. So I guess we looked pretty legit. Inside Yousef talked to us about Islam and some of their doctrines and practices. It is always fun for me to learn about new religions. Jordan is an overwhelmingly Islamic nation, so very different from Israel for sure. Most of the men wear the scarves on their heads and most of the women wear burkas or at least a head scarf with a long sleeved trench coat on. And you hear the call to prayer a lot, but I guess that isn’t much different from Israel. The main difference from Israel is that everything is in Arabic and anything in Hebrew is prohibited. So all of the signs are in Arabic and everyone there is speaking Arabic. I had fun picking out words and letters that I know from my limited Arabic knowledge (I took Arabic at BYU for a semester). I thought I had forgotten it all, but some resurfaced, so that was cool.

Me in front of the King Abdullah Mosque in my Islamic attire

We then went to a national park with a Citadel and the Jordanian national museum inside of it. The ruins were very cool. The museum was really cool too. They are in the middle of moving it, however, so not all of the exhibits were inside.

This is the view outside of the national park. That is the Jordan flag in the background. Apparently it is the largest flag hanging in the world- or something like that. It is in the Guiness World book of Records.

We then had lunch at this really cool restaurant with delicious food. They make this very large pitas in these brick ovens and it is soooo good. And you can watch the guys working there make the bread, which is so cool. They use a brick oven with an open flame. And then the entire bottom of the oven are these fist sized rocks. They place the flat dough right on top of the rocks and let it cook. Then they get a big hook and flip it over before bringing it out to eat. It was so fun to watch!

Here's the guys making the bread- notice the stones in the bottom of the oven if you look closely.

After lunch we headed over to the ancient city of Jerash, which was awesome! It is an ancient Roman city and it is HUGE! All of the other ancient cities we have seen so far (aside from Petra) have been rather small, but this was very extremely large with huge structures that were very Roman, including theaters and nymphiums and political buildings. And there were columns EVERYWHERE just like you would expect. We explored around the city for a while and got a ton of pics and then eventually it was time to go.

We ended the day with a trip to the royal automobile museum. Basically it is just all of the cars that have belonged to the Kings of Jordan inside. And of course there were some pretty sweet cars. I’m not really a car person, but it was still really fun.

Travis, Loie and I at the city center in Jerash

Me in front of the Northern gate to Jerash

The next day we toured downtown Amman. In the middle of the city there is a huge Roman theatre that we went to. We sang some hymns there, which was really cool because of all of the acoustics. And then Brother Huntsman (who is a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir by the way!) performed a song for us. And it was just a really cool experience and very fun.

Travis and I at the Roman theatre in Amman

We then drove a little around the city and looked at all of the buildings before heading down to the Jordan River. At the River we went to the Jesus Baptism Site, which of course was very cool. The ancient church of John the Baptist was there, and where we believe Jesus was baptized. No one of course knows for sure where exactly he was baptized, but it was still cool to be there and see the Jordan River. We were on the Jordan side of course, but right across the river we could see Israel and the Israeli tourist site for the baptismal site. That was pretty cool.

The river was our last site before heading back to Jerusalem. And now I’m back “home” for a while. It’s weird to be back in classes and have things to study after having so much fun in Jordan, but hey the show must go on.

In front of the Jordan River- there is Israel behind me!

Sorry this blog post is SOOOO long, but hey I had a lot to catch you all up on! I didn't add all of the pictures, but there were a lot. I will be able to show you all much more once I get back to the states. Thank you once again for your emails- I love hearing from everyone! Love and miss you all!