Vine leaves, Roman Amphitheatre and Family - Amman, Jordan

After a whirlwind few days packed with family, emotions, catch ups over delicious home cooked Syrian food and very little sleep, I landed back into London yesterday.

Tabouli, stuffed vine leaves and Okra

I was in Amman, Jordan. It was a very last minute trip, more family oriented than a travelling and sight seeing one. But I couldnt resist doing at least one 'touristy' thing - I went to see the Roman Amphitheatre. Ive already been to Petra, and I would have liked to have visited again but it just wasnt the best option time wise. The dead sea is also on my list. Oh that never ending travel list!

Ammans Roman Amphitheatre

A smaller rebuilt amphitheatre next to the large Roman one

This is what the area used to look like...see the pile of rubble on the left...you can just make out the smaller amphitheatre steps - quite the restoration job dont you think?

Amman is an old city that is modernising very fast. The amphitheatre sits next to a modern park/plaza, which is overlooked by crumbling houses, which have expensive high-end cars parked out front, that compete with yellow taxis and white 'shared' taxis that operate like buses along a given route. You can be set down on a sidewalk that has a footbridge that takes up the entire space but a block away is 6-8 story mall complete with indoor electric go-carting drift track. Its a worn out cliche but Amman is really a city of contrasts.

One of the cars with local guys celebrating the Jordanian Independance day

Road side stall selling all sorts of lights and lanterns

It also happens to have been Ammans first post office too

But all of that was just the back drop to being able to see my mum and brother, its been over a year since I last saw them. I alsohad the chance to catch up with my aunt and uncle and their families, and meet my little cousins. I also put my rusty arabic to some practice. It really is quite shocking to realise how much I forget! I have to relearn how to express myself and communicate while knowing exactly what I want to say in English, frustrating!

Whirlwind as it was, when I arrived home yesterday, all I could manage was to fall into bed and sleep. But it was wonderful and totally worth it.


Have you ever done any crazy last-minute trips?

Read More

Petra, Jordan.

Hearing: Photograph - Nickelback

After my 9 day trip to Brussels and Toronto I had 4 days off so what to do? My mum had gone to visit her sister in Amman and so my grandparents and 2 of my uncles and youngest auntie came out from Damascus to see her and spend time with her. Its been over 6 years since she last saw them. I packed my backpack, went to the airport and bought a ticket to Amman, it had been 6 years for me too and it was brilliant to see them again. The second day I was there we took a day trip down to Petra, a place I've always wanted to visit and I've taken so many photos its going to be hard to decide which to post. It really is amazing, an entire city just carved out of stone.
I was taken by surprise at the long walk it took from the 'main entrance' to the Treasury which signals the start of the City of Petra. You start on this dusty pathway till you reach the entrance of the Siq and then travel a fair while through till you get your first glimpse of the Treasury.















Along the Siq there are these carvings a sort of roadmap to the travelers back then to let them know where they were going, like a lot of what that civilization left behind the detail has faded away.












There was a line of about 4 or 5 of these statues in the Siq. All of them eroded away - this one was the most complete. I think they were meant to be of Nabataean soldiers.













The Treasury. When I was there it looked like they were building a platform out the front. If you can see the metal lattice on the ground near the foot of the Treasury, that is covering a newly found part of the structure, tombs.
Some Nabataean Writing found inside a family tomb.







The street of facades - Going past the Treasury to the right you arrive at an open space with a few tent souvenir shops and drink stands against the backdrop of the ancient Nabataean homes carved into the rock.






The open air theatre.













Both photos are of a row of tombs, in the first one you can see people standing up there.












If you step off the colonnaded street (its very Roman) and climb some stairs to the left you find this (second pic), apparently there was some excavation going on by the Brown University.













After so much walking, (and we still hadn't seen everything) we opted for a camel ride back to the Treasury, they will try to get as much money out of you as possible so be careful. He made a caravan of all of us, and this number 30 here was mine.













Ok, the rest are photos from the drive to Petra. Jordan has a very mountainous landscape but beautiful in its own way. Just driving along I saw a few small - twisters/cyclones/tornados?? - no higher than 2 meters and nothing much to worry about. Couldn't get a photo cuz by the time id got my camera ready it had blown itself out. So 1st photo is me at a lookout, only climbed up 2 meters from the road to get this view! The second is a small settlement in a valley totally isolated, don't even know if there was a road in and miles away from any village or town. 3rd is a shot from inside the car of one of the many towns we drove through and though you cant tell from the photo almost all of them were colorful - I'm talking blues and pinks here. The last photo is of the Spring of Moses in the Valley of Moses not far from Petra. Completely natural and with Biblical ties the stream runs cold and pure, personally I think the whole paving idea stupid, they should have left the ground natural and just had the walls and roof if they wanted to 'preserve' it.












Well that's it from my Jordan trip, hope you enjoyed the photos.

VP

Read More