Eilat and Petra: Muhammad, Beach, and Birthday!

 

The weekend after all of the 60th birthday festivities (May 22-25), my friends Amanda, Jessica, Jordana, and I went to Eilat and Petra.  After class on Thursday, we got a bus from Jerusalem, which was supposed to take 4 hours and 45 min, but ended up taking 4 hours (including 2 stops along the way).  After we got to Eilat, we went to settle into our hostel and get dressed to go to dinner.  After we took a LONG time getting ready and playing around in the room taking pictures, we went outside only to find out that it had started raining!  Not only was this a big disappointment since we couldn't really go out, but it was a big surprise for there to be rain in Israel's southernmost city, which is in the middle of the desert, in mid-May.  We ended up going to a pizza place next door to our hostel and then hanging out for the night.

The next day, while Jordana and Amanda stayed behind to go to the beach, Jessica and I woke up bright and early, and headed for one of the two borders in Eilat, the Jordan-Israel border to cross over into Amman, Jordan.  The border crossing was really interesting: we had to go through a series of steps and buy a visa, then they took everyone's passport and you got it back in a big stack at another window.  It seemed really sketchy, and I felt as though it would have been way too easy to steal someone's passport.  Also at the border we met one of the girls from the apartment next door, who was with a girl I have class with and another girl from Hebrew U.  They were also going to Petra, so we went through the border with them. 

After we got across the border, we found out there weren't any busses on Fridays (which we were planning on taking) because Fridays are the Muslim's holy days, so we took a cab into the city of Amman, and then switched into a new cab to take us all the way to Petra (which was about two hours away).  Our new cab driver was named Muhammad, and he was really nice.  He stopped soon after we got in the car and bought us each a bottle of water and a special orange drink (that was REALLY good - it was like fresh squeezed orange juice in a can), and some nuts to snack on.  He also stopped several times along the road to show us different views and sites.

At the border crossing!

Crossing into Jordan

Me and Jessica at one of the stops our cab driver stopped at to show us the view

A city near Petra

A 20 Jordanian Dinar bill - it has the Dome of the Rock on it, since it was in Jordan until 1967

After Muhammad dropped us off and arranged a time to pick us up at, we bought our tickets and made arrangements for a tour guide.  When we met our guide, we found out that we would be sharing our tour with two German men, and our tour guide introduced himself as Muhammad (I guess it really is a very common name!).  He told us that our tour mates had arranged horse rides for the first part of the tour, so we could also ride a horse for free and just pay the tip for the person pulling the horse.  So Jessica and I took a horse through the first part of Petra until we got up to the canal, called the Siq, that served as the main entrance to the city of Petra in ancient times.  The horses stop there (except for a few horse drawn carriages for older and sick people) because the canal is very narrow so it would be difficult for all the people and horses to navigate through if the horses continued on.  Once we got to the Siq, Muhammad explained to us about all the beautiful rock around us.  He told us what minerals were represented by the different colors in the rock, about different rock carvings, about the niches where idols were kept in ancient times, and about the water pipe along the sides of the canal that was used to carry water into the city.  It was really interesting, and the rock was gorgeous, as each turn and shift of the sun brought new natural surprises.

On the way to the Siq

Entrance to the Siq

A niche carved into the wall where idols were put in ancient times

Inside the Siq

Ancient water system

Inside the Siq

More inside the Siq

At the end of the Siq is the ancient treasury, which was thought to be a treasury with treasure in jars when it was discovered, but this was soon proven to be false.  In reality, the treasury was actually an ancient tomb or temple of some kind.  Regardless, though, the treasury was very impressive and was well worth the walk through the Siq.  At the treasury there was also this cute little Arab coffee shop, and Muhammad stopped with us to get coffee and tea.  I had DELICIOUS Arabic coffee - it was really strong and came in a tiny little espresso cup with a bunch of grinds left at the bottom as Arabic coffee is supposed to be prepared, and it was amazing.

Me and Jessica in front of the treasury

Camels hanging out in front of the treasury

After our break at the treasury, we walked along the next part through a path with ruins of many ancient tombs in the cliff.  It was really cool to see all the carvings in the cliffs where the wealthy and important people of the ancient town had been buried.  We also passed an amphitheater and some other ancient ruins.

Ruins in the cliff

Amphitheater

Royal tombs

After we got through the ancient tombs, we were in the ruins from the ancient Greek part of the city of Petra.  It was basically a road with some remains from markets and a temple, and was really interesting, especially after having seen so many Greek ruins in Greece over Spring Break and seeing the similarities in the style of architecture.

 

Greek ruins

After that, we turned around to head back to meet Muhammad #1 at the main entrance, which would take about 40 minutes - one hour to get back through.  There was a monastery up the hill that we didn't get a chance to see, but we saw the majority of what there was to see.  Since we were in somewhat of a rush and found people who would give it to us for very cheap, we got donkey rides back to the treasury.  It was really cool, particularly because I was able to practice my Arabic with the guy leading the donkey.  It showed me a lot that my views on just taking a semester of Arabic was still going to be important - I was able to ask a very basic question (I asked what the donkey's name was) and as soon as the guy leading the donkey realized I knew a little bit of Arabic (and even after he realized just how little that was) he totally warmed up to me and basically spent the entire ride back talking to me in a mix of English and Arabic and ignored Jessica completely.  It helped to gratify my Arabic studies a lot, because it reinforced the idea that even just knowing enough to be courteous goes a long way.  Once we got back to the treasury, we walked back through the Siq and the road up to it.  For some reason, even though it was already after 3pm, it seemed to be much hotter out than the rest of the day had been, so we had some difficulty on the walk back.  Once we met up with Muhammad, though, we had a nice ride back to the border and were able to cross just in time to get back to Israel and the hostel for shabbos.

Donkey ride!

That night in Eilat was a lot of fun.  We joined back together with Amanda and Jordana, and went to walk along the boardwalk/promenade.  We found this really delicious restaurant near the beach, where we ended up eating dinner the next night too.  After that, we stopped in a bunch of shops and tried on crazy hats and jewelry, and just had some general fun.  In the distance, we saw this neon-lit ball bouncing around in the sky, and found out that it was a ride called the slingshot.  Basically, you get into this ball made out of pipe-like neon-lit things, and it uses a bunjey type set up to shoot you into the air.  Well, Jessica and I decided we obviously had to go on it, while Amanda and Jordana were scared for us.  It was really scary, but a LOT of fun.  We went up really high over the entire city, and got to see all of Eilat lit up at night.  After that, we went to a British style pub near our hostel called the Underground, and hung out for a drink before bed.  Unfortunately, our relaxing drink was interrupted by a loud birthright group at the bar next door, but that gave us a chance to observe their very typical birthright behavior from the view of people who had been here for a few months.

Jessica and I on the Slingshot

Me and Jessica at the Underground

The next day we got up early and headed for the beaches.  Even though the weather was gorgeous (even a bit too hot), the beaches weren't exactly what I was expecting.  The part of the beach where you get into the water, and even the very beginning of the water, was very rocky, so it made getting in and out of the water (a necessity to keep cool in the heat) very difficult.  It was still a nice relaxing day, and at least now I can say I've actually been to Eilat (though I don't see why Israelis vacation there more than other beachy cities like Tel Aviv or Haifa).  After a light lunch and frozen drink by the beach, Amanda and I went back to shower and then went to do some shopping while Jordana and Jessica scuba dived with dolphins.  Amanda and I went to a mall near the beach, and I bought a really cute skirt and a couple CDs (including a CD of a very popular Israeli artist whose song "Rikud Romanti" (Romantic Dance) I've been hearing EVERYWHERE.  After we all got back and rested for a while, we went and walked around for a bit and then went out for Jessica's birthday dinner, since her 21st birthday was the next day (but we would be back in class in Jerusalem for dinner that night), and we let her pick the restaurant so she picked where we went the night before because of their massive and delicious salads.  After dinner, we had the waitress bring her a birthday dessert, which she was completely oblivious to.  Then we went out for the traditional 21st birthday drink (back at the Underground), and then went to a club next door for a little while.  The annoying birthright kids were still there, but they had to go back to their hostel around 12, so we were able to enjoy it without them after that.

After a very fun night, we went back to the hostel and got up early to catch the bus back to Jerusalem so we could get back in time for class.  The next week was a combination of sad and intense - Jessica left on Thursday (that's the sad part) because she had to go back home for her summer internship at UBS on Wall Street, and we were all getting ready for finals and stressing.  I had two final tests (one in Hebrew that Friday and one in Middle East: Coexistence and Rapprochement - aka Arab-Israeli Conflict - the next Sunday).  In addition to that and a full week of classes, I had 3 papers due - a 15 page paper in my Iran class (mine ended up being 17 and I finished it a while before), a 20 page paper in my Israeli Legal System Class (ended up being 22), and a 30 page paper for my Arab Israeli Conflict class (which ended up being 42 pages...longest I've ever written!).  And I thought study abroad was supposed to be easy!  Anyway, I was actually particularly proud of my Arab-Israeli Conflict paper.  I wrote about the effects on Israeli foreign policy and domestic attitude from Rabin's assassination, which turned out to be really interesting and eye opening.  Since this blog update is very out-dated, I have since gotten my grade back on the class and did really well in it, so I'm excited, and thinking about asking the professor for a Law School Recommendation letter!

Anyway, on Sunday night at about 2am, I finished the last of my final papers, leaving me a good 2 weeks left in Jerusalem before leaving for Megiddo to just relax, enjoy, and do some day trips while saying my goodbyes to way too many people (which was very sad).

 

Well, seeing as I started this week very behind on this blog, I'm very impressed with myself that I've managed to catch up this much.  Hopefully I'll keep it coming and maybe get to Megiddo (where I am now) before I actually leave (haha!).

Lehitraot for now...coming home two weeks from today! yikes!

<3 Leah