Well, I've been back from Jordan since Monday and have been so busy trying to catch up with work/friends/The Apprentice that this is the first chance I've had to write about the holiday. Well to be fair there was time over the last couple of nights but BBF introduced me to Deadwood!
Jordan was the furthest I've ever travelled and it was a world apart from Blighty. For starters it was lovely and hot (34 degrees one day) which doesn't sound impressive if you're one of my further afield readers, but when it reaches 30 degrees in England it's on the front page with the headline "Phew what a scorcher" with a photo of someone frying an egg on a dolly birds tum on Brighton Beach. It was cold by their standards though and I saw many, many locals in jumpers and coats with hoods.
Amman is a really full-on city to visit; half the population live there and it's very hectic and dusty. The lack of driving decorum was terrifying at times - there were no rules and people just crossed lanes in front of you, never indicated, got out of taxis at roundabouts, parked on blind corners and in tunnels, whilst pedestrians blithely wandered around in amongst the chaos with no due concern for their own safety. It was scary yet also somewhat exciting!
I stayed with my dear friend Star Trek Girl who has a huge apartment with a roof terrace; I tried to spend most mornings out there only coming in when the heat became too much. I loved the sound of The Call to Prayer near her house; it sounded different than in the other places we visited - all haunting and beautiful. I missed it a bit after I left actually.
Although I was only there for a week, I fitted in lots of things and also found the time to just chill out and relax. This was important as I also wanted to spend some time just being with my friend and not feeling like I needed a holiday when I came home. Although I saw some incredible sights, one of my favourite evenings was sitting with her crocheting some flowers whilst watching the film A Serious Man then Have I Got News For You!
Highlights would have to include the Citadel in Amman where Jordanian bagpipers gave us a rendition of Scotland The Brave (which was quite surreal) the Crusader castle in Karak, seeing Roman ruins (more bagpipers strangely enough) and watching Gladiators fight it out with Centurions in Jerash, seeing 8000 year old settlement ruins in Al Beidha with a Bedouin kid dragging a dead snake on a piece of string, The Dead Sea, and of course Petra.
You can look at every website and see all the photos ever taken, but nothing quite prepares you for Petra - the place is incredible. It was hard to comprehend how they could have carved this city OUT of the rock rather than with the rock; and even if I describe it in the minutest detail I'd never be able to do it justice, so I won't. It's one of those places that needs to be seen really.
So I had a very memorable birthday in Jordan; I haven't worked on my birthday since I was 17 and I highly recommend not only taking the day off, but the whole week and then spending it abroad - especially if it's out of season. I've spend one in Umbria, one in Sorento and now one in Jordan - next year I intend to return to Italian form and have my 40th in either Rome or Venice.
Once I've sorted out my photos I'll try to do a few little posts so you can get a better idea of what it was like, but my holiday was absolutely brilliant - I got to hang out with my friend, grab a bit of a tan, see some amazing places, eat some gorgeous food, and dice with death on the roads of a foreign country. It was great!
I could explode with jealousy. Petra is on my bucket list. You are right though there are some places where you just have to go, not look at it in a book.
ReplyDeleteI would also like to see that photo of the babe frying an egg on her belly, do you have a link?
Nice to have you back.
So so glad you had a good time, it's not the same crocheting without you! XX
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