The End of All Things

So, perhaps I'm being a tad melodramatic.  But I started things with Lord of the Rings, so I should end that way too, right?  I do love circle stories. 

Speaking of circle stories, yesterday I said my goodbyes to Amman, Jordanian style.  A group of friends and I hit all of the major sites in Amman to spend a day together and enjoy the city many of us have been proud to call home for the past four months. Here are the highlights:

We started with the Friday brunch at Books@Cafe on Rainbow Street.  

Then we went to the Citadel, and I climbed on my last roman column...

And left off where I began.  You might remember The Citadel from my Orientation week post. 

Next up: the Roman Amphitheater! 

Then a few mosques: This one is Abu Darwish Mosque

Then we went to the King Abdullah Mosque in Abdali.

Then we ended our night at Hashems for Falafel and Hummous and walked to Habibeh's for kanafeh.

It was a wonderful day. Now, as I write, the sun is setting on what is truly my last day in Jordan.  I will rise early tomorrow to take my last taxi ride to the airport, and then I will be homeward bound.  America bound.   It feels like just yesterday I was writing on the opposite side of the world, getting ready to leave America for Jordan.  It doesn't seem real.  I flip though the many pages of my journals like a stranger - did I really do all of this?  I rode a camel through the Wadi?  Climbed to the Monastery in Petra?  Saw crusader castles and had a week-long vacation in Italy? 

I look back and think of the girl who boarded her first international flight back in January.  She had no idea what the next four months would bring, the friendships and memories those months would forge.  I come back to the United States not only with a considerably stuffed suitcase, but as a changed person.  The girl who stepped onto the plane in January isn't quite the same person getting off of the plane tomorrow. 

Jordan now ends, but something tells me that my travels have just begun.  

Kerak and Shobak

Have you ever seen a Crusader castle?  I have.  Two of them in fact! First, we drove out to Kerak. Kerak is one of the largest crusader castles in the Levant area. Saladin besieged it several times, finally conquering it in 1189. 

When we were approaching Kerak, I kept wondering where it was because we were driving through a city.  Then our driver told us to look up...and there it was! Kerak! A real life crusader castle. 

Kerak castle!

View of the countryside

Hallways!

Joy and Courtney hanging out. 

Melissa living it up :-P

One of the coolest things about Kerak were the underground tunnels that ran EVERYWHERE.  I don't even think we found all of the tunnels, there were just so many.  Kerak was huge.

Who likes Castles? Mary likes Castles

There was a karate group running around Kerak the same time we were.  I'll have to mention to Kancho about training on a castle...I'm sure he could fly all of Phoenix out to Jordan for a day or two :-P 

After Kerak, we stopped in at a small restaurant for huumous and falafel sandwiches and then got back into the van and drove to Shobak.  Shobak is only a half hour away from Petra, whereas Kerak was close to the Dead Sea, so it was quite a drive.  Most of us slept on the way there.  

Though Shobak was smaller, it stuck out more, to me, at least, because of the barren, desolate landscape it was in.  The natural beauty around Shobak was astounding; the mountains had patterns carved into them by the wind and there was just absolutely nothing as far as the eye could see, except rolling mountains. Beautiful.  

Shobak!  And a dust storm brewing.

Walking up to Shobak

Ruins!

Joy on top of the Castle

Another quick note:  Shobak used to be three stories; but time, sieges, and earthquakes have reduced it to one mostly, two in places.  Just imagine how big is used to be!

Courtney, Joy and Sawyer

So, I've decided the ACTUAL reason for Shobak's destruction was a Dragon, skyrim style. 

Apparently one of the only castles with a curved walkway like this, built as such to protect from the wind. 

As we were getting ready to leave, Melissa was telling us about this escape tunnels that ran from the castle, through the mountain and led out and down at the bottom of the mountain for the royalty, soldiers and citizens living in Shobak to use in the even of a siege.  She then continued to tell us how she had gone down one of them when she had been at Shobak with CIEE earlier in the weekend.  The more she talked, the more I was intrigued.  She showed us the tunnel she had descended:  

In one end...

And Courtney, Joy and I wanted to go for it.  Melissa already had, and the others weren't so sure, (which, really was probably the intelligent decision)  but Courtney had a flashlight and I was ready to throw caution to the wind and do this.  How many times was I going to be at a crusader castle, in Jordan, looking down an ancient escape tunnel?  We knew there was a light at the end, eventually; Melissa had been down this same tunnel.  And Courtney had a flashlight!  Down the three of us went.

It was rather precarious; there were steps about a third of the way down, but then the steps had eroded into the stone, and it was very steep, very dusty, and very slippery.  Courtney kept the light in the middle, with Joy leading and me bringing up the rear. Visibility wise, it was the perfect arrangement, there was just enough light for the three of us to see clearly.  Behind us, it was truly dark as pitch.  I hadn't ever seen darkness like that before.  We carefully made our way down through the abyss, especially careful with our footing.  I was pretty sure that a slip here would have meant a slide all the way to the bottom.

Gradually the steps returned, and it became less steep, until - almost sooner than I had expected - we saw light at the end of the tunnel Sure enough we had made it through the escape tunnel, and there was a ladder leading to the surface.  To be honest, climbing it was the scariest part for me - I've never been good friends with ladders.

and out the other!

As we stumbled back up the hill, blinking in the sunlight, our van came rumbling around the corner with the rest of our group already inside.  We dusted ourselves off, hopped in, and settled down for the three hour drive back to Amman.

Visiting the Holy Land

Day 1 - April 19th: Crossing the Border

When I woke up this morning, I was in Amman, Jordan.  I went to class and sipped my coffee in Gloria Jeans like I always do.  When I went to sleep, though, I was in the Holy Land - in Jerusalem.  How cool is that? 

We left for the border about 2pm; we were in a bus to cross the King Hussein Bridge at 4pm.  The border was very different from what I was expecting; it reminded me more of airport security with maybe a little less precision.  Most of our group got through without incident...but of the six of us, one of us got held up.  We weren't going to leave her behind so we waited with her, and didn't get through the border until 9:30pm.  We hopped onto a bus to actually go to Jerusalem, and what follows was one of my most memorable rides of my study abroad!

The bus's last stop was the Damascus Gate - our stop.  The six of us were the last ones in the bus; and because we realized the driver spoke arabic, we started chatting with him.  All of the sudden, headlights were coming at us down the -what we thought was - a one way street.  From the driver's words, it was supposed to be a one way street.  After narrowly avoiding scraping sides with that car, we continued on our way and shortly after found ourselves playing chicken with a bulldozer. Say whaaat?  Somehow, the situation was hilarious - waiting at the border for five hours can do that to you - and as our driver skillfully extricated us from our second near-collision with the bulldozer, we heard him say, in clear, unaccented english "fuck it".  The six of us died in the back of the bus, howling with laughter.  Something about the first person we met in Israel A) being Arab, and B) cursing with a word we are all very familiar with was just perfect. 

As we left the bus, joking and saying goodnight to our driver, a precedent was set:  Arabs in Jerusalem are awesome. 

Damascus Gate!

We walked from the Damascus Gate to our Hostel, catching some glimpses of the Old City all lit up.

First glimpse of the Old City

City Streets of New Jerusalem!

It was a culture shock to be in Jerusalem on a Thursday night.  Apparently thursday night is a weekend night, because even at 11pm and midnight as we were walking to our hostel (and then back out to get some much needed grub) there were people everywhere.  It is...interesting when you see a group of traditionally dressed orthodox jews walking on the street behind girls in short skirts and low cut tops. Especially after being in Jordan for so long. there was a whole lot of haraam (the transliterated arabic word for 'forbidden') going on. It felt like I had almost forgotten what the acronym PDA stood for...but the guys and gals in the modern section of Jerusalem didn't seem to have any problems with affection, or displaying it. 

The hostel we stayed in was named the Abraham Hostel.  It was nice; quirky, comfortable, basically a glorified dorm building. 

Once we had put our stuff down, we ran back out for some food, since most of us hadn't eaten since lunch at least 12 hours ago.  All we could find was a pastry shop - but it was good enough for me!  Back in the hostel, I was in the 10 person bedroom and chatted with a few of our roommate as I was getting ready for bed.  There were a few Americans studying and traveling, a few other Europeans who were headed to Amman after Jerusalem; so I gave them some tips about good places to eat and visit.  

Day 2 - April 20th

We started the day bright and early, ate a complimentary breakfast at our Hostel (consisting mostly of yogurt, coffee and toast) and headed out to the Old City.  On the way, we saw this map...

It's supposed to show how Jerusalem is at the center of the world; note America just barely peeking  in the bottom left corner.  

Explanation of the Map

The walls of the Old City

Getting ready to go in!

Once inside, we walked to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher - the site of Golgatha (Jesus's crucifixtion) and the Sepulcher itself (where Jesus was buried).  On the way there, the streets were empty - the other tourist weren't awake yet :-P

Most of the streets were covered like this.  The city definitely had an ancient and old feel to it, probably more so than most of the other places I've visited, even more so than Petra

The Stone of Anointing, where Jesus's body was laid.

Pretty domes are pretty...

The Sepulcher - we actually got to go inside

After the Church, we walked to the Dome of the Rock entrance to try and get in.  On the way, we did a lot of shopping, and saw some very interesting T-Shirts....

Tongue in cheek much?

This one is my favorite :)

There aren't appropriate words to describe my feelings towards this one. Not words appropriate for the internet, at least. 

Dome of the Rock!

So, that was the closet I got to the Dome of the Rock.  One of my friends is Muslim, so she went into the complex and got to go inside the Mosque and such.  We waited for her, enjoying the souk in the alley before the Dome.

It turns out that we could have actually gotten into the Dome of the Rock...we were just trying to use the wrong entrance.  Oh well, lesson learned. Onwards!  Our ultimate destination was the Mount of Olives and Gethsemane, but we passed some other sites on the way, and shopped a bunch.  Of course.  One thing I quickly noted in Jerusalem - at least in the Old City - is that most of the souvenir shopkeepers are Arab, and if you speak arabic, not only will they not try quite as hard to rip you off, they will actually give you discounts and decent deals!  In general, in Jerusalem I felt like my arabic was more valued than in Amman.  In Amman, sometimes it seems like the arabic is no big deal - or that I should really just speak english because my arabic isn't that great.  Of course, there are those who are really excited when they learn I speak Arabic but - a topic for another day.

In Jerusalem, when we - as tourists - spoke arabic, there was always surprise.  A guy was walking by a souvenir store, and I was outside because I wasn't buying anything.  The guy said, "sabah al khair" صباح الجير and I responded, "sabah al nuur" صباح النور And the guy stopped and looked at me with bug eyes. Hehehe.  

Map of the route to Golgatha.  We're at the second station on this map.

Church of the Flagellation 

Leaving the walls of the Old City - Mount of Olives in the distance!

That golden domed building is a Russian orthodox church.  Shiny. 

The Mount of Olives!

Looking back at Jerusalem: The Walls and the Dome of the Rock!

Sup Jerusalem?

As we were climbing the switchback paths that went up the Mount of Olives, I saw this fellow! 

View from the Mount of Olives

The Holy Land

After spending some time relaxing in the shade of the olive groves, we went back down the mount to the site of Gethsemane -  where Jesus prayed the night before he was betrayed.  This was my favorite spot of the entire trip. It was gorgeous, and I could feel the sanctity of the place.  For some reason, the Sepulcher wasn't as moving as Gethsemane's simplicity.  In the Sepulcher, there were crowds of people, priests ushering the crowds to and fro, incense, crosses, the whole nine yards, but to me it didn't feel spectacularly holy.  It felt crowded, mostly - and it was still beautiful and everything, but it just didn't really do much for me.  

Gethsemane was a different story. 

The Garden of Gethsemane

I can imagine Jesus kneeling by these ancient trees; the disciples falling victim to sleep against nearby trunks.

The inside of the doors of the church.

Supposedly the spot where Jesus knelt in prayer. 

Stained glass - the purple was unique!

Being in Gethsemane and the Church on the spot was peaceful, relaxing, fulfilling.  I think of all the churches I saw in Italy, this has to be my favorite spot.  The feeling in the church, the aura of sanctity...I actually felt it here.  The Holy Land, indeed.

We left Gethsemane, and made our way back towards the Old City.  On the way, we passed a graveyard...

And the site of the Virgin Mary's Tomb and Ascension

After that, our next stop was the Wailing Wall. 

The Wailing Wall

Group Shot!  From Right to left; Richard, Me, Courtney, Chris, Farah, and Sawyer

The Wall.  The right side is for women, the left for men.

As we were leaving the Wailing Wall, the Call to Prayer started.  And standing there, I found myself in the true center of three religions; the Wailing Wall behind me, listening to the Call to Prayer drift melodically on the gentle wind, looking at the Dome of the Rock with the Mount of Olives in the distance.  Here in this Holy City, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam converge on a daily basis. Peacefully.  Under the same sky and on the same earth.  Why can't it always be this simple?

After the Wailing Wall, we were pretty much done for the day.  We walked by the Tower of David - it's huge!  I wanted to explore it more but the group was moving on and I was being pestered by an arab who was definitely hitting on me because I was speaking arabic. Oh well. 

Tower of David

When we got out of the Old City, we were hungry! But there was a problem.  The Sabbath starts at Sundown on Friday.  It was Friday evening...and all of those store that had been hustling and bustling the night before were closed.  Doors locked, windows shuttered, empty.  Jerusalem was a ghost town.  But we were still hungry!  Luckily, we found a - of all places - chinese restaurant whose doors were still open.  Bon apetite!

That night at the Hostel, we unwound and relaxed.  Drinks may have been ordered, several rounds of Apple to Apples were definitely played.  At the end of one game, I came out with this quite interesting group of character traits...

And that is all I'm going to say about Friday night. 

Day 3 - April 21st

The border closes mid-day on Saturdays, from what we understood, and we all had class Sunday, so we ran very briefly back into the Old City for some last minute gift shopping, and to check on the Dome of the Rock once more, but (since we didn't know about the tourist entrance) no luck there.  After our brief last walk in the Old City we booked it back to the border. 

The quiet streets of Jerusalem on Sabbath

Leaving Israel was a breeze; took no time at all and before we knew it we were bartering for our taxi rides back to Amman.  I reached my apartment about 2pm in the afternoon,  my visit to the Holy Land complete.