Jordan!

Dara--who is a friend from Simon's Rock, for those who might not know--and I left for Jordan the day after I got back from London. We took an afternoon bus down to Eilat from Tel Aviv, which is at the southernmost tip of Israel and borders Aqaba, in Jordan. The bus ride was fine, although it's a bit of schlep. We crossed the border, which was kind of expensive--it's 100 shekel to cross, which by Israeli standards is quite a bit of money. But we had no problems crossing and we met our cab driver on the other side of the border. Dara's cousin in law or something had the number of this guy, Erav, who apparently operates some kind of cab empire because he basically organized our entire trip and we never even actually met him! But we drove to Petra from Aqaba, which is about a two hour ride, and our driver was cool and pulled over to get us Bedouin coffee on the way and stuff. When we got to our hotel in Petra we checked in and went to get something to eat. We managed to really offend a Bedouin guy (cultural differences or something?) but we met two guys we recognized from our hotel at the restaurant who invited us to go with them to Wadi Rum the next day after touring Petra, which we thought was a good idea. Basically, the guy we offended was trying to get us to hire him as a tour guide (EVERYONE is trying to get you to buy something from them in Jordan... it's worse than China and Mexico) but it was really sketchy and kind of creepy and we felt a lot more comfortable with these guys (they are from Madrid, studying in Istanbul). So the Bedouin guy came over and was like, "Yeah, tourists trust each other and not us." Which I guess is kind of true.

Anyway, the next day, we got up early and went into Petra, which was also expensive... The dollar is weaker than the dinar, so changing over 50 USD and 10 pounds only got me like 35 dinar which was just enough to actually get me into Petra and seemed ridiculously steep to me. But Petra was really cool! For anyone who might not know about Petra (I don't remember learning about it in MCPS), it's a really well preserved ancient archeological site where Nabataeans lived and has tons of ruins, tombs, evidence of their water system, etc. It's fast becoming a HUGE tourist attraction (it was probably one of the most touristy places I've ever been, and I live in Washington, DC...). We did a tour there and looked at all of the sites and we saw the Bedouin guy we offended the night before so we had to avoid him (it's like Simon's Rock!). Basically, when you get there you go on a walking tour that takes you through this narrow valley out to the treasury, which is probably the best preserved site, and then through to where there are restaurants and stuff, and then you walk back. It's probably about 4 miles total and definitely worth doing if you have money/like to walk/don't mind all the tourism.

Then we met up with our friends from Madrid and headed to Wadi Rum with the same cab driver from the night before. I was having some money crises (my bank wouldn't let me withdraw any dinar for some reason and virtually nowhere lets you pay with a credit card), so Dara basically had to pay for me for most of the trip. By the time we got to Wadi Rum, we had switched drivers (this is common) and he invited us to have dinner at his house and then sleep in his camp in the desert, so we agreed. We went to house and played with his kids and his wife made us dinner (basically meatball stew, so I had rice in a pita, haha!). And then his nephew or cousin or something took literally into the middle of the desert where their family has a camp. He made us a fire and made us Bedouin tea and then we all went to sleep. We were supposed to get up for the sunrise but we managed to sleep through it... The Bedouins have a different concept of time than we do, I think. For example, we asked the guy whose house we ate at how old his children were, and he only knew that his son was seven. He said something about them not measuring age that way, and that people just kind of grow up. And then the next morning when we slept through the sunrise, the guy who was touring us asked Dara what time it was. I guess he didn't have a watch.

So we ate a nice Bedouin breakfast of pita and stuff, and then we went on an open jeep tour of Wadi Rum. We saw a LOT of cool stuff, and the desert does kind of look different than Eilat. We went to Lawrence of Arabia's house and we climbed a sand dune and we went to this other Bedouin camp where there were a ton of French and Austrian tourists and things and they were having such a good time... it was really cool. We met this older Austrian couple who were touring the desert by themselves in a jeep they can sleep in, and I decided that's what I want to do for my honeymoon; it seemed so romantic and also just kind of really awesome. So we sat and had tea with the Bedouins and one of the men dressed up one of our Spanish friends in traditional Bedouin clothing and then he took me and dressed me up too! It was kind of weird and awesome. I took some pictures but I am afraid of our government so I'm not going to post them on the internet in case I decide to run for President or something. But I can say that when he put the veil over my face so only my eyes were visible, I had this intense feeling of panic, like I couldn't speak or had nothing to say for the rest of my life or something. It's really hard to describe.

After that, we drove up to Aqaba and hung out on the beach and talked to a Jordanian family for a little bit. It was nice to be with the Spanish guys because everyone in Jordon LOVES Spain, apparently... everyone was so excited when they said where they were from. We had lunch with our friends (which was a lot cheaper than Petra; Petra was really pretty expensive but Aqaba was pretty cheap) and then said goodbye to them and caught the bus back to Eilat. We paid everyone for everything at the end, because I guess money is kind of different there, too. Basically, we paid Erav at the end, and he took care of getting all of our different drivers their money and stuff. And everyone knows everyone; everyone is related to the person you're looking for or can pay them for you or whatever, like everyone is one gigantic family.

Overall, the trip was amazing. I am so glad we did it because I doubt I am going to have the opportunity to go back to Jordan any time soon after I leave Israel and I really have been doing a lot of stuff here that I haven't ever done before and never thought I could do. The Middle East is incredible.

London!

I really want to blog about the two trips I took over spring break before I forget all of the details, so here goes! When I landed at Heathrow, I realized I had no idea when my dad would be getting in or what flight he was on or even what airline he was using, but he eventually found me and we took the train into the city and then the underground to our hotel. We stayed near London Tower Bridge in Southwark. So once we got settled we were both hungry and out of it so we went in search of a cafe or something and found an Arab sandwich shop (go figure) so I got some falafel, which was actually better than I was expecting, and then we got tea and went back to the hotel so I could do some thesis work that I needed to send in that day and he could do some work because it was Thursday and that's when his paper goes to bed. Then we asked our concierge where the best Indian restaurant was because I have really been craving Indian food! So we found one near the hotel that was really good.

The next day, we had to get up early because we had tickets for a tour to Salisbury, Stonehenge and Bath. Salisbury was cool but it was raining really, really hard when we go to the Cathedral so it was hard to walk around, and we got there just as they were getting ready for Good Friday services so we didn't get to spend too much time in the actual Cathedral. But we did get to see the Magna Carta which was pretty cool and we had some cauliflower soup in the cafeteria before heading to Stonehenge. At Stonehenge we all had one of those audio tour ear things which explained a lot about the site and why it is so cool and such a tourist attraction. Fortunately, by then it had stopped raining and I really enjoyed being there because it's definitely something I have always wanted to see. We didn't have enough time there, though... we had to leave after like 45 minutes (the tour guide said "It's just a pile of rocks, really."). Then we headed to Bath, which is an ancient city that has really well preserved Roman Baths and a museum about them so we took a tour there, too, and learned a lot about them and how they were made and what the Romans believed about the natural springs. And Bath is a pretty cool city in general.

Then we went home and we found a vegan Chinese restaurant in the West End because we were trying to get tickets to a play but ended up just going to Shutter Island. The restaurant was so good we actually ended up going there again the next night. It had all of these amazing fake meat dishes that you would find with real meat in a normal Chinese restaurant, so it was a lot of stuff I haven't eaten in a really long time (it was a buffet). And the first night there we met some Israeli guys because they were speaking Hebrew so I asked where they were from and we talked to them for a while. I thought it was really weird but in retrospect I guess it wasn't that weird because, being a vegan restaurant, it was also kosher. But I felt really cool for recognizing they were speaking Hebrew and talking to them. And Shutter Island was kind of bad but not that bad. I've been wanting to see it forever so I was kind of disappointed. Also, European people like to talk all throughout movies so I was getting kind of annoyed. Two Germans next to me literally talked for the entire movie and all I did was click my tongue at them (which I am getting really good at...).

Then the next day we walked literally all over London and bought shoes, and then we went to see Avenue Q on the West End which was funny and good. And on Sunday we had a tour on a double decker bus of literally all the tourist sites... Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the Marble Arch, all of that stuff, which you really have to see when you're in London. It was one of those tours where you get off and on the bus wherever you want all day. And we got off at Big Ben and took a river cruise back to our hotel across the river and saw some more sites that way. Then we went to another Indian restaurant, where we had a really interesting and insightful conversation about Israel and the conflict, and about World War II and the nature of England as a country and how the Holocaust happened and what will happen to Jerusalem and I really enjoyed getting my dad's perspective on these things because he is so smart and has so many opinions and he and I don't get to talk about it enough.

And then on Monday we went home... him to DC via Atlanta and me back to Tel Aviv via Austria. Austria Air royally fucked up my flight so after a ton of yelling and fighting with them on behalf of my dad and myself in a way that Israelis would be proud of, they offered me a 600 euro flight voucher which is like $775 and definitely enough to go visit Lisa in Germany this semester, so yay!!!

I really enjoyed my time in England and it was really good to be with my dad. I am so lucky to have such a close family and to have the parents I do, which I thought about a lot over the trip. And after I got home I went to Jordan which I will have to blog about another time because this is getting really long! So I will update again soon.