What better excuse to switch snow for sand than to visit a friend who's now living and working in the capital, Amman! Thank you Kitty!
Travelling in February, very early season, tourist sites were calm, the weather hadn't yet reached the unbearable summer highs and prices were significantly lower. In 7 days I saw so much, all incredibly diverse, and am now certain it's one of the most exciting, beautiful and interesting countries out there.
The first few days in Amman included a windy walk around the citadel, much sampling of the incredible cuisine - hummus like you've never known it, sharply citrusy tabbouleh, mtabbal (a personal favourite) and, of course, the famed falafel - and a day trip to Jerash. The latter is a sprawling Roman city, easily rivalling Pompeii in terms of scale and magnificence.
(Pics on the left are of the citadel in Amman, on the right of Jerash).
From Amman we travelled south to the Dead Sea, stopping at Mount Nebo and 'Bethany Beyond The Jordan' (aka Jesus' Baptism site) en route. Regardless of your religious beliefs or lack thereof, seeing the 'Promised Land' and the now-muddy trickle where Jesus was supposedly baptised was pretty (literally) legendary.
The Dead Sea was, as promised, super salty! We witnessed one couple douse every inch of their body with the thick, supposedly health boosting, mud. But instead of the slick, satisfying, mud-free reveal we expected when they emerged from the water, it turned out to be rather trickier than expected and took them a solid 10 minutes of scrubbing to rid themselves of the sludge...!
Sticking to lathering just our arms and legs, we had a float in the rather choppy sea, narrowly missing being swept over to the shores of Israel opposite. It turns out buoyancy in fact hampers your ability to swim..who knew!
The next stop after the Dead Sea was perhaps my favourite of all. Petra wins the prize for the biggest wow factor and is quite rightly one of the 7 wonders of the world. Plus, camels are my new favourite animal. There were so many of the characterful creatures ambling around which made the two days we spent there quite surreal!
Arriving late on the first day, we just about had time for a walk through the Siq to the spectacular sight of the Treasury peeking between the two canyon walls. It's thrilling and majestic at the same time and I will never properly understand how the Nabateans carved such beauty from a sheer rock face?? To say modern architecture is disappointing by comparison would be an understatement and I can't help but muse on the bearings of Klimt's pronouncement: "To every age its art"...
Day two in Petra was unforgettable! After a fortifying cornflake breakfast (to my shame, I just can't get behind flatbread and goat yoghurt at 7 in the morning), we set out on an epic hike up to the High Place of Sacrifice, round and down to Qasr al-Bint and up again to the Monastery. 6 hours (2 of which were spent lost), 20 kilometres and many photos later, we arrived back at the gates and the beautiful, new visitor centre. Despite the increasing influx of tourists and the huge numbers who traipse around the site daily, they've somehow managed to avoid detracting from the beauty of Petra with signs, railings and barriers.
One of the most memorable moments of the whole trip was on the walk out of the site as I tried to take a surreptitious photos of horse and rider trotting past one of the tombs. The rider, wise to my plan, grinned and exclaimed with glee "Cheese my horse!"
Thinking Jordan surely couldn't get more impressive after Petra, we were once again stunned, first by the wonderful atmosphere of Aqaba by night (it was in an unassuming restaurant there, where I ate the best meal of the trip!) and then by the otherworldly experience of a night in the desert.
Following an eventful dip in the Red Sea (I won the standoff with two lion fish..!), we travelled to the location of our last night in Jordan - Wadi Rum!
To say it was spectacular would be understatement of the century! It's no wonder Dune, Star Wars and, to state the obvious, Lawrence of Arabia were filmed there. I'm not sure words will do the beauty and peace of the place justice so I'll attempt to convey it with some final photos.
Jordan as a whole is a wonder of the world!