I Can Officially Stop Talking About Wanting to Go to Jordan

 Fun Fact #8:

More than 40% of Jordan's population was born in another country. Jordan has huge numbers of refugees and immigrants, from other Arab countries as well as from Eastern Europe and Western Asia. In particular, there are many Palestinians and Christian Iraqis now living in Jordan.

Last week I had a few days off from school for Eid al-Adha. It's basically a super important holiday and animals get slaughtered and it's pretty interesting. Clearly this is a huge simplification of Eid, in case you were wondering. I saw lots and lots of animals waiting for their deaths and apparently in some parts of Cairo blood literally flows down the streets. That alone made it pretty tempting for me to stick around, but I decided to use my free time to get out of Cairo.

I (finally) went to Jordan. It was AMAZING. I went by myself, I stayed in hostels and took buses and visited Amman, Petra, the Dead Sea, and a few other towns and mountains and all that. The Jordanian Dinar is worth almost 1.5 times the dollar, so I'm nearly broke at this point, but it was worth every cent! Amman is a really interesting, not super touristy city with lots of culture and delicious food and a bit of history too. And I think everyone should float in the Dead Sea (and watch women swim/float in full burqas and niqabs!) and see the beauty of Petra at some point in their life. Petra is unbelievable.

The Temple of Hercules and the city of Amman

As much as I like the people I know here in Cairo, I'm so glad that I went alone. Even though lots of people told me I was stupid (mostly American females living in Cairo), I had no problems and got some much needed time to remind myself of how capable and independent I am, and how much I enjoy my freedom. The social scene at AUC often reminds me of high school, and since I barely survived high school the first time there's really no reason to repeat the experience. Basically it was time for me to get out and do my own thing. 

 

I did experience much more verbal sexual harassment in Amman than I normally experience in Cairo and though it was certainly unpleasant, I still felt much safer walking alone than I do in some areas of Cairo. Part of this may be that Amman is a smaller, and very walkable city. I also found the children to be far more aggressive than they are in Cairo, as I had young boys (maybe ten or eleven years old) screaming at me to take their picture and following me until I told them off. A few girls pulled the hair tie out of my braid and tried, but failed, to pick my pockets. Unfortunately for them I'm far too intelligent to keep things in my back pockets. I've never had anyone touch me/my hair in Cairo, so I wasn't a big fan of the children in Amman. Even with these small issues, I found Jordan to be very safe and welcoming and I had no problems being on my own.

Amman, as seen from the Citadel

View of the Dead Sea from the Dead Sea Highway.

I wish I had seen more of the country, but unfortunately it's just not possible to properly see an entire country in five days. I was so glad I spent my time where I did, particularly in Petra. I had heard that you can see Petra in a few hours or one day, but this is just not true! There is so much walking and climbing to do in Petra in order to see much of the ancient city, and I would have missed so much of it had I not spent multiple days there! My legs were a bit sore afterwards, but climbing to the top of every hill or mountain is the only way to see all of the city's monuments and get out of the masses of tourists that gather in the main walkway but are too lazy to climb up. There are more than 800 steps to the Monastery and more than 600 steps, plus a bunch of boulders to climb, to get to the High Place of Sacrifice. Many of the other sites, like the theatre and some of the tombs, have more than a few steps as well. And it's a mile walk from the ticket gate to the Siq and another mile in the Siq until you reach the Treasury. So two days was a good call. In addition to my workout, I got a bit of a sunburn which was probably the worst part of the whole trip.

The Siq and the Treasury in Petra

A look back into Petra (that's the Monastery) from the View of the End of the World

View from the High Place of Sacrifice in Petra

The Street of Façades in Petra

Of course after nearly six days without internet, I was shocked to return to Cairo and discover that a storm hit the New York Metro Area! I hope that everyone there is safe and dry and that not too much damage has been done. Keep your chin up! I wish everyone a safe, happy, and electricity-filled Halloween, and hope that you all dream of drinking tea and smoking shisha with Bedouins in the mountains of Jordan.

Bedouins drinking tea and smoking shisha