When our grandparents (sadly) left after our week full of fun, we got in the car and drove down to Eilat; the four of us and Scott, the rabbinical intern at IKAR, our shul in Los Angeles. When we arrived at the Club In and we found our room (which we are staying in for free thanks to Poppy and Mana). The room had blue walls and the ceiling was painted as a sky. There was a great pool. The day after we got there we went to the beach. We went swimming and snorkeling—the fish and coral reefs were so beautiful. We were at the beach for most of the day, and then we went back to the hotel for a swim at the pool.
The next day was when our real adventure began. We drove to the border of Jordan and Israel and we went through the long process to get across the border. We were a little bit worried about the fact that we almost ran out of room in our passports, but it ended up being ok. After crossing the Israeli/Jordanian border (we literally walked across it) we found a taxi. There was a big discussion over which person was going to take us and if all five of us could all fit in one taxi. After the five-minute ride to Aqaba, we got into a second car that took us on the three-hour ride to Petra (not including the fifteen minute stop for (delicious) watermelon in a tent with five Arabic men in the middle of nowhere in the Jordanian desert). When we got there we did not have a specific place to stay, but our taxi-driver took us to a little backpacker’s inn called the Valentine Inn. It was not bad, but it seemed far from the ruins of Petra. We walked towards the center of the town and then we got in a taxi. We told the taxi driver that we wanted to go to the center of town. We also said that the first taxi driver had taken us somewhere else and he immediately knew the place that the first taxi driver had taken us was the Valentine Inn. Shortly after that, we found out that the Valentine Inn is where “very, very bad things happen”. When he took us to our hotel called the Candles Hotel, we were very happy. We were also very hungry, so we bought our tickets to the ruins and we ate lunch (we were very disappointed with the Arabic food in Jordan ☹). When we were full, we walked into Petra. The city was made out of caves and rocks. It had carvings and sculptures that were so elegantly carved. It was unbelievable as we walked through the caves. At the end we got to a section that was a cave with Roman structure and designs. It came as such a surprise when we saw it. After admiring that for a little bit longer, we went to visit the amphitheatre and saw other spectacular sights. We went back to the hotel after that and we took a rest. Before bed, we went out for pizza at a place called Mystic Pizza.
That night, which was a long night of not being able to fall asleep, I had time to think. This was my first time in an Arab country, so it was a little strange, since all that I had ever heard about Arab countries was the wars against Israel. I started to go back to thoughts that I had before we arrived at Petra- I was a little bit nervous with the fact we had no idea where we were staying, but I knew that it would be fun. Initially, crazy thoughts were going through my mind. At first, when we were in the taxi, there were no signs for Petra, so I was a little bit worried. The stop at the little hut with the delicious watermelon was a little bit worrisome too. When I got over all of my worries, and promised myself that everything was going to be ok, I FINALLY fell asleep.
The next day we took a hike up to one of the “high-points” in Petra. We climbed up the 800 steps and then we saw indescribable views. The place that we were standing on, was the rock that they used to make sacrifices. As indescribable as they were, I will try to describe them. When you looked down, there was a strait cliff. On one side there was a big flat cave with carvings on it, on the other side, there was a little village and a tomb. Straight ahead was the other high point of Petra.
When we walked down from that, we got drinks and ate lunch. During lunch, we compared Petra to Angkor Wat. We found that we all agreed with the fact that we loved them both, but that Petra seemed more impossible to have been built without power tools. While Angkor Wat had tiny little carvings, it looked liked (over many, many, MANY years) it could possibly be done without power tools, but Petra had so many strait lines, that made it seem impossible to make. We were so amazed with all that we had seen. After lunch and a beautiful morning, we got back into our taxi and took the dusty ride back to the Israeli border (I have to say that we were all a little bit relieved to be back in Israel). As we went through the border crossing back to Israel (we were all slightly amused when a big Arab security guard was looking through my brightly colored polka-dotted backpack) we were all happy to be back to Israel. The security on the way back to Israel was much tighter then it was on the way into Jordan.
When we were back in Israel, we went back to the Club In and we went for one last swim in the pool. After that we went out to dinner and the next morning we had an early start to get back to Jerusalem. We had a lot of fun traveling for the past two weeks, but I think that all of us were ready to head back to Jerusalem.
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