The Paris of the Middle East

While Beirut didn't capture my heart and take my breath away the way Istanbul did, it was cosmopolitan and beautiful and surreal and I would love to go back (now a moot point after getting an Israeli passport stamp this past weekend, but I digress).  I went to Lebanon for my long Easter weekend with lots of ideas but no concrete expectations.  After my experiences in relatively homogeneous Egypt and Jordan, it was strange to catch strands of English and French in addition to Arabic on the street, see churches and mosques right next to one another, and notice women barring their legs for the world to see.  Random soldiers holding large guns will, however, never be something that I will get used to seeing.

Following a multiple-hour hostel-searching adventure, our fearsome foursome piled onto a bus headed for the Jeita Grotto north of the city.  This was indisputably the greatest example of a natural wonder that I have ever laid eyes on.  Pictures weren't allowed inside, so you'll have to take my word that the crazy formations of majestic stalactites and stalagmites were phenomenal.

Mountains near Jeita, for lack of photos inside the Grotto.

Later, we spent hours wandering around Beirut, walking down the old Green Line from the Muslim-Christian civil war and along the Corniche at sunset.  The dichotomy between the old and the new throughout the city was so bizarre.  Everything (walls, buildings, sidewalks, whatever) older than me was riddled with bullet holes, but this was juxtaposed with scores of fancy newer buildings and empty lots filled with wildflowers.  It was the first time I've ever been in a place with such palpable evidence of violence.  It was hard to even imagine somewhere so beautiful being torn apart by something so terrible.

Place des Martyrs (covered in bullet holes) with the
Mohammed al-Amin mosque beyond.

The Mediterranean at sunset.

Destroyed building near our hostel.

One of the greatest things about the trip for me was the food.  Amman has lots of delicious hummus and falafel, but lacks anything resembling a diversity of choices.  I was completely overjoyed to have a burrito, crepes, and Thai food.  Nom nom nom.

The next day, we piled back into a bus headed north and went to Harissa and Byblos.   Harissa is a holy site for Lebanon's many Christians and features a giant statue of the Virgin Mary.  We took an amazingly terrifying cable car (aka Teleferique) up the mountain and when we finally reached the top, we discovered that the statue is undergoing repairs and is thus blocked by a huge fence.  So anticlimactic.

View from the Teleferique!

Our Lady of Lebanon... shrouded. :(

The ruins at Byblos were the coolest that I've seen so far--and after spending a semester in the Middle East, I've seen a lot.  The castle itself looked much like the others I've been to (Karak and Ajloun in Jordan) and it was fun to poke around and explore, but what made Byblos special was the setting.  It was surrounded on three sides by the glittering waters of the Mediterranean and was covered, and I mean covered, in wildflowers.  It was almost too picturesque to be allowed.

Brooke, Julia, Quinn, and I at the Byblos ruins.

Coast at Byblos.  Ruins should always be covered in wildflowers.

This next part I really debated sharing, but I think it's important and I don't want to sugar-coat my experience.  The Middle East is somewhat infamous for sexual harassment.  The day-to-day in Amman can be bad; Egypt was much worse.  By and large, it's just catcalls and uncomfortable stares.  In Wadi Rum last month, I'm pretty sure one of the Bedouin guys was trying to negotiate for my hand in marriage with the guy leading my camel, which is funny but also really bothered me.  It's a fact of life for women here (American and Arab alike), but you just have to take it with a grain of salt and move on with your day.  In Lebanon, I barely noticed anything like this at all; the every day harassment was almost completely absent.  But one point when we were walking around the city, a random middle-aged man that we passed suddenly grabbed my butt.  I wasn't alone--I was walking with three other people, one of whom was male.  I was stunned.  In all of my time in the region and with all of the annoying crap I've put up with, no one has ever laid a hand on me and I've honestly never really been concerned that someone would.  I guess it just goes to show that no matter the cultural norms of a country, there will always be creeps.  For the most part, I've put it behind me and I didn't let it ruin my impression of Beirut, but I've been a little jumpy ever since.

In conclusion, Lebanon is beautiful, I didn't have any run-ins with Hezbollah, and have now officially touched the Mediterranean Sea on three sides.  Stay tuned for an update on my weekend in Jerusalem later this week!

"A Rose-Red City Half as Old as Time"

No joke.  Petra was amazing--very hot, very sunny, LOTS of stairs--but amazing. There are no words; pictures will have to suffice.

Paul and Rachel + Petra.

The Treasury of Indiana Jones fame.
Yes, those are real-sized people at the bottom.

The Urn Tomb circa 6th century BC. 
The Nabateans were clearly on their game.

Some lazy people (aka my friends) napping on the
High Point of Sacrifice.

(

Best view in Petra. 
Off the beaten path is the best way to be.

How do rocks look this cool?

I wish every weekend could involve this many pretty rocks, Harry Potter references, and bad tourist outfits.  Additionally, laying on our hostel's roof under a nearly full moon looking out at the city lights was one of my favorite moments of life, period.  On a scale of innocuous to ferocious, Petra ranks somewhere in the "I must come back here" zone.

Gobble Gobble Part II

The second half of my Turkish journey was spent mostly on planes and buses and more buses, but the in-between was entirely worth it. On Tuesday, we flew from Istanbul to Antalya, a town on the southern coast of Turkey, and then took series of three different buses through gorgeous mountain roads with occasional views of the sea before finally arriving at our destination--the Bayram's Treehouses in the tiny village of Olympos.

Our stay in Olympos could not have been more different than our experiences in Istanbul. The mere 36 hours that we spent there were filled with exploring 2nd century BC ruins, lounging on the beach in the sun, night swimming, playing with the stray dog that adopted us, chatting by the fire with the myriad other interesting travelers, and, best of all, sleeping in a TREE HOUSE. If this isn't paradise, I don't know what is.

Our distinguished tree house.

Gabby and our adopted stray dog, Qirsh. He was very
concerned for our safety and barked incessantly anytime a
stranger tried to come anywhere near us.

Lura and I on the beach.
(Courtesy of Gabby Arens)

Gabby and I climbed to the top of the ruins aka up a
mountain (in skirts and sandals no less). 
Greatest view on earth. 
(Courtesy of Gabby Arens)

Gabby, exploring the ruins of Olympos.

After our brief stay in Olympos, we headed back to Istanbul for one last night of whirlwind adventure. Gabby's family friend's sister-in-law, Akca, had graciously insisted that we spend our last night with her and her boyfriend Ercan in their apartment in Chihagir (Istanbul's equivalent of Greenwich village) instead of in a hostel. We had the greatest time with them--we drank tea at an itty bitty cafe overlooking the water, ate a delicious kebab dinner in Taksim and dessert right next to the Gallata Tower (so beautiful at night!), and went dancing until the wee hours of the morning.

View from Akca's living room window!
.

Sunset tea overlooking the Bosphorus?
Yes, please!

Ercan, Akca, Lura, me, and Gabby in Taksim. 
They have a silly device on the side of the street that
takes your picture and then emails it to you!

The next morning, we awoke to the only sunny day in Istanbul of our entire trip. After some exploring of Chihagir and Taksim, we went back to the Grand Bazaar to visit our shopkeeper friend "Dennis" (I don't know what his name really is, but it sounded kind of like Dennis) who calls us his angels and then hopped on a plane back to Amman. 

It was so weird to go to Turkey after being in Jordan for two months. Men and women hold hands in the street. People go from bar to bar with open beer bottles in hand. I even saw women's shoulders and collar bones, ya haram! But at the same time, it felt familiarly Middle Eastern. It was such an amazing intersection of cultures that I could have spent weeks wrapping my mind around it all.

The other thing that really hit me while I was there is how unbelievably lucky I am to have learned English as my first language. All four of us were a little shell-shocked when we got off of the plane and realized that we didn't know a single word of Turkish. But just about everyone we met could speak at least a couple words of English and many signs had English translations, so we were able to get by. I can't imagine trying to do everything we did if no one spoke our language. Needless to say, I was very happy to return to Amman where I can carry on a decent conversation with a taxi driver and say "thank you" without a 15 second struggle...

Salt, Mud, and Crusaders

My house has been quite chaotic for the last several days.  My host brother, Najib, who works as a lawyer in Saudi Arabia, came home for the weekend.  In honor of his visit, we had the whole extended family over for brunch.  There was a plethora of food involved:  zaatar bread, hummus, falafel, something resembling an omelet, a cheese-walnut-olive oil mixture whose name I do not recall, all the Jordanian standard dishes.  I wish I had taken a photo of the spread before it was demolished, but suffice to say that is was absolutely delicious and I ate far too much.

It surprised me how the atmosphere of the big family gathering transcended cultural idiosyncrasies.  I felt like I could have been at any Morrison or Frey family event (with the small exception that I didn't actually know anyone or understand what they were talking about).  At one point, I could tell that there was a heated political discussion occurring about Mubarak and Qaddafi and I wish so much that I could have understood better what people's views were.  Short of my professors, I know so little about what ordinary Jordanians think about what is going on in the region.  The one thing everyone does seem to agree on is that Qaddafi is majnoon (crazy).  Additionally, I met an Arab with a Wisconsin accent!  One of the cousins that was there actually lives in the Chicago area and was just in Amman visiting family for a few days.  As it turns out, he got his masters from the University of Wisconsin, is a die-hard Packers fan, and I have probably driven by his house dozens of times. I'm learning quickly that it really truly is a small world.


On Saturday, I went on a CIEE-sponsored day trip to Karak and the Dead Sea.  Karak is a huge Crusader castle a couple hours south of Amman.  According to my trusty guidebook, it's one of the most well-preserved and easily explorable fortresses of its kind. The castle itself was enormous and it was tons of fun to wander around--I probably could have spent a whole extra hour poking about and trying to locate the "suitably dank" dungeons--but it was the view from the top that was truly spectacular.  As in Jerash, there was no one of authority around except for a couple police officers at the front gate. Consequently, we were able to clamber all over everything in what was most certainly an unsafe manner including climbing to the top of one of the walls.  Amazing.  Now I just need to find somewhere to buy an illegal copy of Kingdom of Heaven so I can see what happened there (or at least Hollywood's interpretation thereof).

Karak Castle

Lovely Lura at Karak

After exploring Karak in the morning, we drove through more of the breathtakingly beautiful scenery that I saw last weekend between Madaba and Ma'in to the Dead Sea.  I've seen a partially obstructed view of the sea from afar on several occasions since I arrived in Jordan, but this was the first time that I really got to see it, touch it, and (unfortunately) taste it.  I did all the typical touristy things--slathered mysef in mud, almost got cut up on the salt formations, floated around, tried not to get salt in my eyes--and had a marvelous time doing so. 

Dead Sea mud!  Erika, Jessica, me, and Gabby

Mike and I demonstrating our floating abilities.

I had really been expecting that the whole floating thing wouldn't really live up to the hype... but oh was I wrong.  It was amazing to feel completely weightless, to "stand" upright in the water without sinking, to be in kilometers-deep water without exerting any effort whatsoever.  I can't wait to go back!

One for the Road

I absolutely love road trips.  The open window with wind whipping your hair, notes of music emitting from the radio, letting your thoughts pass as quickly as the scenery outside--perfect. There is something about the state of limbo, the interesting predicament of going but not doing, that makes me feel remarkably at peace no matter where I am.

I have dozens of fond memories associated with road trips--spending quality time with my dad on the biannual trek to and from DC, the Wust El-Balad sing-a-long on the weekend trip to Cairo last summer, the immense anticipation of the 45-minute trip to camp during my Meyer and Burt years--and I love that so far Jordan has just been one road trip after another.  Exploring Jerash, biking at the Dead Sea, and, this weekend, visiting Madaba and Ma'in have been amazing experiences in and of themselves, but driving to and from these places has been just as memorable.  Jordan's mountainous landscape means that indescribably beautiful vistas greet you around every bend in the road.  I've tried countless times to capture the vastness of the Jordanian landscape with my camera and have summarily failed each time.  Here's the best I could do on the most recent trip:

Madaba to Ma'in taxi drive

On Friday morning, five fellow CIEE students and I boarded a bus in downtown Amman bound for the small town of Madaba.  Madaba is known for its Byzantine era mosaics--especially a huge (and surprisingly mostly cartographically correct) map of the Holy Land laid in the floor of St. George's Church.  We spent most of our day in Madaba wandering around looking at various really cool old things and finished the night with an epic head-to-head rap battle. 

Mosiac map in St. George's Church

This morning, we all piled into a couple of cabs and drove to the hot springs in Ma'in.  The scenery between Madaba and Ma'in was alone worth the 15JD we payed each way for the taxis.  Outside of Madaba, we saw only rolling green hills covered with olive tree groves and fields but this soon transformed into towering desert cliffs dotted with sheep and goats as we drew closer to Ma'in.  For a short while, we were close enough to see the Dead Sea in the distance.  I wasn't able to get a good picture, but it looked something like this.  It was quite possibly the most remarkable 30 minutes of my life, scenery-wise.

The hot springs were gorgeous and I had to continuously remind myself that it is still February and that I still have to go to class tomorrow morning.  As we slowly descended a mountain on a switchback road, the lush palm trees and greenery of the springs appeared as if out of nowhere.  The water was gloriously warm and there were waterfalls everywhere.  We spent a good four hours lounging in the water and soaking up the sunlight.

Ma'in hot springs!

Me, loving the waterfall!

Now, I'm back home in Amman, uploading photos to Facebook and writing blog posts instead of doing something productive and school-related.  It's amazing to go somewhere new every weekend, but it makes it darn hard to be excited about going to class on Sunday mornings!

Jerash

Yesterday I had the day off from classes for the Prophet's Birthday, so some friends and I took a day trip to Jerash--a city of Roman ruins about half an hour north of Amman.  It was my first time outside of the city since I got here nearly three weeks ago and I was amazed by how beautiful the countryside is.  Exploring the ruins in Jerash was like nothing else I've ever experienced because (1) they let you climb all over everything and (2) it was an amazing mix of cultures and times and peoples.  The sounds of the call to prayer wafted over us while we walked amidst crumbling ancient buildings with views of the modern city in the background, little kids playing a game of soccer in a field next door, and groups of other tourists speaking numerous languages passing through.  All of this combined with a delicious lunch of Lebanese food and perfect weather made for an absolutely amazing day.  And now, photos!

Amman to Jerash taxi drive

The group with modern Jerash in the background.

John and I repping AU!

Ancient city of Jerash from the top of the Temple of Zeus.

Lemonade with mint and free dessert at the Lebanese House restaurant
(the king has eaten there)!

This entry was also posted to the AU Ambassadors blog for prospective American University students.