Our flight was very interesting. They say that Tel Aviv is the city that never sleeps and that couldn't be more true. Our flight left around 8 P.M. and we arrived around 2 A.M.. You would've thought it was the middle of the day, everyone on the plane was standing around talking and having a great time. Then when we got to the airport it was just as lively. I've never seen an airport that busy at 2 in the morning.
From Tel Aviv we took a taxi to a small airport to fly to Eilat. From Eilat we took a taxi to the Israel-Jordan border and that's where the real adventure began. Walking across the border was a crazy experience, we went though almost a dozen check points. Once we made it to the Jordan side we had to take a 2 hour taxi ride to Petra. Luckily we met some really nice girls from New York to split a cab with since there were too many of us to all go together.
So Jess goes with the 3 girls and my dad, Katie, Rachel and I go in the other cab. Jess and the other girls got into a newer looking cab and we went in a cab that looked like it was from the 70s. So we got in our cab to find that there was no air conditioning. Now you may be thinking, "gosh, first world problem. Big deal". I would be thinking the same thing except it was over 100 degrees outside. We started on our way to Petra in the cab when all the sudden our driver took a turn while the car ahead with Jess in it continued forward. We began to worry and asked our driver where we were going. He explained he needed to fill the car with gas. We were now in a very sketchy neighborhood and were separated from Jess and were having a hard time communicating with our driver. Finally, after sounding frantic enough we got back on the road and found Jess' car. Her driver, Omar(I am probably spelling that wrong) was SO nice and realized that my Dad was a little worried to be separated from one of his daughters. He then offered my dad 5 camels and a chicken for Jess, obviously we would have taken the deal but Jess wasn't so keen on the idea.
We finally arrived in Petra and were staying right next to the entrance. We got our stuff settled and headed to the treasury. As we walked through we noticed how much it looks like southern Utah, red rocks red sand. But it was incredible, we were surrounded by tall red rock walls and constantly being followed by little Jordanian boys trying to sell us postcards.
The treasury was amazing. It's incredible to me that something that old can be so preserved and look so perfect. There were camels and horses trotting through and all I could think of was Lawrence of Arabia or Aladdin.
The next morning we got up early and walked through to the monastery, it's a 6 hour hike so we wanted to start early and try and beat the heat. It was also nice leaving early because we had the place to ourselves. The Monastery is even larger than the treasury, it is mind blowing!
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who knew Coke could taste so good
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our friend and driver Omar teaching my Dad how to properly wear his head scarf
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