I fell behind on blogging this week. There wasn't much to write home about, but I am not only keeping this blog for friends and family that are interested, but also for Jake, so that one day when he is old enough he can see where he's been.
I think I left off with the Embassy post. So most of the week, Jake and I hung out at home and went to the park at the Embassy. They have a pretty nice park. It's free and the obstacles are appropriate for Jake's age.
As I mentioned before, it's still Ramadan and will be until July 28th. This religious culture is fascinating to me, especially as we are living amongst it. So many restaurants are closed for Ramadan, at least until evening. We ventured out after dinner earlier this week to try and find an ice-cream shop founded and owned by some Syrian refugees. The shop is called Bakdash and serves a really unique ice-cream. A co-worker of Chris' recommended it so we set out to try and find it. We drove around Amman for a while and never did find it. But we did recognize something really unique about Ramadan. The traffic nearly stops at 7:45 P.M., which is also when Iftar (literally means "breakfast" but is used during Ramadan at the end of the day for the "Breaking of the day's Fast"). These Iftar meals are much like our Thanksgiving and Christmas type meals. Lots of community and gathering of friends and family. Everyone is eating at this time and nobody is on the roads. Although we didn't find the ice-cream shop, we did have a far more pleasant drive home with far fewer cars on the road.
Later in the week, Ailyn watched Jake while we went on a date night. We went to a restaurant pretty close to our house. It is one of the few restaurants that is open during Ramadan, they just have window shades pulled so those fasting on the outside couldn't see those who were eating on the inside. We were finished with our meal by 7 PM and Ailyn was scheduled to stay until 9 PM, so we decided to see if we could find Bakdash again. It was heavy traffic, but we managed to find it. We just didn't drive far enough the first time.
We found a parking spot and at about 7:20 PM went in to Bakdash to give this Syrian ice-cream a try. Of course, it was too early to be seen eating in public, so we decided to wait. Instead of sitting in the ice-cream shop, we walked down the street. It was absolutely fascinating to see all of the people hustling and bustling to get their food for carry out to take to their Iftar meals. We walked by Swarma stands, fruit juice stands, pastry shops, bread shops, and much more. As we walked by a few restaurants, people were seated at tables, but nobody was eating. As we walked it got closer and closer to 7:45 PM. And it seemed like everyone was waiting for a magic buzzer to go off so they could break their fast. And then it did. 7:45 PM rolled around and everyone was allowed to start eating. As we circled back toward the Bakdash, some employees of some of the stores were eating their Iftar meals out on the side walk. As we walked by, they invited us to join them. They were all so generous and hospitable. We politely declined and continued back to Bakdash, where they were just closing. They too, wanted to eat their Iftar meal. But they obliged us, sold us a chocolate ice-cream, and let us sit outside on the terrace. It was good ice-cream. It had a unique texture. It was gummy and not a sweet as the ice-cream we are normally used to.
That's what we did last week.
Below are two photos of the street Bakdash is on. The top photo was taken at 7:30 PM. The bottom photo at 7:40 PM. There s a huge difference once Iftar commences.
Mt. Nebo and the Baptism Site
Our other big adventure was on Friday. We went to Mt. Nebo, where Moses when to look upon the Promised Land at the end of his life. It is a beautiful view and was really exciting to walk where figures of the Bible once walked.
On the way to Mt. Nebo we encountered an adventure. We listened exclusively to "James" our British GPS, who took us on some interesting back roads. It took us much longer to get to Mt. Nebo, than it would have if we had looked at a map and planned our route a head of time. But we would have missed this:
A nice heard of sheep and goats in the middle of the road. Jake slept through this part, but I found it amusing.
From Wikipedia: Mount Nebo (Arabic: جبل نيبو Jabal Nībū; Hebrew: הַר נְבוֹ Har Nevo) is an elevated ridge in Jordan, approximately 817 meters (2680 feet)above sea level, mentioned in the Bible as the place where Moses was granted a view of the Promised Land that he would never enter. The view from the summit provides a panorama of the Holy Land and, to the north, a more limited one of the valley of the River Jordan. The West Bank city of Jericho is usually visible from the summit, as is Jerusalem on a very clear day.
The large circle rock is a rolling stone used as fortified door in a Byzantine Monastery in the old village of Faisailiyah. The bottom right is the view looking toward Jericho.
From Wikipedia: The serpentine cross sculpture (the Brazen Serpent Monument) atop Mount Nebo was created by Italian artist Giovanni Fantoni. It is symbolic of the bronze serpent created by Moses in the wilderness (Numbers 21:4–9) and the cross upon which Jesus was crucified (John 3:14).
We drove the long winding road down from Mt. Nebo to the Baptism Site of Jesus Christ. Jake's favorite part was seeing the camels along the road. This area is the epitome of rough desert terrain. It's not the sand dune terrain that might come to mind, but it's dry and pretty barren.
"James" leading us toward the Promised Land.
I keep posting all the photos of our entry tickets incase I one day feel include to create a digital scrapbook with them. It's a wonder we ever even manage to acquire tickets because NOTHING is clearly marked. Each of the sites we've visited, there is always some random, unmarked shack or booth that sells tickets. This was no different. We arrived at the "main gate" or parking lot of the Baptism site. It looked a bit like a ghost town, except for a group of tourists who looked like they were waiting on their tour bus. We wandered through the souk and nothing was open, maybe because it was a Friday, or maybe because they are always closed. Who knows...but we managed to find the guy selling tickets in a small building with no sign indicating that this is where you should go to buy tickets. Once we had tickets in hand, there was no clear guidance on what should happen next. But a little shuttle bus pulled up (one my Army friends would appreciate, because it was the same as those that would take us to the PX in Iraq) and the group of tourists all boarded. Chris quickly went to the car to grab a half a bottle of water that was in the counsel and we boarded the bus. Jake loved the bus too! Then we all got off and a guide took us to the Baptism site. We missed most of the tour because we were putting Jake in the Ergo backpack and then I stopped to take some pictures and we fell behind the group. We fell so far behind that the road forked and we didn't know which way we were supposed to go. I insisted we go left because that would be logical to go in a clockwise route, but I was wrong. We eventually caught up to the group and missed all of the information the guide offered. But we were relieved to re-join the group and not get in trouble for trying to cross boundaries we weren't supposed to, especially with the current political climate regarding East Bank, West Bank, Israel, Jordan, etc. Then we went into a Greek Orthodox Church and put our feet in the River Jordan. It was a very hot day and we didn't have much water. Luckily there was a man selling some water when we got back to the bus.
The Baptism Site
Greek Orthodox Church
The top left is the path down to the river. Top Right is Jake's and my feet in the River Jordan. Bottom left is the Baptism site. Bottom right is the remains of a mosaic on the floor of the ruins of a church.
Top left is Chris with his back to the Jordan River. The other side is Israel. Top right is Jake and I sweating in the heat. Bottom left is on top of Mt. Nebo. and Bottom right is Jake asking for his picture to be taken on top of Mt. Nebo.
And on our way home, which was much less complicated than getting there, we were passed by not one, but two red Ferrari's. We saw another when we went to dinner the other night. Some pretty snazzy cars driving around Jordan...
The Gold Market
Yesterday (Saturday) Jake and I went to the park in the morning while Chris studied with an Arabic tutor. And after Jake's nap we went down to The Gold Market. Down in the older part of the city, there is a souk and lots of shops. And is also known for it's gold market. There are more than 20 stores selling gold and silver jewelry. I didn't take pictures to post, but will next time we go. We have a finite amount of time Jake will spend riding on my back in the Ergo, so we didn't want to press our luck by slowing down. He did pretty good on our adventure that isn't fun for him in any way.
Today we went to the park and Chris wen to work. So begins another week. The weeks run Sunday-Thursday here and Friday/Saturday are the weekends. We are headed to the Dead Sea next weekend, so begins another adventure...
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