Culture and History In Petra, Jordan

Getting up this morning was a little rough, we all had very sore legs from all the walking and hiking from the day before.  Hopefully we can find an alternate form of transportation today besides our feet!  We saw a lot yesterday but didn't really get to take the time to appreciate all the city has to offer.  Petra is by far the oldest and most historic city we've visited so far on our trip.  Today we decided it would be good to focus on the rich culture and history of Petra.  The city has so much history that it will be difficult to absorb it all in one day, so were getting an early start! We stopped at the government rest house to grab a map and paid 20 dinars, the cost for a one-day ticket for non-Jordanians.  Since our legs were so tired from yesterday we hired a couple of the locals to take us on their horse and buggy for the day.  We headed down the long path into the city and began to see some of the rich historical sights immediately.  We first saw the Obelisk Tomb, according to our map the tomb contains Five graves were found inside the tomb, four represented by pyramid-shaped pillars and the last by a statue between the middle pillars. 

As we entered the city we saw the remains of the arch and the two statues of the gods Dushara and al-Uzza which were put there to protect the entrance and hex unwelcome visitors, I hope were welcome! Next we saw the amphitheater, according to our brochure the amphitheater was thought to have been constructed around the time of Christ.  We passed by it yesterday but didn't really get to take it all in. The seats weren't all that comfortable but what can you expect from a 2,000 year old amphitheater.  I wish i could go back in time and be a member of the audience and see a play put on here, that would be pretty cool.  Under the stage there is a room with a marble statue of hercules which was awesome!

The next place we stopped at was the Byzantine church.  This was truly an amazing sight. The isles of the church are paved with 70 square meters of remarkably preserved mosaics. These depict native as well as exotic or mythological animals, as well as personification of seasons, ocean, earth and wisdom. According to the brochure the church was thought to be a major fifth and sixth century cathedral.  In 1993 a collection of 152 papyrus scrolls were found at the sight, written in Byzantine Greek and possibly late Arabic. This group of scrolls is the largest collection of written material found in Jordan. These are still being deciphered and are giving a wealth of information on the Byzantine period in the area.  People are currently working on preservation of the church and its mosaics. 

After a long day of sight seeing and history learning it was time to head out of Petra and grab some dinner.  We stopped at a local place and we each had a traditional Jordanian meal called makloubat for 10 dinars each. The only recognizable ingredient was chicken, I'm not sure what else was in there.  We all thought it was terrible, except for Alison, she loved it and ordered it again.

  Most of us are really starting to miss that good American food. We wanted to find something fun at night but since we were in the middle of the desert that was a little difficult. So we just went back for the night and hung out and crashed for the night. 

Money Spent : 120 Jordanian Dinars

Adam

Day 24: Culture and History Day

Day 24: History and Culture Day  

This morning my travel buddies and I decided to get up in time to watch the sunrise and have a cup of freshly made coffee. After enjoying each other’s company and making plans for the day, we helped ourselves to a free breakfast and then got an early start on the day so we could see Tel-Aviv. 

Since it was my day to choose an activity for the group, I chose to go with something that related to the culture and history of the area around Tel Aviv. The group all agreed with me that we should take the Jerusalem half day tour from Tel Aviv; Dome of the Rock and Western Wall. The cost of this tour was $196 for the whole group or 715 shekels. This tour combined ancient history with spiritual sanctity while we got to see the Holy Land attractions such as the Western Wall and the site of Jesus' Crucifixion. The tour was really interesting and we all learned a lot about the history of the area. 

After the tour we found the HaCarmel Market where we spent around $18 dollars or 65 Shekels for a fresh lunch. Instead of spending so much for lunch in a restaurant, we thought this would be a great way to save some money for the rest of the trip around the world. Besides that, it was really pleasant outside, so we also decided to find a place to have a picnic at the Gan Meir Park. It was just one of those days when all you want to do is be outside because the temperature is just right, there is a breeze, and the sun is shining. 

After we finished the rest of our day off with a little relaxation, we found a nice little restaurant to have dinner at called Margaret Tayar’s. Overall, we enjoyed our dinner and enjoyed the live music. We spent a total of $100 or 361 shekels here.

Total expenses:

100 dollars

1141 shekels

Sites

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Middle_East/Israel/Tel_Aviv_District/Tel_Aviv_Yafo-1708077/Things_To_Do-Tel_Aviv_Yafo-HaCarmel_Market-BR-1.html

http://www.viator.com/tours/Tel-Aviv/Jerusalem-Half-Day-Tour-from-Tel-Aviv-Dome-of-the-Rock-and-Western-Wall/d920-5209JERHALF

http://www.frommers.com/destinations/telaviv/D38869.html

Petra - One of the New 7 Wonders of the World

By: Ben

When looking at an aerial photo of Petra, we weren't sure what to expect to find.... located in the middle of what we thought was a desolate pile of rock and desert, we scoured the internet in order to find out what was so interesting about this place.

We found a link for tourists at:

http://www.atlastours.net/jordan/petra_guide.html

This site was helpful as we chose to do a tour of the city and check out some of the amazing sights.

We took a short jaunt down the street to purchase some breakfast sandwiches and coffees and waters from a local deli. Their selection was poor, but we were craving calories, and knew we'd need them for today's activities.

We took a short taxi ride from the Edom Hotel Petra (where we're staying) to the start point for the tour. We were four of about 30 on this tour. Super excited at the beginning of the tour, we made sure our cameras were fully charged, and our memory cards had plenty of room for all the pictures we were planning on taking.

Here is a list of what we saw on this exhausting day of hiking, donkey and horseback riding, and climbing:

Al-Siq, The Treasury, Street of Facades, The Theater, The Royal Tombs, The City Center, Qasr Al-Bint Temple, Al-Habees Museum, Petra Archeological Museum, Al-Deir, and back.


Words cannot express the amazing work that must have gone into creating these sights from solid rock. Here are a few pictures, and I'll comment more later. Off to bed - this day was very physically demanding!!!! Luckily, there was a Pizza Hut located at the end of the tour, where we loaded up on American style food. Nothing like some greasy pepperoni and cheese pizzas and some Pepsis to recharge our exhausted bodies!

Over the next couple of days, we'll be revisiting some of the sites, so that we can see them in more detail.

Travel to Petra, Jordan - and our accommodations

Matt... tell us how we're getting here, and where we are staying!!!

Budget Update

By: Ben

After our fun in Tel Aviv, here is an update of our finances:
Money spent so far in Tel Aviv: 8883 New Israeli Sheckels

Remaining Budget: $79392.28
Cash in Euros: 0
Cash in New Israeli Shekels: 1517

Monuments In Tel Aviv

What a wonderful time we are having here in Tel Aviv! This is by far one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen.  It is much different than many cities in the United States because the majority of the buildings are a bright white or yellow color, where as many cities back home have darker colored skyscrapers. I guess that's why it's referred to as the "white city".  I'll have to admit that I'm not the biggest fan of the Mediterranean food here in Tel Aviv, although Alison seems to be loving it.  A nice cheeseburger and fries would be pretty nice but I'm going to stick to trying the cultural foods in all of our stops along the way. 

Today was a very busy day! There was a brochure at our hotel with a list of building attractions in the city so we picked out a few that seemed interesting. We were all very excited to get out and see all the wonderful buildings and monuments that Tel Aviv has to offer so we got out to an early start so we grabbed a quick breakfast and headed out.  Unfortunately since Tel Aviv is such a big city we weren't able to walk to all of the destinations we picked out so we had to catch taxi's along the way.  We were warned by the staff at the hotel that taxi drivers in the city were notorious for ripping off tourists by taking them much longer routes to their destination so we were a little cautious about the taxi we got in.  Luckily the first taxi we picked up had a driver that spoke decent English and promised us the most direct route to our first destination, which was the Jaffa Clock Tower. 

                                              

    The Jaffa Clock Tower was much smaller than all of us anticipated but it was still a very beautiful structure. The tower is made of limestone and has two clocks at the top.  There is also a plaque near the base commemorating the Israelis killed in the battle for the town in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, much like the Bell Tower at NC State, which has a plaque inside with the names students who died in WWI.  This was a very cool structure and I'm really glad we got to check it out.  Next it was off to the Etzel House, and some how we landed the same cab driver!

 Our next destination was the Etzel House.  Our cab driver was very knowledgeable of the area and the monuments we wanted to see and gave us a little back ground on the Etzel house.  He said its now a museum taht tells the story of the takeover of Jaffa by 600 Etzel (Irgun) troops led by Menachem Begin, who would later serve as prime minister of Israel. Jaffa had long been a Arab city, while Tel Aviv to the north was settled by Jewish immigrants. Thirty-two people were killed in the assault and most Arab residents fled. The rubble was offered to artists to put in sweat equity and establish their workshops and galleries at street level while living over their shops. This transformed it into the artist colony it is today. 

 Admission into the Museum was 18 Shekels each, a small price to pay for one of the most unique museums any of us had ever been in.  The art inside was incredible, it took us forever to pull Alison out of there bc she was so intrigued by this one abstract painting and the rest of us were starving! After finally getting her our of there we hopped in another cab and headed back into the main part of the city.  Unfortunately we did not have the same cab driver this time and this one did not speak any English at all.  Luckily Matt had a map of the city that he picked up earlier so he was able to point on the map to where we wanted to go.  We were all very hungry since we accidentally skipped lunch and it was nearing dinner time.  This cab ride seemed to be taking much longer than necessary so we began to examine our map to try and figure out where we were, turns out we were no where near where we wanted to be going so we angrily pointed out to our driver the spot on the map where we wanted to go.  Finally we arrived back near the center of the city and our cab fare was way more than our 20 shekel cab rides earlier, this one ended up being 65 shekels.  After that expensive and long cab ride we were all more hungry than ever, so we just decided to pick up some dinner at a local street vendor. We each ordered Falafel which is fried balls or patties of spiced, mashed chickpeas or farva beans. It was served in a pita, with pickles, tahina, hummus, cut vegetable salad and harif, a hot sauce.  These were 10 shekels each.

Now that we were full and the sun was setting, it was time to head to our last destination of the day.  We chose to visit the Dizengoff Fountain at night because we heard it was much prettier when it was dark outside.  Luckily we were close enough to walk to the Fountain and didn't have to risk another bad taxi driver.  The Dizengoff Fountain was an amazing sight! Its also called the fire and water sculpture and we could definitely tell why. The fountain spun around and sprayed water high into the sky and it appeared like there was fire coming out of the top, it was incredible! 

After a long day of sightseeing and long taxi rides it was time to hit the sack.  Excited to see what tomorrow has in store! 

Total Spending for the day: 237 INS or about 65 US Dollars

-Adam

Fun day at the beach! - Alison

I just realized we forgot to tell you all about where we are staying! Durring our time in Tel Aviv we are staying at a hotel on the beach called Prima Tel Aviv Hotel. When we arrived in Tel Aviv we had no idea how busy it was going to be! We had hoped we would find a cheap little hostel to stay in but we didn’t find any that were suitable enough for us to stay for a whole week. The nightly rate for the room is 726 INS ($200 USD) but since that was a little out of our budget we convinced them to give us two for the price of one and a half. Our stay ended up being 1089 INS ($300/night) for a total of 7623 INS ($2,100).

Anyway, now on to day 2, we woke up, put on our bathing suits, grabbed a quick bite from the free continental breakfast at the hotel and went to the very popular Tel Aviv beach! I was so excited we were going to just hang out and relax all day on the beach! It the high for the day was 85 degrease which is just about perfect, however the boys thought it was a little warm. Overall the beach was very similar to the beaches in North Carolina, however the water was a little more clear. For lunch that day we just got gyros from a street vendor right outside our restaurant for 25 INS ($7 USD) each, for a grand total of 100 INS ($28 USD) we hung out on the beach until about 6:00. We liked the gyros so much we went and had them again for dinner, again for100 INS ($28 USD).

After dinner we contemplated going to the spa at the hotel, which in my opinion we should have done! But there were so many people out and about walking the streets already we decided to go out on the town. After our showers we met back up and headed to down town Tel Aviv. The great part about our hotel was it was such a great location we could walk to a plethora of bars. We ended up at a place called Café Noir. We were a little worn out from the sun all day so we ended up just getting a couple drinks and calling it a night pretty early. For a total of 90 INS ($25 USD). After we walked back to our hotel we passed out pretty early so we could be rested up for tomorrows activities.

Total Cost for the day:

1370 INS/ $2181

By: Ben
Total cost for the day is actually 7913 INS
Hotel cost for week plus food and drinks.