A Weekend in the Holy Land

Hi friends and family!

Another week’s gone by and I’m happy to say that this was one of my most favorite weeks here so far (as if every week isn’t already fantastic!)

After a few days of class, we were given Thursday off for the Muslim New Year, so I went with two other friends across the border over to Jerusalem. It’s amazing to think how close Amman is to Jerusalem – if there wasn’t a border, it would take only about 45 minutes to drive from one place to the other!

As luck would have it, the three of us managed to get through the border in only 3 hours – from the crowded downtown of Amman, across the no-man’s land and across all the Israeli check points! By that night, we were safely to our hostel and eating a delicious Italian food dinner (can’t go wrong with Italian food, no matter what country you’re in!)

The next day, we woke up early to explore the Old City. The Old City is surrounded by huge walls maintained from the time of the Romans – amazing! Once in the old city, we wandered around until we came to the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock. We were able to go up to the Western Wall, but couldn’t make it up to the area with the mosques because the line was much too long (plus, non-Arab Christians can’t really get in). After that, we went looking around for the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where Jesus was said to have been laid to rest.

Once we found the church, we were immediately surrounded by thousands of pilgrims, all saying prayers and kissing the stone where Jesus was laid. It was a little overwhelming. The Orthodox Church runs the church, so it was interesting to see the way their pilgrims differed from some of the protestant faiths.

We weren’t really sure what else there was to see in the Old City, so we continued to wander until we stumbled on the Austrian Hospice – aka the best free view of the city! It was really cool to see the whole city and the Mount of Olives off to the side.

We ate lunch at a fantastic hummus/falafel place outside of Damascus Gate before departing to Bethlehem for the afternoon. Seriously some of the best food ever. The ride to Bethlehem was super smooth. Once we got there, we were bombarded by a cab driver that tried to take us to the Church of the Nativity (we agreed to this because it seemed like a pretty good idea to get exactly where we wanted to go) but then convinced us to hire him out for the afternoon! This turned out to be a great idea, because he showed us where all the Banksy pieces were in the city, like the one that’s just casually on the side of a car wash.

Getting to the Church of the Nativity was great too – we walked around, got stuck behind some tour groups but eventually got to see the site where Jesus was born. I still haven’t decided how I feel about having spiritual revelations at sites that are so venerated – I’ve never been one to believe that my faith is tied to a location. Maybe that’s just the camp mentality (hey, Lutherdale) but seeing all this pilgrims crying or freaking out or kissing everything in sight almost made me feel less connected and isolated from the space because I wasn’t having the same reaction.  Regardless, I’m still can’t believe I was in the same space where so much happened thousands of years ago (can’t really get that in the states!).

Once we’d seen basically all of touristy parts of Bethlehem, we headed back to Jerusalem by bus just in time for a Renaissance Fair in the Old City! Totally unexpected, but still fun. We ended our day by having a drink with one of our hostel buddies and passing out from way too much walking.

The next day was Friday, and the border closed at one so after a fruitless search to find a T-Shirt shop again in the Old City (that souk is waaay too confusing) we headed back to Amman!

But that wasn’t the end of it. The next day we had a group trip to some of the Biblical sites on the other side of the Jordan River – complete with baptism site and Mount Nebo. It was pretty cool to get to see the river up close for the first time. Did you know the Jordan River is the only river in Jordan? How neat is that!

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend, full of good food, mixed feelings and amazing sights. I’m glad I got to pop over there for the weekend.

There’s only 5 more weekends left here before I head home! Only a few more adventures left to go on… Next up, the castles in Ajloun!!

Ruins and midterms and beaches -- this place has everything!

Happy November!

I can’t believe it’s already November, and I’m more than halfway through my time here. It’s been a couple of weeks since my last post, and of course plenty has been happening. After a week back in Amman and a relaxing weekend (doing Fridays right by staying in all day sleeping/studying) a couple of friends and I went on a public bus adventure up to the archaeological site at Um Qais. It was the site of an ancient Roman city and even has a cameo in the Bible (ever heard about that story with the demon pigs running into the Sea of Galilee? Well it takes place here!) We spent the morning navigating our way up there, passing through the city of Irbid and making friends with chatty Jordanian women. Once we got there, we walked around the ruins; re-enacting fight scenes and thinking about what life might have been like.

But really, the most shocking part about the location was its proximity to so many places of turmoil. To the north was the Syrian border – a place where just a few weeks ago some refugees died of starvation maybe not even a few kilometers away from this tourist site. To the northwest was the Sea of Galilee, which is now mostly controlled by Israel. Thinking about all of the things that have happened in this seriously disputed region made it hard to look at it in all of its current silence from over here in Jordan.

Following Um Qais, we stopped back through Irbid to change buses and head down to Jerash, a city with more ruins! These were a little different from Um Qais – a little more complete and city-like. Even though we got there about 20 minutes before it closed, the tourism police still let us in and it was enough time to wander around and see the Temple of Artemis and catch snippets of tours in different European languages. It’s so cool that there is so much ancient history here in Jordan, and only a 1 Dinar bus ride away!

Then last week was midterm week – it was almost a shock to actually have to do work and crank out a paper. But nothing compared to Northwestern’s midterms marathon. Thankfully, Jordan has a good way to de-stress after a week of midterms: Aqaba! Aqaba is a town about four hours south of Amman right on the Red Sea. It was amazing to hang out down there and snorkel on the coral reefs – I kept feeling like I was in “Finding Nemo!” The water was pretty chilly, but it was 80 degrees in the beginning of November, so I’m not complaining. We stayed in a hostel down at the southern end of town that was actually closer to Saudi Arabia than it was downtown! Too bad it’s basically impossible to get in to Saudi… as cool as it would be to say that I’ve been there. Across the sea from us was Sinai as well as the Israeli city of Eliat (distinguishable against Sinai based off of how many lights the Israelis used to light up their city!) It’s crazy to think how close Jordan is to multiple other countries – not something you see every day in the United States.

What’s next? Well, Wednesday I’m headed over to Jerusalem and Bethlehem for a quick trip! We get Thursday off for the Muslim New Year, so it seemed like the perfect time to pop over. I can’t wait to see what the city is like. I’ll be sure to post some updates then!