A small diversion

I've been MIA for over a week, but for good reason...I spent the last week in Jordan!  With the office closed for Easter (a week later on this side of the world) and a few days of holidays left, I set off for Amman just over a week ago.  I spent the first 5 days with my mom's cousin's family who live in Amman.  It was great to be with family again, even if just for a few days.  The family meals and conversation around the table cause a few moments of feeling homesick but that was short lived and I had a great time.

Friday we went to Jonathan's baseball game in the afternoon and had homemade pizza for dinner.  Saturday I went out on my own to explore a bit of Amman.  I visited the ruins of the citadel and had a look at the roman theatre in town.  I didn't pay to go in since you could see most of it from the outside and after Turkey I've seen my fair share of roman theatres.  Sunday we all went down to the Jordan river which is now more like a creek which means I was close enough to Israel for my phone to send me a message saying 'Welcome to Israel" and went on out line the various roaming charges I might incur.  Next we headed over to the dead sea where Matt and the boys and I had a little float and gave our selves our own dead sea spa treatment.

Then it was back to Amman where a few of Matt and Robyn's friends came over had we had some amazing lamb for Easter dinner.

Monday I had booked myself onto a tour of a few sites north of Amman.  We stopped first at a place called Umm Qais with views of the sea of galilee and the golan heights.  Next was an old crusader castle called Ajlun, complete with guards dressed up in period clothing.  Finally we stopped at Jerash, again Roman ruins...on a side note I knew from history classes how big the Roman Empire was but when you get over here and at half the sites you've got a Hadrian's gate and a Roman theatre it really is amazing how much territory they controlled.

On Tuesday, since it was spring break, we all took the 3 1/2 hour drive down to the desert at Wadi Rum.  We stopped at a few points of interest and then spent the night sleeping under the stars.  Oh, and we had smores at the campfire while one of the bedouins played music.  The next morning I parted ways with everyone and set off to Petra.  While I went there on my own I ended up meeting and joining up with other travelers and it was a great two days.

While I was fortunate enough to fly from Cairo to Amman, I made the trip back over land which took 18 hours from getting on the bus in Petra at 7 am and getting off at 1 am at Ramses station in Cairo.  But I made it, and our bus managed to stay on the road coming through the Sinai peninsula which was a bit of a miracle in and of itself.  I do have a bit of a bruise on my forehead from banging it on the window when the bus took a sharp turn to get out of the way of oncoming traffic.

That's all for now, I'll be on my way back to Aswan this evening and back to the office tomorrow for the start of what's looking like a busy last month in Egypt.