Petra

Well that just happened.  Almost three months passed without an update and now all of you have probably forgotten about us out here in Jerusalem.  But!  We're still here and have so much to share with you now that we have had two visitors and have been forced to become tourists again.  The months of January and February (until Mckenzie arrived) were pretty uneventful, with Eric returning to his full time school schedule and me babysitting more, but I think we made up for this lack of activity throughout the past month.  I have now: Seen the Dome of the Rock three times, been to the Dead Sea and Masada three times, walked through Petra, been to Bethlehem, enjoyed many sunny afternoons in Tel Aviv, eaten lots and lots of falafel and hummus, and traveled to the northern end of the country.  Eric joins in on adventures when school allows, but it has been so fun to have McKenzie (my sister) and Theresa (my dear friend from Seattle) here to spend the days with me.  Their excitement about all of the sights really reminded me how lucky we are to be here and sharing this incredible experience.  My time abroad is actually drawing to a close, as I am headed home on April 25th to be closer to my family as wedding planning kicks into full gear.  As you can imagine, I am both extremely excited and incredibly sad to be leaving this place, but ultimately I think I have done what I needed/wanted to do here and am ready to head back.  For now, though, let's keep talking about Israel!

While Mckenzie was visiting, we took a trip to Eilat (which is at the southern tip of Israel and borders Egypt and Jordan) and Petra.  Eilat has a border crossing into Jordan just a few minutes outside of the main town, so we were easily able to arrange a tour to get us across the border and into Petra.  Some of you may know Petra from Indiana Jones, as he ends up there on his search for the ancient crescent city in The Last Crusade.  The city was built in the 3rd century BCE and magnificent structures are carved directly into the rock.  People inhabited the city until 555 CE, when it is believed that a massive earthquake made living there impossible.  Today, the Bedouin people still live in the surrounding area and offer camel rides, jewelry, and other crafts in little marketplaces throughout Petra.

We started our tour at 7am, when our tour jeep picked us up in Eilat and brought us to the border crossing.  We had to walk from Israel to the Jordan border and then we were able to board a bus and start the 2 hour journey to Petra.  Our tour guide was a local Jordanian man, named Mohammed, who was super friendly and excited about helping people realize that Jordan is happy to have tourists and is not a dangerous place.  I remember him talking about how devastated their economy was because people hear about the turmoil in the Middle East and automatically assume that all the countries in that area will resemble the chaos they see on the news.  We really did have a great experience with everyone we interacted with, although I'll admit that we only visited touristy places.  Anyway, we made it to Petra by mid-morning and toured until we were all starving at 4:00pm.  After a buffet lunch, the bus took us back to Eilat and we headed back to Jerusalem the next afternoon.

 Viewpoint looking over the town of Petra.

 

 We began by walking to the "Souq" (or market) street, which is the main entrance to Petra, and we were greeted by lots of men offering horseback and carriage rides. 

 

Right before entering the Souq street there is a little shop selling all kinds of scarves, jewelry, and aromatics.  This is also where President Obama stopped for souvenirs on his trip to Petra, and the shop owner will gladly you show you pictures to prove it.  McKenzie was lucky enough to take some amber and myrrh home with her.

The first part of the walk through this ancient city is lined by towering rocks on either side.  The rock was beautiful and had all sorts of marks showing how it had been worn down over the coarse of history.  You walk and walk through this narrow walkway and it is breathtaking, but there are only minor signs of carving in the rock.  Gutters line the walkway designed to catch and take all the water through the canyon to the residents that used to live in Petra.  Right before we turned a corner, our tour guide gave us instructions to stay to the far right side of the path to avoid carriages coming quickly around the bend.  Once we made it around the curve, he asked us to tell him his eye color, so everyone was focused on trying to get close enough to see what it might be.  I had no idea what was going on and was thoroughly confused as to why his eye color might matter to any of us, but then I looked straight ahead and realized why he was trying to divert our attention: He wanted the view you see in the photo below to be a complete surprise.  Well done, tour guide :)

This structure is the one you see in the Indiana Jones movie and is called the Treasury.  The detail in the carving was so intricate and amazing, it almost did not seem real.  This was definitely the highlight of the trip.

 

 A local artisan demonstrating how he makes his sand art.  You can sort of make out the tiny camel coming together in the jar.

 McKenzie getting her shot, per usual :)

 Eric and Mckenzie in front of the amphitheater.

 The rock had these amazing patterns, with different colors layered throughout.

 

These beautifully carved structures were used as tombs.  The more intricate the carving, the more wealthy the family was, with poorer families just having holes in the walls for tombs.

 

This is by far my favorite picture and it was taken by McKenzie.  This Bedouin man looks serene here, but he was actually calling out that it was happy hour on all scarves.  He also had a pet turtle hanging out in a box next to all his stuff.

 As I mentioned, some Bedouin people still live in the surrounding area, but I am not sure that they are actually allowed to live in Petra itself.  These structures could just be their spot to escape the heat during the day while they are selling crafts.

We ended the day with a drive back to the border and this gorgeous sunset over the Jordan mountains.  We all had such an amazing time and feel so lucky to have checked this place off our list of places to see.  If you are ever in Israel, try to make time to see Petra, as it really is unlike anything else!

Thanks for sticking with us and reading our updates.  I have some more photo-heavy posts lined up for this week, so stay tuned.

xo. E+D

Where we've been.

Wow.

I sincerely apologize for our lack of updates around here.  What started off as laziness on my part (uploading photos feels like work sometimes) suddenly turned into a whirlwind of activity that left me unsure of what to say.  SO, I want to dedicate this post to all of the things we did in Israel since the last time I wrote, but I think a brief update on our situation is certainly in order.

The visa process has turned out to be a bit more complicated than we imagined, with the Israeli government deciding that we cannot apply for student visas once we are already within the country (despite the fact that we were told otherwise before we left the USA).  With our initial visa long expired, we decided it was in our best interest to leave the country and attempt to re-enter as tourists.  Within less than 48 hours of making this decision, we bought plane tickets, boarded a flight to Paris, and arrived just in time for Christmas Eve dinner and carols at Notre Dame.  We stayed in Paris through Christmas and left the next day to stay with Eric's aunt Sally in Normandy.  Not a bad getaway plan, huh?  Sally and her husband Carl have graciously hosted us for the past three weeks, and next Monday we will fly back to Israel to beg for 3 month tourist visas.

Now let's review the past couple months in Jerusalem.  I traveled to Haifa on the north coast (where I found a Christmas tree!), we celebrated our first Chanukah, attempted to host an authentic Thanksgiving dinner (with roast chicken instead of turkey), introduced our Israeli friends to the joys of Christmas cookie decorating, and survived a pretty serious snow storm.  Enjoy the photos and we'll let you know how our re-entry goes next week!

 Kittens resurfacing after the snowstorm.

 The Bahai center in Haifa.  There are 18 terraced levels leading up to the main building, but only Bahai pilgrims are allowed to walk up the great white staircase.  The rest of us have to navigate through the neighborhood and climb the hundreds of steps shown on the right (this was only the beginning).

 Citrus season!

 I made it to the top and was rewarded with a lovely view of the sea and beautiful gardens to walk through on the way to the temple.

 The entrance to the Bahai temple.  You leave your shoes in this hallway and around the corner is a medium sized room full of ornate carpets, lamps, and candles.  According to the brochure, these objects (which look old and significant) have no meaning and are purely decorative.

 Haifa has a pretty large Arab Christian population, so there were lots of Christmas stores around town.  After succumbing to the fact that I would have to skip all things Christmas this year, stores like this were a welcomed sight!

 A delicious meal in the Arab marketplace.  We've got: rice pilaf, eggplant and okra stewed in tomato sauce and spices, hummus, olive and vegetable plate, and pita.

 Arab outdoor market in Haifa.

 The first night of Chanukah.  We walked through the old city to see how the locals celebrate this holiday.

 Just behind me is the Western Wall and a Rabbi is saying the Chanukah prayers (is that what they are called?).  Out of nowhere this huge band of boys enters the square and starts singing and dancing in this circle.  Sights like this were pretty common throughout the holiday week and I was told that these boys are in school studying Jewish theology.

 Eric tries a Chanukah sufganiyot (jelly donut).

 Cookie shaping and some of our finished products.

 Notice the change in scenery (this is the same street) over the course of just one day.

 Snowy view from bed.  We had a lot of breakfast in bed mornings throughout the storm since the rest of the apartment was just too cold to hang out in.

 We lost power on Friday, but luckily it came back on just in time for me to bake the challah for dinner.  A Shabbat miracle!

 This year we were introduced to some British Christmas traditions by our roommate, Clare.  One of my favorites was the Christmas Cake, which she started in November and doused with brandy every week until we got to eat it on the 23rd!

 Snowy Jerusalem.

 Still at it selling bagels outside of the Old City.  Very commendable, indeed.

An unexpected Christmas day spent in Paris.  Wishing all of you the happiest of New Years and sending our love!