We woke up this morning all packed and ready to head out on our road trip. On our way to Petra, we made many stops and in fact, although we left at 9am we didn't arrive in Petra until after dark around 7pm.
Our first stop on our adventure was at the River Jordan to visit one of the baptismal sites that is currently used today. Of course, they aren't exactly sure where John the Baptist performed his baptisms, but it is believed to be in this area of the river. After this stop, we went through numerous border crossings to enter Jordan, the whole process required about an hour and 30 minutes. Once, we reached Jordan we headed up into the mountains where it was just as you'd imagine the Middle East to be. Miles and miles of dry, desolate desert land with a random sheep/donkey/camel crossing here and there.
Our next stop was a quick one. On top of the mountain overlooking the valley we stopped at Mount Nebo, the place where Moses looked over and found the promise land. Just outside of Mt Nebo, up high in the mountains, was our next stop - Madaba. In Madaba, we met up with a friend of CJ and Kari's, Osama (self proclaimed George Clooney of Madaba- haha, and he really does look like an Arab version of him). Osama owns a mosaics business and came into the shop today after suffering a heart attack YESTERDAY! He is truly an amazing person, very kind and generous and obviously dedicated to show up the day after suffering a heart attack.
After meeting up with Osama, he quickly whisked us away to an incredible lunch. It really was more than a lunch, it was the most amazing authentic Middle Eastern food we had during our entire trip. As soon as we walked into the restaurant, he had us go into a little room of curtains and sit on floor cushions. He wanted us to relax and enjoy our meal so he asked if it would be okay if the kids sat in their own room and he assured us that he would watch them and they would be fine. My brother and Kari (having known him well already) were totally comfortable with it. Mike and I on the other hand, were terrified. Here we were in the middle of a random town in Jordan and they wanted to take our kids to another room next door? Once we sat down and realized they were literally a curtain over and we could peep over and look whenever we wanted, we relaxed a little bit. Of course, Sebi isn't old enough to be on his own yet so he was in with us and we called out Stella's name every 30 seconds or so to be sure that she was there and ok. Once we settled down a little and the food arrived, we were able to enjoy the most incredible meal ever. We had so much fun talking and eating the food from the floor. Although we already celebrated Thanksgiving, given that this was the actual Thanksgiving day made this over indulgent meal all the more fitting.
After we left the restaurant, Osama took us to his Mosaics factory for a tour. Mike and I aren't really the Mosaic type - it's not really our style, but once we stepped foot into that factory and saw the intricacies and detail of the work we realized that it was some of the most beautiful art we have ever seen. The workers were great, they let the girls help them add a few stones to a piece they were working on and they served us amazing tea and Arab coffee. Following the factory, we headed back to Osama's store where we picked out a Mosaic for ourselves and one as a gift for Mike's dad. In addition to our mosaics, Osama sent us packing with more gifts than we could have imagined for ourselves. He gave each of the kids a stuffed camel too. Madaba was amazing and having Osama there to give us the proper tour made all of the difference.
We had to get on our way so that we would get to Petra before it became too dark, so we had to be on our way. And I will tell you that the drive to Petra was probably one of the most stressful, dangerous and scary journeys of our lives. It got dark fast and there were no lights to light up the roads, it was literally just a long stretch of single lane highway in pitch black. In addition to the darkness, it was a torrential downpour. It rained so hard it was unbelievable and there is so much dust that the windshield was covered in mud and we couldn't see out of it. The pickle was a great car and all, but the headlights were so dim and there was no wiper fluid so every once in awhile we had to roll down the windows and wipe off the windshield with our clothes so that we could see! It was crazy!!! We did eventually make it to Petra late that night and we were so exhausted we couldn't wait to get to sleep so we could wake up the next day to discover... Petra!
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| Stella joined the girls in the minivan and CJ let Mike and I borrow his sweet commuter car, which we adoringly refer to as "The Pickle". |
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| The river Jordan. We are on the Israeli side and just across the way is Jordan. There are some serious border patrollers with machine guns on each side. You are definitely not allowed to cross, either way. |
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| At the baptismal site, The Jordan River. |
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| Crossing the border into Jordan. |
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| A small town along the road in Jordan. |
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| Another small village on our way to Madaba. |
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| The view along our drive, just as you would imagine... miles and miles of desolate dirt and desert. |
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| This is the place where Moses looked over the valley and declared this to be the Promise Land. |
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| Sheep crossing! |
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| Crossing over Mt Nebo to get to Madaba. |
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| The pickle in the city of Madaba. |
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| Shops. |
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| Walking into the restaurant in Madaba. |
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| The kids had a room and a feast all to themselves. As you can imagine, it was a little scary for us as we were in the room next door. The walls didn't go all the way up so we could hear them, but we couldn't see them... |
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| Sebi LOVED the food here. We can hardly get him to eat, but he was shoveling the rice in his face and literally didn't stop until we left! |
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| The kids finished eating first and came in to join the adult feast. |
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| Stella adding a few stones to a mosaic at the factory. |
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| Hannah adding her personal touch. |
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| And finally, Haydin placing a stone on this tile. |
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| Cheers! Here we are enjoying the gifts from our hosts - Arab tea and coffee... different and delicious. |
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| The kiddos in the mosaic factory with their new stuffed camels from Osama. |
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| This is a wood table that they made in the factory by hand. They showed us how they add each little piece of pearl and wood to create this design and the amount of detail and work put into each piece is unbelievable. |
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| The wood area of the factory where they make the pieces shown above... |
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| Stella and Osama walking through Madaba. |
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| After a very crazy/sketchy drive, we finally arrived at our hotel in Petra and relaxed with a hot cup of the most amazing Bedouin tea. |
