The Hashemite Kingdom

I overslept and almost didn't arrive in time for my bus to Jordan. Luckily I made it within the last minute and spent the ride listening to music and falling in and out of sleep. We drove through Palestine and along the Dead Sea towards the border crossing near Eilat, until eventually the sun started to rise above the deserts' dunes. The sun had barely scratched the horizon and we already had 26 degrees. The further we would drive into the desert, the worse it would get. Although it had already been hot in Tel Aviv, the city still felt like it might as well be somewhere in Europe. Here, it was abundantly clear that I had traveled to the most different part of the world I'd been to so far. And I hadn't even reached Jordan yet. Border control took around an hour, so it was 9:30am by the time I was able to enter, buy a visa and get on another bus to go to Petra. We drove through the Wadi Rum area, a beautiful mountainous stony desert with camels roaming around freely. After Wadi Rum, there was nothing but sand as far as the eye could see. Sand, and goats. I started wondering how anyone could not only survive but permanently live out here. It seemed so foreign to me, yet at the same time, oddly beautiful. We arrived at Wadi Musa around noon and started exploring the ancient ruins of Petra, the rose city. The reasoning behind that nickname soon became obvious as the rocks sparkled in rainbow colours in the sunlight. After reaching the treasury at the end of the path, I climbed up a cliff to get a better view and went through perhaps the most pretentious photo shooting of my life. The way back led all the way upwards and the sun was burning, so I was exhausted by the time I finally reached the restaurant that was our meeting point. Once we finished our food, we started our way back. Remembering how much of a hassle it was to come here in the first place, I realized that I'd have a long night ahead of me. I spent the bus drive the same way I spent the one in the morning and talked to a group of Americans, before finally arriving back at Tel Aviv around 1am.Baca selengkapnya