Swine Flu in Arabic -إنفلونزا الخنازير
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After two nights in Wadi Musa, we took a bus to Amman (the capital!).
In case we forgot where we were (pic stolen from Darren):
Jordan (in Arabic)!
Our first mission in Amman, other get to our hotel, was to find this place we read about that serves nothing but french fries. After I navigated us to the wrong restaurant, some random guy told us how to get there.(pic stolen from Jess)
Amman is a city on twentyish hills. It makes for a lot of good photo-ops.
After we ate our delicious french fries, we went to a ruins site. I believe it was where the city's citadel used to be, back in the days of the Romans. You can see where we head in this picture. It is up on the hill, to the left. 
Some kids playing soccer in the ruins
There was also this old palace:
The world's third largest flagpole in the background:
But seriously, it is huge. Oddly enough, the world's second largest flagpole is also in Jordan (Aqaba, but it was too dark for a photo when I saw it). 
the tallest flagpole is in Turkmenistan, if you were wondering.
The ruins-site also had a museum with:
Plastered skulls:
Fresh human-heads:
..oh, wait I misread.
..oh, wait I misread.Phoenecian coins:
And the Dead Sea Scrolls:
The Jordanian police drive Audis:
..I was shooting from the hip here, I apologize for the crookedness
After this ruins-site, we went down to the old Roman amphitheater (I am a pro at spelling 'amphiteater' now).
Getting there was an adventure. The amphitheater is at the foot of the hill with the ruins, but the roads wind back and forth on the hills, rather than going straight down. We were determined to go straight down. 
Eventually we made it:
..yes, fun with ArcSoft Panorama Maker
Jessica, Jess, and Darren:
That night we went to a dinner at the Blue Fig Cafe. We were debating where to go and I was pushing this place because the description of the other restaurant we were considering said it had good western food. Blue Fig Cafe turned out to have nothing but western food. For example, Darren's food consisted of a chesseburger (just the meat and cheese, no bread) and fries literally on top of a pizza. Fortunately, Darren documented it:
The following day, we went on a day trip set up through our hotel to go to a number of Holy Land-esque sites.
The parts we drove through seemed to be all agricultural land.
There was an oddly large amount of greenhouses:
Our first stop was in the town of Madaba. If anyone is ever in Jordan, Madaba should probably be skipped.There was this cathedral:
What is everyone crowding around?
Answer: This old mosaic-map of the Holy Land:
This was outside of the cathedral explaining how to navigate the mosaic-map:
Then we headed over to the Archaeology Park (or something to that effect), where there were more mosaics!
The only thing I found interesting about the Park was that the guy working the ticket booth has family in Ohio. His brothers and sisters live in Youngstown and he has a cousin in Columbus. I should not be so harsh about Madaba- I bought this amazing Nasser-mug from one of the shops. I am very happy with it. I will have to take a picture of it and put it on my next blog post.. If you likes mosaics and/or coffee mugs come to Madaba, otherwise you could skip it. After Madaba, we went to Mt. Nebo, where Moses was shown the Promised Land. There were turkeys on Mt. Nebo:
We were looking out at what we assumed was "the Promised Land", and then someone told us we were looking in the wrong direction, from the wrong side of the mountain. This is not the Promised Land:
We were looking out at what we assumed was "the Promised Land", and then someone told us we were looking in the wrong direction, from the wrong side of the mountain. This is not the Promised Land:This is (fun with ArcSoft Panorama Maker!):
This hat..
After Mt. Nebo, we drove toward Bethany (where Jesus was baptized) and the Dead Sea
Ranging camels:
The baptism site was our first stop.
Clever name for a supermarket:
After we bought our tickets, we waited around until a shuttle came to pick us up. We were then driven through the desert for maybe 10 minutes and dropped off.
A short walk down a trail took us to the Jordan River:
This photo looks like it was taken from a helicopter, but no. The greenery you see are bushes, not the tops of tall trees. It is really more of a creek. The river, which is the official border with Israel and the Palestinian territorites, is no more than 10 feet wide. That also makes the other side the West Bank.
A short nature walk later..
...and we are at the site where Jesus was baptized:
This map-thing explains the development of the area and the many churches that have been built in this spot
One of the funnier moments while at the baptism site came when it was photo-time. Everyone was getting out their cameras when a random guy wearing a kuffiyeh, smoking a cigarette appeared and started walking around the actual site:
..I like to imagine that she was taking off her glasses in anger. I am trying to take a picture of the area where Jesus was baptized!
He then sat down at the actual spot where they say Jesus was baptized
What!?! No, you cannot do that!
Then, a friend joined him:
This site is not open to the public for baptisms, anymore. If you want to be baptized in the Jordan River, there is a new site for that...
..wait, what is that white flag? Is it..
OH MY GOD, IT'S ISRAEL!
This little pond is separating Israel and Jordan. Who knows what sort of yelling-conversations have occurred between the Israeli soldiers and the Jordanian soldiers!?! This was just too much for me:
The goal with this photo was to get a picture with me, a Jordanian soldier, and an Israeli soldier all in the same frame. Darren said it just looks like I said something mean to the Jordanian soldier:
Jessica stepping in the Jordan River:
The river is BYOP (Bring Your Own Pastor/Preacher).
The fifteen-twenty minutes we spent at this site was not enough to fully soak in the situation. It was so- awkward. It also has me wondering if the Israelis say that this is the site of Jesus' baptism or if they say that the actual site is in Jordan. One day, I will look into this matter...
After the baptism-site, we went to the Dead Sea:
We spent a few hours at the beach
..they were not kidding about the protecting the eyes business, that water burns (it is 8.6 times saltier than the ocean)! I got a little splash in my eye and it was blindingly painful for a solid five minutes (that does not sound very long, but count to 300 while scratching your eye with a sharpened fork or pouring Listerine into your eye or you could just dump a couple teaspoons of table salt into your eye). I had to get out of the water so I could rid my hands of salt before I could wipe my eye. It had to be a very strange, yet very common sight as I emerged from the water with my hand hovering over, but not touching, my eye.
Because of the high salinity, people just float in the Dead Sea. This is me doing a classic tourist-pose where you take a picture floating, while reading something in the Dead Sea (Warning: I am extremely pale, you may want to turn your monitor's brightness down)
(Picture from Darren)
That night, we went to the restaurant that we had thought about going to the night before. It was also very Western. After that, we went to a bar that had an excellent hill-side view of Amman. The next morning, we flew to Lebanon!
One last thing I want to mention about Jordan: Their currency is stronger than the USD. Did you know that? I didn't. I think it is about $1.3 for 1 Jordanian Dinar.
After Mt. Nebo, we drove toward Bethany (where Jesus was baptized) and the Dead Sea
Ranging camels:
The baptism site was our first stop.Clever name for a supermarket:
After we bought our tickets, we waited around until a shuttle came to pick us up. We were then driven through the desert for maybe 10 minutes and dropped off.
A short walk down a trail took us to the Jordan River:
This photo looks like it was taken from a helicopter, but no. The greenery you see are bushes, not the tops of tall trees. It is really more of a creek. The river, which is the official border with Israel and the Palestinian territorites, is no more than 10 feet wide. That also makes the other side the West Bank.A short nature walk later..
...and we are at the site where Jesus was baptized:
This map-thing explains the development of the area and the many churches that have been built in this spot
One of the funnier moments while at the baptism site came when it was photo-time. Everyone was getting out their cameras when a random guy wearing a kuffiyeh, smoking a cigarette appeared and started walking around the actual site:
..I like to imagine that she was taking off her glasses in anger. I am trying to take a picture of the area where Jesus was baptized!He then sat down at the actual spot where they say Jesus was baptized
What!?! No, you cannot do that!Then, a friend joined him:
This site is not open to the public for baptisms, anymore. If you want to be baptized in the Jordan River, there is a new site for that...
..wait, what is that white flag? Is it..
OH MY GOD, IT'S ISRAEL!
This little pond is separating Israel and Jordan. Who knows what sort of yelling-conversations have occurred between the Israeli soldiers and the Jordanian soldiers!?! This was just too much for me:
The goal with this photo was to get a picture with me, a Jordanian soldier, and an Israeli soldier all in the same frame. Darren said it just looks like I said something mean to the Jordanian soldier:
Jessica stepping in the Jordan River:
The river is BYOP (Bring Your Own Pastor/Preacher).The fifteen-twenty minutes we spent at this site was not enough to fully soak in the situation. It was so- awkward. It also has me wondering if the Israelis say that this is the site of Jesus' baptism or if they say that the actual site is in Jordan. One day, I will look into this matter...
After the baptism-site, we went to the Dead Sea:
We spent a few hours at the beach
..they were not kidding about the protecting the eyes business, that water burns (it is 8.6 times saltier than the ocean)! I got a little splash in my eye and it was blindingly painful for a solid five minutes (that does not sound very long, but count to 300 while scratching your eye with a sharpened fork or pouring Listerine into your eye or you could just dump a couple teaspoons of table salt into your eye). I had to get out of the water so I could rid my hands of salt before I could wipe my eye. It had to be a very strange, yet very common sight as I emerged from the water with my hand hovering over, but not touching, my eye.
Because of the high salinity, people just float in the Dead Sea. This is me doing a classic tourist-pose where you take a picture floating, while reading something in the Dead Sea (Warning: I am extremely pale, you may want to turn your monitor's brightness down)
(Picture from Darren)That night, we went to the restaurant that we had thought about going to the night before. It was also very Western. After that, we went to a bar that had an excellent hill-side view of Amman. The next morning, we flew to Lebanon!
One last thing I want to mention about Jordan: Their currency is stronger than the USD. Did you know that? I didn't. I think it is about $1.3 for 1 Jordanian Dinar.
