Jordan

  Waking up at 9:00 am, getting in a taxi getting a tire changed while in the car, crossing the border of Israel paying $110 tax, taking a taxi, getting ripped off by the driver, going to another taxi, checking into another hotel, and finally scrambling to scrape together enough money for a way too expensive cheeseburger for dinner is definitely not recommended by me. Trust me, I learned the hard way.

    I should probably start from the beginning. We went to the Sharm market the day before we were going to go to Jordan and got a taxi after a few tries to drive us to The Israeli border for 800 Egyptian pounds. The guy said yes and drove us to our hotel for free. The next morning, we woke up and packed. We were outside waiting at 10 am sharp for our taxi. We waited and waited and waited and, as you might guess, our taxi never showed up.

  So, apparently the taxi driver just gave us a ride home for free. This was kind of disappointing, but we got a different taxi who charged 800 pounds. So, we got in and drove maybe 25 meters before we stopped at a gas station. We all thought we were just getting gas for our ride but after a couple of minutes we started tipping to the side until we were completely lopsided. I got out of the car to see what was wrong, and almost toppled over our driver who was changing his wheel. We stayed there for almost an hour and then got in the car and started driving for another 4 hours.

When we finally got to the border, we had to wait in an hour long line to cross the border.  Then we walked to a different 2-hour long line, then a 15 minute one and a half an hour. Then finally we had crossed into Israel. We got in a taxi and drove to the Jordan border got out paid the taxi 50 shaqals and waited for change. The taxi driver said that he had said 70 not 17 and got in his car and drove off with the 50 shaqals. So, we got ripped off by a taxi driver and then crossed the border into Jordan and figured out that we had to pay $110 just for being in Israel for 15 minutes.

Kai and I sat down and ate our hours-old, mushy tuna fish sandwiches 🥪 as my mom tried to comfort my dad and pay the people. We got another taxi and drove to our apartment in Jordan.

  We got there, and I expected to see a dirty awful room. But instead I saw a clean-living room with a tv. I walked further in and saw a bathroom with a big shower and lots of soaps. I stepped into my room and saw a huge desk and a closet. I looked further down and almost passed out there were THREE beds THREE I claimed the one nearer to the door and then took the pillows from the extra one. We went out for dinner (for me an original double cheeseburger for Kai a small cheeseburger) and then took a long luxurious shower after. I went to bed feeling better than I ever had. (since the trip anyway)

   We woke up at 8 and ate breakfast. We had to get started early today because we where going to Wadi Rum. We drove there and got into a *Jeep* it was more like a Toyota pick up but…. We started out and sang pop songs while riding in the back of the truck. We stopped at a mountain where a spring burbled. It was called the Laurence Spring we learned from our driver. We climbed the mountain and took a few pictures on the top. My mom found a lizard and we got some awesome videos. When we climbed back down we got a glass of tea. I watched memorized as they made it by boiling the water over wood. We pet a few camels, got a few camel kisses, and then got back in the Jeep.

We went to the next sight, which was a HUGE sand dune. When we finally got to the top, we took a bunch of pictures, and then sprinted down the hill as fast as I could. We fell a lot but it was sand and soft so we never got hurt.  Next, we went in the caverns between mountains and climbed. We then got back in the Jeep and went to our last destination. The ruins of ??? a temple, the driver didn’t know. So instead we made it the ruins of the ancient POPEYES pizza place and made up stories about the ruins.

We ate lunch in the shade up a trail and then went home. Our parents went to get food and Kai and I enjoyed a long shower again. We got into our *pjs* and then ate our shawarma and French fries dinner while we watched tv.

   The next day we went to Petra, a two-hour drive. We got there and checked in. Kai and I immediately began reading. We got our bags upstairs and realized that we had our own room again. We read for a few and then our parents hauled us out to go to the ancient ruins of Petra. We walked around for like 6 hours then came back and ate their dinner of pasta and BBQ meat, 

We slept hard and woke up in the morning early. We had to change rooms in the morning and went to a much smaller one with four beds and a bathroom. The sheets were yellow, and it was defiantly NOT what I would call clean. We did another day of Petra, this time 7 hours.  We came to the hotel exhausted and had more of their outdoor BBQ dinner. We enjoyed a frigid shower, since there was no hot water at this hotel and went to bed very uncomfortable.

We got in a cab the next day and drove to the Dead Sea. It was an amazing experience floating so easily.  The water was so oily!  We loved our mud baths, but it felt good getting in the fresh water showers and pool to clean off.  The next dat, we saw where Jesus was baptized and then headed back to Israel. I was so glad to get back to Israel, I didn’t even mind the 3 hour wait at the border.  I couldn’t wait to use the clean water and eat the safe foods in Israel, and I heard there were beaches and good cheeseburgers!