Photos from Jordan & Israel

Back from the trip with over 450 new photos on my hard drive from the last trip through the Middle East. In this Dropbox gallery you can see some of the better shots from Jordan (mostly Petra but also the capital, Amman), as well as shots from Bethlehem and Jerusalem, Israel. This time of year the weather is completly different than first time I visited the area, but luckily for me, the lower sun and the cloudy sky gives better photos. Be sure to check them out!

Bethlehem

So we’ve just arrived in Bethlehem. Today was rather lazy, except the border crossing between Jordan and Israel, over the Jordan River (which is like 1 meter wide, except common believe that it is a big river – it’s really more of a little creek). We were lucky, the border checkpoint controls took only 3 hours (once I spent 6 hours there…). Now we’ve seen everything there is to see in the small city of Bethlehem, in the Palestinian West Bank, and tomorrow we’ll go to Jerusalem. The only problem is that the hotel that’s booked for us is obviously overbooked, and there’s no room for us. Wonderful. Aw, one more thing: it’s way colder here! Only about 19°C in the nights, so you feel the chill. Damn, winter’s coming!

Amman, Jordan

Amman, Jordan

What a day! No sleep last night, since the bus pick up arrived at 1am. From Sharm to the Egyptian-Israeli border crossing in Taba-Eilat. I saw something there I want to do one day: a couple on bikecycles, biking their way though the Middle East. The guy even had a guitar on his bike. Another cool thing was that Jews celebrate something right now (the celebration of the ending of 40 years wandering thorugh the desert, I think…), so they like live in tents for a week or so. The tents are everywhere along the 9 km short Israeli Red Sea coastline. So there was a guy making a espresso over open fire in a mocca brewer! Only in Israel…

 

Wadi Rum, Jordan

After the bored crossing was completed we went with bus for about 10 minutes to the second border, this time Israeli-Jordanian in Eilat-Aqaba. Took a couple of hours to complete, like it usualy does in this part of the world, but after that we went to the most beautiful desert in the world, Wadi Rum. An hour or two there, and then a bus ride to the famous city of Petra. When even this was finished, I had to take a mule the 4 km back to the bus… First time on a mule for me ever. I felt terrible. Poor animal.

Anyway, after that 4 hours with bus to the Jordanian capital city, Amman, inhabited by 2.1 million citizens. The hotel is actually really nice, and the Internet connection is free, so I can give you an update. Right now I feel like sleeping after such a long day! Byea