K guys, I really didn't think anything could possibly even touch Petra, but I was wrong. Today we went to Jerash, which is the biggest Roman ruins outside Italy (hence the singing of Hercules songs- such as "I Won't Say I'm In Love"- that went down). And they were freaking suh-weet! Like, I've been to Rome. I walked through the big ruins they have there. Rome's got nothin on Jerash. Like, not even close. So much of Jerash is just still intact! They have an entire Roman theatre, and both city gates are practically untouched. I spent the entire morning just being like, holy crap!
So we finally got to be ahead of the Matthew bus today. Lol, we are always behind them and it drives me nuts, coz we can always see them just up ahead and then they get finished before we do and I always feel left behind. But today their engine belt or something broke on the way to Jerash, so we got to be the leaders! :D When we shift the buses around, tho, for New Testament, I'm going to be on Matthew, so only like, another week of Mark.
Right, so back to the awesomeness that was Jerash. At the entrance is Hadrian's Gate. And it's like a full on gate, not just a pile of rubble or anything. That's what as so awesome about Jerash-- it actually looked like Hercules. then you walk past the Hippodrome, which is where they have a chariot show every day at 11 and 2-- except they totally did one at 12:30 just for our group, which made me really happy, coz I really wanted to see it. But that was the very last thing, so let us continue chronologically.
So we went inside the actual ruins-- the hippodrome and gate aren't actually part of it, I guess. I don't really know how to describe the view. It was just this awesome Roman city stretching out over the rolling green hills into the distance. ... Maybe if I ever get some pictures posted you can see what I mean... *sheepish look.* I might soon, you know. Now that all my pictures are on Mike's computer, maybe we'll go up to Hebrew U some time and I can upload a bunch. No promises, tho. So there was a big circular town-square lookin thing at the bottom of the hill from the temple of Zeus. It kinda looked like the one that young Hercules destroys in the movie.
The Roman theatre was suh-weet. I mean, it was cool. I've never seen one so intact, and I don't think I've ever seen one with an actual stage. So cool. Plus, some guys came out with bagpipes and drums and we totally had a dance party right there in the theatre. That's right. That's how cool we are. Mike said the Matthew bus was totally not cool enough for that, and they did not have a dance party. Yep.
The other really cool thing was the temple of Artemis. I mean, it's practically all still there. And the reason the columns are still standing is because they move. Seriously. It's a whole bunch of blocks stacked on top of each other with I guess like an iron pole through the center. So our guide stuck a spoon into one of the cracks and had people push from either side, and it totally moved the spoon up and down! And you could even kinda see the column swaying. It was sick.
Then we saw the remains of the main two streets, lined with columns (Jerash has a lot of columns- I think our guide said it's even called the "City of 1000 Columns). And there was an intersection that was pretty sweet. And then there was a pretty cool little fountain, they called it like a Nymphoteum or something. It almost kind of looked like the Trevoli fountain, except not white, and smaller. But still complete. Or nearly so. Seriously though, it was amazing how much there was left of all these places.
So then we went to the chariot show! (Actually, we had to wait half an hour for the Matthew group to catch up, so I shopped a little. I bought a magnet and a really neat oil painting on black velvet.) It was pretty cool. Most of it was showing formations of a Roman legion, and they had a couple of gladiators fight each other. But the chariots were pretty dang awesome. Like, really cool. And then they let us go down into the arena and take pictures in them. Ya, basically chariots are sweet.
Then, after Jerash, we went to this amazing restaurant. Bro. Huff actually said that this is the one he meant when he was talking about Petra, he got mixed up. And it was all that and more. Holy crap, I was seriously afraid that I wouldn't be able to stop eating. Lol, it was pretty funny, actually. We were all sitting around the tables, waiting to eat whatever was put in front of us (I noticed the contrast between us and the regular customers, who were ordering from menus and actually cared what they were given, lol). It was a late lunch and breakfast this morning wasn't much. And when they served the appetizer- pita, with a bunch of dips- we tore into it like a herd of... somthing. Horses, maybe. Something really hungry and totally unconcerned about anything but filling its stomach. It amused me. But it was seriousy soooooooo good. Possibly the best food I've ever eaten. At least way way up there on the list, neway.
So then we drove to an overlook of the Jabbok River, which is where Jacob wrestled with the angel and was given the name of Israel (Gen 32), and from there to the Branch House in Amman. It actually looked a lot like the one in Cairo. Kinda nostalgic, kinda fun. And we had kind of a *fireside* with the Branch President where he talked about LDS life in Amman. he seemed like a pretty cool guy. He's been in the Middle East with the military for pretty much his whole career, and he had some fun stories.
K, tonight we nixed dinner at the hotel because I have been wanting Pizza Hut since we were in Egypt. So we headed out to the Mecca Mall. We actually spent 45 minutes trying to hail a taxi (no joke, it was freakin impossible) and though we had wanted to visit King Hussein's Automobile Museum, none of the taxi drivers could understand where we wanted to go! We actually got rejected by two who said they didn't speak English before we got into a taxi at all, and then we got into downtown and the guy still didn't know where we wanted to be, so we decided to skip it. By the time that hour had gone by, it was nearly closed, neway.
At the Mecca Mall, we went bowling- I bowled the worst game of my life (except for my one redeeming strike, which brought me up to a whopping 68... yep) and then went to Pizza Hut. It was amazing. Of course. Mike and I had a pepperoni and pineapple pizza. It was glorious. I started to say it was the highlight of my week, but then I remembered Petra... and Jerash, for that matter, both of which actually trump Pizza Hut, lol. But still. The mall was pretty big. Like, 5 floors. I dunno, it was kinda fun to just be normal for a bit, lol. Mike also got a Cinnabon that he immensely enjoyed, and I got a donut that exceeded expectations, so I was pretty excited about that. :) Then after we got back to the hotel we went back to the movie store and I got Legally Blonde. Turns out, tho, that it's actually Legally Blonde 2... Lol, I guess that's what I get for $2. I can't really decide exactly how put out I am. Lol, oh well.
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