This blog has been a long time coming, and apologies for that. Just didn't feel like doing it. In August and September, I went to Bulgaria, then Turkey and finally Jordan. You can see the other two blogs here:

Bulgaria
Turkey

Jordan was not high on my list of countries to go to--mostly because I thought the only thing that was interesting was Petra, and why go to a country to see only one thing? I was horribly misinformed. Jordan is now my favorite trip so far, even over Costa Rica, which was amazing. Without further ado, I give you Jordan.

We started the trip in Amman (the capital), which I only have the following picture from:

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Yep, thats Mountain Dew in Arabica.

From Amman, we took the King's Highway down to Petra (our first real destination). Along the way you can see valleys bigger than the Grand Canyon in the United States...

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and a crusader castle where the Christians fought the Arabs--this one is Kerak where Saladin owned the Christians.

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After we arrived in Wadi Musa (near Petra), our first adventure was to go to a Bedouin Camp in Wadi Rum. Wadi Rum is most famous because of Lawrence of Arabia as it is the desert he traveled through to fight them turks.

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these are written on the walls to direct the caravans. like street signs.

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Where Lawrence of Arabia got his water!

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Natural land bridge.

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We also stayed in a Bedouin camp in the middle of the desert (where we saw a hedgehog in the wild, amazing). The nighttime sky and stars were amazing because there was almost no light pollution. The desert is amazingly beautiful.

After the desert, we visited Petra. Now, you can do Petra in one day (impossibru) and see nothing, or you can do it in two weeks and barely see everything. We did it in three days, and boy were we tired. Petra is a wonder of the world and is best known because it was in the Indiana Jones movie. It. Is. Amazing. A must do for your bucket list.

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What it looks like as you enter into the valley.

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Carvings on the wall, badly degraded.

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You can see the mini aqueducts on the sides.

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First view of treasury.

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Treasury.

Homes in the walls of the canyon.

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Inside one of the tombs. Holes are where people used to be buried; flat areas are where people are still buried.

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Badly degraded, but can see how beautiful the sandstone is.

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Theatre. You can see roman influences.

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Temple to some roman god.

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Lol. Ride the donkey/zebra to the monastery.

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We walked. Cheapasses.

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The Monastery was freaking huge!

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After first day, going home.

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Sacrificial rock in the "high place."

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Soldier's tomb.

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After Petra we did the drive back to Amman and stopped at the Dead Sea for some floating action.

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Some mineral mud.

Final day in Jordan we spent in an old Roman ruins, Jerash. Jerash is the most well preserved roman ruins outside of Italy, and for apparent purposes, I think it rivals Italy. The ruins were mostly buried in sand, which was great for preservation, and it was isolated so no one stole the rocks to make homes.

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Entrance to hippodrome.

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Hippodrome. Jerash is in background.

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Gate.

Colonnaded street.

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Temple.

Water fountain.

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Another gate and colonnaded street.

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South theatre.

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Bridge.

Zeus temple (left); north theatre (right).

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north theatre.

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Zeus temple.

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Oval forum. (big ass crane in the middle, so i blocked with column.

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Front gate and hippodrome from Zeus temple.

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City walls.

This has, by far, been one of my favorite trips. Jordan just blew my mind with how amazing it was. We originally only planned on spending 2-3 days there, but extended it to a week, and it was well worth it. Jordan should be on everybody's bucket list!

Let me know if you have any questions. My next trip will probably be to Italy, but havent decided yet.

Shock710

Australia6097 Posts

January 19 2013 23:48 GMT

aw MDJ got a shoutout, what about me

maybe in Italy you could have something to do with thunder (flying kites in a storm)
Also bring your fiance!!! and more pics of you two together

MountainDewJunkie

United States10344 Posts

January 20 2013 00:09 GMT

jelly :O

mineral chick is hot too

Jaaaaasper

United States10225 Posts

January 20 2013 01:19 GMT

Yeah mineral mud, i liked that picture for the mineral mud. Nice photos, looks like you had fun.

Aerisky

United States12129 Posts

January 20 2013 03:51 GMT

Whoaaa awesome :O

So many pictures :D :D

For some reason facebook pictures still don't load for me (regardless of poster) unless I right-click open in new tab. Then it loads on this page too, but until then I don't get to see them... oh well.

Dubzex

United States6994 Posts

January 20 2013 04:17 GMT

How much did this trip end up costing you? It looks like a nice place to go.

dAPhREAk

Nauru12397 Posts

January 20 2013 04:35 GMT

On January 20 2013 13:17 Dubzex wrote:
How much did this trip end up costing you? It looks like a nice place to go.

the entire trip, or just jordan?

docvoc

United States5491 Posts

January 20 2013 04:41 GMT

On January 20 2013 09:09 MountainDewJunkie wrote:
jelly :O

mineral chick is hot too

Mineral chick (the new epithet of Daph's fiance)! That is your fiance in the mineral photo right? I'm completely going off Aerisky's comment, so don't hate me for being uninformed D:.

dAPhREAk

Nauru12397 Posts

January 20 2013 04:42 GMT

On January 20 2013 13:41 docvoc wrote:

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Mineral chick (the new epithet of Daph's fiance)! That is your fiance in the mineral photo right? I'm completely going off Aerisky's comment, so don't hate me for being uninformed D:.

high school friend. she is someone's fiance though--she is getting married in april 2013.

MountainDewJunkie

United States10344 Posts

January 20 2013 05:29 GMT

#10

On January 20 2013 13:42 dAPhREAk wrote:

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high school friend. she is someone's fiance though--she is getting married in april 2013.

April 2013... As opposed to just April? Oh maybe you meant April 2012. Mmhmm

Tommylew

Wales2717 Posts

January 20 2013 12:04 GMT

#11

Jordan looks amazing!! So many nice views!

JOJOsc2news

3000 Posts

January 20 2013 14:56 GMT

#12

Great pictures! Looks like you had a great trip.

What surprised you most about Jordan? Something you did not expect at all...

Jibba

United States22883 Posts

January 20 2013 16:30 GMT

#13

It's too bad you missed Ephesus and Pamukkale in Turkey because they also have enormous uncovered cities like that you can walk through.

Once you spend a night out in the desert, you can see why the Moon was so important to many cultures in the area. Absolutely clear and absolutely enormous. Also, taking a piss under the moonlight is pretty fantastic as well.

Grettin

42381 Posts

January 20 2013 16:40 GMT

#14

Amazing pictures. Thanks for sharing.

On January 20 2013 13:35 dAPhREAk wrote:

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the entire trip, or just jordan?

I'm curious about this too. Whole trip, Jordan, anything.

dAPhREAk

Nauru12397 Posts

January 20 2013 19:53 GMT

#15

On January 21 2013 01:30 Jibba wrote:
It's too bad you missed Ephesus and Pamukkale in Turkey because they also have enormous uncovered cities like that you can walk through.

Once you spend a night out in the desert, you can see why the Moon was so important to many cultures in the area. Absolutely clear and absolutely enormous. Also, taking a piss under the moonlight is pretty fantastic as well.

we debated ephesus, but eventually decided not to. i saw ruins in bulgaria and jordan, so didn't really need to go to a third place. i wanted to go to pamukkale, but the travel blogs/forums all said that there has been too much tourism in the area and it was having a seriously negative impact--it is not as impressive as it formerly was, or so they say.

we had outhouses, so no piss under the moonlight. =) i did lay down on the rocks and stare at the sky for awhile though.

dAPhREAk

Nauru12397 Posts

January 20 2013 19:56 GMT

#16

On January 21 2013 01:40 Grettin wrote:
Amazing pictures. Thanks for sharing.

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I'm curious about this too. Whole trip, Jordan, anything.

not actually sure because i dont calculate my trip costs (it ruins the pleasure for me). if i had to guesstimate, i would say around 3500-4000. this includes my 1500 ticket to bulgaria and home from jordan, as well as in- and between-country flights. we had 4 and 5 person hotel rooms, so those were dirt cheap; and we didnt do a lot of high end restaurants. if you wanted to do just the jordan trip, i imagine you could easily do a week for less than $1500-2000 including plane ticket.