Jordan Day 1

moin moin!

well last weekend we had jewish new year - 4 days off... great for a longer trip... jordan with the ancient city petra was calling.
i took the night bus (the national bus company Egged operated 17 busses on this one line at this one departure time!!!) and arrived next morning close to sunrise in eilat. thanks to god that i had to take the bus just oneway :-)
I took a coffee and passed the border. just walking through and stopping for exit fee and passport controls. a few m9inutes later i was in aqaba.

at arrival in aqaba it was already 8am... time to find a budget accommodation... wasnt so easy because not everyone had 24h reception and most of the otehrs were openeing at 10 or so...
but done quickly - afterwards i slept a bit andf started preparing my trip to petra next day (and wadi rum teh day after)... several options like paying a taxi (after negotiating) or taking the minibus which is 'scheduled' for 7am but leaves when full... or a tour operator... after a while this was managed too. time to get to knwo aqaba... yeah

while walking on the footprints of lawrence of arabia i discovered this city... later swimming at the public beach which was horrorable full of glass and so on... swimming with sandals... as i was the one and only non arabic there i was teh attraction for the kids. half an hour i played with them in the water.

sitting at the beach i enjoyed the sunset over teh egypt mountains and talked with yound arabics like my age. one invited my for a drink and we exchanged email addresses. was really nice. his grand parents are originally form palestine but he was really neutral and opend minded. a wonderful talk and nice way to get an impression of local minds.

at 9pm i left for shower and dinner... the locals told me already its off season and have is closed (thats why my hotel was empty). humus, falafel... everything i know from israel... i headed on for local food. later i enjoyed the promenade with perfect view on illuminated eilat and went to bed early. i could the bus riding night in my bones...