Trip of Mishaps

Okay, so I'm really behind on posting about my travels.  But I wanted to write a post about a weekend trip to Jordan back in the beginning of April.  Six of us crossed the border at Aqaba and took a bus up to Amman, where Yara, a Jordanian student, lives.  We explored the city for a day and stayed with Yara's family.  Hashim, another Jordanian student (from Irbid), then joined us as we headed to the Dead Sea and back to Aqaba.  We slept on the beach of the Red Sea before crossing back into Israel the next day.  Sounds great, right?  Well, it wasn't that simple...

I'll start with the not-so-highlights:

• waiting on a stationary bus for two hours to leave
• getting dropped off at a random gas station because the bus driver lied to us about his destination

The beguiling bus

• pleading to use the showers at the Dead Sea
• cutting the soles of my feet on the sharp salt
• waking up on a beach littered with trash and realizing that the nice groomed beach was only 50 m away
• coming across a butt naked man in the women's bathroom (to his credit, he was very kind and apologetic)

On the other hand, there were definite highlights as well: 

• hospitality, spending time with Yara's family:

• cheap falafel
• kanafeh (Arab dessert):

• fitting seven people into a small taxi:

• floating in the Dead Sea - nothing quite like it:

• meeting up with Daniel and Kathy in Amman (missionaries from my church back home - CCUC)

Despite the mishaps, the trip was an exceptional bonding experience and I quickly learned to roll with the punches.  For me, I think travel has been defined by the stories I remember about my trips.  And this trip was full of nothing but memorable stories...

Ready for adventure!