Jordan Day 2 - Food Poising

So day two was interesting...I just wish I could remember more of it because this was they day that I got food poising.

The day started off fairly normally we got up really early, had our breakfast (which is not different from lunch or diner: humus, pita, veggies, potatoes peas and carrots in a stew thing, chicken, and hard boiled eggs...mmmhhh oily) Anyway than we were off. I wasn't feeling great I just ate some pita and some tomatoes in the morning, but we went to an old castle Ajlun built by the nephew of Salah ad-Din al-Ayyubi in the 1180s to protect the valley and the trade routes against crusader attacks.

Very pretty castle with great views, like all of the castles here because they were intended to be able to see all in the vicinity so are built on huge hills (which I still don't know how our bus driver got up or down) and its very interesting to contemplate how they build these massive castles so long ago and looking down at the valleys you understand ancient war strategy a lot better.

Anyway after the castle (at which we had some awesome Bedouin coffee) we went to the largest Roman ruins still around outside of Italy, the city of Jerash. Amazing city, just miles of Roman ruins, unfortunately I was dehydrated and had food poising but I walked the whole way

and manged to avoid throwing up until I got to back to the tourist center where I did throw up and than got a ride back to the bus with a nice Jordanian couple. Still somehow I managed to take some pictures in my condition... somehow :)

So after that fun part of the trip ::sarcasm:: I slept on the bus while we drove to Amman, and woke up only to see a lot of KFCs in Amman, don't ask me why they love fried chicken there, and even a few Poppeys.

Now the place we stayed in Amman...that was interesting. It looked like a regular hotel, regular for Jordan = slightly shitty, smelly rooms, and showers that don't actually work.to Such is life. Anyway after dinner in this "normal hotel" we went out to a cafe which was very cute, we didn't get kidnapped and sold on the cab ride there or the ride back, which wasn't in a cab but in some random guys truck (which was interesting with 5 girls and 2 guys...we told the guys they had to protect us when they came to kidnap us :) ) So the cafe went off without a hitch and i was even well enough to drink some tea (btw Jordan has amazing tea, its mint tea with actual mint tea in it, and like Arabic tea its really sweet. Think southern sweet tea thats hot)

So we get back to the hotel and its Becka's 21st birthday (actually her birthday wasn't for another day but we made the entire trip her birthday trip so we tried to celebrate every night) So of course we had to get drinks. Now getting drinks in an Arabic Muslim country is an endeavor. Some places have liquor stores for drinking in your private home but most cafes don't sell liquor. Which is why when we found our hotel had a bar on top we should have known something was fishy.

Now this bar was only accessible through the elevator, the stairs just ended. It was on the roof and once you get up there you see the naked silhouette of a girl on a poster. And than when you go in you realize that you are in a brothel. An honest to goodness whore house! Well it explained so much about the shady nature of the hotel.

No joke, fat women in skimpy hooker clothes with glitter and long fake hair are prancing

around, dancing with men and sitting at the bar with them. We watched as guys would come in, sit down, call a girl over and than they would disappear into the back room for 10,15 minutes and come out the girl straightening her clothes and the guy would leave. It was ridiculous. We are sitting there 17 NYU student in the middle of a brothel. Well it was pretty funny. But the best part was when my roommate Evie went out onto the roof to smoke a cigarette which was near the "back room" a woman came out of it and goes "where are you from" she says America and the woman mutters bitterly "Welcome to Jordan"

Pic of Annie (left) Becka (right) in the brothel