Petra

I went to Petra this past Thursday, and it was ammaaaazzzzziiinnnggg! We left right after class and rented university buses/drivers to take us there. It was a three hour drive with a few stops, but it was worth it. Petra is huge, and they are still excavating a lot of it. We walked to the Treasury, which is one of the main attractions. Then some of us decided to walk to the Monastery. Bad and good idea. It was a ridiculous walk up 950 steps after an hour and a half walk just to get to the steps. I wasn't sure I would make it to the top. When we got to the Monastery we continued to walk for another ten minutes to see "the view." (This is in quotation marks because there were many signs along the way labeling it as the "View.") The view is this beautiful high point where you can look out at the mountains and valley. Those of us who climbed to the view (myself, Paula, Brett) basically ran to return to the visitor center before the Petra at Night tour we went on.

Petra at night involved walking to the treasury in complete silence with just candles to light the way. Then we sat in front of the treasury listening to traditional bedouin music and drinking sweet tea. It was quite relaxing.

(FYI: if you go to Petra and walk around for hours, try not to carry too much with you because my bags definitely gave me bruises. Also, history fact of the day: Petra was built by the Nabataens in, I think, the first century AD.)

Video: The View

Pic 1: The Treasury (famous from Indian Jones)

Pic 2: The Monastery

Pic 3: the lanterns at Petra at night

*By popular demand I have put up, not people pictures, but places pictures.