Istanbul, Turkey, Europe Istanbul. Is. Awesome!!! I’d been here four years ago and wasn’t crazy about this city, but I think it was more to do with the circumstances than anything else. It was cold and rainy when I was here and never really found any other tourists around to talk to. It was a pretty quiet five days and I wasn’t exactly itching to come back. Now I wish I had more time to spend here. I started out…
Istanbul, Turkey, Europe Today was pretty much a complete travel day. I left the hostel in Amman at 7:15am in my taxi. I was happy to see the driver was at the hostel and ready to go at 7am, so I didn’t have to wait around for him. It was about 35 minutes to get to the airport, which was a lot quicker than I had expected, so I was really early. It’s probably a good thing though because there…
Amman, Jordan, Asia Today was another relatively quiet day in Amman. I got up to find out that the UCONN women won the NCAA tournament last night, so both UCONN basketball teams are champions again! I saw this happen in 2004, but never really thought I would see it again. Very impressive! I went out for a bit today to check out the sites but there really wasn’t much to see. I saw the Citadel and the Roman Amphitheater. Neither…
Amman, Jordan, Asia I got up at 4am today to watch the NCAA National Championship game. It might sound ridiculous to get up that early, but UCONN was playing Kentucky and there was no way I was going to miss that! It ended up being well worth it too when UCONN won their fourth championship in 15 years! What a great start to the day!! After all that excitement, I packed up my stuff, grabbed a quick bite to eat…
Wadi Musa, Jordan, Asia Today was a very cool day at Petra. It started out with an early wake up call, and breakfast at the hotel. I got the 7:30am shuttle to Petra and started walking in at about 7:45am. This is the best time to go because there were hardly any people there, and it wasn’t too hot at this point. It was much more comfortable than starting a hike at 2pm. I hiked up past the tombs today,…
Wadi Musa, Jordan, Asia Today wasn’t as big of a day as yesterday, but it was still pretty good. I decided that since I did so much walking yesterday, I would start out a bit later today and go on a smaller trek. I caught up with some stuff I had to do this morning, had a good breakfast at the hotel, and then headed over to Petra at about noon. This was terrible planning on my part of course,…
Wadi Musa, Jordan, Asia Today was absolutely incredible! I got to visit Petra for the first time, and it did not disappoint. I started out this morning at El Rashid Hotel and had a quick breakfast and moved my stuff back up the hill to Rocky Mountain Hotel. I couldn’t check in, but I left my bags and walked down to Petra. It was about a 25 minute walk through Wadi Musa to get to the visitor center. I bought…
Wadi Musa, Jordan, Asia Last night was by far the worst sleep I have had so far. It was absolutely freezing in the desert, and sleeping in a tent didn’t help at all. I made good use of my base layers that I brought with me, but that didn’t help my nose and ears from almost freezing off. I hardly slept at all through the night so I decided I might as well get out of bed at 6am and…
Wadi Rum, Jordan, Asia Today went so much smoother than I had expected, it was really nice surprise! I left my hostel at 9:45am, got a taxi straight away and arrived at the Israel – Jordan border within about five minutes. I paid my exit fee of 107 shekels (about £20), and walked through the Israeli border without even one question! Everyone else said that they had a ridiculous hassle entering and leaving Israel, but I didn’t get asked one…
Eilat, Israel, Asia Today was my last full day in Eilat, last day in Israel, and last day diving. I’m not happy to be leaving so soon, but I had an incredible day! I woke up this morning still dealing with a cold that’s been bothering me for about a week now. Because of this I wasn’t able to equalise my right ear since last night. This made me really nervous because my first dive for today was a deep…