I'm back! And better than ever! The blog hiatus is over, al hamdulilah. Wow. Where to begin? This past weekend was absolutely incredible and consisted of some of the best days of my existence, no question about it. Our first destination on Thursday morning was Hasham's for breakfast. When our tummies were adequately filled with the best falafel and hummus in the world (I'm not exaggerating, no arguing the title), we boarded the bus for the 7ish hour drive to Aqaba! At this point, everyone seems to be grossly aware of how much I love bus rides... However, this was the greatest one yet!! I didn't sleep a wink (...maybe I slept for one wink. But that was all.) and my eyes were positively glued to the window. Ipod playing and the most beautiful of scenes rolling by, it was wonderfully happy. Honestly, you can't ask for much more than a 6 (ish) hour bus ride through Jordan. I mean, really. It's like every great holiday in the world stuffed onto one bus. Anyway. Once we left our hometown of Irbid and eventually neared Aqaba, we were all enthralled by the images of completely clear water below us. If you recall, I'm abroad in the desert, so water is quite exciting on its own. And Jordan being Jordan, it feels the need to best all other global locations in everything. So, naturally, there was just absolutely nothing more beautiful than the completely calm and turquoise water set beneath the mountains of Palestine. Heavenly. There was a perfect, light haze in the distance amidst the clearest of skies and a shining sun. Window gazing never fails to bring out my happiest of smiles.
By the time we arrived, we were all gleaming with excitement and leaping off of the bus one by one to get inside our 5-star hotel on the water as soon as possible. It was beautiful. And it took us all approximately ten seconds to drop our stuff off (in our rooms of perfection), change into bathing suits and hit the pool/beach. It was spectacular. Relaxing. Peaceful. Beautiful. Straight out of a movie, perfect. We swam in the pool, sat at the in-pool bar and then got out only to walk over to the beach and swim again. It was amazing as anything to be swimming in the Red Sea with the Jordanian flag waving at us from the shore. Aqaba is a prime tourism site, but we couldn't help feeling much cooler than all other foreigners as we flaunted our Arabic and Irbid lifestyles to workers and random passersby (we're extremely humble young adults). We then headed back up to our rooms, feeling a bit like royalty (well enhanced by showering in the nicest bathrooms I have ever set foot in and adorning ourselves in the hotel robes). Not to mention the view from our balcony. Do I like views? Yes. Did this disappoint? No. Moving on. For dinner, we all opted to try out a yacht club that Zach knew, wallets in hand. The venue was actually to die for. And the food was better (I had the grilled salmon and felt it contained a hint of the touch of God). It was a fantastically fun dinner filled with laughter and smiles. However, then we all had chocolate soufflé's for dessert. For some reason, my strange self did not enjoy this very much and chose to become very ill. Not going to lie, the rest of the night was a slight blur. Still completely fun! Alas, all I vividly remember is how happy I was to eventually be in such a fluffy bed. It's possible I actually passed out. Anywho. The next morning brought a complimentary breakfast (of organic watermelon for me....oh watermelon...so good) and a day spent lightly napping in the sun. Oh! And rescuing Kaitlyn's hat which was blown into the sea. She was sad...so I retrieved said hat. There were many giggles and ridiculous pictures taken. A good start to the day. From here, we again boarded the bus and departed to Wadi Rum! Which deserves its own blog. Here comes the magic. ;)
By the time we arrived, we were all gleaming with excitement and leaping off of the bus one by one to get inside our 5-star hotel on the water as soon as possible. It was beautiful. And it took us all approximately ten seconds to drop our stuff off (in our rooms of perfection), change into bathing suits and hit the pool/beach. It was spectacular. Relaxing. Peaceful. Beautiful. Straight out of a movie, perfect. We swam in the pool, sat at the in-pool bar and then got out only to walk over to the beach and swim again. It was amazing as anything to be swimming in the Red Sea with the Jordanian flag waving at us from the shore. Aqaba is a prime tourism site, but we couldn't help feeling much cooler than all other foreigners as we flaunted our Arabic and Irbid lifestyles to workers and random passersby (we're extremely humble young adults). We then headed back up to our rooms, feeling a bit like royalty (well enhanced by showering in the nicest bathrooms I have ever set foot in and adorning ourselves in the hotel robes). Not to mention the view from our balcony. Do I like views? Yes. Did this disappoint? No. Moving on. For dinner, we all opted to try out a yacht club that Zach knew, wallets in hand. The venue was actually to die for. And the food was better (I had the grilled salmon and felt it contained a hint of the touch of God). It was a fantastically fun dinner filled with laughter and smiles. However, then we all had chocolate soufflé's for dessert. For some reason, my strange self did not enjoy this very much and chose to become very ill. Not going to lie, the rest of the night was a slight blur. Still completely fun! Alas, all I vividly remember is how happy I was to eventually be in such a fluffy bed. It's possible I actually passed out. Anywho. The next morning brought a complimentary breakfast (of organic watermelon for me....oh watermelon...so good) and a day spent lightly napping in the sun. Oh! And rescuing Kaitlyn's hat which was blown into the sea. She was sad...so I retrieved said hat. There were many giggles and ridiculous pictures taken. A good start to the day. From here, we again boarded the bus and departed to Wadi Rum! Which deserves its own blog. Here comes the magic. ;)
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