pantstributor

my big fat mideast adventure! part 2 (Jordan & Palestine)

Hey guys! Its Selina back again to complete the tale of my travels. Me, my mom, and Tommy left Egypt and flew to Amman. I was glad to be leaving the craziness of Cairo and on my way to a place that is cooler and calmer. Amman, the capitol of Jordan, is built on little mountains so you always get a cool breeze. Most people there don’t have AC and it’s really not too bad if you keep the windows open (as opposed to Cairo or Austin). I am also more comfortable being in Amman since that is where the majority of my extended family lives.

For a brief history, after Palestinians were kicked out of Palestine, many went to live in Jordan as did parts of my family. To give you an idea, between 60-70% of the population of Jordan is Palestinian.  It was good to be there. Luckily, my older brother goes to Jordan every year and has an apartment there so that’s where we stayed. It’s a really nice place with 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. Oh and satellite TV (satellite programming in the Mideast is free. You just buy the dish then viola! All the channels you want!).

Many times, we would see shepherds walking along with their goats and sheep right outside the apartment!

Here is another guy (extra points for cute old man wearing traditional clothes):

Like usual, my family adopts kitties wherever we go so we also had to feed a mama cat and her kittens (which my sister in law didn’t love due to her allergies). In Jordan, Tommy got to meet a lot of my family members. He did a great job of practicing his Arabic and eating lots of food.  It was nice to see my cousins and aunts and uncles. The last time I was in Jordan was 6 years ago and a lot has changed since then.

We had some good times many of which included hookahs. You can get all kinds of flavors but our favorite was definitely lemon and mint.

Tommy and my cousin smoking a hookah:

My cousin Ammar has this really adorable child named Bassima. We had lots of fun playing with her. She loves Barney and would find a strainer, put it on her head, and sing-along.

cute kid alert

Since Tommy had the benefit of being with my family, he got to do non-touristy things like visit a local fruit market.

Check out these gorgeous specimens!

Tommy enjoyed trying all the yummy fuits

As you can see, one of the best things about being in Jordan is the fruit. Their fruit is so fresh and flavorful and you can get fresh squeezed juice everywhere! It’s too yummy. Look at this delicious fruit cocktail!

The awesome thing for me, since I don’t drink, is that there are always fun non-alcoholic drinks to be had.

We of course spent lots of time with family. My mom’s brother lives in a nice house with an amazing garden where they grow tons of fruits and vegetables. We even got to fly kites on their roof!

One benefit to staying with my brother was spending time with my adorable niece, Dunya.   Check her out!

And of course…there was another wedding. My cousin, Yasmin got married! In Palestinian tradition, we arrived at her house before the wedding to see her off.

My mom and her sister waiting with the bride (note the tears about to start)

The groom and his family arrived with the traditional (Syrian, since her groom was Syrian) performers. The wedding was lovely and lots of fun. As opposed to Egypt, this wedding started at 8:30 and dinner was served at 10:00 and the whole thing was over at 12:30! But their entrance was pretty cool…yes, there were fireworks!

The families meet up (along with the performers) in my uncle’s garden

woah! kids love weddings!

Another day, another cousin. Check out this cute family. The little boy seriously looks like a live cabbage patch kid when he smiles.

This cutie was so sweet and loved Tommy (he fell asleep in his lap!)

On to our last adventure…Palestine!! After some debating, we decided to brave the trek and go to Palestine from Jordan. My mom was staying in Jordan but we would meet my dad in Nablus (the town in Palestine my parents are from). The last and only time I was in Palestine was when I was 5 years old! I hadn’t seen a lot of my family members since then. It was always complicated and sometimes impossible to go there but I decided that now was the time. First, we had to deal with a horrific border crossing. We left Amman at 7:30am and drove to the border which took 45 minutes. We decided to go the VIP route to skip some of the lines which involves paying $100 each way and hoping for the best. Of course, the Jordanian side was totally crowded and chaotic. We finally made it through that area at 10:30am. We took a van to the Israeli side. That part was not so easy. We gave our passports to passport control. After a couple of questions, they gave Tommy his passport back. Mine, they decided to keep. They asked me to fill out a form and wait. Hours went by….we waited and waited. Finally, a guy came and took me to another room and asked me questions. Then he had me go back to where I was and wait and wait. Of course another group of Americans that arrived with us was immediately through. Before you wonder…I do have an American passport. Why would they treat me so differently?…well that’s a whole other lesson but basically because I am of Palestinian origin. Of course this was utterly frustrating and made for a tiring day. We left the Israeli border 4 hours later! This was with VIP service! If we hadn’t done that, we were told it would have taken more like 12 hours.

When we finally crossed the border, we got picked up and were taken to Nablus. There I saw a lot of my extended family and my dad of course. Now please consider, my father is one of 12 children (my mom is one of 6) so I have a whole LOT of cousins and aunts and uncles. We arrived at my uncle’s house in an apartment complex. It was pretty overwhelming for Tommy to pull up and be surrounding by so many people. Tommy also quickly realized that almost every apartment in that building housed some of my relatives! It’s pretty common there for relatives to live near each other or together.

Some of my family members in Palestine

My dad’s oldest sister was super cute. She kept asking me to take her photo and wanted to see how she looked so in honor of her

Before I go any further, I have to tell you something super exciting! One of the reasons we decided to go is because we were there to witness the world’s largest kunafa! Kunafa is one of the most amazing desserts made out of shredded Filo and sweet cheese. Deelish! This was a big deal for the city of Nablus and was a part of a big celebration for the town. They were entering it into the guiness book of world records! My dad was invited to be a part of the event. My father writes poetry and wrote poems and songs about Nablus so he got to be a VIP. We had special access to the staging area the night before. Here is my dad being interviewed by the local media.

On the day of, we got to cross the barricades and check out the kunafa. It was amazing! It was over 75 meters long (about 246 feet)! I got to take lots of amazing photos.

We even got to try a piece of this yumminess. Ok you need a close up of this good stuff

My dad loved it. Isn’t he cute?

It was insanely crowded since people came by the busloads from other towns to see this. We tried to stay out of the chaos as much as possible.

So many people!

After we got to eat some, they opened the floodgates and people went nuts with eating. Man, I thought I was dedicated with my photo taking. Check out the guy in the tree!

After that, we were invited to a special lunch where Salam Fayyad, the prime minister, and American consul were in attendance. My dad got to read some of his poetry there.

My dad getting into the moment

He was super excited when Salam Fayyad sat our table later and asked for my dad to autograph his poetry books for him. After that excitement was over, in between my dad’s interviews, we got to tour the old city.

I enjoyed walking around and taking in the sights like these

There is lots of shopping and interesting markets. I love the fragrant spices

One night we stopped by a new mall which has a movie theatre.

Check this out! We love things in foreign countries with weird English.

We also got to check out a traditional olive oil soap factory. Nablus is famous for this kind of soap production. Unfortunately, there are now only 2 of these places left since many of the towns’ olive groves have been destroyed.

On our last day, my cousin insisted we visit his new house. It was very lovely

The craziest thing about his house? He has a pigeon coup (are they coups?). I went up there and took some photos although it made me a bit uncomfortable.

a (kinda freaky looking) baby pigeon (sorry its fuzzy just like the pigeon was

We also visit his sister and her kids. More cute kid photos for your viewing pleasure!

Alright before we leave, one more dessert photo. This is made out of pumpkin!

Its called Zalabia and its my mom’s favorite. She loves it so much that she made me carry two tubs back with me from Palestine for her.

Look at these giant pumpkins that they use to make Zalabia (weird that its not orange on the outside, right?)

After only 3 days, it was sadly time to go and say goodbye to my family.

Bye Nablus! It was lovely meeting you.

We went with a cousin of mine to Jerusalem where we spent one night and toured for half a day. There truly are some beautiful sights there. We got to see the Al Aqsa mosque (see below) which is amazing (for those of you who don’t know its one of the most important sites for Islam). We walked around the old city and saw the Via Dolorosa.

Here we are eating a yummy breakfast al fresco before touring

A view of Al Aqsa and Jerusalem

Al Aqsa

However, Jerusalem is not my favorite spot. True, I didn’t spend much time there but the tension was palpable. It did not help when an Israeli soldier interrogated my relative that I was walking with who is only 13 years old.

Tired and exhausted, we returned to Jordan for a few days before we had to head home. Overall, it was a great family trip. It was awesome to see all my relatives and for Tommy to meet everyone. We came back needing another vacation (this one without family)!!

Thanks for reading! I hope you all enjoyed traveling with me.

LINKS

Alright ya’ll. These links are more random than the last batch.

Ramadan starts tomorrow! That means I will attempt to fast from sunrise to sunset every day for a month. Darn August in TX! I look forward to making my favorite dessert for Ramadan. I will also look at these pictures to feel like a part of the big picture .

OMG! I really want to ride on this plane.

This song is so awesome! Gotta be the best song about facebook ever!

Interesting artwork in Rio done by a French artist.

ok, I love kitties but this lady is nuts!

© 2009 Poshdeluxe.