The Nostalgia Diaries, Pt. 16: Super Bowl XLIII

On paper, Cardinals vs. Steelers was a strange Super Bowl. The Steelers were undoubtedly a good team, but a bit underwhelming one given how the AFC tturned out after Tom Brady's week one injury and Peyton Manning's soft end.

The Cardinals were the first 9-7 team to make a Super Bowl since 1979, a team that outscored their opponents by one point, a team that lost games by stupid-bad scores in the second half of the season.

I've talked many times about my love for the 2008 season, a year defined by imperfect teams, flawed units, with a few great ones (like the Steelers and Ravens defenses) sprinkled in. What I haven't done much, however, is talk about the playoffs that capped that season. Probably because it didn't feature that many special games before Super Bowl XLIII. There were a few nice ones - be it a fun NFC Title Game between a 6 seed and a 4 seed (neither won ten games), and the defensive bash-fest that was Ravens @ Steelers, Pt. 3.

But that Super Bowl, then. A great capper to a great season of football, a season that would forever change my connection to the game, and a Super Bowl that would be a memorable experience for all different reasons.

I think in my larger piece about the 2008 season, I mentioned that it was my senior season of high school. I had about as serious a case of senioritis as possible, touting my (relative) freedom to drive where I want, flout the system when I want, and do what I want. Ironically, I got better grades that year than my Freshman or Sophomore years, but that's a story for another day.

One of the benefits of being a senior, especially in an era before there were online systems that tracked grades and attendance that parents could watch over, was the concept of Senior Cut Day. For us, it was two days that the senior class would decide to take off. I completely forget when the first day was. The second day, I will never forgot. It was the Monday after the Super Bowl.

I was sick the couple schooldays the week before the Super Bowl. I think it was a regular flu or head clod. It was bad. I was barely recovered when Super Bowl Sunday hit. I probably should ahve just sat at home. I didn't. I enjoyed a great game, great friends and a truly great time. It was the conflience of a great year at school, and a great year of football, both memories that will never leave me.

I won't get into all the details,. but my firends and I all went to one of our friends houses for a party. This wasn't some raging kegger with people getting drunk and passing out and banging and all the rest. It was a relatively tame 10-15 friends get together, have a few beverages, watch football, light fireworks, and all the rest.

I don't truly remember what we drank. I remember fighting with myself if I should, given the sickness I was just coming out of. But I knew the next day was off, a surprisingly great Super Bowl was on, and there was no better time.

The game was wonderful, with so many 'holy god' moments. Be it James Harrison's interceptipon return, something I think we debated the merits of for the entire halftime show. Be it Larry Fitzgerald's amazing second half, especially that catch and run splitting the middle of the field. And then of course that final drive. By the time Santonio Holmes made his tiptoe catch (which I still haven't seen one definitive view of), we were all a bit tipsy, and just spent a long time hoo-ing and hawing at what ridiculousness we just saw.

After the game ended, 10pm EST, the real fun began. Though looking back, my interest, my love, of the NFL might have hit its peak in that single moment.

I probably watched more football, or at least loved watching football, more in 2008 than any other year. Be it the Ravens vs. Steelers regular season games, or the Titans run to 10-0, or the great Week 16 'Win and your #1 seed' Giants vs. Panthers game, or the Colts amazing run from 3-4 to 12-4. The whole season was great, and it ended with a bang. At that moment, my football life was as happy as it would ever be.

In some ways, so was a lot of my personal life. Sure, the luxury of being gainfully employed, continuing friendships, etc., has its spoils, but so too with those things comes their associated challenges. Here we were on a lonely February in winter, a Sunary of all days, as far as lonely as possible, living in our personal dream with no school to wake up to the next day.

We set off fireworks that night. Real fireworks - big ones. Fireworks that definitely woke people up - pity those that did not have senior cut day the day after teh Super Bowl. We ran back to our friends house, staggered, humoured, elated. This was life. Football was a part of it. Maybe too big a part of it, but the greatness of the moment helped fuel an amazing night.

10.) The 2013 AFC Championship Game

I memorably did not watch this game live. At this point, I really couldn't handle the internal pressure of Manning v. Brady, an argument I happily engaged in for many years befoore it became too tiresome. Instead, I watched The Godfather, Pt. 2, maybe for the first time. I then loaded ESPN.com when I hoped the game was over. It was 26-10 at that point. I later watched the game so enthralled by how damn good Peyton was, how awesome they were against the Patriots. For years, I grew to fear Belichick's brilliance, but this time, he was no match. They were no match. For once, the Patriots were any old kind-of-good-team who nicely went quietly into the night. Sure, the Broncos got hammered two weeks later, but that only means this is #10 and not a bit higher.

9.) The Ravens win Super Bowl XLVII

8.) The 2015 AFC Championship Game & Super Bowl 50

7.) The Devils winning the 2012 Eastern Conference

6.) The Astros win the Pennant / Game 6 of the 2005 NLCS

5.) The Patriots Losing Super Bowl XLII

This is the only negative favorite memory I had. It's not like I haven't hated other teams. I thought about putting any of Barcelona's numerous UCL failres on this list. Anyway, I'll go with one of the most memorable moments in general US sports history, a team getting so close to 19-0, only to see that die because of a helmet catch, a truly 1/1000 event. This game was ridiculous. I still remember watching it with my friends at our neighborhood friend Jeff Reimann's house. I don't remember at what point we all realized that 'Holy Shit, the Giants may actually win', but when we did we focused squarely on the game.

4.) The Spurs winning the 2014 NBA Finals

Look, I am a complete bandwagon Spurs fan, but man, after living through the horror that was the 2013 finals, having them smash the Heat, in such irresistible fashion, was amazing. 

3.) The Devils winning the 2003 Stanley Cup

2002-03 was a formative year for me. I followed the Raiders religously throug to their Super Bowl defeat. The Devils were next in line, a good collection of decent offensive players, one of the best goalies ever, and a great blue-line. Back then, the playoffs were still shown regionally, and COmcast didn't have FSNY. I had to listen to their playoff games on radio for the first 1.5 rounds. Starting in the Eastern Conference Finals, ESPN2 showed it, a gutty seven game series win over Ottawa - a series that remains in my memory bank as one of the best single series I've ever had the pleasure of watching. Their Cup win featured three Brodeur shitouts, but more than that, featured personal vindication. After investing so much time in the Raiders only to have them lose the Super Bowl, I needed a title. I was too young to truly appreciate the Devils wins in 1995 and 2000. This was my team, the one I can still name the lien combinations of 15 years later., 

2.) The Astros winning the 2017 World Series

It's odd that I have this so high. I was 26, a gainfully emplyed adult, who shouldn't care, but damn was the Astros win incredible. The whole series was aamzing. I probably should have Game 5 on this list, the greatest single sporting even (non-NFL) that I've witnessed But Game 5 would not have had its lasting impact if they didn';t pull out Game 7 in LA. Add into all of this that I should have been in Cape Town, rudely turned away because I didn't have requisite empty passport pages the day before Game 6. The only way that crime would have been repaid was if I could watch my team win a World Series. I did. They did. 

1.) The 2006 AFC Championship Game

Nothing will ever beat this. In my lifetime, this was the apex of my sports fandom. I was ta the perfeect age (15), with enough scars from years of Manning playoff defeats and three Patriots Super Bowl wins. I was there to see them go down 21-3, to think that the Colts just arent as good. And then I was there to see them come back, and come abk again and again and again. To see Peyton hit his thumb on a lineman's helment, forcing him to tell backup Jim Sorgi to 'be ready'. I don't think there will ever be a game that I'll remember so much: I can probably get 80% right if tasked to anem the play-by-play. The Super Bowl was a fait accompli - so it was playing Rex Grossman. This was the true moment. This was my apex moment as a sports fan, probably forever.

2018 NFL Playoffs: Wild Card Review

Player of the Week: Melvin Ingram, DE, LA Chargers

The Chargers are a very good team. It may be hidden by their slow end to the season after beating the Chiefs, and them being a Wild Card team, but they have a defense that can overcome poor offensive performances. Part of it is having Joey Bosa back. Part of it is having Melvin Ingram still there. He was a monster in contain, pushing Jackson and the running backs back when going wide. He got serious pressure all the time. Ingram has been a great, consistent performer since his 2012 draft. It’s great to see him finally get some national recognition. And if the Chargers have a chance to beat the Patriots, they’ll need that type of performance again.

Runner-Up: Andrew Luck, QB, Indianapolis

For the entire last year, he watched from home, or from the Netherlands getting treatment. For the second time in six years, a great Colts quarterback missed a season and returned even better – luckily this time it was for the Colts as well. Luck was spectacular in the 2^nd half, just with mesmerizing touch on some throws. They need to be consistent for 60 minutes to have a chance against the Chiefs, but for one great night, all was right in Indianapolis.

Goat of the Week: Lamar Jackson, QB, Baltimore

Look, I hate to pile on a rookie for a bad playoff performance. Rookies almost never play well in the playoffs, even when they win (notable exception, somehow: Mark Sanchez). But man was Lamar awful. No pocket awareness. Fumbled three times (which has been a problem all year for him). Various overthrows. I don’t think replacing him with Flacco would have been any better, but man was that an ugly performance. Of course, go back and look at Flacco’s playoff numbers from 2008 when he as a rookie went to the Title Game. I think Lamar has a bright future, but their gimmick offense wasn’t going to work forever.

Runner-Up: Brian Schottenheimer, OC, Seahawks

How many times did they go run-run-pass? How many just terrible runs right into a crowded box? What the hell was that screen to a TE with no blockers on 3^rd and 17 from midfield? What the hell was any of that? The Seahawks run heavy offense worked all year, but when it doesn’t they have to realize more quickly than that? Just plain stubbornness from Schotty.

Surprise of the Week: The Colts Running Game

The Colts running game has been good for a while now, especially since getting Ryan Kelly back to complete their OL. The Texans had the #1 rush defense by DVOA, so while I was expecting a Colts win, I thought it would be more air-driven. Instead, the Colts ran for 200 yards. Mack ran for 150. They pounded the Texans DL. The best may have been their drive to close it out, getting three first downs on the ground to ice the game. That was a commanding performance. The Chiefs big weakness is the run defense, so they’ll need more of that.

Runner-Up: The non-Amari Cooper Cowboys Receivers

The black hole that has been any non-Cooper weapon on offense has been stark for the Cowboys. However, in this game the other guys stepped up. Beasley was more effective than normal. Gallup had some nice catches, including the over-the-shoulder catch for the TD. The random rookie TE kept beating the Seahawk linebacker and safeties. Just a nice performance.

Disappointment of the Week: The Bears Defense

I feel bad saying they were a disappointment since the Eagles scored just 16 points, and turned it over twice. Still, the Bears were the best defense in the NFL. It wasn’t close. Their DVOA was sizably better than any other team. They were playing a backup QB that hadn’t done much, and all they needed to do was not allow a TD. Foles faced little pressure; he hit open receivers. I get the loss of Eddie Jackson was huge, but if you told every Bears fan they would be up 15-10 with the Eagles at their own 40 in the 4^th quarter, every one would take it.

Runner-Up: The Ravens OL

The Ravens averaged about 230 yards rushing during Lamar Jackson’s 7-starts. A lot of that was Jackson, but a lot was an OL that was just nasty. In this game, they were atrocious. Spoke a bit about Ingram, and Bosa added are challenges, but man they gave up immediate pressure, they didn’t create any holes. That was really sad for a team that had become so interesting when they played with Jackson.

Team Performance of the Week: The Chargers Defense

I love the idea of going with seven DBs to match the Ravens run game with speed instead of bulk. That was genius. Bosa was great. The added safeties were omnipresent (Derwin James continues to be a steal for the Chargers). They limited a run game that was setting records to 99 yards. They gave up less than 50 net passing yards through three quarters. Late scores will make it seem just a decent performance, but that was one of the most dominant performances by a road team I’ve seen.

Runner-Up:

Team Laydown of the Week: The Texans offense

The Colts are a good defense. That is just factual at this point. The Colts were great at getting pressure from random front four players. That did not happen in this game. They only generated pressure with blitzing DBs, something they did over and over again, and the Texans just couldn’t adjust. Hopkins was quiet. Watson was inaccurate. Bill O’Brien’s playcalling was so uninventive. I don’t know how that team nearly stole a #2 seed, but now I’m kind of glad the Patriots are getting a real challenge instead of going to play this milquetoast team in Houston in Round 2.

Runner-Up: Nothing Really.

Honestly most units played pretty well

Storyline of the Week to Come: Can Offense Continue to Dominate?

The story of the first twelve weeks of the season, right up until the 54-51 madness MNF, was the offensive revolution. Every stat was way up. Teams were scoring 30-40 all the time. Everything was madness. It was all college concepts (always overrated as the three playcallers of the main shiny teams were NFL lifers). Then defences quietly took over, first in the last five weeks, and then very much so in the Wild Card round, where the average team scored 18 points – and that is with the Seahawks and Ravens getting garbage time points all over the place. Now, the Saints, Rams and Chiefs are back. This was the second time we had three 500+ point teams – 2011 was the other one. I’m interested to see, especially with the Rams and Saints, if they can recapture the incredible magic of those first twelve games.

Passed Over Storyline of the Week to Come: Does Foles Magic finally end?

I’m so sick of the Foles story. Yes, it is fun to watch him play well and the Eagles go on this magical ride. But let’s not forget Foles was iffy in Weeks 1-2, and every Eagles fan was itching for Wentz’s return. Let’s not forget the Eagles were clearly the best team in the NFL, and Wentz the likely MVP, last year when Foles came in. The 2017 Eagles with Wentz in the playoffs probably win the Superbowl – probably easily over New England. The Eagles would be crazy to let him go. Foles may play well this game in New Orleans, but likely, the Eagles secondary will get torched as they should, and the team will lose, and we can go back to saneness.

Year-End Trip 2018-19: Day 16 - Amman

Day 16: The Amman of it All

I had been twenty-seven years in my life before I ever truly stepped foot in the Middle East, or at least aanywhere outside its government subsidized airports that ferry millions of passengers on subsidized fares back and forth from the New World to India.

That changed this year with Egypt & Cairo. If there was ever going to be a place to change it, Egypt was it. Of course, once you open the damn, the water flows, man, and Jordan was next up. After touring through Jordan's finest offerings in Wadi Rum, Petra & The Dead Sea (admittedly, you can get the Dead Sea experience from the Israel side), we got a full daay to experience their finest city.

In reality, it started with one last lost city, one last series of archaelogically relevant ruins and structures. One last tour of the complex history of this area, one last time understanding how many times these areas changed hands, from Greek to Roman to Nabutean, to Byzantine to Islamic, to Crusader Catholic, to Ottoman and on and on. But behind all these trying changes, what is left behind is still staggering.

Jerash was the one place I really wanted to see around Amman (in reality, it is about 45 minutes away), as it came up on multiple sites during the nearly ten minutes I spent researching Amman. I had no idea how good it would be.

After a series of winding roads and about two different experiences of getting lost and trying to re-set the GPS in the limited window we had with decent enough service. We finally did find the car park for Jerash, which we knew immediately was the right place given the towering Hadrian's Arch right around the corner - welcoming all to its many mysteries held behind it.

The path to the actual entrance of the Jerash Archaeological Park was through Hadrian's Gate, an elongated Hippodrome, and a series of small ruins. These are impressive enough to cause you to take too many photos and realize quickly if you want to get through this with any expediency, some haste would be required.

Beyond the visitors center lies a smaller gate, the one that would in ancient times welcome people to the city, with a real gift behind it. Here laid a beautiful open oval with roman columns surrounding the perimeter. It is probably this moment we realized that Jerash is something special, far more well preserved and/or reconstructed than we had thought it would be.

There are two main paths through the fairly large park. The first extends right out from the Main Oval through ruins, buildings, countless columns and a few gates, all teh way to the end of the park - the end of the ancient city. The other path was higher up to the left, which took you to some of the main sites within the park, including temples to Zeus and Artemis (so named despite being built mostly under Roman rule). We decided to start with the harder portion and go to the upper path first outwards towards the end, and then back on the main collonnade (the main road).

The first sights were a partially reconstructed temple of Zeus, and more stunningly, a very compact, but still grand roman theather in near perfect condition. We entered on what would ostensibly be the stage, with a wall of semi-circle rows climbing upwards grandly. After the amphiteater was a walk up and down a few small hills, passing multiple ruins of old churches (mostly Byzantine - 300-500 AD) that had aew gems. The best was a church to two old Saints that had a nearly fully complete mosaic on its ground showing birds and flowers. Just beautiful.

The final truly great site on the top path was the Temple to Artemis, which doubled as giving amazing views of hte lower path main collonnade and the series of columns throughout the Jerash park.

We finally reached the 'North Gate' (Hadrian's Arch being hte South Gate) and took the walk backwards as briskly as possible (aka 30 minutes due to various picture breaks). The walk back was so impressive given the state of this main walk. The walls & columns were well preserved, a large fountain at the Nympheum (some area that dispensed water), a couple gates, and of course the staggering view of the main oval from the other end, with the temple of Zeus and the amphiteater behind it.

Overall, the walk through the whole park took two hours, and easily could have taken more if we had a bit more time on our hands (not mentioned so far, this is my last day of the trip, with my flight out of Amman at 2AM). We left Jerash extremely impressed and completely content. It is not fair to say it was our last site we visited, but the last real one that required a drive, a map, and hundreds of photos, and for that it was a great finale.

Back in Amman, we first went to lunch at Tawaheen Al Hawa, a really nice, ornate traditional restaurant in a fairly affluent-looking residential area. Tawaheen was the type of place with low seats, a large table with a center area where they put all the food. It was the type of place that housed 90% locals and a bunch of people settling in for a meal and a hookuh session with no intention of leaving anytime soon,

We got a Chicken Freekah (a grain similar to rice), lamb chops (damn good again), burekhas and a chicken liver dish that tasted better than any prior chicken liver dish to my non-chicken-liver-liking pallatte. The restaurant was our last full meal we had, and it was, like Jerash, a grand sendoff.

After lunch was our last real siteseeing of the trip, a visit to Amman's Citadel complex, a roman ruin area being restored within Amman's city limits. Compared to Jerash this was clearly not up to that standard, but it was still impressive to see a fairly large complex of ruins, complete with their own temple of Zeus and a half-restored Byzantine-era palace, inside city grounds.

The real star of the Citadel is really the views its lends of Amman, stretching out endlessly in all directions. We went to Google and found out the population of Amman was 2.2m people, which sounds like a serious understimate given how sprawling Amman seemed.

After the Citadel, we descended a few flights of tricky stairs down to ground level to see the large, well preserved, Roman Amphiteater built right in the heart of Amman. The seats were built into another hill. The size probably holds upwards of 5,000. There is a large square in front of it with people milling about, just living life. Wouldn't it be nice if we could have a situation in the US where groups of people could mill aropund living normal life with a giant staggering Roman ruin right behind them?

After a quick respite at the hotel to have appetizers, visit the sauna, and for me to pack, we headed back to downtown. First stop was Habibi for more Kunafa, but not the same Habibi. Apparently, we went to the wrong of the two Habibi's (not that I sensed any real difference), but the one we went to this time was down an alley - an alley that was filled to the gills with people queueing up for some of that sweet Kunafa.

We then played our hand at the bargain and souvenir hunting game one last time, before settling down with a Jordanian staple - hummus and falafel - at a place well reputed for giving you just that and nothing more. Hashem Restaurant showed up in my research, was in the Lonely Planet, and generally seemed to be doing a good enough job advertising itself that half the crowd at this semi-outdoor, alley-way restaurant with plastic chairs were Westerners.

They basically serve one thing: three hummuses (hummii?) with pita bread, and a plate of small falafels. Everything was made great. If we had more space in our stomachs, we probably could have finished every drop of hte hummus and gotten another plate of the falafel. This is a simple, cash only, 'we only serve one thing' type of place, the one that better be good to last. Hashem was good, and it has lasted in style since 1951.

Finally, we headed back to the hotel one last time, to spend 90 minutes at the Marriott's Champions Bar (like in many Arabic cities, the hotel bars double as general use bars for the public) for me to have a few pints of Jordanian Beer, this being the first place I had been to serve something other than Amstel. We chatted, played rummy, and (I) sipped beer. A perfectly small way to end a grand, large vacation.

Year-End Trip 2018-19: Day 15 - Dead Sea to Amman

Day 15: The Beginning of the End

The day started with checking out of our Dead Sea Marriott Resort, but not before we lazed around doing little to nothing other than float in the Dead Sea (where, of course, the point is to laze around). The day ended in Amman, Jordan/s Capital, checking into another Marriott, this time with a nice upgrade to the 'Royal Suite' - I'm not trying to brag. I slaved away in places like Horsham, Pennsylvania and San Ramon, California, at lower-level Marriott properties to get the right to get upgraded. This Amman hotel would be the last one we would be checking into during the trip, the final leg of a 16-day (17 for my parents) Odyssey to the Holy Land, and its growingly impressive cousin in Jordan.

This was also the part of the trip that was less planned. The two central events for Jordan was the days in Wadi Rum and Petra. That said, we were not opposed to living the resort life - a fairly antithetical to our normal travel theme. We started with a late (for us) breakfast and then taking the golf cart down a few winding roads from the end of the resort property proper to the little slice of Dead Sea life that the Marriott ropes off.

The Dead Sea was alive with about 15 other guests when we arrived, but there was no real fight for space, both for lounge chairs, water space, or Dead Sea mud which you are supposed to fiendishly cover your body with prior to dipping in one time (I did it in the end - it was delightful).

After a few rote photos, I took my place in the Dead Sea water. I knew what to expect (yadda, yadda, you float, yadda, yadda) but was still so surprised when I was pushed upwards, almost incapable of fighting the saltine forces forcing me sideways. My parents can't swim, so they took a bit of caution, but soon enough were also jsut delighted at how easily they could float on the calm water.

At times, I tried to go upright. It is a struggle to get into that position, but when you do, again the forces push you up like a nice little human buoy. What's nice is because we are within the confines of the hotel's space, it is not too commercialized. The most commercial aspect was these little newspapers they hand out so you can pretend to be reading while sideways in teh sea.

After a while, when we had our fill, we went from the waters of the Dead Sea, back up the golf cart, to the waters of the pools within the resort proper, sitting on a lounge chair reading a book. Any time I do this sort of thing as part of a vacation, I do wonder why I don't do it more often. I don't think I could survive for a week doing this, but maybe for a weekend?

Anyway, after some quick Jordanian Italian food (lamb risotto and lobster ravioli, both made interestingly slightly not Italian), we checked out of our Dead Sea paradise, and hit the hellish Jordanian roads on the way to Amman. There were a few sites (I lied when I said the Baptismal site was the last religions site on the trip) on the way, that involved traversing some fairly hellish roads. Jordan is a very modern Arab country - something that was reinforced by Amman, but the roads are fairly 3rd world.

The first site was up Mt. Nebo, the site where Moses apparently looked out towards Israel whereby God told him that there would rise his people, or some such. This is squarely in the myth side of the Christian (and Jewish) faith, but was still interesting. What was better than this old story, is the church atop the mountain with many fully intact mosaics that were varying degrees of stunning. They were from the Byzantine period which makes it quite amazing how well in tact they were.

From Mt. Nebo you get a great view out over the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea, and across into Palestine & Israel. On a clear non-hazy day (which this was not) you can see Jerusalem, which is 46km away. It is amazing to realize how different about 30 miles away is, another world, another culture.

After Mt. Nebo, which in reality probably isn't that high up but just seems so compared to the Lowest Point on Earth of the Dead Sea, we went across the 20 minutes or so to Madaba, a second tier Jordanian town that houses the St. George Church, more notable for an ancient mosaic depicting the Holy Land in great detail than any religious bent.

The mosaic has faded a bit but is quite large, enlightening a dimly lit church that actually has a bunch of old-school mosaics (this area of Jordan is basically Mosaic central), though my guess is most were made well after the church was constructed in moreso modern times.

After picking up a quick coffee in a nice little coffesshop in Madaba, we were on our way to Amman. Quickly on the coffeeshop, it was another sign of how nice Jordan is as a country. This coffeeshop was nice and open, with tasteful art, and a nice young crowd inside, with a jovial owner/barista, basically something that could have been in any European country.

We finally reached Amman around 5:35, a perfect five minutes after their club lounge began serving appetizers. As stated above, due to it being a fairly empty weekend, and my status, and maybe a slight sibling rivalry with the Marriott in the Dead Sea, we were upgraded to the Royal Suite, which was fit for a king, with a large family room and dining area, and one large bedroom with king bed, tub, and even giant walk-in closet. It was the type of space that would be 4-5k minimum rent a month in Manhattan. Of course, I got a rollaway bed (3rd person) and will only enjoy it for one day instead of the two that my parents get it for.

Appetiziers were nice, but they real appetizer was our time walking the Downtown Souk (market) area of Amman, which was a slightly cleaner version of any 3rd world souk you can go to. It reminded me simultaneously of Mumbai's Colaba Causeawy that is so close to our flat there, and Egypt's main Cairo market, but better than both. The real treat was a shop selling Kunafa (stringy vermicelli with cheese undernetah draped in a pistachio syrup) at rapid fire pace to a starving and growing crowd of patrons. There I also picked up a nice bakava sampler set for my office. We saw a few more shops, picked out a few places to come back to tomorrow when we had more time to play the beg, borrow and barter game.

We took a short cab-ride over to Rainbow Street, an artsy haught-ish area of Amman crowded with Westerners, for dinner at the noted Sufra Restaurant. It is set up with a beautiful decor inside an old house, adorned with colonial touches from the artwork down to the wait-staff's dress. After a short wait, we sat and ordered a couple dishes to share, one being a totally new dish for this trip, which 15 days in was quite a surprise.

The place served classic Jordanian cuisine, which of course included a Mansaf and various chicken and lamb grilled dishes, so we ordered one of each. For our third dish, we ordered a Fette, a casserold like dish with eggplant, other vegetables and (very limited) minced lamb. The fette was really good, enough so it was a bit disappointing that more places didn't have it before now.

After dinner, we retired back to the Marriott, ending the day as we started, enjoying hte comfort of the one brand in my consulting life that has paid me back well for my (company's client's loyalty).

Year-End Trip 2018-19: Day 14 - The Dead Sea

Day 14 - Danny Says Relax

Two weeks into the trip, and tiredness, if not a little touch of homesickness, is starting to set in. We are at the point that we've seen enough to fulfill coming abroad, and somewhat ready to return to the normalcy that our lives in teh US have to offer.

This feeling is especially sharp having just experienced two exhausting, wonderful days visiting Wadi Rum and Petra, days that included getting up before 7am, touring from barely after sunrise to sunset, and walking enough for many vacations.

If ever there was a day where lightness and relaxation needed to be prioritized, today was it. So prioritize it we did, in all its slothly glory.

The day ostensibly would be the drive up to the Dead Sea, and the enjoyment of said Sea and its surrounding areas, but morphed slowly into one last, final last, religion pilgrimage and then enjoying the pool, spa, terraces and views of the lovely Marriott Dead Sea Resort & Spa.

The drive up to the Dead Sea took about three-and-a-half hours, with random detours off of 'highways' onto side roads, winding passages, and numerous speed bumps, caused what should be a three hour ride to take longer. On the way, we did make a few stops, each adding short bursts of value to the drive.
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Before getting to the stops, I do want to quickly comment on the drive, which added to the legacy Jordan will keep for me for its prodigous natural beauty as a country. That whole drive was though the valley, going from the highs of the Petra region to the lows of the Dead Sea, with mountains, rock formations and slopes in every direction.

About two hours into the trip, we tried to visit Lot's Cavern - the site of Lot's biblical story of Sodom & Gomorrah, but instead found the very random, almost hidden 'Museum of the Lowest Point on Earth' (I'm sure it is less of a mouthful of a name in Arabic). The Museum was really a showcase of this region of Jordan, with nice artifacts including two great pieces - first, a very well preserved mummified Nabutean woman, and second, a partially excavated mosiac that dates back to Lot's church from the 300-400 AD period. This small museum is well kept, but totally lost in the random Jordanian valley. I small little treat.

After, we finished the drive to the Dead Sea with only two stops, both to take photos, turning off ont he side of the road to enjoy in full the incredible sight that is the Dead Sea. The image of the sprawling Dead Sea to the West, and rocky cliff faces to the East, is quite stunning.

We finally reached the Dead Sea at 12:45pm, getting a hero's welcome as expected given my status at Marriott, and the fact I had forced an upgrade to one of their bi-level suites. What was not a graet welcome was them telling us that the Dead Sea was closed due to high winds, a sad recurring trend for me having high winds bested me at the coral reefs in Cairns and Robben Island in past. We are hopeful the water would be opened back up tomorrow, but this made us have to quickly change course, and get the last Jesus-related site out of the way.

Right near the north end of the Dead Sea (where the Marriott and all other Western resorts are - Hilton, Crown Plaza, etc,) is the Baptismal Site, a large area off the Jordan River housing the stretch of River, and a few temples, thought to be where St. John the Baptist baptized Jesus. There are really two aspects to this 90-minute guided tour through the site. The first is a walk to the specific spot thought to be where the act took place, which requires some imagination due to receding waters and earthquakes destroying the original church, and a second half at the actual Jordan River.

The first site is now basically a ditch with a nicely maintained stone walkway leading up from the pit to a makeshift church-like structure. The pit is where the baptism actually happened, but as the Jordan River has receded significantly in the 2000 intervening years, the pit is now dry. The church is being reconstructed, as the original was destroyed by earthquakes. This means that you really have to picture it in your mind. Of course, same was true of so many of the other sites in Israel, so asking us to picture it here is just par for the course.

That said, tactile is still better, and the final stop in the tour gave us that. It was the time spent at the actual banks of the Jordan River - to some degree the Christian version of The Ganges river (somewhat). I put my foot in. A russian family changed into white cloth one-pieces and went in the water fully. I felt bad I didn't have that gusto. The water was freezing, but they seemed so intent on having the Jordan River waters flow all over them.

This was the last religions site on a trip that has largely been about that subject for a majority of the days so far. This wasn't the most meaningful spot, but it was a nice capper to that part of the trip. It was also a sad reminder that the trip itself is nearing its conclusion, but not before we got to do for a day what so many others may spend an entire vacation doing: nothing, but lounging by the pool.

The Dead Sea Marriott has three outdoor pools, all with nice seating, and a few terraces, one of which we enjoyed a really picturesque sunset over the Dead Sea. From the terrace seats, we could see the mountains in Palestine across the way. In theory, Jerusalem is slightly visible on a clear day. This wasn't a clear day, with a distinct haze clouding the view.

After sunset, we went to the Marriott's large spa area, befitted with two indoor pools, including one supposedly filled with water from the Dead Sea. I don't know if it was water literally siphoned up from the Dead Sea. What I do know was it was satly, I could float effortlessly, and it was cool. What was not cool? My brief dalliances with the sauna and steam room (I don't understand why I thought proactively choosing to be in hot sweaty conditions would be therapeutic).

After our time in the spa, we left the cozy confines of the Marriott for dinner, going a few metres over to the neighboring Crowne Plaza resort, as they had a restaurant serving classic Jordanian food (the Marriott's restaurants were either Italian or Western with one or two Jordanian dishes thrown in for fun). This was a restaurant literally in walking distance (stikll, we took the car), but just the fact we had to be inconvenienced into leaving the cozy confines of the Marriott meant the restaurant had to be good. It was.

We had two starters, fish kebbeh (a fish meatball, essentially), and spicy lamb sausages, with two mains, lamb chops (still haven't failed), and a lamb kebab with eggplant. Each dish was excellent. This restaurant is, by Tripadvisor, #1 in the 'Dead Sea Region'. Of course, only 18 such restaurants are ranked on Tripadvisor in this region, but still, it lived up to its billing.

We got back to the Marriott around 10pm, in time for me to go to the 'Champions Bar & Grill' on the property, sit back with an ice cold Amstel (apparently the only beer any Marriott in Jordan serves), and watch a really nice Manchester City vs. Liverpool match that I flatly didn't believe was live at first. It was a relaxing way to end a relaxing day, or at least as much relaxing as we can do on this trip.

Year-End Trip 2018-19: Day 13 - Petra

Day 13 - The Lost City

Our day in Petra was highlighted as a potential highlight of the trip when we started it so long ago. Again, since I outsourced nearly all of the planning for the trip to my parents, I didn't even really know what Petra was. In my mind, I knew it was old ruins. That said, I thought it was similar to the Alhambra in Spain. That was incorrect, but it was still an incredible experience.

We woke up early, but not too early, resigned to getting one day in Petra, in their winter season which means last call at 4:30pm (not too strictly enforced, we would learn). The planned departure time was 8:30am, using Marriott's shuttle service that drops you off about 20 feet away from the entrance. We there met our guide, who would lead us and another couple with sun, but this couple was younger and their son was a semi-annoying six years old.

The tour started at the visitor's center, quite modern looking and a good sales point to the Lost City behind it. There I actually learned from our quite knowledgeable guide on what actually went down in Petra, why it became a lost city (basically, the Nebatean people stopped letting people in), how it got rediscoverd, and the list of people who once ruled this place - basically the same as in Israel, but included the Nebatean's the people who actually built most of the sites and made all the carvings.

The tour of Petra can be done in many forms over many time periods. We did an express five hour tour that included a walk from the visitor's center way down to the center of the main path, and then a hike up to the Monastery, with time then given for us to go back towards the visitor's center and see other sites at our own pace.

The first bit was an open air walk down towards the beginning of The Siq (more on that in a minute) through some nice close-by ridges and some amazing views behind. We didn't get a real look at the valley and the rolling mountains the previous day, but Petra is situated right in the middle of some amazing peaks.

The Siq, about 800m from teh entrance, is where Petra begins to come to life. The Siq essentially means winding gorge - which is a perfectly accurate description of what it was. It was an astoudingly beautiful winding gorge. It explained well why the Petra people were so isolated and hidden beyond about a mile and a half of gorge. Water erosion has largely removed some of the wall carvings (and other natural disasters have destroyed many of the buildings that are now all partially reconstructed), but the water did uncover amazing color gradation on the walls, a mix of brownds, ambers, reds, whites and so many others.

During the walk of the Siq, there are parts with various small crevices, small carvings on the walls, incredible views and endless photo opportunities. Just when you felt that the Siq was getting just sligthyl repetitive, we reach the conclusion of the Siq, which is the 'Treasury', and realize how special Petra is.

The Treasury is an imposing two-level temple (there's really no connection to treasury activities) with roman style columns, half-remaining statues of Nebutean Gods, and to cap it all it was built right into the rock-face. It is was more crazy to consider this structure in front of you when you consider a couple facts the guide threw out, that (1) the whole thing was built over the course of two years, and (2) there is another level below that is yet to be excavated.

There is probably whole level below the current city throughout the area of Petra, many places having at least one known level yet to be uncovered. Our stop at the Treasury actually housed one last amazing fact from our guide, that this was just the third largest temple cut out of the rock face. The biggest being the Royal Tomb and the 2nd biggest being the Monastery. In a few hours, I would see the other two, and agree that they are bigger, an even more impressive, even if at this particular moment I didn't think that was possible.

The walk from the Siq and Treasury opened up, but didn't stop surprising us. First was the example of houses (really caves) built into the rock-face on all sides. Each house had remnants of ornate carvings aroudn it. Here is also where the difference in colors of the rocks became more present and beautiful. After the row of houses was a roman-style theater, again cut out of the rock. The few free-standing buildings that were built were destroyed due to earthquakes and floods, but there is a lasting, incredible, history at seeing what these people were able to do chiseling away at rocks.

Finally after the theater we reach the large open area that was the main city during the Nebutean times. Again, I have no idea why these Nebutean people decided to live in such a reclusive place, isolated by two miles or gorge from the world, but they left behind an incredible legacy.

The treat of the tour, at least for me, was probably the last few sites, which due to the arduous nature of seeing them, became all the more valuable, but took over the last three to four hours of the day.

The monastery is probably the most well known image from Petra, but requires quite a bit of dedication to see in person. It is about a 2km hike from the main square, all uphill, over 811 steps and various uphill curves. Overall, it was about a 300m elevation gain over 2km, which trigonometry tells me is a 8,5 degree incline (ok, I googled an angle calculator).

You can avoid the pain of the hike by taking a donkey, which sounds fun (maybe), but also involves riding that donkey up the same stairs, trusting a boy (literally, sometimes a 12-year old Bedouin) to lead you and the donkey effectively. In reality, from a heartburn perspective, your better off just climbing it, as my Dad and I did.

The climb does afford numerous photo opportunities of the expanse of Petra and the surrounding mountains increasingly beneath you. It also gives you the amazing moment when you do reach the top, of seeing the giant monastery, a supersized, more well preserved (or restored) version of teh Treasury, built into a mountain high above ground level.

After walking back and picking up a quick, efficient (if a little blah) lunch at 'The Basin' restaurant - one of two full service restaurants inside Petra site grounds - I went for another smaller (much smaller) hike up maybe 80 steps to the path of the tombs, which are large temples built into the rock, the last of which was the Royal Tomb, the largest temple structure in the park.

This little hike also gave the best view of the central market area of Petra, one last amazing vantage point of the expanse of land that Petra takes on. Each area gave way to so many photo opportunities, so many ridiculously picturesque views. Having just been to Egypt, with their own temple carved into the mountain-face (Abu Simbel), which was admittedly more impressive, I have to say Petra beats any one site in Egypt for the amount it packs into a seven km stretch.

We reached back to the hotel fully tired, fully awed at what we just saw. So much so we played the rest of the nigth fairly basic. My Mom went for a spa treatment. I did my own treatment getting a cold beer and writing this (meta!). We had dinner in the Marriott's Hala Hala Restaurant, getting similar food cooked with more plating and varnish at slightly higher prices as one would expect.

It was a fully loaded day, the one that from a pure tourism aspect, especially when putting aside any religious connects, figured to be among the best in our trip. Nay, when you remove religion, it was the best in our trip. Wadi Rum probably comes close however. It speaks a lot to Jordan that as a pure tourism destination, these two sites are incredible. It doesn't have the cultural history of Israel (or even an Egypt), but what it does have as quality, if not pure quantity.

Year-End Trip 2018-19: Day 11-12 - Border Crossing & Wadi Rum

Day 11-12: The Lows and the Highs

I'll be quick with day 11, it was a write-off, mostly due to a slightly harrowing and largely time-wasting border crossing from Israel into Jordan. Being the moment when I add a new country to my list was probably the only fun moment of the day until the end - the New Year's gala dinner that the DoubleTree by Hilton in Aqaba, Jordan.

The other nice moment was seeing Aqaba, a nice port city with side sidewalks and multiple lanes and cleanliness - basically the opposite of the six hours in Jordan prceding it that were mostly a run of small towns, manic driving, no lights on ostensibly 'highways', and the rest. It was a culture shock coming from Israel, with its' US-esque highyways and road system. This was not that. All is not lost however.

The next day showed why all was not lost. We did not come to Jordan to be repeatedly surprised frokm a sense of modernity. No, we came to Jordan because of a few fantastic sites. First of which a day in the open expanse of the Wade Rum desert, then a day or two meandering around Petra, one of hte great historical sights of our world, and then getting to float in the Dead Sea. The first of these was Wade Rum desert, which was incredible.

Today was also January 1st, the second straight January 1st where my family and I were on a trip that required a fairly early start and therefore a fairly early night on New Year's. This time, I was basically in bed by 12:02, in bed to hear taxis stop where they were driving on the roads of Aqaba and start honking riotously.

A year ago to the day, my family and I visited Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia, Chile. That was an incredibly experience, a series of mountsins and rock formations, standing above varied flora. Today was basically the same, but with red, perfect sand instead of water and lush greenery, and more incredible views in all direction than should be possible.

The Wadi Rum desert is an expanse in the Northwest corner of the Arabian desert, that is now home to a roving troupe of Bedioun villagers, formerly nomads who have now settled down here. The Bediouns basically live to show off this incredible piece of Jordanian gold they inhabit, and show us all theri simple, earth-bound ways, in a way that will easily make you fall in love with this little place.

IT is hard to really describe Wadi Rum, but I'll give it a try. It is basically combining the large, flat, upright, mini-mountains with rolling sandswept terrain in between. It really is like traversing a mountain range with sweet red sand instead of river snad trees. The views were stunning at all angles at all times, from the moment you leave the small Bedouin village in a open-back jeep, and see the first couple rock formations jutting out of the earth. If anything, this is what I imagine Mars looks like.

The tour was a jeep-led expedition pretty far deep into the Wadi Rum, and endless parade of giant rocks and hills and red, red sand. THere were five of us in our jeep, with a lovely Italian couple joining us. Much like in Israel before this, there were roughly 50 different jeeps running simultaneously and after a while we kept seeing the same people with the same smiles plastered on their faces and cameras plastered to their hands.

The tour included a series of stops at various mountains and rock formations, all providing an opportunity to test your amateur mountain climbing chops, and work the trigger finger on your cameraphone. The first stop was probably the toughest, about a 120-foot climb at a nice 30-40 degree angle, upwards towards the rock-face of a 250-foot mountain, where a fig tree and the opening of a stream sits. This was the toughest climb of the day, but being the first the adrenaline worked wonders.

The next was maybe the most fun, a shorter, easier, rocky climb to the top of a little hill, that had a sand dune built into its back-half. On the dune, were various people attempting to snowboard down the dune, which seemed incredibly fun, but also something I had no real ability to manage. I;m not a snow-boarder on snow, let alone sand.

Following this was another rock hill, but this one had a natural-made arch at the top, which lent itself nicely to even better photo opportunities than the incredible beauty of the surrounding area already justly warranted. All these sites really had that advantage. Climbing up gives you a chance to take in the magnitude of the beauty on all sides surrounding you. These rock formations are so unique, so staggering, so intimidating, that it truly creates and out of the world atmosphrere.

For lunch, we had an out of time experience. We pulled up in the shadow of one of the million rock formations, the driver/guide pulled out a ratan mat, spread it over the sand, and then starteed live preparing our meal, the centerpiece of which was a simple, but tasty, vegetable stew of tomato, onion, pepper and beans. The rest was simple stuff - pita, goat cheese, tuna, crackers - and it all came together in a perfect setting. This simple meal, built from mother earth itself - the fire was quickly scraped together using all available brush in ten minutes - was such a special experience.

Following the meal we had two more main sites - one other cliff-face and one other, larger, more regal arch - before ending with a 15-minute drive back through the Wadi Rum desert, and then finlaly shutting off to watch the sunset. I've been lucky enough to see many amazing sunsents at various locations. This was the most peaceful, and by far the most serene. I climbed up the cliff about twenty feat - the easiest climb of the day - sat up against the cliff face with a large rock as a perfectly placed footstool, and then sat back and took it all in.

Wadi Rum was fantastic, perfectly isolated and not nearly as commercialized as it could be. We are left mainly to our own devices when climbing and photographing our way across the landscape. There was a certain, well, bedouin nomad way the whole thing was arranged, and compared to how this place would be treated if it were in teh US, I'm for the low-stress nature ofe the operation.

After Wadi Rum, we had to drive again through darkness the 90 minutes or so to Petra. The worst part of the drive is we left the "Desert Highway", full of one lane sections and sporadic lights, to a side road that leads to Petra, which winded up and down god knows what, because the lakc of any lights made it impossible to see what was there. To be fair, this was all expected. We know it was bad to drive at night at Jordan, that driving even during the day was a fool's errand. But we were fools.

We finally reached Petra, checked into the nicely picturesque Marriott Petra, situated right on a cliff, but still a bit away from Petra itself. We were still early enough for a full dinner and Wad Musa experience - Wadi Musa being the city that houses Petra. We went to their main walk for dinner, again after tempting fate with a 10-min drive through the night.

Wadi Musa is a nice little town. The main restaurants are all easily Googleable, and we got to experience the nice side-biy-side rivalry between the Al Wadi restaurant (more glitzy, slightly more pricey), and the Beit al Karah restuarant (simpler, cheaper). They have 90% the same menu. The owner of Beit was a bit more pushy - not surprising since it isn't as reputed and enticing for westerners, but multiple travel sites argue it is better. We ended up there more beacuse Al Wadi had a wait.

In the end, we had a really nice meal to end our day, one with a bit more meat tthan the fire-side chat of a lunch. This was a really nice meal, with two lamb dishes. First, a lamb mushraf, rice with lamb and yougurt, which was excellent featuring ridiculiusly soft-off-the-bone lamb. The second wass a set of lamb chops, each grilled really well with minimal spices but still so much flavor. I often find lamb chops a bit overrated, be it too little meat or dryness, but we've ordered it three times in Israel and Jordan and its been amazing each time.

This was a lojng day, with a truly memorable experience. I knew little of Wadi Rum coming in other than it being a giant desert. I left realizing it was so much more. I'll never walk on Mars, but I know now what that would be like.