3 days in Petra

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We woke up early in Madaba as we had to go back to Amman to get the bus to Petra. Luckily, the bus station we pulled into from Madaba was the same as the one we needed to be in to get the bus to Petra. It took us about 4 hours to get down to Petra after waiting the best part of an hour for the bus to fill up in Amman. We found our hostel in Petra, put our bags down and made our way as quick as possible to Petra to get the most out of the remaining sunlight. The sun was setting at around 5.30 and we got in at about 3 o'clock, so we thought we only had a couple of hours. However, after climbing up way above the Royal Tombs, myself and Albert got split up. We eventually found each other and got to the point where the Treasury can be viewed from above. It was getting dark at this stage and we had to take the long way back. By the time we erached the siq it was pitch black. It was great to see Petra in the dark like this, even if it was a little strange. We could see where the Bedouins were living in their caves from their fires. Back in the hostel, I met my first fellow Paddy of my trip, only took me my 4th full day. We all went for some dinner and later some more shisha.

The next day it was back to Petra. Myself and Albert got in at about 8 o'clock. It was freezing and a Bedouin scarf purchased at the gates was one of my best buys ever. We took the route to the High Place of Sacrifice, which was probably the highlight of Petra for me. We had the whole route to ourselves more or less and it felt like we were discovering the carved in tombs for the first time ever. At the end we were invited to have some tea with an old Bedouin lady. We eventually made it all the way to the monastery, where it started to rain as we started to sit down for some food. Again we were invited into a Bedouin tent for some shelter. When it stopped raining we made the long trek back and by the time we got back to the hostel we had been walking for about 9 hours.

The next day it was back to Petra, a little later this time. The weater was also much better. We explored some of the areas we hadnt been to and ended up doing quite a mountain trek after the snake mountain. We unintendedly ended back at the same Bedouin lady as the day before and had more tea. That night, we managed to sort our trip to Wadi Rum the next day and went to a cafe to watch Real Madrid beat Mallorca 2-1.

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