Juice capital

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Wednesday, August 2, 2006 - Today's plan was a bust. We woke up at 6am and were ready for the 6:30am bus to Wadi Rum, but I felt uncertain about it for some reason and it was making me uneasy. We ended up on the bus and shortly afterwards the bus driver came to collect the money and said the bus went to Aqaba and that he would drop us at the road where we could find other transport into Wadi Rum. At that point I was done - we were already going to have to find two or three buses tocome home in the afternoon, and I wasn't interested in doing this anymore. So we got off the bus and walked back to the hotel. At least it was early and cool out. Got back and fell asleep again until sometime well past 10am. Decided to go to Amman, the capital, as Maurits would be leaving the following day for Israel from Amman anyway. We weren't sure if there would be any buses going in that direction at that time of day, so we left our luggage in the hotel and walked to the bus station. There was actually a bus leaving just then, so they drove us to the hotel where we got our luggage and away we went. Sat apart due to space issues, but we passed the two hours sleeping and writing notes back and forth. It kept me entertained.

In Amman we checked into the Farah Hotel that was recommended to us by the Americans, and laid about for a couple hours before walking around town. The idea was to get some dinner, some juice (my new expensive obsession), and maybe find a journal for me since I had finished mine in Dahab. No luck with the journal, but we did find a wonderful juice place and some good schwarma for dinner. Back at the hotel we just hung out and relaxed and chatted away his last night in Jordan.

Thursday - Maurits had to leave this morning for Israel in order to make his early flight back to Holland from Tel Aviv the next morning. It was a sad good-bye as we got along so well and had had a lot of fun together. The worst part of these new fun friendships is how often you have to say good-bye. After he was gone, I came back to the hotel visibly upset and the hotel owner gave me some tea instantly. He was very distressed by my distress. But I had the tea and talked to some people in the lobby - an Italian I had met in Cairo and an American named Joe - and I started to feel better. After tea I had to change rooms to the dorm since I couldn't afford my own room there. I shared it with another German girl. Spent the rest of the day walking around town, having a lazy day, and buying a journal. Got some fresh juice, some dinner and came back to the hotel where I sat and wrote in my journal while talking to Joe and watching bits of French Kiss. His flight was early in the morning so he stayed in the hotel until 1:30am or so before heading to the airport. I stayed up until midnight or so with him and then went to sleep. There's a chance we could meet up in Turkey when I get there next week, which would be nice.

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