Sunday, November 1, 2009

JERASH! Gladiators, Dust Storms and Jordianian Girls!

24/10/09

2000 (local time)

Today was a bit of a big day for most of us, but in the early morning Simo and myself had to take the car back. We all knew that this was going to a task that neither of us wanted to do, but of course it had to be done. So we had breakfast, got our stuff together and headed off. We half expected there to be another bird market, or if not a bird market something else that would be completely ridiculous. Lucky for us there was no one around, so we casually drove the car out and down to the end of the street. Just as we were about to jump onto the highway, we start hearing a rumbling sound at the rear of the car. This sound was too familiar to me, something that I had experience in the not too distant future in Lebanon... a flat tyre! We couldn’t believe it. We tried getting off the high way, but there were no turn offs, we finally found one, that took us onto another major road that then took us to another major road, it wasn’t until 3 or 4 turns that we actually found a place to pull over.

So it was about 8.50am by the time we were able to pull over, and the car was meant to be back by 9am. So we did the ultra quick tyre change over that even the formula one guys would have been proud of.

We were back on the road trying to find out where we were so that I could guide Simo and the car back to Budget Car rentals. We finally found it, and were back at the hostel by around 9.30am.

We threw our day packs together and took off on the mini bus to Jerash.

We paid our entrance fees and wandered around Jerash for a couple of hours, Rob and I bought our ticket to watch the Roman show that included how the Romans fought, Gladiator battles and Horse and Cart races.

What is Jerash Steve? Well, be prepared for the answer! (Skip this bit if you don't really care) Jerash is one of the best examples in the middle east of a Roman city. In its heyday Jerash has a population of around about 15,000 to 20,000 people. Although it wasn’t the most interesting set of ruins that I have visited in my travels having good company and some good jokes made this quite a fun and good walk. What made it quite eerie is that there is a dust storm that is predicted to hit the city of Jerash that day. We could all see it coming from the local city, and it made the back ground of our photos look amazing. Some of the highlights of the day was Hadrian’s Arch that you had to walk through as you entered the city. Hadrian’s Arch was made to honour the emperor Hadrian that visited the town 129AD, when it was built it was double the size that it is today. The scaffolding surrounding the area ruins the city. (see what I did there... Ruins the Ruins).

It was time for lunch so we went to the local buffet for lunch where we got a very cheap all you can eat buffet for only 4JD ($6AUD). Rob and I smashed the food down very quickly because we had a show that we had paid to go watch!

There were only 2 shows a day, and this was the last one, so if we missed it, its all over red rover.

The show starts off with 40 Roman Legionnaires who parade around the arena showing the crowd a range of battle formations and military drills such as the Tortoise etc. Once they walk off, 3 sets of Gladiators run into the arena dressed in full Gladiator outfit, with Swords, Tritons and spears... yep the full get up!

The fight each other, and then the crowd is given the option whether we want the gladiator to let live his victim or kill him, although it was corny it was quite entertaining and fun to watch! The pictures and videos will tell the story.

Once this had finished, it was getting late so we made an attempt to get home, which ended up being quite difficult as all the busses were full, so a few of us jumped into a car and got a lift back to the city while the other half were able to get the bus!

It was a fantastic day, but we were all stuffed! For dinner Rob and I ate leftovers of our amazing meal from the night before!

My job for the next few days was to organise me trip back to Egypt and then to the UK! Cant wait!

I have booked my flight from Sharm El Sheik to London Luton for the 3rd of November, hopefully ill be catching up with some people over in the UK! Until then!

Peace guys!

The Jam!

Hadrian's Arch...
Just chatting to some local Jordanian girls! The jam still has it!

We met some Thailand tourists who were legends!!! We posed!

So i took on their pose! as i stood on some ruins!
The group!

The dust storm came over the ruins!

And overtook the city! Looks eerie ey?!

Rob and i then watched the Roman Act!

The gladiators came out to fight to the death!
The crowd decided his fate... we took his life! HOW AWESOME IS THE BLOOD!

After the Gladiators, we had the chariot race!

ACTION SHOT!

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