Jerash and Mt. Nebo....and 29!

I'm 29 today....argh! We woke up fairly early this morning, and had a breakfast of cold pancakes in the hotel before tackling the journey to Jerash. We only went in the wrong direction once (not bad going) and eventually made it to Jerash which is north of Amman. The driving is completely crazy here -- nobody seems to stay in lanes so there can be cars going at varying speeds all over the roads. I won't be sorry to give back the car when we get to Aqaba.
We spent about two and half hours wandering around the ruins of Jerash, which has been described as a "Rome away from Rome". It is considered one of the largest and most well-preserved sites of Roman architecture in the world outside Italy and there are plenty of colonnaded streets, baths, theaters, plazas and arches to see. My personal favourite was the Oval Plaza, a huge oval space surrounded by columns. It was an overcast day, but it's still a stunning place -- it's just a shame there wasn't a blue sky for the photos.
We had a late buffet lunch in Jerash and then headed back South towards Madaba, and then on towards Mt. Nebo, which isn't far from Madaba. Mount Nebo is one of the most revered holy sites of Jordan, as it is where Moses is buried. Unfortunately it was extremely hazy so we see what is supposed to be a great view, as far as the dead sea on a clear day. We had a wander around the church but I think the day of travelling yesterday was catching up on us, as we were both very tired and headed back to the hotel for a rest.
Later on, we had dinner in the same place as yesterday, before going for a wander around Madaba. Hopefully tomorrow will be a clearer day, as we plan to go to Bethany-beyond-the-Jordan and the dead sea.

London -> Budapest -> Amman -> Madaba

When the alarm went off at 5.30am this morning, I really found it hard to be excited about going on holiday -- but I should be 'cos we're off for three weeks, and plan to spend about 10 days in Jordan followed by the same in Egypt. We checked into a hotel near Heathrow last night, and ended up having quite a late dinner (typically Matt underestimated how long it would take to get from Cheshire to the hotel) so I was completely exhausted when I woke up. By 6.30 am we were at the airport having checked out of the hotel and dropped back the hire car. Terminal 1 was pretty busy so it took a while to check in, then we had to go and pick up some currency, get through security, pick up some last bits in duty free, grab some breakfast and then get on the plane. I was glad to sit down when we finally got to our seats. The plane was about to be pushed back when there was a problem with the bridge.........they couldn't get it off the plane! That meant the flight was delayed by an hour waiting for an engineer. After that the flight was uneventful and the stopover in Budapest went fine. We met a nice couple who have a holiday home in Aqaba, who gave us a few tips on visiting Jordan.
On landing in Amman, we sorted out our visas and had our passports stamped. Our bags arrived pretty quickly, and the guy from Reliable Rent a Car was waiting for us. He showed us to a fairly battered looking automatic Peugeot 307 and checked our passports and credit card details (not driving licenses!) before handing over the keys.
We were nervous enough heading off as driving in Jordan is supposed to be a nightmare, but we found the way to Madaba quite easily. We might have looked a bit stupid when we stopped for petrol just as we came to the town and asked how far it was to Madaba, but there were no signposts and therefore no way of knowing we'd arrived. Finding the hotel was a different matter. We drove around for ages without a clue where we were. Some locals directed us to a completely different hotel, but at least that meant we got our bearings and finally found the Mariam Hotel where we're booked in for the next 3 nights.
For dinner, we found our way to Haret Jdoudna, for some local cuisine. It's meant to be one of the best restaurants in Jordan, with live music and a nice atmosphere. The food was lovely, and cheap at only 16JD for the two of us. Tomorrow we're planning on going to Jerash....if we can find the way!

Stockholm

Was lucky enough to get a place on a training course in Stockholm through work. Flew over on Saturday so was able to have a couple of days looking around the city before the course started on Tuesday. Weather was a bit miserable on Saturday evening so just hung out in my hotel, the Scandic Anglais. Accommodation in Stockholm is really expensive and my room was a tiny little cabin room in the basement, but it had got free internet and was pretty comfortable to so I liked it.

Sunday I went to Gamla Stan, the old town. It was nice and sunny so I managed to get some nice photos. I also found an Irish pub where I had my dinner and watched the Ireland Argentina game. Another disaster! Went shopping on Monday but didn't buy too much as it's fairly expensive. Matt and Dave, who are also doing the course, arrived over on Monday and I moved to a different hotel for the rest of the week, the Radisson SAS Strand Hotel. It was much most luxurious with a great view but very pricey. The course ran from Tuesday to Thursday, and on Friday I showed Matt around the city and we went to the Vasa Museum before flying back to London. Photos here.

Paris for the Rugby

Went over to Paris for a few days to see the Ireland France match. Very disappointing game but had a nice few days in Paris. Went over on the Eurostar on Friday morning, a great hassle-free way to travel, and stayed in the Hotel du Levant. Went to the match on Friday evening (don't want to talk about it) and spent a sunny Saturday wandering around the city including a visit to the catacombs and catching some more rugby in the local pubs. Sunday was another sunny day so we did more sightseeing before heading back to London on the Eurostar in the afternoon. Photos here

Liverpool 4, Toulouse 0

Finished off the bank holiday weekend by going to see Liverpool play Toulouse in Champions League. A good win. Probably was the most interesting bit was when they played Z-Cars (the Everton theme tune) before the match in honour of Rhys Jones, the young Everton fan who was recently murdered. His parents and brother were on the pitch with Rafa. Very moving.

Homeward bound

Managed to avoid extra luggage charges (the highlight of my day!) before flying from Sydney to Hong Kong, hanging out there for a few hours (had a pedicure for want of anything else to do), and then flying on to London. After a million hours travelling I finally made it back to Swansea completely wrecked and totally not ready to start back at work!

Last Day

It's my last day and I'm gutted. Matt has decided to stay on another week to go and catch up with a mate of his in Melbourne...he might as well make the most of his career break! Today was again spent wandering around Sydney taking photos, but we also went to the Telstra stadium in the evening to watch the Australia Wales game. Great match -- thought the Welsh might take it one point.

All packed and ready to go home now :-(

Bondi to Coogee

Thankfully we were a bit more productive today than yesterday. We caught a bus to Bondi beach where we had lunch, and then walked from Bondi to Coogee, which is a lovely walk over the cliffs...the views are really spectacular.

Recovery

It was very difficult to drag ourselfs out of bed at all today with Matt being very grumpy over Liverpool's loss and both of us very tired indeed. But we did manage to leave the hostel to go to the Aquarium which was nice and relaxing.



We had a nice big dinner in PJ O'Briens before heading back to the hostel for a well deserved early night.

Bumming around Sydney and the match

Didn't do a whole lot today except wander around Sydney. Took a taxi boat from Darling Harbour to Milsons Point and took a few more photos from that side of the water...



Then we walked over the harbour bridge and wandered around a bit more before catching a boat to Manly for some ice-cream. On the way back we passed a Health Insurance advertising stand offering free health screening and for some reason we thought it would be funny to get a test. Matt was a complete wuss about it, scared it would hurt him so he forced me to go first. We decided on a cholesterol test, and Matt was pretty confident his would be better than mine -- after all he's far fitter and eats a bit healthier than me. Imagine his surprise when mine was too low to get a reading and his was just under the recommended maximum. Ha ha! He was very grumpy about it! A bit of a strange thing to do on holiday though...

We had to have a restful evening (to be ready for the big match) so we cooked in the hostel (spag bol) before relaxing in the room for a few hours. Around 11 we headed to pub for the match (it wasn't starting until nearly 3am but we had to make sure we got in). It was a very long and very disappointing night. By the time we rolled out of the pub it was fully bright and almost 7am. Tired!