The city of Petra, just awesome!

They don't work on Fridays here, better to say their weekends last from Friday to Saturday... simply we had a free day and early in the morning we set off to Petra, ancient archaeological site situated in the south of Jordan. It is recognized as UNESCO heritage and one of seven new wonders of the world.


No cash, no fun
First of all we needed to withdraw some cash from ATM. Gee didn't succeed with his Maestro at all, I managed with my Visa on my third attempt (third ATM) and still I got only half of money I wanted and no receipt... learning point: don't leave this on the very last moment!
That time, driver (who we hired together with a car for 80 JD for the whole day) was waiting for us in front of the hostel and we were running from one ATM to another...:)

Yalla! (Let's go!)
From Amman to Petra in 2,5 hrs
The journey from Amman to Petra usually takes around 4hrs by bus. By car it was much more faster, as we've been driving around 180 Km/h. Yes, it IS fast. On our way back he had even crash with another car: I remember it very clearly, sitting on a front seat, as we were overtaking another car and approaching so fu*king fast that within a moment we smashed its side-mirror with our one. Sounds like from action movie, but it wasn't that funny - just imagine it weren't the side-mirrors but cars themselves to be smashed in such a speed!

Unforgettable sightseeing
We spent approximately 6 hours within the vast area of Petra. The weather was very hot and without mercy. Although we forgot our sunscreen, we enjoyed our walk without serious problems, because all of us (especially Anisha) are luckily relatively resistant towards sunshine. Only during the last hour, sun begun to be a little bit painful.*

I was amazed by the nature all around. Completely different to what I've seen before. Red rocks, steep hills, narrow roads, wide deserts, long colonnades... everything on our way to the highest point, the Monastery.

The Treasury, the main tourist attraction.
And the most easily accessible one:)

Climbing higher...

...to the top point.
* I'd have never believed the sun could be so powerful, as my skin turned into red (which doesn't happen often), then brown and then started to peel. It has been peeling more than month! Particularly the second week of peeling was very rich in skin:)

Ever-present business
Sometimes I had a feeling that half of all people present in Petra are locals, trying to earn some money:
> passing by stands with souvenirs each 5 min
> small children giving you Petra colourful rocks "as presents"
> refreshments (including our favourite mango juice!) sold for 5 times higher price
> random people asking for money after you take picture with a monument
and most importantly:
> tens of local shepherds offering you a ride on donkey, horse or camel. They are indeed persistent/annoying and even if you tell "no, thank you" to five of them, there is still the sixth one, who offers exactly the same:)
Everyone offering their services for substantially differing prices...
We resisted and explored everything on our own, walking! :)


Moviemaking
Interesting to know, that many movies have been filmed here, Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Indiana Jones a poslední křížová výprava) is by far the most known one. We've also met very famous filmmaker! Not Steven, but Costa Gravas.

Costa Gravas taking picture of his group.

Picture of our group taken by Costa Gravas.