Day 146:

I dig Jordan!

Though I paid extra to get on the "fast" ferry to Jordan, going was slow last night. I think I finally made my way through customs on the Jordanian side around seven pm... about five hours late.

But no worries: Jordan is quite nice. It's fairly more developed that Egypt, which makes it cleaner, and more hassle-free. Things are a bit more expensive here, however.

I'm in the city of Aqaba, which is Jordan's only port town (check your atlas, yo). I think that Lawrence of Arabia spent some time here back in the day. It's a quaint town, with only a token few sights for the tourists. I, of course, visited every last one of 'em. First up with the "Ayola" (??) ruins, an archaeological excavation of some old city buildings and temple ruins. That was such a neat "roadside attraction," not much to see - just the outlines of some old walls, and a camel tethered to an explanatory sign - but the roughly two acre sight has a little path that one is supposed to follow, complete with signs that provides a sort of commentary. I found all of it so "small town" and so damn cute.

Next up was Aqaba Castle. Little more than a ruin now, the sight does have some neat history behind it. Originally a crusader castle, it was one of the southern most fortifications that the crusaders built. Eventually abandoned by the crusaders when they were chased out of the regions, it was built up again by the Mamaluks, who held power in the middle east in the post-crusader period. The castle stood for some centuries after that, eventually being destroyed by allied shelling in the first world war. Now restored (a little bit) a Hashemite (The Jordanian royal family) coat of arms adorns it's main entrance.

Nice little history, that. Empires come and go. Castles remain, it seems.

Beside the castle is a small community museum. Like the ruins, it is very quaint and cute. Adorably, so of course... someone is trying really hard to make something interesting with very few resources. The museum reminds me a bit of the Dartmouth Heritage Museum back home, actually; inconsequential, but appreciated nonetheless.

Interestingly, some of the archaeological exhibits at the museum were created by people from the University of Victoria - there has been a Canadian dig north of the city ongoing since the 1980s.

I spoke to my father on the telephone today. We spoke about how nice it is to visit seemingly "inconsequential" cities... places like, say, Saskatoon. I referenced all of those silly cities I spent time at in "Chinese China" between Xi'an and Xinjiang. It's those places that have a real "sense of nostalgia" to them. Though not of consequence, they are places that are very important to the people that live in them. And that makes all the difference.