Indiana Jones

Local: on the bus in Antakya in Turkey on the way to Askara.
Time: 10:32
A lot has happened since my last post. For the past year and the half of my life nothing excited happened for months, my life was nothing more than gym, work, home and so on. But now, just yesterday I’ve been in 4 different cities in Syria, why the rush? Later you will understand.
Okay, last time I was about to have a shower to wash off the sands from Wadi Rum. The next day early in the morning in the rooftop of the hostel where me and Marielle spent the day I got my things ready, said good bye to Marielle and headed off to Petra, the rose stone city created by the Nabatean who carved the own homes in the mountains. Petra became considerably famous after the blockbuster Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where the last part of the movie was shot in Petra, showing “The Treasuary” a more than 20 metres high palace CARVED into a massive mountain. Its really a mind-blowing piece of art that took more than 25 years to be fully complete. But don’t be fool by the movie cuz the insides of the palace you see in the movie is not what you get in real life, what you find is three massive empty rooms, but even that diminishes the splendour of the Treasury.
Me and two German guys who were also sleeping in the rooftop were the first ones to get to the ticket office in the Petra early in the morning. Venturing through the ancient city just by yourself without the hordes of tourist makes the experience much more enjoyable.
Petra is so big that is impossible to see everything in only one day even though I tried to see the most of it. At one point I found a detour and decided to pick up the trail. The path started to get narrower at the step, until I reached a massive wall made up of big rocks, I could see the top and could stop wondering what the view from there would look like. I dropped my bag to give me more flexibility I started climbing, when I reached the top I found another track. I decided I would keep going cuz eventually I would end up somewhere. Went back to pick up my bag and moved on. After 20 minutes almost crawling I found myself in a cliff, couldn’t go any further. My prize was the relaxing absence of noise. Just the wind and the birds help me to regain my forces after a quick nap.
Back to the tourist trail I headed to the monastery, the I couldn’t reach after facing thousands of endless stones steps up to the highest mountain. When I reached the top I realized the every single step was worth. My jaws had already dropped when I saw “ The Treasury”, But there I was breathless and jawless facing the monastery. Another masterpiece carved into a mountain, that made the treasury look like a doll house. After a couple of minutes in awe I explored some of the amazing views you couldn’t get after climbing thousands of steps.
Back in the hostel I had an amazing all you can eat Bedouin barbecue, smoked some arguile and watched Indiana Jones and the Last crusade which the hostel plays non stop every single day of the week.