Day 5 - Madaba and Mount Nebo

Day 5 - Madaba and Mount Nebo #Jordan2021

Finally back to real time posting rather than catching up on previous days, today it's my mom and I going around to some sites near Madaba which is known for some old church and mosaics and Mount Nebo which i know nothing about

Got a driver recommended by out Petra/Wadi Rum driver and headed out around 10 stopping quickly to devour a falafel sandwich (2 of which cost around 1 USD), and now we're on the way

Went to Mount Nebo first which is allegedly the place Moses climbed before he died and god said "look at the promised land, but also you can't go in lol", so it has a nice view of the surrounding area

Supposedly you can see Jericho and even Jerusalem on very clear days but today was not one of those unfortunately

It has a cute little church built where an older church + monastery used to be alongside many of the mosaics the nearby Madaba (aka where we're on the way to) is known for

It also has an olive tree planted by pope John Paul II (who incidentally blessed me as a child so I contain part of his power)

Mostly I think it's a site that has religious significance which didn't do much for me but it does have some nice views of the surrounding mosaics and cute structures

We took a quick coffee break after and also saw a cat so i had to

The we went to Madaba, at the byzantine church of Saint George which houses the oldest mosaic map of the holy sites or something like that

It's an Orthodox church which I haven't been to too many of but to be honest it's basically the same as any other except this one leans into the mosaics for decoration theme, also saw a sheet which either has hymns or liturgy of a secret plan...

From there to the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist (my mom was disappointed i didn't know that he was beheaded or that Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan, can't imagine what my grandmother would say then...)

It had an underground area with some ruins from bygone byzantine structures...

An old floor...

And more mosaics and stuff

Then we went to the archaeological park that contained... More mosaics and a surviving 2000 year old roman road which is neat to think about, the tree of life mosaic is still so vivid

Then food! Got a salad, a baba gaboush (different than the NA ones, less mushy), a fatteh makdous (eggplant, crispy bread, yogurt bowl), eggplant treedeh (very similar to the previous but with ground lamb), and some mint lemonade, this food was very good

Afterwards went back and zoned out for a bit, felt bad for the driver since he's clearly been told it was gonna be fewer stops and a shorter trip so tipped a bit more than i otherwise would have, after relaxing for a bit fiancee was done with the jaha she was going to

Jaha being a custom her cousin who is also getting engaged was going which involves the groom's family (men) going to the bride's family (men) and asking for the woman's hand in marriage (to the men, from the men)

The cousin had said "if they're selling me off my family (women) is coming" - just to clarify, that was jokingly, but the women were still not in the same room, they got a Livestream instead...

Anywho, after that mom and I were invited to fiancee's house to chill and talk. Dad was too but they were still out on their Dead Sea adventure and didn't get back until late and were Dead tired (heh). They did say the hotel was basically empty which must have been cool.

So we went and chilled on their gazebo area for a while and had some nice conversation, some discussion about the party the following day, some discussion from her dad about...religion, some about whether I like Jordan and it's people as I'll be a part of it.

Overall it was good vibes talk though, I'd definitely been worried the religion stuff would go less smoothly. After that went home to sleep for *the event* as my mom keeps jokingly taking about it.