Israel, Jordan and a Bitter Sweet Farewell

It’s been far too long since I last posted, my apologies, this should make up for it somewhat. 

I didn’t have to set an alarm today. Do you know how amazing that feels?! It’s a public holiday for normal people but it’s just a regular week off for me, that joyous part of my rota because we work so damn hard for it. I went to the park across the road to soak up some vitamin D and get some fresh air because yesterday I was couped up trying to get rid of a nasty hangover. They last longer than they ever had these days.  So it’s time to reflect on the last few months.

Work:

I love working with James, my permanent crewmate. Unless he goes sick and I’m working with a random and then I start hating life. I’m not sure how much I love being a medic in London and how much it’s that I love working with James. I told him that he needs to move his house to Aus when I leave later this year. I told him he’s the most stable relationship I’ve got here and the only man in my life over here. We both had a good laugh at that. I wish I would get a few more trauma jobs. I haven’t had anything interesting in months. We were going to a job that initially came down as “stabbed in the head” on the computer, we got there and turns out he was only slashed with a Stanley knife and the Police officers had already put a bandage on him. So… I just drove us all down to the local hospital and wiped up a bit of blood in the Ambulance. I’ve had a few stroke patients, quite a few of the older generation on their way out, I had a large woman with a severe asthma attack, but the cool part was she was locked up in a secure facility in the forensic area of the mental hospital. Can anybody say JAIL?!!! She was nice though. Couldn’t speak because she was gasping for air but she stood up when I needed her to and tolerated the facemasks. Cheers. 

Fitness:

As it’s been months sine I’ve posted I guess I’ve got a lot to say about this. I had a really good Jan and Feb. I went to the gym 2-3 times a week. James made work out plans for me and I actually followed them. He even had me counting macronutrients for 2 whole weeks until I threw in the towel and ate chocolate for dinner because I was angry and fed up. I haven’t done any exercise in a while, mainly due to holidays so maybe I should go this week… 

Visiting Home in Feb/March:

Visiting home now has me thinking. I know, this strange concept of ‘thinking’ has entered my brain and now it won’t stop. 

Thinking about how long I want to be over here for, why I’m still here, what have I gained from my time here, am I ready to make a life for myself back in Aus. 

None of us came to work for the LAS, at least, no one I’ve spoken to. We all wanted to work overseas and travel at every opportunity and challenge ourselves and do something different – within our scope of practice at work and just live a different life than what we would have had if we’d stayed in Aus. I’ve got quite a few holidays planned for the year and a few more that will depend on whether or not I’m getting a mole removed here in London.

I was reunited with my love Nahla and I met my new love Shadow for the first time. Nahla remembered me, I was scared she had forgotten but she knew who I was and we had sweet, sweet cuddles for about 4 seconds each day until we’d be interrupted by the boy. Shadow, Shads, The Pain, oh he loves me the most. And he misses me, I’m told. 

I caught up with just a few friends, but spent most of my time at home with the dogs, as they’re the only ones I can’t communicate with online, or I was at Nonna’s place. 

I was home a week before I took off again, this time to…

ISRAEL AND JORDAN

I would happily visit Jordan again, Israel however, I could give it a miss. Mainly because the security trying to get in or out did my head in.

Tour to Galilee and Nazareth:

Once the bus picked us up we drove through the desert to our first stop. Our itinerary was quite basic and it was really nice of our guide Eyal to include about 4 extra locations. He took us to the St. George’s monastery, which was built into the side of a mountain in the middle of a canyon. Now the guide used quite a few names and with his thick accent I can’t honestly remember who he said built it, or why but apparently history says someone came to the desert to pray for a kid and then returned home and had one. Ha, that’s as much as I’ve got without turning to Google. 

But I mean just look at that view. I could have stayed there for hours just marvelling at the canyon, so vast it was all I could see, so dry but so beautiful. I wished I could’ve walked down and pretended I was acting out one of the scenes from A New Hope and dodging the sand people. It was incredible. Coming from Melbourne, it’s something I’ve never experienced. We accidentally disturbed a mass in Italian standing there at the edge of the cliff looking out at the monastery but, when the priest is using an iPad to deliver the sermon, I think some slack should be given. 

We stopped at the Jordan River, in the place where they say John baptised Jesus. Many people were wearing white robes (to be dried and then worn again when they’re buried) and dunking themselves, believing the water to be holy, others had priests there baptising them in the water with a crowd of Christians cheering them on. Our tour guide was funnily enough telling us they were all competing in a very serious wet tee shirt competition. We liked this guide. Also the border… still kinda full of land mines.

We went to a church, now I’ve forgotten the exact name, St. Peter’s Something, but a church was built on the spot where Jesus supposedly appeared to the apostles, including Peter, in the story after his resurrection about the fish on the sea of Galilee. This spot is where every pop that’s ever been has visited. It felt special just knowing that. 

I had the most delicious fish at the restaurant on the Galilee Sea. Can we just stop for a second and think about the fact that I was at the Sea of Galilee. I mean I’ve been brought up my entire life talking about these cities and places and now I’m actually there. Even the newest churches in these towns are older than our country. So this fish! It’s called St. Peter’s fish but turns out its just dory. But with the salt of the soil and water, and the butter and garlic it’s cooked in, OMG quite easily the best meal I’ve ever had. My three favourite ingredients; butter, garlic and salt. 

So at some point on this day, I think it was before lunch, we went to the first city of Jesus, or something or other. Look at this point of the day I was starving, hot, and thirsty and really not handling the heat very well. We couldn’t refill our bottles anywhere because of how salty the water is and well, our guide said that if we did… we’d need a toilet. So we had to keep buying water, and I’d run out at this point, and it was hot. It was Israel in April, it was stinking hot, we were in the sun all day going from church to church, through the desert, oh, I was not paying attention in the slightest at what he was saying. Some Jews were at this town, then the Romans… ah they moved a synagogue to this location because at the time the Jews weren’t allowed to actually build new ones… that’s all I took in. Stuff happened there and I took photos. I hid in the shade sitting on the ground until my friends collected me and it was time for lunch haha

We gate crashed a Greek baptism in an Orthodox church in Nazareth and visited a church that was built over the supposed site of Mary’s house where she saw the Angel Gabriel. We walked through the old town Nazareth markets and then were picked up by the bus to take us home for the day. We passed a field where our guide says is the location of the Armageddon because the word can be broken down into Tel Megiddo which is a battle in a field – so anyway we drove past the field where it shall be. It’s a pretty bland field, with some trees on a hill. I mean I could think of a few nicer places to enjoy the end of the world than a salty field. 

Tour to Ein Gedi, Masada and the Dead Sea:

We were picked up half an hour early today. The tour company we booked through had great reviews but they subcontract out to other companies… ours was called Fun Time Tours. We did not have a fun time on day 1 in Jordan but I’ll get to that later. We were told approximate times that we’d be picked up from our respective hotels each morning, very rough, approximate times. 

I was super duper excited for today because we were heading to THE DEAD SEA!!! I wore my bathers from the get go because I just wanted to jump in as soon as I got there. But first things first, we stopped at Ein Gedi, a luscious valley in the dessert full of trees and waterfalls. 

Then we went to the old city and battle site of Masada where Herod lived and … something happened where the Romans came for them and the soldiers stayed behind and killed themselves rather than live in slavery… and I tuned out of the 5 minute documentary before we rode the cable car to the top. As you can probably tell I don’t like too much history. We had so many dates and names and locations forced into our ears and down our throats in a week, too much for me to handle. 

So, great view from the top. You can see for miles; the Dead Eea the dessert and it would’ve made a great vantage point for those that used to live there.  

Ok ok and now the part you’ve been waiting for, well at least we were… FLOATING! Oh! I know I’ve got a couple of really handy floatation devices already, but this was something crazy. The Dead Sea is 33% salt, x3 saltier than the ocean and because of that, causes the most drownings than any other body of water around the globe, due to all the second hand drownings (water comes out of body, salt remains, water in your cells move out into different compartments to even out the concentration, cells have no water, water is now in your lungs on dry land… pretty cool, I didn’t do it justice so Google it). Also, stings like a mother if you get it in your eyes, hence the lifeguard on duty screaming out every 3 minutes “STAY CALM. LIE ON YOUR BACK.” My things were wooshed out in front of me and getting up was really hard. You had to push your legs down, they didn’t just fall. We covered ourselves in the mud, baked it on and then washed it off with the salty water (rinsed out faces in the clean water of the hoses) and my skin had never felt that soft and smooth! I loved that afternoon, I really had fun and ticked something great off my bucket list. I'm having trouble uploading those photos so I'll put them in the next post.

Tour of Jerusalem and Bethlehem:

The tour guide on this day knew his stuff, I mean he was a scholar and had a PhD in history but his delivery was pretty poor. He blabbed and droned on and we ran late so our trip to Bethlehem was cut short a little. We walked around Jerusalem all day. We started on the hill, down into the Old Town through the 4 quarters (Muslim, Catholic, Jewish and Greek) and looked at some more churches, ruins of the old town, we had to ask the guide to stop for lunch. Yep, the 8 hour day from 8am-4pm did not factor in a lunch or snack stop. So when we finally ate around 2.30pm we were a little hot, little hungry, little grumpy. 

We bussed it over the Palestinian border to Bethlehem. I have to say that every time we hop in the bus for longer than 15 minutes I’m out, I nap, every single time. I don’t remember this border crossing, I’m just told that there was one because I was asleep both times we crossed it. Now this tour guide was brilliant. Really energetic and enjoyed telling us about his hometown. We visited the church built on top of the manger where Jesus was said to be born.

Traveling to Jordan Day:

Right. This was a long day. People are still going on about this day. I received an email only last week about this day from someone on the tour. Here we go.

As per our itinerary stated, we were to be picked up at approximately 5.30am. But everyone else was told this time as well. The other days were smaller buses but today we were in a large coach. Each hotel picked up around 4 people each so by the time we got everyone on board and reached the border it was 8.30am – peak hour. There were 4 other coaches there as well. We all lined up without our guide just following the crowd really, had the Israeli guys check our passports, went through and picked up our bags from our bus. Then waited (1.5 hours) for the shuttle bus to take us 500m across the border where we had the Jordanian guys check our passports again. Collected our bags again and got on our Jordanian coach. Which broke down 3 minutes after leaving the border. As it was peak travel season there were no more coaches for us to swap onto so we had to wait for a mechanic. Our Jordanian guide entertained us with some local singing and information about the area before he left us to go get us some food. 

It’s Jordan, middle of the day, we had maybe 1 bottle of water each in an old bus with poor, very poor air conditioning. The one small toilet on the bus was hotter than the bus itself and didn’t flush so only took number ones. Some had to go outside behind a bush for those pesky number twos. Our guide returned with over 100 falafel wraps, we each had 2. The mechanic finally arrived, fixed the bus and we were on our way. We took 4hrs to cross the border, which should have taken 45 minutes. The bus took over 3 hours to fix. We were very late. None of it our fault or the guide’s but he did a great job at crying to calm people down. I’m not sure how high the temperature reached in that coach on the side of the road but it wasn’t good. 

People started writing emails. Stern ones. Mass emails. Complaining. And phone calls were made. “I want my money back!!!” They ended up getting everyone’s email addresses so we could all stay in the loop and wrote that they were very disappointed and wanted a refund for that day.

We took off at 3.30pm, instead of closer to 9am. We made it to the old Roman city of Jerash and saw the ruins and the markets there. That was nice, I liked that stop.

Now! It was 6.30pm when we left this location. The itinerary said we had two more stops to make. One was a church on a hill where Moses stood and looked out to the holy land, the other was the first mosaic map of the holy land at a library. Essentially 1 was a lookout point and the other was a map. Neither any of us had any interest in seeing, really. But! It was on our itinerary. So instead of taking the freeways and bypassing them altogether, we had to take the side roads and still go to the mountain top, by which time it was pitch black and look out onto the city of Amman in the dark, and cold. We kept driving, stopped at a few truck stops for the only food they had available, junk food, and a toilet, and thankfully skipped the library, only to get to our hotel at 12.30am. They still had dinner heated for us, it was buffet and boy was it good (maybe it was because we hadn’t had a decent meal all day) at 1am and then hit the hay at 1.30am.

I didn’t sleep well because I was scared I’d sleep too well and sleep through my alarm. 

PETRA DAY!!!

I had been waiting for this day for as long as I can remember. Ever since I first watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with Danny as a little girl. I was the little girl, not Danny, although…

So over 20 years, how old would I have been… under 10, so anyway, a long, long, time. 

We got there early and our guide was great, really informed about the whole area, told us anything we asked and more about the land of Petra and the people that used to and still live there. We started walking through the Siq, you know the one, that weaved it’s way through the canyon. There was a big, but dry, dam at the start of it and through it you could see steps carved into the rocks and aqueducts and troughs throughout the rocks. The colours of the rock were beautiful and it was lovely and cool there with the morning sun hidden. Then. Then came the moment I had been waiting for. I walked out through the Siq to the Treasury! That Petra Monument! Google Petra and that’s what you see. That was the location of the Holy Grail – according to Speilberg and Dr. Henry Jones. I just stood there, surrounded by tourists and locals offering refreshments and camel rides, I stood there and looked up. It’s a temple, inside, but they want to preserve it so you can’t go in anymore, there has been a lot of damage caused from acid deposits from hands touching the stone. 

Snap, snap, snap, so many photos! We all split up from there, because there are around 250, 000 square miles to Petra but all we could cover was a few kms. We all wanted to do different things so I followed the tour guide, he kept going a bit and told us about the tombs and temples. I saw a few areas with rope around them, they’re still being dug up and investigated. One had a sign for a University in America, looks like people from all over are working on those sites. The guide said there was a monastery on the hill just around to the right, and someone else said it was just a 15 minute walk. LIES! It was a 50-minute walk UP HILL in the FLIPPING MIDDAY HEAT. I had to stop a few times and buy a Gatorade from one of the many stalls on the trail because I had finished my regular sized bottle of water. You could buy souvenirs and scarves but I was just only interested in hydrating and cooling the hell down. You could get donkey rides up and/or down, but god no. I did not have the courage for that. It was so steep! I know they’re used to it but I wasn’t. Plus, two donkeys started uh… making love, on the edge of the cliff face (because that’s how steep it was), I ran into a corner with some German ladies, we were all giggling but really scared haha even the locals were concerned. They stopped though, I mean when you get that urge… please don’t do it on a cliff face!

I finally reached the top, I passed some people from my tour group and they gave me words of encouragement to keep going, apparently I had on the same face they did when they got to the top, not a very happy one. But then I turned the corner and saw the monastery and it was incredible. Similar to the Treasury, carved into the stone, it was big and you just have to sit back (at the conveniently placed little shop) and take it all in (with another water and chips).

Hiked back down the frikken mountain and bought a 2L bottle of water, and slowly made my way back to the meeting area at the entrance. So for those of you playing at home I had 3.5L water and a bottle of Gatorade before lunch. I only peed once that day. Needless to say the next day my ankles swelled a little from all that retained water.

By the way, a man on our tour looked like Dr. Henry Jones himself!! Look, look. Yep.

Right, you’ll love this next bit. At lunch, a representative from the Fun Time Tour Company turned up to collect the cash payments from those that hadn’t paid for their tour yet. We were all given the options to either pay by card ahead of time (which is the smart thing to do people, please just pay ahead of time) or cash, collected on the tour. The people who had not paid yet, by cash, did some complaining, and didn’t want to give them anything until it was agreed on a lesser sum considering we didn’t do some of the booked activities the day before. Some people wanted complete refunds for the day before. Others, like me, just wanted to get on with the day because we were meant to watch the sunset in the Wadi Rum Desert that evening. 

Hours they argued, in the restaurant by the way. We tipped the tour guide and he left, and then we all got on the bus, to only have the Jordanian Tourism Police turn up and say that those that hadn’t paid would have to otherwise they’ll go to court and remain in Jordan an extra week at least until it’s sorted. Those that had paid, like yours truly, got a $20 refund for the entrance fee of the church and map library. As they were all inside the Tousim Police Office paying and complaining, I went next door… TO GET ICE CREAM!!! So I was grumpy that I was going to miss out on watching the sunset in the desert but hey, nothing I could do about it, so I grabbed some ice cream and waited. Delicious, by the way, Rum and Raisin. 

We finally got the camp in the desert where we were staying that night and had the pre-prepared buffet dinner. Incredible, again. It was a beautiful camp site, all lit up by lanterns and I was shown to my tent. A tent! I thought I’d had to get a roll out mat or something but not there were bed frames and mattresses and a table, even a power socket in the tents. Before bed, we climbed part way up the massive rock that was above out tent and thought it was a lovely place to watch the sunrise. I made a plan to get up early that morning, 5am.

But at 3am I heard a man leading a prayer in Arabic over a loud speaker. I also head chickens from the camp next door and dogs running wild. The praying started again at 4am. At 4.30 someone in a tent nearby had their alarm go off, so by this point I just got up. Mind you… Mr. 4.30 didn’t show their face, they probably thought meh, a sunrise is a sunrise and rolled over. But I climbed the rock, right to the top, just by the light of the moon - the lanterns had been turned off and the moon was pretty bright so I didn’t need the torch on my phone. 

I sat there alone on top of the rock in the Wadi Rum desert. It was amazing, one of the best moments of the entire trip. I just sat there and felt so small and so completely surrounded by nature. A panoramic view of the mountains and sand, all black and then it slowly faded to grey then- the brightest of oranges. Like Berni’s hair Hahaha I kid. 6 or 7 other people turned up about 5.30 and sat with me, and it was worth the early morning. I was going to describe it but I thought I’d just add a photo…

but they didn't work either. No photos from here onwards - technical difficulties.

Wadi Rum Day:

We spent 3hrs in shitty old jeeps driving in the desert, incredible. But really hot. Oh my lord was it hot. Thankfully the shitty jeeps didn’t have walls so we had 360 degrees access to breeze. Look I’m not kidding about the shittiness of those jeeps. I actually have video footage of the driver rubbing two wires together to hotwire and start it up each time. It was beautiful, I loved every minute knowing that yeah I was in a desert where few footsteps have ever traipsed blah blah blah do you know hoe many films were made there?!!! It was Mars for The Martian, it was Jedha in Rogue One, oh yeah!! 

The rest of the day was a free lunch, a quick stop at Eilat after crossing the border (this time it really did just take 45 minutes) and dipped our toes in the Red Sea before the trek back to Jerusalem. 

Warning: The next few paragraphs may make you cry.

Nonna

I had a few days back at work without James (off sick) and had quite a few sad phone calls from home. I woke on my day off to news that my Nonna passed away. I called work and then booked my flight home for the next day. She’d been sick for a long time but it still hit us hard. When I visited in March I spent most of my time with her, just sitting in her kitchen having coffee and chatting and watching the midday movies. I’d stay all day just to be with her. When I left her house for the last time I hugged her hard and held her close because I knew, I knew that would be the last time. I had to quickly put my sunnies on so she wouldn’t see how much it hurt me but I think Berni and my aunt knew what I was thinking. 

So I flew back for what was the hardest week of my life and if you know anything about what I’ve been through in the last few years, that should put things into perspective. The day I landed, Berni and I went shopping for something pink to wear to the funeral, her favourite colour, and one that neither of us owned. We had to pop into Nonna’s to pick up something Berni had left behind when she was minding the house and cat and I just stood in corners of the house crying. I couldn’t stand being there without her.  All her things were there but she wasn’t. It was the quietest that house has ever been – it held an Italian family for decades so you can imagine the noise those walls had had to keep in. But then I thought that without Nonna, that home is just a house again. It was her that made it special, it was her that made it a home, now it’s just a quiet, empty shell that needs to be delicately taken apart. 

The funeral was bitter sweet. Everyone wore pink, as best they could. Thank you all for that. The PowerPoint had photos throughout her life, which set us all off but it was after the eulogy, thank goodness. Otherwise Berni and Danny wouldn’t be able to say a word. They had to write funny words and draw pictures of… things to make them giggle so they could get through it without crying. Great idea, good work. Berni wrote the final paragraph that didn’t leave one dry eye in the church. Every time we’d leave her house and drive down the street, Nonna would be out the front under the tree waving until she couldn’t see us anymore, and she’d have asked us to ‘Fa Brip Brip’ (to go ring ring) prank her house phone three times so she’d know we got home safe. Berni read aloud moments she’d never forget of Nonna and her home. That unforgettable squeaky gate, hot nights out the back and the smell of hot coffee, the sound of champagne glasses clinking from the wall cabinet, never able to leave without leftovers, Nonna making you a delicious dish with a side of guilt because she ‘made it for you’ because you mentioned one time that you liked it. Berni said that now it was Nonna’s turn to drive away home and we’re all here waiting for her ‘Brip Brip’. 

Ok now a funny to offset those tears.

We thought when leading her out of the church to the hearse that we’d slide her out on wheels and go in age order; Zio Lou, Mum, Zia, Danny, me and Berni, and that Berni and I would get her feet. Awesome. Yes.

No. That so did not happen.

As the final song is playing (Mama by Il Divo) the funeral directors came to the front and turned the casket around, so she’d be going feet first, that’s cool, we’re still going age order with me and Berni at the back and wheeling her out… no no the director counted down “3, 2, 1, and lift!”

What?

We lifted. 

And we felt the pain. Oh Nonna. You had one heavy casket. I love you, but oh my goodness. I was in heels and a leather skirt (neither of which I normally like wearing). So there we are bawling are eyes out, mum and Danny both said they were counting the lines in the carpet to distract them from the lyrics of the song but if I’m honest, the pain on my face was real and the ‘heart ache’ was me trying to think of anything else than the pain in my hand and how to walk in those shoes! And they’re only about 3in high! Eek. And then we get to the stairs! For every step that my aunt took in front of me I awkwardly took two, angling my knees sideways down the steps. I got blisters on my hands too. But it was all worth it. I had a giggle and took a rose from her bunch, thanks Nonna, and waved as she drove away.

Then we went to her house and got drunk. Yay!

That’s all for the tears, I swear. 

I have this week off work, that’s just how this rota is so I have a few last minute travel plans but I think I’ll drive to the South Downs and go for a walk. And then pack, because on Friday I head to EGYPT! Egypt, Cyprus and Montenegro. WOOHOO!

Going forward for this year, it’ll be my last with the LAS, my last over here in London, before I return to Aus and apply for Ambulance Victoria and start to settle down * gasp * . 

July will see me, Berni and Danny in NEW YORK CITY!!!! One crazy ass week of overeating, walking until we get blisters, baseball and a show! Danny and I will scream along to THE FOO FIGHTERS while Berni watches a play on Broadway, oh excuse me. I’ve then got a friend’s wedding in Bordeaux, France for a few days with a short detour to Disneyland. 

At the moment, I’m planning on leaving in late September after another friend’s wedding or early October, and spending a month backpacking around South East Asia before arriving in Melbourne. 

BUT I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!!