Lady in Leeds

Today I took the fastest business trip of my life. I wanted to meet with a client up in Leeds, but the best prices on train tickets were only available if I arrived in Leeds just before noon and departed just after 2pm. After a bit of indecision, I bought the tickets, agreed to hold the meeting with the client at the train station, and hoped for a delay-free train trip.

Serendipitously, my train arrived early, the client arrived early, and the meeting ended with just under an hour left before I had to head back to London. Not wanting to while away the time in the Starbucks at Leeds train station, I asked my client to point me in the direction of "things to see" and set out on the fastest city tour of my life.

My client pointed me towards Briggate, a wide pedestrianized street with historic shopping arcades branching off of either side. My first stop was Victoria Quarter and its adjacent—and in my opinion more beautiful—twin, County Arcade. Brimming with holiday lights, full of wrought-iron Victoriana, and chock-a-block with luxury shops like Vivienne Westwood and Harvey Nicks, these two shopping areas were a delightful blend of beautiful design, both Victorian and contemporary.

After speed walking through the arcades, I raced back out to Briggate and headed north to The Headrow. Home of the famous Town Hall and the adjacent twins of the Leeds Art Gallery and The Henry Moore Institute, The Headrow was all Victorian-architecture-meets-contemporary-design.

Glancing up at the larger-than-life clock dwarfing the Town Hall's dainty cupola, I picked up my pace and sped back down Park Row and over to Bond Street. I followed the pedestrianized walk to Commercial Street, then beat a path to the Corn Exchange, a giant domed building that used to house maize and now houses two boutiques, a gym, and a food court.

The Corn Exchange was so desolate that at first I wondered if I was in a private office building. Then I saw the enormous sign begging potential tenants to rent space in the building. Ah, the recession.

I took a few pictures of the architecturally-thought-provoking-yet-mysteriously-tenant-free space, then walked back outside to check out a few more streets before my time was up.

Stumbling upon a market on Vicar Lane that sold everything from two-inch purple acrylic nails to pink foam curlers to Greek food to Tinkerbell figurines, I couldn't help but feel like I was worlds away from the nearby chi chi boutiques of Victoria Quarter. Bewildered, I exited, grabbed a quick sandwich, and flew back to the train station.

The giant clock in the station read 1:46pm when I entered, and shortly thereafter I was safely in my seat on the train. I felt exhausted from my speed walking tour of the Leeds city center and glad to not have to look at another clock until I got back to London.

Lady at the Dead Sea

After our epic adventure in Petra, my boyfriend and I needed some time to relax. We headed out of Wadi Musa in the afternoon and drove back up the King's Highway to the town of Tafila. From there we headed out to the Dead Sea on one of the most beautiful roads in the country.

We wound through solitary golden mountains, taking each tight turn as slowly as possible so that we could savor the views. Slowly we descended into a startlingly green valley and arrived in the town of Fifa on the Dead Sea Highway. From there we made our way north to the sea.

When we arrived, there was a thick haze hovering over the valley and it made the whole body of water appear as a desert mirage. The sun was setting as we pulled alongside the impossibly still, impossibly salty blue mass, and we drove with one eye on the road and the other on the hazy sunset.

Our final destination in Jordan was Ma'in, a collection of hot springs and waterfalls between the Dead Sea and Madaba, the mosaic city we visited on our first day in the country. The newest addition to Ma'in was our hotel, the Evason Ma'in and Six Senses Spa, which had opened not long before our visit. After a gruelling day of hiking under the baking sun of Petra, waterfall hot springs and a massage could not have sounded sweeter.

It was dusk by the time we checked into our hotel, but we couldn't resist a dip in the steamy pools beneath the waterfalls. Peeling our dirt-covered clothing off and donning our swimsuits, we headed to the springs for some hot hydrotherapy.

Hot was an understatement. The water was scalding. We kept dipping our feet in the pool to try to adjust them to the temperature, but had to pull them back out again after a few seconds. Finally the attendant came up to us and laughingly showed us a way to climb over to the falls, which were a good ten degrees cooler than the rest of the water. We spent the next half hour relaxing in the darkness under the warm springs.

The next morning we headed to the swimming pool at the hotel for a few hours of leisurely reading and an unintentionally huge lunch at the pool bar.

In the afternoon we headed down to the Dead Sea to take a swim. Just as everyone had warned us, the Dead Sea was the most bizarre aquatic experience we had ever had. The salinity of the water meant that we were so buoyant we could barely move. Floating on our backs with our feet in the air was the only comfortable position, although we didn't let that stop us from trying to swim or put our feet on the ground. It was no use. We found that swimming becomes very difficult when you can't immerse yourself in water, and keeping one's feet on the ground is tough when they keep popping back up again.

We spent more time at the Dead Sea than we had anticipated, and drove back to our hotel as fast as we could in order to be on time for our massage appointments. We wound up the hairpin turns to the top of the mountain as quickly as our car would take us and then back down the unimaginably steep road to our hotel. We were late, but not too late.

Our massages were great, if not a bit too short. Afterwards we took a dip in the spa pool, complete with its own waterfall. While we soaked, we enjoyed mango sorbet and ginger tea that the staff brought out to us. It was pure bliss.

As we were leaving, the receptionist at the spa offered us complimentary foot massages since our massages had to be cut short. It was very generous of him to offer, especially since it was completely our fault that we arrived late for our treatments.

Massages completed, we floated back to the hotel for an al fresco dinner in front of the waterfalls. It could not have been more relaxing. We went to bed that night wishing we had another day to enjoy the springs, the spa, and the sea.

As we drove back through the mountains the next morning, up to Madaba, and out to the Amman airport, I flipped through my guidebook to remind myself of all that we had seen on our trip. Unfortunately, I was also reminded of all that we didn't have time to see. As if I really needed an excuse to start planning another trip to Jordan...

Lady for Two Years

Today marks my two year anniversary of living in London. All day I've been thinking about my first day in this amazing city. About my Eurostar pulling into Waterloo station, my boyfriend meeting me with flowers, my dinner at Mint Leaf, and the moment in the taxi when it finally hit me that I had achieved my long time dream of moving to London.

On my one year anniversary I set out some pretty lofty goals for my second year. While I didn't exactly tack them to the wall and track my progress on a daily basis, I think I did pretty well in accomplishing them.

I added a few more countries to my list, a few new UK cities, and at least four new restaurants with three Michelin stars. I squeezed in a handful of zoos, a smattering of visits from friends and family, and an improvement in the exchange rate (I take full credit for that one). I have attended one more wedding and I have avoided moving flats a third time.

Sadly, the one goal I utterly failed to accomplish was making a pet of my neighborhood fox. I guess there's always room for improvement. Maybe next year!

Lady in Petra

My guidebook's first line about Petra said that whenever you hear the word Petra, you immediately think of the Nabateans. I don't know about other people, but whenever I think of Petra, I immediately think of Indiana Jones.

Ever since I was a child I have always been fascinated by the grand Treasury and the narrow siq leading up to it. What I never realized until last weekend was that Petra is much bigger than that one building. So much bigger, in fact, that a friend of mine assured me that my boyfriend and I would need more than a day to see it. Unlike Indiana Jones, we weren't there seeking just the Holy Grail. Petra itself was our holy grail, and we wanted to explore every inch of it.



We arrived in Petra at 4:57pm after barrelling down the King's Highway faster than Indiana Jones running from his pursuers. Since the visitor center supposedly closed at 5pm, I ran to get our tickets while my boyfriend parked the car. We quickly set off down the road to the siq and found ourselves navigating through massive tourist crowds that were coming the other way. We were going to have Petra all to ourselves. I couldn't wait.



We entered the narrow corridor with its high walls of tormented rock and our pulses quickened as we looked for a hint of the Treasury around every corner. The siq was much longer than I had anticipated, but we were finally rewarded with the welcoming facade of the great Nabatean edifice.



Quickening our pace and pulling out our cameras, we headed towards the Treasury. Everything we read about Petra said that seeing the building in person was even more amazing than seeing it in the most beautiful photographs. They were right. Tall, imposing, and enigmatically ancient, the Treasury was stunning.



We knew that the building's interior wouldn't look like it did in Indiana Jones, but I couldn't help walking up to the entrance just to make sure. What I found was a rather small empty room with an even smaller empty room behind it. A bit of a stark contrast to the grand exterior, but I wasn't complaining.



After being sufficiently star struck by the Treasury, we walked along the road towards the amphitheatre and the Royal Tombs, savoring the last bits of daylight as we made our way past small caves in the warm sandstone. The amphitheater was beautifully preserved, and the Royal Tombs stunning in their size and condition after thousands of years. We were dying to walk farther down into the city center, but dusk was spreading its dark blanket over the valley and we knew we wouldn't make it home before nightfall.



We hurried back to our hotel in Wadi Musa, the modern town that has been built up on the outskirts of its ancient neighbor. We had a quick dinner under the stars on the roof terrace, then went to bed early so we could see more of Petra in the morning.



We were up before 7am and on the path to Petra shortly thereafter. While our guidebook had promised that no tour buses would arrive before 8am, we were dismayed to see large groups already on the trail. Walking as quickly as we could, we got around the tours and had the quiet siq almost to ourselves as we journeyed back into Petra.



The sun was shining on the rock as we made our way through the slender crevasse. The light coaxed beautiful red and gold colors out of the stone while the shadows threw the illuminated rocks into relief. It was stunning.



We stopped only briefly to admire the Treasury before pressing on to widen the gap between ourselves and the tour groups behind us. Our first stop was the Royal Tombs. We climbed up the steps to get a better look from below, then climbed up into the tombs themselves. As we made our way up, I couldn't help but wonder how long it would be before tourists were forbidden from climbing all over the ancient tombs. I couldn't imagine that the toll of thousands of feet and humid breaths per year wouldn't someday ruin the ruins



After exploring the Royal Tombs we headed into Petra's city center. Not much of it was still standing aside from some columns and a few buildings on the hillside, but the major highlight was an excavation of the Petra Great Temple. I wasn't just interested in it from a historical perspective. I was thrilled to find that the team of archaeologists working on the site were from Brown!



We explored the Great Temple for awhile, then headed deeper into the city center and up to the Monastery. It was a bit of a trek to get to the latter, but when we caught our first glimpse of the rock facade, I knew that I would climb twice as far just to see it.



Larger than the Treasury and just as well-preserved, the Monastery is one of the most impressive sights in Petra. Carved right out of a rock cliff, the building is all gorgeous gold. We took it in, then climbed to a vista point above it to see views of the valley below before heading back to the city center for lunch.



We still had a few more things on our must-see list, so we bought another huge bottle of water (our third of the day and it was only 11am!) and set off on a trail that led to the High Place of Sacrifice. On our way, we passed by more tombs in the mountainside, including one of Roman Soldiers and one called the Renaissance Tomb.



We climbed a set of vertigo-inducing stairs to the top of a mountain, then climbed some more. We bought another huge bottle of water. We kept walking. Finally, finally we made it to the High Place of Sacrifice. By the time we arrived at the altar I was ready to sacrifice myself if it meant I didn't have to climb any higher. But the views were stunning and the place an amazing piece of history, and it was well worth the trek.



As we descended from the High Place and made our way back to the siq, I couldn't help but be awed by how huge Petra was and how much history was there. The Nabateans, the Romans, the crusaders, and most importantly, Indiana Jones had left their marks on Petra. My hope in leaving is that I didn't leave too much of a mark myself. Seeing as how there is still so much excavation to be done and so much of Petra I didn't have a chance to see, I hope to return some day to see even more of the ancient city. Until then, it will remain my holy grail.