Fabric-ated

Over the past 6 months, I have developed a voracious appetite for Middle Eastern fabrics.  The ones I bought before are pretty, but nothing about them is terribly Middle Eastern.  However, to my great delight, a friend recently introduced me to an amazing little cluster of shops in the souk, and I feel satiated.  The shops are teensy-tiny, like standing room only for about 4-5 people, but they're packed with goodies.  Don't get me wrong--there are oodles more I would love to get my hands on, but for now, this will do.

A Happy, Harried Day

We decided to tackle a shopping trip today, to the main souk (market) in downtown Amman.  It's less of a "souk" in the sense of open-air market and more of a centralized shopping area with tons of tiny shops all crammed back to back over several streets.  The shops seem to be organized by items sold: there's a street of scarves, a street of clothes, a street of toys, a street of mechanical needs, etc.  The main goal was to find the street of fabric shops...we did not find a whole street lined with said shops, but we did find several within a close vicinity, and got some beautiful prints (well, we think so, at least!).  I'm excited to delve into these projects when I get home!  I was hoping for a few more Middle-Eastern prints, but the ones available were...well, kind of ugly.  Oh well.  I'm happy with what we came away with. 

sheer fabric...perhaps matching skirts/dresses for me and Fia?

sheer fabric...an undecided something for Fia

turquoise seems to be a popular color here, and I love how they use it; this is not quite what I had in mind, but I'll use it!

The fabric store shopkeepers were all middle-aged men, which was funny but not out of place here, and added to the fun experience of buying fabric in another country.

We also happened across an amazing little store called "City Rose Souvenirs"...wish I would have thought to bring the camera, because the store itself was a delight to the eyes.  And the prices were so reasonable!  We found a trove of treasures from our "Jordan wish list" there, and had them all piled up at the front counter, ready to pay...when we realized to our horror that the money we thought we had brought was not, in fact, anywhere to be found.  As we were scrambling for what to do, we asked if they could hold it all for us while we went to get our money and come back.  It was extra confusing because our day was already jam-packed and there really was no time for coming back.  They counter-offered that we should just take it all with us, and come back to pay later.  No matter how many times this happens, it always takes me by surprise--it's so trusting!  We offered to just leave it all there until we came back, or to give them the money we did have, or to leave our phone number, but they refused it all and insisted that we just take our purchases and pay later.  Amazing!

my favorite buy: it's a hanging candle-lamp

isn't is gorgeous?  and so reasonably priced!

It took us 2 hours to wind our way out of downtown, a combined issue of terrible traffic and getting lost.  For some reason, we can never seem to find our way out of what I've come to think of as "the black hole" (city center).  And then I thought, it was extra trusting of those shopkeepers to have such faith in us that we could even find their shop again!  Maybe they thought of that after we left, as they did seem happy (surprised, even?) to see me again.  But thanks be to God, I did; and even more thanks to God (and the shopkeeper's directions), I found my way out in about 5 minutes! 

The days here have been over 100F lately--sweltering!  So today we had a refreshing invitation from some friends who work at the US Embassy in the swanky part of town to come swim with them at the embassy pool.  The embassy is like a fortress, or a town to itself, and everything inside is kept up really nicely.  After a harried (though good) day, soaked with sweat, it was delightful to dip into the refreshing water and just float awhile. 

Highlights of Lebanon: Day 2

Our second day we headed north, tummies full with French pastries for breakfast--yumm!  First, we hit up Byblos--an impressive ancient city surrounded by a picturesque modern city.  We could've spend days at this one spot alone!  The ancient site represents almost all time periods in history, and is intimidatingly massive even though the full extent of it hasn't been uncovered.  (If you want more details on the actual archaeology, you might want to check Owen's blog.)  There was a beautiful old port where we walked out on the kurkar bedrock into the Mediterranean; the tide was out, so we dipped our toes and got an up-close-and-personal look at some crabs, sea apples, and other shallow-water sea-life.  There were some local guys out diving for something, and they waved for our pictures.  It was so relaxing to just wander along the sea-shore...there's something magical and calming about water.

feeling the ocean on our feet

the harbor, ancient tell off to the right

divers

We had spent about 3 hours at Byblos, and when we were ready to go it was hot and we were tired and hungry.  So we piled ourselves into the muggy car...only to discover that Jack had turned on the lights before we left and the battery was completely dead.  Not the most exciting discovery when you have a whole country to see in 2 1/2 days!  We tracked down some really friendly young men in a Beamer, still in swim trunks since they had just come from swimming, who were able to scrounge up some jumper cables and get us on our way.

an old church in Byblos

one view of the archaeological site...it doesn't begin to show the expanse of it

The next stop was Tell Fadous-Kfarabida...I don't know much about it and didn't even get out for this stop.  Owen took Jack up, but Safita was sleeping in the car, and the whole site required a machete to traverse--covered in tall thorns and weeds.  We didn't stay long, although when we were ready to go Jack decided he was going to stay there by himself and play with the pile of rocks left by the nearby construction crew.  He is an independent boy, for sure; we even all got in the car and pretended to go without him, and he just contentedly waved goodbye.  The promise of ice cream was the only way to make him budge.  

Fadous from the road...nothing spectacular

On our way to fulfill that promise of ice cream (which we were all dreaming mouth-wateringly of at this point) was a "quick" stop at Batroun, where the Phoenicians carved an impressive sea wall out of the local kurkar stone.  It was a little hard to find, surprisingly--you'd think it would be easy since it's on the coast.  We've noticed a trend in Lebanon (and perhaps the greater Middle East) that the road-sign crew seems to think one sign pointing out the general direction is sufficient for aiding travelers in their journey; there is no succession of signs.  I think we spent half the trip getting lost and going in circles.  Anyway, at this stop Jack was happy throwing rocks into puddles, and even Safita tried her hand at it.

the kurkar wall on the right

throwing stones!

The Mussaylha Fort was a short stop off the road on the way to Tripoli.  It was pretty cool to look at, and had a very romantic and quaint stone bridge that you had to cross to get to it.  It was, unfortunately, fenced off and closed that day, so we were unable to climb up and explore, but still definitely worth a stop.  

Tripoli was much larger than we anticipated.  Again, it took us a while to find the old city, due to lack of road signs and/or helpful maps.  And once we found it, it swallowed us like quick sand.  It's MASSIVE--I think it's actually several souks all right next to each other, parts of it drivable by car and other parts pedestrian, just a mass of winding alleys perfect for losing yourself in.  And lose ourselves we did.  We were searching for the best sweets shop in all of Lebanon, according to Lonely Planet--a place called Raf'at Hallab Brothers.  The baklava we had there was worth the pain we went through to get there--it is seriously the best baklava I've ever had in my life: flaky, crisp yet tender, full of flavor, melty...it was like the sweet dew of heaven in your mouth.  We ordered one of each for there, and a box of our favorites to go.  

Tripoli souk

before dismissing this as just a picture of trash, take a closer look to see the giant bones in and around!

We had heard they had old-time coppersmiths in the souk, and have been in great search of reasonable copper items (I somehow have fallen deeply in love with copper), so one of our goals here was to find some copper.  But as I mentioned, we had gotten very seriously lost in the labyrinth and had no idea how to get back to our car; we began by trying to retrace our steps as best we remembered, and on the way the Lord answered our prayers by sending a very eccentric man dressed all in red plaid, and possessing an intricate knowledge of the souk, to guide us back.  And it turns out, he also was age-old family friends with one of the copper shop-keepers, and gave us a whole tour of the recesses of the shop where they make the stuff!  So cool.  Alas, it was too expensive, but it was amazing just to see how they do it. 

coppersmith's shop: production area

By the time we left Tripoli, it was after 6:00 pm, but we foolishly decided to try to fit in an excursion to see the cedars of Lebanon.  I think we thought it was much, much closer than it was.  The drive up was an incredible view, but it became a late, dinner-less night, and by the time we got to the cedars it was too dark to actually see them.  When we finally got back we had to endure kids screaming through showers and a midnight pizza run for hungry tummies, but eventually, somehow, we all got to bed. 

As an aside: My favorite things about Lebanon include:

1) They have curtains for their balconies!  

2) The architecture is the perfect blend of Arab and French, for such a warm, quaint look.  My favorite was when I saw a typical unfinished, run-down, poorly-constructed Arab-style concrete block house--with French shutters on it.  Shutters make all the difference!  I made a note to self: someday, when the only type of house we can afford is a run-down, fit-for-the-dump house, we will buy shutters, and all will be well. 

These Little Piggies went to Market

We went to market!  The Abdali Market in Amman happens every Friday, and is like a huge flea market.  The large majority of wares are used clothing, shoes, purses, and toys, but they also have some random things like cooking knives and a hodge-podge of household items.

High view overlooking the tarp-covered market area.

Shoes!

It was a fun experience.  The air smells rightly of must, body odor, and nose-burning smoke.  Ringing across the market is a chorus of men shouting, advertising their goods.  The light underneath reflects the color of tarp above, so you find yourself wandering through red-tinged, green-tinged, blue-tinged light, with the occasional spotlight of bright sunshine glaring through the cracks.  The different sellers' areas all blend together so that it sometimes is quite unclear who is in charge of what, and it's like an endless maze of used STUFF...most of which strikes me as, well, junk.  Especially the toys.  They have tables and tables of toys, and almost every single one of them is broken and dirty.  But, it was fun to look through and laugh at surprising finds!  Like a Taco Bell toy--who knew it existed?

anybody know what this does?

However, we did find some great treasures!  Here's a look:

"Princess" pants, 3 JD (these are new, if anyone wants some, let me know--super light, super comfy!)

twirly skirt, 2 JD

vintage cute, or out-of-date ugly? well, I like it!  3 JD

knock-off "Sharpei" markers, 0.5 JD

knock-off Armani cologne, 2 JD (the real stuff is Georgio Armani "Acqua di gio" and costs around $70 for this size)

Next on our market list is to check out the main souk (market) in downtown Amman to hunt for pretty scarves and fabric (my mind is swimming with ideas of what to use it for!).