shootersix
Master
- Mar 10, 2009
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- 113
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Be sure to read this post! Beware of scammers. https://www.indianagunowners.com/threads/classifieds-new-online-payment-guidelines-rules-paypal-venmo-zelle-etc.511734/
Stories and photos from my time living in the Middle East
- Thread starter BehindBlueI's
- Start date
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BehindBlueI's
Grandmaster
- Oct 3, 2012
- 26,608
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BehindBlueI's
Grandmaster
- Oct 3, 2012
- 26,608
- 113
This one will be quick, and mostly displays my own ignorance.
Nabil asked me if I wanted to see some of the Mosaic trail. I said sure, so off we went. I expected some sort of cultural walk with pictures made of rocks and shards of pottery. You know, a mosaic. We get there and its...nothing. Just scrubby desert and some signs and a little museum. We went through the museum and I see these papers in a glass case like trinket dealers at flea markets use. Those wooden framed display cases with a little brass hasp and tiny brass padlock that they display silver jewerly, cheap watches, and coin collections in. I'm looking at the papers and realize they aren't papers, they are scrolls. Then I read the signs and they are freaking Dead Sea scrolls. With all of the security of a peddler's mall. My first thought is that they'd have been stolen a long time ago in the US...then I wondered if they weren't reproductions so that's why the security is lax. Nope, they are the real things.
Yeah, flash photography was allowed. Or at least not prohibited.
We go through this little museum and I keep wondering where the mosaics are. I asked Nabil and he had no idea what I was talking about. I began to think there was a translation issue, so I told him I was curious as to where the pictures made of little colored tiles or rocks or something was. He said he wasn't aware of such a thing there. I asked why it was the Mosaic trail then. He said because its the Mosaic trail. That wasn't very satisfactory to me, I thought maybe he was getting a little Zen on me, but we kept looking around.
Then it hit me. It wasn't the Mosaic trail like pictures with rocks. It was the Mosaic trail as in related to Moses as in the trail he took when he wandered the desert. I tested this theory with Nabil, and I got a similar reaction to what you'd expect if I said "Water? Oh, you mean the wet stuff?" Ah. Got it. Yes. Related to Moses. Once I figured that out I had rather mixed feelings. One, its still just sort of scrubby desert. Two, its sort of small to wonder in for 40 years, even counting Israel. Three, there is a lot of real history here. At that point I hadn't been to Cyprus or Italy yet, so it was the first time I was confronted with something so...really really old. It was oddly humbling for what was really just a small piece of scrubby desert.
Nabil asked me if I wanted to see some of the Mosaic trail. I said sure, so off we went. I expected some sort of cultural walk with pictures made of rocks and shards of pottery. You know, a mosaic. We get there and its...nothing. Just scrubby desert and some signs and a little museum. We went through the museum and I see these papers in a glass case like trinket dealers at flea markets use. Those wooden framed display cases with a little brass hasp and tiny brass padlock that they display silver jewerly, cheap watches, and coin collections in. I'm looking at the papers and realize they aren't papers, they are scrolls. Then I read the signs and they are freaking Dead Sea scrolls. With all of the security of a peddler's mall. My first thought is that they'd have been stolen a long time ago in the US...then I wondered if they weren't reproductions so that's why the security is lax. Nope, they are the real things.
Yeah, flash photography was allowed. Or at least not prohibited.
We go through this little museum and I keep wondering where the mosaics are. I asked Nabil and he had no idea what I was talking about. I began to think there was a translation issue, so I told him I was curious as to where the pictures made of little colored tiles or rocks or something was. He said he wasn't aware of such a thing there. I asked why it was the Mosaic trail then. He said because its the Mosaic trail. That wasn't very satisfactory to me, I thought maybe he was getting a little Zen on me, but we kept looking around.
Then it hit me. It wasn't the Mosaic trail like pictures with rocks. It was the Mosaic trail as in related to Moses as in the trail he took when he wandered the desert. I tested this theory with Nabil, and I got a similar reaction to what you'd expect if I said "Water? Oh, you mean the wet stuff?" Ah. Got it. Yes. Related to Moses. Once I figured that out I had rather mixed feelings. One, its still just sort of scrubby desert. Two, its sort of small to wonder in for 40 years, even counting Israel. Three, there is a lot of real history here. At that point I hadn't been to Cyprus or Italy yet, so it was the first time I was confronted with something so...really really old. It was oddly humbling for what was really just a small piece of scrubby desert.
shootersix
Master
- Mar 10, 2009
- 4,530
- 113
cause they now how to punish criminals!, somehow i think they have all the protection they need for something that historically important!
keep posting this stuff!
BehindBlueI's
Grandmaster
- Oct 3, 2012
- 26,608
- 113
There was a sweet shop in Jordan called "habibah" that sold freshly made confections and desserts.
Habibah Sweets, Amman - Restaurant Reviews, Phone Number & Photos - TripAdvisor
This is to Amman what Long's Bakery is to Indianapolis. Dangerous to those of us who like sweets, and a constant source of temptation. Some of the desserts did not sound tasty to me at first description. Cheese as the base of a dessert? Stupidly of me, I love cheesecake but didn't really make the connection that some types of cheese do very well in sweets. Kanafah uses some type of cheese as the base and I almost didn't try it, but my wife insisted so I relented and.... it was awesome. It was a base of soft white cheese, honey, shredded nuts, and shredded filo dough, and it was sweet without being cloying, rich without being heavy...and easy to eat too much of.
Baklawa (Baklava in Greek cuisines, Baklawa in Arabic, but same dish) was also really good. They used real honey, not the sugar syrup you usually get at Greek restaurants here in the US. It's a totally different dessert when made fresh and with the correct ingredients instead of cheaper substitutes and frozen dough.
Very close to Habibah was a bakery that made a type of Arabic flat bread that I don't know the name of. It's larger than the traditional kho'bez (what we'd call pita bread), and thinner without the pocket in the middle. It's not much thicker than a cracker, but its still soft and just a little chewy. The dough is already made and when you order it they throw the dough over this metal thing that looks very much like a drummer's top hat cymbal. The "cymbal" is heated from underneath by a gas fire and is very hot. The dough cooks into the bread in about 10-15 seconds. I thought it was going to be like a saltine since it was so thin and cooked so quickly, but like I said it was soft and chewy. The bread is tasty enough to eat alone, and I often bought some to keep for snacking. My wife would make a dish using that bread along with olive oil with a white cheese on top. I don't know what the cheese is called in English, but I called it "squeaky cheese" because it's a rubbery texture that makes a squeaking sound as you chew it. It doesn't really melt as much as just soften. She would quickly fry the cheese in olive oil while toasting the bread briefly and then sprinkle it with Za'tar (which I also don't know the English name of, but its a blend of herbs) and it is very tasty. She still makes it, but we have to use pita bread here in the US.
Habibah is a play on the Arabic word for "sweet heart", by the way. I don't know that I ever knew what the bakery was called. It was just "the bakery near Habibah" for us.
Habibah Sweets, Amman - Restaurant Reviews, Phone Number & Photos - TripAdvisor
This is to Amman what Long's Bakery is to Indianapolis. Dangerous to those of us who like sweets, and a constant source of temptation. Some of the desserts did not sound tasty to me at first description. Cheese as the base of a dessert? Stupidly of me, I love cheesecake but didn't really make the connection that some types of cheese do very well in sweets. Kanafah uses some type of cheese as the base and I almost didn't try it, but my wife insisted so I relented and.... it was awesome. It was a base of soft white cheese, honey, shredded nuts, and shredded filo dough, and it was sweet without being cloying, rich without being heavy...and easy to eat too much of.
Baklawa (Baklava in Greek cuisines, Baklawa in Arabic, but same dish) was also really good. They used real honey, not the sugar syrup you usually get at Greek restaurants here in the US. It's a totally different dessert when made fresh and with the correct ingredients instead of cheaper substitutes and frozen dough.
Very close to Habibah was a bakery that made a type of Arabic flat bread that I don't know the name of. It's larger than the traditional kho'bez (what we'd call pita bread), and thinner without the pocket in the middle. It's not much thicker than a cracker, but its still soft and just a little chewy. The dough is already made and when you order it they throw the dough over this metal thing that looks very much like a drummer's top hat cymbal. The "cymbal" is heated from underneath by a gas fire and is very hot. The dough cooks into the bread in about 10-15 seconds. I thought it was going to be like a saltine since it was so thin and cooked so quickly, but like I said it was soft and chewy. The bread is tasty enough to eat alone, and I often bought some to keep for snacking. My wife would make a dish using that bread along with olive oil with a white cheese on top. I don't know what the cheese is called in English, but I called it "squeaky cheese" because it's a rubbery texture that makes a squeaking sound as you chew it. It doesn't really melt as much as just soften. She would quickly fry the cheese in olive oil while toasting the bread briefly and then sprinkle it with Za'tar (which I also don't know the English name of, but its a blend of herbs) and it is very tasty. She still makes it, but we have to use pita bread here in the US.
Habibah is a play on the Arabic word for "sweet heart", by the way. I don't know that I ever knew what the bakery was called. It was just "the bakery near Habibah" for us.
BehindBlueI's
Grandmaster
- Oct 3, 2012
- 26,608
- 113
This isn't my picture later in the post, I was advised to not take photos of cops in Jordan and when I was advised on that sort of thing I listened.
I post that so I can tell you about the Jordanian motorcycle cops. It's an oddity I never figured out. Jordanian cops look like US cops, and are trained by US cops. They wore a US police style uniform, they carried Glocks (and often a rifle as well), they had Crown Vics...other than many having full beards they could have been set down in any US city and not looked out of place. Except the motorcycle cops.
One, they didn't ride Harleys. It was some sort of Honda we don't have in the US, but was similar to a Goldwing but not as big. That's different but not THE difference. They rode two up. The guy on the front looked like a US motorcycle cop. Helmet, boots, navy blue uniform, Glock. The guy on the back looked like this:
and carried a revolver. The helmets I saw were chrome, not the blue one here. Maybe the "winter" helmet is the one I saw? Not sure.
The guy with the spike helmet was ALWAYS on the back and the regular looking motorcycle cop was ALWAYS on the front. I never saw a 'cycle cop without his little buddy on the back, and I never saw anyone else wearing the spike helmet except little buddy. I have no idea why. My wife doesn't know, either. Nabil didn't know. It's just one of those things that that's the way it is because that's the way it is, I guess.
Here's a photo with the bike and the driver:
I post that so I can tell you about the Jordanian motorcycle cops. It's an oddity I never figured out. Jordanian cops look like US cops, and are trained by US cops. They wore a US police style uniform, they carried Glocks (and often a rifle as well), they had Crown Vics...other than many having full beards they could have been set down in any US city and not looked out of place. Except the motorcycle cops.
One, they didn't ride Harleys. It was some sort of Honda we don't have in the US, but was similar to a Goldwing but not as big. That's different but not THE difference. They rode two up. The guy on the front looked like a US motorcycle cop. Helmet, boots, navy blue uniform, Glock. The guy on the back looked like this:
and carried a revolver. The helmets I saw were chrome, not the blue one here. Maybe the "winter" helmet is the one I saw? Not sure.
The guy with the spike helmet was ALWAYS on the back and the regular looking motorcycle cop was ALWAYS on the front. I never saw a 'cycle cop without his little buddy on the back, and I never saw anyone else wearing the spike helmet except little buddy. I have no idea why. My wife doesn't know, either. Nabil didn't know. It's just one of those things that that's the way it is because that's the way it is, I guess.
Here's a photo with the bike and the driver:
shootersix
Master
- Mar 10, 2009
- 4,530
- 113
where did little buddy sit? on the box on the back?
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