Trip to Jeddah

Hello all! Well it's been awhile since we posted last but we've stayed really busy. One of the things we got to do was spend a weekend in Jeddah! It was our first time traveling inside Saudi and hopefully it won't be our last. We loved it! Here are some of the highlights

 We flew on Saudi Arlines and it was great. One interesting thing is that happened was that they read a prayer over the intercom that was intended for travelers. Never seen that before on a plane! The food on the plane was definitely Saudi too with kabobs, falafel, and humus!

We are not sure how many stars our hotel was but we are guessing it was on the lower end of the scale. However, they did have a very unique fountain in the lobby.

Next we had an amazing beach day with friends! First time to the Red Sea for us!

It was so nice going to the beach and realizing the water was warm! You can see how there was a really long shallow area and then it drops off about 40 feet. Right at the drop off there was the most amazing reef and fish! There were fish everywhere!

Here are some of the fish we saw when we were snorkeling! It was unbeleiveable how colorful the fish were and there were hundreds of them!

After we finished hanging out at the beach (and getting really sunburnt) we drove around exploring Jeddah a little bit. One thing that really stood out and that was differnt from Riyadh was there was so much art around the city. It seemed like almost every roundabout had some new sculpture or statue. We really liked this gaint camel one.

This is King Fahd Fountian and is a cool attraction in Jeddah. We were pretty far away, which shows how tall it is. The fountian shoots up 1024 feet in the air!

This was definatly a big highlight for us. Name that restaurant...

It was so nice having good Mexican food again! We ate way too much and left moving much slower.

This was another restaurant that we sort of discovered because every taxi driver we talked to said that we had to eat here. I guess "Al Baik" is one of the most famous food places in Jeddah.

They are most famous for their chicken so we had to give it a try. We really liked it!

Next we got to explore the old city of Jeddah. This was one of the old city gates that originally was built by the Ottoman Empire.

 

These were some of our favorite buildings in the old city of Jeddah.

Many of the buildins date back to 1800s. It's amazing that people are still living in them today.

We also learned that the white stones you see are actually made of coral bricks! I guess that is what you make your houses out of if you live in a desert next to the sea.

We absolutely loved our trip and hope to return again soon! Love you all and see you soon! July 2nd!!

The Call

In Saudi Arabia, one of the most important parts of life is prayer. So in Saudi, one thing that is impossible to miss is the call to prayer. Muslims are called to pray five times a day. The call to prayer is heard at dawn (it changes throughout the year but now it plays at 3:58 AM), midday (11:51 AM), about the middle of the afternoon (3:19 PM), just after sunset (6:21 PM), and at night fall about two hours after sunset (7:51 PM). It is announced over loud speakers from each mosque and during that time all businesses close and life stops for half an hour. In Saudi, mosques are strategically placed throughout the city so that at all times every person will be close enough to get to one in time. As you can imagine, that is a lot of mosques and a lot of calls being called out at once. From our apartment we can hear at least 4 calls going off all at once.

The video below is what the call sounds like here and the words of it also should show up in the caption -

-- the reason we picked this video was because if you listen close you can hear the echo throughout the city, which is very similar to what it's like here. Imagine four of these going off at once with slightly different voices and a few second apart and that will give you a good taste of what it is like in a Muslim country at prayer time

The video above is the call to prayer recorded from Mecca. The video shows the Kaaba, the most sacred site in Islam, and what all Muslims face during prayer no matter where they are. Also what can be seen in the video are thousands of Muslims walking around the Kaaba as apart of their pilgrimage (Hajj) to Mecca. They estimate that around 2-3 million people from around the world attend the Hajj each year.

As for us, we are very thankful for the call because we are always reminded when it is time to pray. Saudi has so many amazing and helpful things in its culture that continually remind us to pray. It's a fascinating culture and an experience we will never forget. We love you all and miss you more everyday. Keep in touch!