DymphnaB

get out of waikiki IMMEDIATELY and get up to the North Shore. It really is paradise. Go to the Audoban center and trek all the way in … swimming under the waterfall there feels like you are in a movie. Make sure you get an acei bowl at one of the surfer spots for breakfast. Go up to see the ancient Hawaiian sacred precinct and enjoy the best view to appreciate the power of the waves building strength miles from the shore.

If you like colonial art make sure that you see the collection belonging to La Profesa – a beautiful church in the Centro Historico. It was originally a Jesuit church, but has been home to the order of Oratory of St. Philip Neri for centuries. The collection can only be seen on Saturday afternoons by guided tour. The collection is unbelievable and rarely visited.

if you go up the road out of town you’ll see the entrance to an old silver mine. walk in only a few yards and you’ll start to get a feel for the sacrifice all the workers made for centuries. It’ll make you appreciate the beautiful artwork you’ll see in the churches that much more.

If you ask nicely a sweet franciscan friar at the church of the nativity may let you see the bambino that they lay in the manger scene in the square at christmas. it’s an innocent, lovely image in a place so wounded by years of violence.

try to get out of town and go to some of the Berber villages or small towns on a market day. It is a very different experience. Warning: not good for those who are especially sensitive to the sight of dead animals.

it’s worth the time to go and see the mosaic map of the holy land in the church at madaba. and if you are coming in from syria or palestine… eat up in those places first. the food in jordan is disappointed compared to that of its neighbors.

my guide told me that Nina Simone once gave a concert at the ruins of Baalbek. when you’re there imagine that evening…. i can’t think of many things more other-worldly than that maust have been.

make sure you stay in an underground home or inn in the desert around matmata. it’s a unique ecperience.

My three weeks in Syria were magical. If you love history you’ll be in heaven seeing the spot on the Mediterranean from which Phoenician ships set sail, the birthplace of the alphabet, battlefields Egyptian chariots swept through, Queen Zenobia’s Palymyra, Diocletian’s camp, streets and gates St. Paul knew, the Omayyad Mosque, storybook crusader castles, Saladin’s Damascus and the markets of Aleppo, St.Simeon’s pillar…. this entire country is soaked in history.

Don’t be embarassed to have them take your photo for a souvenir keychain. Your mom will love it.