We awoke early to head to the border and give it another go. It was at the very least open this time, however, we would find that this was certainly
not the normal tourist route. It was not difficult, but the process to get from the border to Amman was anything but streamlined. Luckily for me, I normally enjoy the process as much as getting where we are going. When we crossed the Israeli border we had to wait 45 minutes or so for a special bus to take us and a few Jordanians (there aren't many Israelis crossing these days with tensions between the countries so high) about 500 meters to the Jordanian border crossing. We went through the formalities there and then walked across. On the other side, we had to take a taxi (there aren't buses) to the nearest city, Irbid, (about 45 minutes) and from there we caught a bus to a roadside bus station in Amman.
So we had made it, and all in all it had taken us about half a day. There we were on the side of the highway in Amman, so we flagged a taxi. What we had noticed
already, aside from the obvious contrast from the fairly western looking streets of Israel, was that the buildings in the cities we saw along the highway look strikingly similar to each other. They are all basically concrete structures of grey or tan about a half dozen stories tall that stretch for miles of urban sprawl.
It took us more than a half an hour to find the hostel. It should have been a five minute ride, but due to communication issues with the driver and the fact that Lonely Planet doesn't have addresses in Arabic made it slightly more difficult. We did make it and the hostel seemed nice, cheap and accommodating. We settled in to our rooms and noticed for certain that we were no longer in Israel. There was a large painted map of the Middle East on the hostel entrance wall and Israel was clearly and obviously not on it; in its place a large red state of Palestine.
We knew we'd only have one night in Amman in order to stay on schedule to get to Petra and get my sister back to her flight. We had also heard that Amman didn't have all that much in terms of sightseeing, though a day trip to Jerash in the North would have been nice. We had that afternoon and the next morning to explore the city. Our main goal was just to get a feel for our first large Arab city.
We headed up towards the citadel high above downtown. It was the site of the old Roman and later Turkish settlement (Amman is not an ancient city). We managed not to go the right way, which worked out in our favor and as we headed up hill we passed through a very spartan residential neighborhood where we were met with cautious smiles and a few waves. We ended up at the Citadel (it’s the highest point) and we bounded over the exterior wall and onto the large flat hilltop.
The ruins were nice and the view of the sprawling city in all directions, impressive. Off one end of the hill an enormous Jordanian flag waved above the city and the other the Roman theater (we'd visit the next day) snuggled in between the homogeneous city architecture. We also had a chance a top the Citadel to visit a small museum. It had artifacts from pre-history through Roman times from throughout Jordan arranged in chronological order. The highlight however, was a few scraps of leather from the Dead Sea Scrolls and copper tablets (maps to tr
easures hidden by Jews as they fled the Romans) found among the scrolls. We did not have the chance to visit Qumran in Israel, the home of the scrolls; we were excited by this opportunity.
After we had our fill we came down and walked through downtown back towards our hostel and to a cafe we had been recommended too. We had a very nice meal of way too much food and had a nargila (watermelon and mint, the house specialty) before wandering back to our hostel stuffed to the brim. We sat and chatted with people in our hostel, but didn't do much activity before to sleep.
A couple observations from the first day in Jordan: The people seemed friendly and welcoming. We encountered no one who balked when we said we were from the US. Also, my sister observed and commented that the degree of religious orthodoxy we observed was less than she expected. There were not all that many people on the street stopping for call of prayer and most the women we saw were not fully covered and were often wearing pants. One last thing is that, surprisingly, many people in Amman believed I was a Syrian Muslim and would speak to me initially in Arabic and be surprised when I relayed that I had no idea what was being said. Apparently there are a bunch of people in Syria with big red beards.
not the normal tourist route. It was not difficult, but the process to get from the border to Amman was anything but streamlined. Luckily for me, I normally enjoy the process as much as getting where we are going. When we crossed the Israeli border we had to wait 45 minutes or so for a special bus to take us and a few Jordanians (there aren't many Israelis crossing these days with tensions between the countries so high) about 500 meters to the Jordanian border crossing. We went through the formalities there and then walked across. On the other side, we had to take a taxi (there aren't buses) to the nearest city, Irbid, (about 45 minutes) and from there we caught a bus to a roadside bus station in Amman.So we had made it, and all in all it had taken us about half a day. There we were on the side of the highway in Amman, so we flagged a taxi. What we had noticed
already, aside from the obvious contrast from the fairly western looking streets of Israel, was that the buildings in the cities we saw along the highway look strikingly similar to each other. They are all basically concrete structures of grey or tan about a half dozen stories tall that stretch for miles of urban sprawl.It took us more than a half an hour to find the hostel. It should have been a five minute ride, but due to communication issues with the driver and the fact that Lonely Planet doesn't have addresses in Arabic made it slightly more difficult. We did make it and the hostel seemed nice, cheap and accommodating. We settled in to our rooms and noticed for certain that we were no longer in Israel. There was a large painted map of the Middle East on the hostel entrance wall and Israel was clearly and obviously not on it; in its place a large red state of Palestine.
We knew we'd only have one night in Amman in order to stay on schedule to get to Petra and get my sister back to her flight. We had also heard that Amman didn't have all that much in terms of sightseeing, though a day trip to Jerash in the North would have been nice. We had that afternoon and the next morning to explore the city. Our main goal was just to get a feel for our first large Arab city.
We headed up towards the citadel high above downtown. It was the site of the old Roman and later Turkish settlement (Amman is not an ancient city). We managed not to go the right way, which worked out in our favor and as we headed up hill we passed through a very spartan residential neighborhood where we were met with cautious smiles and a few waves. We ended up at the Citadel (it’s the highest point) and we bounded over the exterior wall and onto the large flat hilltop.
The ruins were nice and the view of the sprawling city in all directions, impressive. Off one end of the hill an enormous Jordanian flag waved above the city and the other the Roman theater (we'd visit the next day) snuggled in between the homogeneous city architecture. We also had a chance a top the Citadel to visit a small museum. It had artifacts from pre-history through Roman times from throughout Jordan arranged in chronological order. The highlight however, was a few scraps of leather from the Dead Sea Scrolls and copper tablets (maps to tr
easures hidden by Jews as they fled the Romans) found among the scrolls. We did not have the chance to visit Qumran in Israel, the home of the scrolls; we were excited by this opportunity.After we had our fill we came down and walked through downtown back towards our hostel and to a cafe we had been recommended too. We had a very nice meal of way too much food and had a nargila (watermelon and mint, the house specialty) before wandering back to our hostel stuffed to the brim. We sat and chatted with people in our hostel, but didn't do much activity before to sleep.
A couple observations from the first day in Jordan: The people seemed friendly and welcoming. We encountered no one who balked when we said we were from the US. Also, my sister observed and commented that the degree of religious orthodoxy we observed was less than she expected. There were not all that many people on the street stopping for call of prayer and most the women we saw were not fully covered and were often wearing pants. One last thing is that, surprisingly, many people in Amman believed I was a Syrian Muslim and would speak to me initially in Arabic and be surprised when I relayed that I had no idea what was being said. Apparently there are a bunch of people in Syria with big red beards.
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