We dropped our bags at in our room at the Sydney Hotel, which is actually a cross between a guest house and a hostel. We have a double room with private bath and balcony looking over our neighborhood. It ain’t fancy but it is very clean, very well located and cost about $50 US a night.
Just around the corner from us is the famous Hashem Restaurant with the best falafel in the mid-east (or at least Jordan, though we did meet and sit with people from all over who came here just for this).
And it was fantastic.
The place was packed. We shared a table way in the back corner. Unless you really know what you want, they just bring you the standard stuff: a plate of little crispy light falafel, hummus, baba ganoush and something else I didn’t quite get the name of, plus pita bread, and a plate of pickles, another of onions, mint and tomatoes.
There really is no menu, everybody was eating the same thing except for a few people who added french fries ?!?! to their order, or subtracted one or two things.
I had a water to drink, Gail had a warm Coke. They bring it all and put it on a disposable plastic table cloth and you eat with your hands. No napkins available.
Here is the kicker: total cost for the two of us was 6.50 JOD, or about $9 US. For a full meal for two. We didn’t eat again that day.
The thing to note about this menu is that it is all beans. Beans done up four different ways. And beans means… a loud, smelly evening.
This seems like an appropriate time for this note:
In Amman, as in several other old places we have stayed (Athens, Santorini, Albania, some places in Turkey, Morocco) you cannot flush your toilet paper. There is a can for you to place it in. Just Eff Why Eye.
Or, perhaps it is not at all appropriate, and you can ignore it and just be surprised on arrival.
We walked the famous Rainbow Street to see the nice homes, shops, and café bar scene. It got really crowded, overwhelmingly so, and I got that “penned in” feeling so we headed through and out.
We found a small liquor store where we picked up more of the good St. George wine and a couple beers. We put it all in the refrigerator along with our big stock of water.
This was really cool.
The stuff that is only 2000 years old looks positively new and well preserved next to the 8500 and 9500 year old artifacts.
I don’t know that I have ever seen something 9500 years old (other than a rock or a star).
An interesting note: the map of Jordan on the museum wall includes Israel and Palestine and part of Syria. I mean there are no borders; it is the old country of Jordan. And so the artifacts are not just from “Jordan” but from places in “Israel” and so on. There is pottery, a skull with holes drilled in it (while he was alive), burial “pots" and cool figurines.
As a side, we had an awesome view, 360° of Amman spread out below.
After that we walked back down the hill to the Roman Theater, one of the largest Roman ampitheaters in the world. At the museum here again they had old dressing styles from the country… which included Ramallah, Jerusalem and places in Jordan.
As we headed back to our room for the afternoon (doing laundry, getting out of the heat) we stopped in some shops for more water, beer and wine, and nuts and flavored corn for snacks.
I had Ajloun Grilled Circassian Chicken (cheese stuffed chicken with tomato sauce) and Gail had the "All Green Sandwich” which was filled with a whole bunch of green stuff.
I drank an orange lemon aid smoothie while Gail had a mint lime lemonade. Both were fantastic.
Here is the true romance of living overseas for two months: laundry afternoon. Right now as I type this I just finished folding shirts, and spreading some sox out to dry in the sun. Counting underwear. Drinking a beer, munching on sesame peanuts from the vendor around the corner, listening to Death Cab For Cutie on the iPhone, and typing or reading.
And so we closed out the day, lazing around. Tomorrow: Cairo, Egypt.