Amman
Gallery Hotel Breakfast
Breakfast at the Gallery Hotel is delicious. Our host serves a vegetable omlette, mutabel, hummus, vegetables, olives, pita, halaweh and of course the yummy mint tea.
I chat with a couple from Czech Republic that we met at the Dead Sea…(the woman that had been kind enough to point out that I still had mud on my neck when John said I had cleaned it all off…haha).
We’ve been meeting a few people in and around Jordan at different locations.
To the Citadel
We take an Uber to the Citadel since it is a switchback walk uphill all the way. The Uber driver is having a bit of trouble finding us so we walk down a block (downhill) and there he is.
The 1.5 JOD ($2.75 Cad) is well worth the uphill drive.
The Citadel is filled with Roman and Byzantine ruins. The real showstopper is the panoramic views of Amman which is a huge city…with a population of over 4.5 million people.
It is Friday, holy day. As we look at the city laid out below us, numerous loudly amplified calls to prayer and services compete with each other. Here is a link to a short video of this.
From the Citadel we can also see the world’s 7th tallest flag pole at 128 metres. It was the tallest when erected on the grounds of the Royal Palace in 2003. The tallest is now in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at 170 metres.
We check out the small museum and the ruins of the palace.
Roman Theatre and Odeon
On our way out, we ask the taxi drivers how much to the Roman Theatre and Jordan Museum. They give us a ridiculously inflated price. When we say no and start walking away, they start running after us with lower prices. Taxi drivers are the same all over the world.
It is a good thing that we walk it because it only takes 10 minutes by way of the stairways.
The Roman Theatre is really well preserved. It holds 6000 people. The forum in front of the theatre has a number of kids and families kicking around balls.
The two museums attached to the theatre are very small and we go through them quickly.
A few steps from the Roman Theatre is the Roman Odeon which is also very well preserved.
Our hotel is close by so we head back for a break. We grab a cup of lentil soup from a local shop for 1 JOD ($1.85 Can). It is delicious. I grab a short nap back at the hotel. In hindsight, we probably only needed one day in Amman.
Wandering About
After our rest, we head up about a million stairs (ok, slight exaggeration) to Rainbow Street. It is a pretty area but very quiet when compared to the main downtown area where we are staying. I have an ice cream and we then walk around the bustling retail streets near our hotel.
I discover a fresh juice vendor. We watch him squeeze two glasses of pomegranate juice using a muscle powered hand press. The pomegranates he uses are huge…larger than my fist. A big glass costs 1.25 JOD (about $2.20 CAD). Click here for a very short video of the process.
Hashem Restaurant
Later in the evening we head to what looks like a very plain, whole in the wall restaurant for supper…but looks are deceiving. The Hashem Restaurant is a Jordanian institution. It is a vegetarian restaurant that is incredibly popular and run by the same family since 1956. Even the King and his family eat here from time to time.
We have a mix of their specialties; falafel, hummus, pita, garnishes, and some other kind of sauce all served with mint tea. Total price for both of us, 4.50 JOD ($7.50 Cad).
It was very good.