Around the World in 180 Days with D and N: Amman, Jordan's Capitol

On Thanksgiving Day we headed off to Amman, Jordan's capitol. We had originally planned to go by way of Jerash, to see the extensive Roman ruins there, and attend their reenactment of the Roman Circus, complete with gladiators and chariot races. But it was raining "cats and dogs" in the words of some Jordanians working at our hotel, and the thought of sloshing through the ruins and sitting outside to view the Circus lost all of its appeal. So we headed straight to Amman. We actually found our accomodation, a wonderful guest house called "By the Lemon Tree", without getting very lost, so we pushed our luck and decided to rid ourselves of the rental car that afternoon. Several hours and many wrong turns later we finally found the Thrifty/Dollar outlet. We thought Israeli drivers were agressive, but they're pussy cats compared to the drivers in Amman. Every intersection seems to present an opportunity to play chicken. So by the time we found the rental agency it was raining quite hard and we were frustrated and tired. We asked the agent to call a cab for us but he directed us to stand across the street and try to hail one. It took about 15 minutes to find an empty taxi, and with the driver's speaking no English and us having no Arabic it was amazing we eventually found our way back to the guest house.

After a pretty dismal start we found we really enjoyed Amman. The weather cleared up and the guest house was lovely with an interesting host, Guido. Guido is an economist whose grandfather came to Amman in 1921 to found the Italian Hospital. He loves to throw out controversial ideas over breakfast and create some really animated discussions among the guests. By the Lemon Tree is located next door to the Italian Embassy on the slopes of Jabal Webdeh, a trendy area of galleries and restaurants about a 15 minute downhill walk to the historic downtown. (Of course, we also had to walk back up to return).

We strolled around the downtown area on Friday, enjoying the crowds out enjoying their weekly Holy Day. You could buy almost anything on the street - cosmetics, clothes, books, plumbing supplies, etc. We stopped at Hashem Restaurant for some mezz - hummus, fava bean paste, onions and tomatoes with pita bread and mint tea. Hashem's been around forever, located in an alley and not very impressive appearing, but everybody goes there,
including the Jordanian Royal Family. So while we were snacking a truck pulled up loaded with large tins of olive oil - each about 5 gallons or so. The restaurant guys formed a bucket brigade to unload what seemed like an endless amount. I asked our waited how many tins had been unloaded and he said over 80!

Saturday night we had dinner at a local restaurant. Besides the food they featured an extensive menu of flavored tobaccos for their shisha, or water pipes. While seeing men smoking hookahs has been a pretty common sight in the Mideast, this was the first time
we'd seen quite a few women indulging. This part of the world is full of contrasts. As we were having dinner a young woman in a short mini skirt came into the restaurant. I looked up just then to see a burka-clad, fully veiled woman passing by the window.