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Our first week in Jordan has been all about getting ourselves oriented in our new home area, seeing sights around Amman, and getting out for a couple of day trips in the surrounding area. It’s been quite an adjustment coming from Greenland and getting used to the heat again. Not wearing our jackets all of the time. Being surrounded by tons of people. Our first full day, Sandy got our laundry caught up and we walked over to Jamba Juice for smoothies and acai bowls. We are right across the street from the Abdali Mall – pretty upscale – and an area called the Boulevard that is filled with shops and restaurants and no vehicle traffic. It’s a fantastic area to be based. The grocery store is in the mall – only four minutes from our apartment – and we grabbed groceries for the coming week. We have a gym in the apartment building and we got our workouts done on Monday in the gym. We mapped out our plan for our time in Amman and we enjoyed dinner at Azzurro in the Boulevard area – I had spaghetti pomodoro and Sandy had spaghetti primavera. The internet has been spotty in the apartment this first day, but otherwise a great day of getting oriented.

On Tuesday, after bananas and cereal for breakfast, we set out on a walking tour. We walked to Rainbow Street, which has a bohemian feel to it – lots of artistic displays in the area. Amman was originally built on seven hills (there are more now as it has expanded) and it is evident as the walking offers consistent ups and downs. After Rainbow Street, we continued into the area considered to be downtown and it is the oldest part of the city. Very busy with activity. We stopped in for pomegranate juices and then continued our walk to the Roman Theater.

This theater is still used for performances today, holding up to 6,000 people and is in excellent condition given its age of almost 1,900 years.

After the theater we walked over to Hashem restaurant for lunch – although the food they serve is considered breakfast food and they are open 24 hours a day. We had pitas, some of the best hummus I’ve ever had, falafel, salad, fuul (which is a fava bean paste), and waters all for the un-Greenlandic price of $6.30. That kind of lunch will get our budget back in line. Afterward, we went over to Habibah and had kunafeh for dessert – this is a very traditional Jordanian crispy, cheesy dessert topped with pistachios and simple syrup, and Habibah is known to be among the best places to try kunafeh. Then we stopped at Jadal for Knowledge and Culture to have some lemonade. This is an artist’s retreat in a very relaxing courtyard, and it made for the perfect end to our overall lunch experience. We walked home and ended up with around 7.5 miles of walking the hills of Amman.

Wednesday was like Tuesday, except we went to a new destination – the Amman Citadel and the Jordan Museum. The Citadel sits on a hill overlooking the city and is reminiscent of the acropolis in Athens, Greece.

This is believed to be one of the oldest inhabited places in the world as excavations have found evidence of human occupation from around 3,500 years ago. The structures that we walked around told the story of civilizations here in Amman starting with the Romans around 2,000 years ago, then the Byzantines, and the Umayyads, which is when Islam became the primary religion in the area.

It was perfect to then go to the Jordan Museum in the afternoon and get a better understanding of the sequence of civilizations in the area known today as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The museum provided information on the fascinating history of this part of the world and the advances that we now have in today’s world because of discoveries from centuries ago. One of the more interesting displays was that of carved statues that were found here in Amman. The Ain Ghazal statues were carved more than 9,000 years ago – absolutely incredible to see.

The museum also displays several Dead Sea Scrolls. These are the oldest manuscripts ever found of Biblical stories. We really saw history today. Not to forget – between the Citadel and the Jordan Museum, we went to Al Quds for lunch. We had the national dish called Mansaf, which is made with rice, lamb’s neck, and samneh. Samneh is like a yogurt but more of a pungent taste. The dish was very good. We also had Arabic salad, pita and hummus, lemon juice with mint, olives, super hot green peppers, and a dark chocolate ball for dessert. Today’s journey covered nine miles up and down the hills of Amman. Back in our area, we went over to the Dollar Car Rental office and reserved a car for a couple of day trips we plan to do. We stopped at Azzurro again, but this time just for fresh orange juice and fresh pineapple juice – we were still full from lunch.

On Thursday, we walked over to the King Abdullah I Mosque, which is commonly referred to as the Blue Mosque. We explored the mosque – this is the only one in Jordan in which non-Muslims can enter.

We did our weights and cardio in the gym and after we showered, headed over to the mall to get some popcorn and see the latest Superman movie. For dinner, we went to the food court in the mall and ate at Sultana. They were so friendly. I had grilled fish and rice and the salad bar, while Sandy had the salad bar. We picked up a few groceries at C-Town (the grocery store in the mall) and then went over to Dollar and picked up our Kia Pegas car.

Yesterday was our first of four planned road trips while we are in Amman. This one would take us east of Amman. Jordan is very safe, but we pay attention of course to the travel warnings and knowing that we were headed east, we knew that we were supposed to not go too far east toward the Iraq border as there is a possibility of trouble, although none has happened recently. We headed out around 8:40am for the Desert Castles Loop. It was a nice first day of driving because Friday is the holy day in Islam, so less traffic to deal with on the roads. Our itinerary included four castles and the Azraq Wetlands Reserve.

Qasr al-Harranah – named for the surrounding stony desert (harra), this castle was built in the early 700s. Its purpose is somewhat of a mystery, but the caretaker who took us and an Italian mom and son through the castle suggested that it had been an inn for the caravans traveling the area. That’s not totally accepted because the trading routes were further north during the era in which it was built. It also could have been a meeting place for Damascus elites to meet up with their Bedouin subjects. Walking through it, it felt like a hotel and the slits in the walls were not for protection, but for light and air conditioning.

Qusayr Amra – this one was outstanding because of its frescoes. It was built in the mid-700s and is the only building left of a much larger complex. Outside the building is the watermill that was used to operate the hammam (or bathhouse) inside the building. This is one of the oldest surviving remains of a hammam in the Muslim world. But you’re really here for the frescoes and they are the reason it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Azraq Castle – this was built in the third century and isn’t made with the sandstone that we see all over the place – this one is made from black basalt. One of the Umayyad caliphs used this castle as a base during hunting trips to the Azraq Oasis in the 700s. Elephants and rhinoceroses are some of the animals that used to roam in this area. During World War I and the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire, T.E. Lawrence (better known as Lawrence of Arabia) used this castle as a base of operations.

Azraq Wetland Reserve – this is an ecological success story of late because the wetlands here very nearly disappeared due to the routing of water from here to Amman and other parts of Jordan; over the last 30 years, ecologists have been able to restore more than 10% of the reserve’s original water footprint. There are a few trails that you can take through the reserve and spot various bird species because this is a primary point on the migration trail of birds from Africa up into Europe and over to Asia. We are not here during migration season, so we only saw a few of the resident bird species, but it was fascinating to see this oasis amongst the barren desert that has filled the day.

Qasr al-Hallabat – this castle occupies a hilltop location with great views across the area. Originally built in the 200s, it was completely rebuilt by the Umayyads in the 700s and then left to ruin after the Umayyad dynasty fell in the late 700s. This castle has a small but informative museum that introduces the site and then walking around the site, you find a mosque, bath house, and preserved floor mosaics. We were fortunate to meet Ali, a tourist police officer at the site, and he gave us a full tour of the site and our own private photography shoot. We ended up with 51 pictures in a place where we normally would have had less than ten. 😊 It was a lot of fun – including a four-wheel drive experience out to the cistern that was used to hold water 1,300 years ago. We finished with tea before departing.

While we were in Azraq (near the Azraq Castle and the Wetland Reserve), we stopped for lunch at the Azraq Palace Restaurant. We were the only ones there and we asked if they had lunch available and they said yes, they have a buffet, and it would be ready in 15 minutes. They pulled out all of the dishes and away we went. It was rather remarkable to see the layout for just the two of us. We were pleased to hear that they had a tour bus planning to stop later in the afternoon. The family who owns the restaurant was so kind and welcoming. Pretty much on par with everyone we have met in Jordan. We both have said that we have not heard “you are welcome here” more often in any other country than Jordan. The buffet included chicken and yellow rice, meatballs and tomatoes, three different salads, pickles, yogurt, hummus, fried bread, pita bread, potatoes and veggies, lentil soup, and dessert. Amazing.

We made it back to Amman from our desert castles loop drive around 5:30 and then went to Buffalo Wings n Rings for Friday night dinner. Although the wings were small, they were fresh, and they were awesome. Sandy had a chicken quesadilla. The logo seemed familiar to me and when we looked it up, sure enough, there is a location in Portland, Indiana, where are friends Pure and Hammy live and we have happily eaten there before. We also had Almaza beer, a pilsner from Lebanon that was refreshing after our day out in the desert.

After dinner, we went to Biscotti and got ice cream cones and then watched Destination X and Frasier before going to bed.

To end our first week in Jordan, we headed out on another trip outside the capital. First, we did Sandy Starbucks time together at Costa Coffee. Starbucks is next door, but they didn’t have chai latte. Costa did and we hung out there for a couple of hours. Afterward, we picked up turkey sandwiches at Starbucks and drove to Bethany Beyond the Jordan. As we approached the area closer to the Jordan River, which is the border between Jordan and Israel, the landscape showed more vegetation and greenery. We got there around 12:15, ate our sandwiches, and then went into the small museum. Bethany Beyond the Jordan was on our radar because it is the site where John baptized Jesus. We had been to this area once before, but on the Israeli side of the border. The actual baptismal site is on this side of the river. To visit the site, you take a shuttle with a tour guide and ours was excellent. There are quite a few churches in the area – different denominations have built churches to celebrate the site. The actual site of the baptism is pretty well documented based on how the river has adjusted its course in the last 2,000 years. The area is closely guarded because of the proximity to the Israeli border.

I have always been fascinated with the sites from Biblical times and this was no exception. After our tour, we drove back to Amman and grabbed sushi at a cool restaurant called Fame. The sushi was very good and the ambiance was classy. The rolls are smaller than in the US in terms of pieces served per order, so we ended up sharing nine rolls. We dropped our stuff off at the apartment and then returned our rental car. Tonight, we watched Lawrence of Arabia because we have never seen it before. The internet went out, so we need to finish the last 30 minutes tomorrow. It’s been a great first week here in Jordan.