{This is Katie, updating their blog after a good 2+ year or so break}
Yesterday we made arrangements through the hotel (Le Meridien) for a driver to take us to sites in Amman. I met him yesterday, late afternoon and told him we would like to see a couple of mosque besides the Roman ruins.
Well, this morning, we met at 9:20 a.m. for a 3 hr tour that lasted 5 hrs. Akmad was excited that Americans would ask to see mosques and took us to 3 and the street market too. He has a newer Toyota medium size vehicle. We buzzed down nearly empty streets because Friday is the first day of their weekend and they come out for prayers at 12:30 p.m. First we saw an Arab-decorated black and white mosque with an empty courtyard, then we went to the market where it was busy and crowded. At first I was a little nervous, but Lee and I felt very comfortable and enjoyed walking down crowded vegetable and cheap tool aisles/area. I took a photo or two. Bought some brown socks, then we went back to the car. I determined I wanted to buy Lee a scarf and came across a great little merchant who sold Lee an Arab dress and scarf. Then our driver urged me to buy a head dress and Lee said I should and I did. Wore it for quite awhile, while we visited two other mosque. In the big mosque, the man who was in charge had Lee get into a full black zip-up robe with hood before we could go up and go into the mosque. We had to take off our shoes. I was allowed to take a couple of photos. They told Lee to hold the hood tightly around her face when she was in the mosque. Neat experience.
After visiting the mosques and market, we went to the Citadel, ancient Roman and pre-Roman & post-Roman fortress at the top of one of the 7 hills of Amman. We had a tour guide and took 45 minutes walking the grounds, viewing the city from the top of the hill, being in Hercules temple ruins. The guide spoke good, but not perfect English and we communicated well. Then to the Roman amphitheater. The old man guide just grabbed us and took us around and pointed at this and that in the museum and only spoke a few English words. He was constantly grabbing me and pushing me up close to the displays. We had come for the big open air Roman theater and almost didn't get to see it because he grabbed us and pushed into the small museum and controled 30 minutes of our time. He was old, missing most teeth and harmless. Cost 5 JD for his tour.
Our driver must like us because he said that his 3 hrs was up, but the rest of the time was free. He told us Jordon was the best country and he loved his country. We could tell. He took us to a building - indoor bazzaar next. We could have missed that. Many things to include some beautiful hand weaved rugs. The one I like was 870 JD (Jordian dinars = $1000). We didn't buy it. Only bought a couple of small wooden painted dolls. He finally took us to King Hussiens automobile collection of many, many classic to modern cars. Probably 45-50. It was really neat and there was videos and narratives of King Hussiens and some of his father and some of his son who is now the King of Jordon. We left after 3 p.m. and came back to the hotel and just layed down. We feel safe in Jordon, as long as we are with our driver and in the in public places.
{Katie again...I'll share more when I hear from them again!}
No comments:
Post a Comment