Jerash, Ajloun, and Meeting Zaynee's Other Family

Ghamid and Dad in the front seats on the drive to Jerash

After a pretty bleak hotel breakfast of lemon poundcake and a hard boiled egg (I was so disappointed there wasn't falafel and hummus again), Ghamid picked us up around 8:30am and we headed over to the city of Jerash. Jerash is about 30 miles north of Amman and didn't take very long to get to. Ghamid is quite a good driver, which is really saying something, since Jordanians drive like maniacs! It's like they follow no rules when they drive: lanes are ignored with people driving on two lanes at once or on shoulders, indicators are never used, red stop lights and stop signs mean nothing, and driving straight into incoming traffic and expecting them to stop for you is a very real thing. Also, nobody wears seatbelts. The back of our car only has one working one, so we gave up and try to ride like the Jordanians. Hopefully Ghamid keeps us safe!

We made it to Jerash in a timely fashion, and immediately set out to explore the ruins of the Greco-Roman city. It was amazing seeing how well-preserved everything was! We saw the impressive Corinthian column and Hadrian's Arch when we first walked in. Hanaa and I didn't realize there was more to see behind the arch, and were a bit disappointed for a few minutes, until we walked through the archway and saw just how big the site of the ruins was! It took about two hours to walk through and see everything, but the weather was nice and the ruins were fascinating, so it didn't feel long at all. Being an Anthropology lover, this is exactly how I like to spend my time--learning about ancient cities! I'm still trying to make it to Pompeii, but now I can say that I've seen the "Pompeii of the Middle East," as Jerash is sometimes called (though there is no volcano here!).

Me in front of Hadrian's Arch

As well as seeing the column and arch, we saw the large hippodrome, a large amphitheater similar to the one we had seen yesterday, the Temple of Zeus, the Temple of Artemis, the Three Churches, a few temples and baths, a fountain area, and almost a perfect ring of columns. It was an incredible sight to take in.

The circle of pillars

Panorama of the view from the Temple of Zeus

Another view from atop the Temple of Zeus

Inside the Amphitheater

Me atop the fountain garden

From Jerash, Ghamid drove us through the nearby hillside town of Ajloun. I never realized how hilly Jordan was until we got here, even though Zaynee's photos and her blog title, Seven Months on Seven Hills, should have been some indication. As we got closer to the town, it got more and more crowded. People shared the road with the honking cars and casually walked in front of cars knowing they would stop. Dead lambs and cows hung butchered from shop windows and vendors were setting up olive and vegetable stalls on the side of the roads and calling out to people. It was very noisy and lively...Mom said it was a lot like Pakistan but a bit quieter. I couldn't believe that, because I thought this was loud!

We finally made it through Ajloun, taking in the sights and sounds of daily life in the town, and we headed up the windy road to the top of the hill where the 12th century Ajlun Castle was located. The castle was amazing! It was built as a fortress in 1185 AD to protect the country against Crusader attacks, and is one of the only Islamic castles that was successful in doing so. We walked through the many rooms and made it to the top of the castle where we could see land for miles around! To the West, we could see Jerusalem, Nablus, Jenin, and the Jordan Valley. In the North, Bisan, the Lake of Tiberius, the Mounts of Shaik, the Jordan Valley, Wadi Al Yabes, and the City of Aljoun were visible. We were also able to see Palestine, West Bank, and the Dead Sea to the East and South. It was amazing being able to see so far around us. The clouds were hanging low in some places, which was a bit sad, but it didn't obscure too much.

View from the Ajlun Castle

Us at the top of the fortress

The theme of Hanaa's trip is that she is always hungry. We stopped at a restaurant that Zaynee recommended to us just outside of Jerash. We didn't want to eat too much, but when there is hummus and naan involved, it's too good to stop. We filled up a little more than we had intended to, and started our journey back to Amman.

Dad always has a thing for side-of-the-road sellers (e.g. Churros in Miami, Grapes in Tuscany, etc.), and asked Ghamid to slow down next to an olive stand so he could take a picture. Then, Ghamid started slowing down at EVERY olive stand, of which there were many. After about the fifth one, Dad told him he had enough photos and we finally gave up on the olives. Here are the fruits of Dad's labour:

Dad's favourite olives

I took a quick nap in the hotel for half an hour before getting ready to go to a late lunch with Zaynee's host family. She adores them, and we couldn't wait to meet them! Suhair, her host mom, had prepared a big feast for us with Zaynee's favourite foods. Ali, the father, was so nice and spoke great English. He was very personable and chatty. Suhair was absolutely lovely, but didn't know too much English. I'm so sad I wasn't able to talk with her, or Zaynee's younger host sister, Zeina, more because of the language barrier. It almost made me want to learn Arabic! The five of them (Suhair, Ali, Alaa the oldest brother, Muhammed the younger brother, and Zeina) are all so sweet and I can see why Zaynee is going to miss living in Jordan with them. The food was delicious (except the spleen...none of us could brave eating the black spleen!); hopefully Zaynee will learn how to cook the dishes from Suhair! We spent almost four hours together, eating and talking. It was such a nice evening and really made our stay in Jordan feel more personal. We're planning another dinner together on Thursday night!

Suhair's feast for us!

Enjoying the feast!

Two families becoming one

Despite being exhausted and still a little jet lagged, Zaynee persuaded Hanaa and I to go see the Hunger Games movie with her, Alaa, her friend Nick, and her friend Katherine at the Taj Mall. The mall was super ritzy and had a huge variety of stores from American Eagle to Miss Selfridge to Burberry and more. There was also a Starbucks and a Nestle Cookie Shop, both of which made Hanaa hungry again. The movie theater was very nice and big, and the movie was so great. It was a little hard watching it with blinding white Arabic and French subtitles over half the screen, but it was manageable. The movie was good enough to ignore them anyway! It was such a fun end to the busy day, and I already want to see the movie again! 

ربما في وقت لاحق

From Downtown to the Citadel

Despite sleeping like a log from about 11pm until 8am, I was still very tired when I woke up. However, Zaynee got us all excited to get going because we were heading to Downtown Amman to meet all the students on her program (of which there are only 7) and her CIEE teachers for a traditional Jordanian breakfast!

The whole group at breakfast!

Breakfast in Jordan doesn't entail cereal or muffins or fruit or anything like what we eat in America. Instead, falafel and hummus, tomatoes, spicy sauce and French fries, and naan are common! I remember eating lots of falafel and hummus for breakfast from the Naschmarkt in Vienna when I was abroad, so I didn't find it too strange to be having it for breakfast, but I know Mom, Dad, and Hanaa did! The food at the place we went to was incredible, especially the falafel, and we all ate so much. The royal family also goes and eats here, so it's famous! It was also really nice meeting Zaynee's six American friends on the program, Eitan, Rocio, Nora, Emily, Nick, and Ross, and her teachers. They were all so sweet and so happy to meet us! They even let the students break their strict Arabic language pledge so we could be included in the conversation!

Afterwards, the professors left us, and the seven students and us took a walk around downtown. They all know the city so well, and were great at pointing cool things out to us, like mosques, unique stores, and specialty items, like sugar cane drinks, which Dad bought for us to try. I can't say I was a huge fan, but Mom loved it!

The sugarcane drink stall

We wandered around for about 25 minutes looking at shops and admiring the unique skyline. Jordan is very hilly, but all the buildings look exactly the same: square and beige. It was so cool and so different from anything I've ever seen before!

Man selling naan

CIEE students enjoying the shops

So many random things for sale!

Hanaa, Zaynee, and I in Downtown Amman

Soon we came to the Roman Ampitheater. It was an incredible sight! The steps went up so high, and of course we got to climb up them and see the view of the area from the top!

The typical style of buildings behind me in Amman

View from the top of the Amphitheater steps!

The family in front of the amphitheater

Zaynee, Hanaa, and I, and all her CIEE friends!

Mom, Zaynee, Hanaa, and I beginning our descent

Zaynee and the students took us back through downtown to the al-Huseyin Mosque in the center of downtown. Right next to it, was a large outdoor market selling fruits and vegetables. It was similar to the markets on the Asian side of Istanbul. Everyone was yelling in Arabic for us to come and buy their products, people were bartering and weighing goods, and we were taking in all the sights, from tomatoes to pomegranates to bananas to nuts to spices! It was incredible.

Spices

Fruit at the Market

Market

Rhamed picked us up from outside the Mosque once we finished touring through the market and took us to the Citadel before heading back to pick up Zaynee and her friends and take them to their school for the day. The Amman Citadel is on the very top of a hill in Jordan and provides incredible views of the city from all angles. Additionally, there are a lot of Roman ruins up there! I was very excited to see them, after looking at so many in Budapest last year. We saw the Temple of Hercules, an interesting archeology museum and the Umayyad Palace reconstruction and Mosque too. We were lucky that the weather wasn't too hot or too cold, and the rain held off while we were outdoors! I was amazed by the views, the sights, and the number of wild cats roaming around. They're everywhere!

Amman from the Citadel

Kitty of the Mountain

More views of Amman

Dad and I above Amman 

Resting by the Temple of Hercules

I'm tiny on the Temple of Hercules!

Sister bonding 

Reconstruction of the Temple of Umayyad and Mosque

Interior of the Mosque

Hanaa and Dad leaving the mosque in search of a bathroom...

We spent about 2 hours up at the Citadel, and once we finished, Rhamed was waiting for us. We were quite tired from all that walking, plus the jet lag catching up to us again. Hanaa was hungry and Mom hadn't had her morning coffee, so we decided to go to a coffeeshop before going to the Jordan Museum Zaynee recommended for us. I was very nervous about going somewhere they wouldn't understand English, so I decided to be #basic...and suggested Starbucks! Rhamed took us there in a flash, and we were instantly surrounded by red holiday cups and cosy seats. So #basic. We ended up relaxing with our drinks and pastries for about 40 minutes before heading back to the car in the sudden downpour. Rhamed took us to the Jordanian Museum...and we discovered that it was 3pm and it closed at 2...so sad. So instead, we went with him to pick up Zaynee from school and then go to Rainbow Street, where all the ex-pats hang out.

It was getting chilly and wet, so we walked around the street, which was quite clean we discovered, and eventually made it into one of Zaynee's favourite coffee shops, Turtle Bay Coffeehouse. Mom and Zaynee ordered  drinks while we sat together and relaxed for a few hours. Our next stop was Sufra for another traditional Jordanian meal, and we headed over there as soon as we started feeling peckish.

Dinner time!

Hanaa and Zaynee enjoying the food

The food was amazing, as usual. However, I need to remember that I only have to order appetizers to feel full! The falafel and hummus, tabbouleh, and naan filled me up, and I could barely eat the various meats we ordered for the main course! But we had a great time together and finished off the meal with some pistachio Turkish delight and minty black tea before heading back to the Kindi for the night. Tomorrow, we are up bright and early to follow Zaynee's itinerary for the day!

قبل النوم!

Jordanian Welcome!

On Saturday night around 6pm Jordan time, we arrived at the Queen Alia International Airport in Amman. After quickly getting some Jordanian Dinars (the currency), our visas to enter the country, and our bags, we stepped out of the terminal into arrivals and found Zaynee waiting for us. It was so great seeing her again after such a long time! She also brought along her host brother, Alaa, and his two friends to help get all our bags to the hotel, so we truly did have a Jordanian welcome! 

Homemade chapatis!

Zaynee organized a driver for us for our week in Amman, because the only way you can get around is by taxi. His name is Rhamed (which I definitely spelled wrong!) and is perfectly happy to drive us anywhere, so it seems. Zaynee gave the boys our suitcases to drive to the Kindi Hotel, while the five of us went with Rhamed to the hotel. We all chatted in the car, and Zaynee told us more about her experiences in Jordan. It seems like she is having an incredible time, mostly because of how wonderful her host family is and all her friends here.

We checked into the Kindi, which wasn't...bad. Or great. It's fine. We have a suite and isn't too over the top, but it's not like we'll be spending excess time there. As soon as we changed, Zaynee took us to a really nice, traditional Jordanian restaurant called Reem Al Bawadi and her three guy friends joined us. The interior was beautiful. When we first walked in, we came across a woman hand-making chapatis on a giant heated stone, which was amazing.

Interior of the restaurant

The table was low and square and fit all eight of us around it. In the center was a large, indented gold circle. It was like a gold bowl within the table with Arabic writing engraved. The waiters quickly filled it with delicious appetizers: tabbouleh, hummus, falafel, grilled halloumi cheese, cheese samosas, kemah filled pastries, aubergine paste, bean hummus, spicy olive mix, sliced pickles, fresh salad, and tons of chapatis and naan. It was heavenly and I ate so much before realizing this was just the appetizer portion!

Zaynee sitting next to her host brother, Alaa, and his friend Sabre, checking out our appetizers!

We also tried a mint lemonade drink that wasn't sweet (it's the green drink in the photo above!), but very tart and refreshing. That helped with preparing us for the main course. We got an enormous platter of meat--chicken, lamb, and kebabs--and even more bread and French fries (randomly). It was delicious and the perfect welcome to the country! I have rediscovered my love for Middle Eastern food!

The main course! The meat was perfectly cooked and so good!

We rounded off the meal with black tea and mint, which was surprisingly a good combination, and then said goodbye to the three boys. They went home and we made our way back to the Kindi, where Zaynee was staying the night with us.

The family reunited!

Honestly, I was so tired that I quickly unpacked, showered, and was about to fall asleep when Zaynee said she had presents for us! We all got traditional Jordanian scarves (wait for the pictures when we wear them later in the week!), hair clips from Turkey for Hanaa and I from when Zaynee went a few months ago, and Mom also got a beautiful embroidered prayer mat. It was so sweet of her to get us stuff! By then, I was ready to pass out, and did so immediately, already excited for what Zaynee had planned for us tomorrow!

First Stop: Frankfurt

I couldn’t break the tradition of doing Thanksgiving abroad after my amazing time last year in Baden, Austria. My sister, Zaynee, has been studying abroad in Amman, Jordan since June of this year, and we decided to make a family vacation out of visiting her for Thanksgiving this year!

On Friday, November 21, I boarded my Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, Germany, where my connection to Amman was and where I would meet up with my youngest sister, Hanaa, and my parents before heading to the Middle East together. 8.5 hours of restless sleeping in my window seat, I arrived at Flughafen Frankfurt delighted to hear German being spoken around me once again. Since my family wasn’t landing for another hour and a half, I decided to venture into the small city of Frankfurt myself and explore before they came.

Fantastic architecture in Römerberg

It was simple getting the S-Bahn into Hauptwache. I made some Tajikistani friends who bought a 5 person group day ticket and included me in the group, then gave me the ticket to use. So that gave me a free pass into and out of Frankfurt!

I knew I wanted to make the most of my time in the German town, even though I only had about 5 hours, so I planned exactly what I wanted to see before I left Atlanta. My first stop out of the station at 8:30am was to head towards Römerberg, the center of the Frankfurt Altstadt where the Christkindlmarkt was being set up. I was so upset I would be missing the grand opening by 4 days. They’re my favourite. But I did get to see a lot of the stalls being built, as well as admiring the Frankfurt Rathaus or Römer (City Hall) and fantastic architecture of the Römerberg. It made me miss Vienna so much!

The Rathaus/Römer with the Christkindlmarkt stalls and tree in front

It was quite chilly, so I kept moving, towards the Eiserner Steg, or Iron Footbridge, that connected the center of Frankfurt to the Sachsenhausen, or the apple wine district. It was quite impressive, with a view of the modern skyscrapers of Downtown Frankfurt on one side and the historic cathedral pinnacles and old architecture on the other. I walked across to get the full experience!

The steps up to the Eiserner Steg 

Eiserner Steg

View of the Sechsenhausen side of Frankfurt from the Eiserner Steg

Afterwards, I visited Der Kaiserdom (The Emperor’s Cathedral) and the Frankfurt Cathedral. Neither were as impressive as Stephansdom in Vienna, or other Viennese churches, but they were quite large and warm inside!

Frankfurterdom

I scoped out a wifi signal in the next forty minutes, and managed to find out that Mom, Dad and Hanaa were in Frankfurt trying to meet me. We eventually got together and looked around for a place to eat before heading back to the airport to catch our 1pm flight to Jordan. I had passed a nice restaurant earlier that served schnitzel, and I was dying to get some, despite it being only 10:30 in the morning. We ordered the schnitzels…and were then told they weren’t serving them yet. I was heartbroken, and opted for eggs and tomatoes like the rest of the family before heading back to the Flughafen to catch our flight to Amman.

Mom, Hanaa, and I reunited in Deutschland!