Amman, a very interesting mix of cultures

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We spent a total of 4 nights in Amman, using the comfort of the city as our home base for visiting the north of Jordan.

Amman is a city of hills. First impression, in most areas, this is not really a great place to walk around. Pavements are solid high, and sometimes, they simply disappear. This can certainly be understood due the the scorching heat in the summer, who want to walk here? But we are in the middle of the winter, and we are enjoying a nice 18 degrees by day, the perfect temperature for a nice walk. The city being really hilly too, you have to choose wisely your walking itinery to avoid these serious up and down.

Our base is in Shmeisani, one of the modern area of the city. Here it's all new buidlings, and sadly the invasion of international fastfood and other brands has also happened. Life is seems to be pretty sedate. We visit supermarkets used by the local expats, you find a lot of things here, but still not a great choice compare to places like Dubai, it is clearly a more "tranquil" place.

Due to a big minority of Christians, you also find wine in many places. Jordan produce their own wines. These are drinkable, but nothing really to rave about. We still enjoyed few glasses in a few places.

On our day in the city, we started with the Citadel in the Middle of the city. Place is pretty huge, and they provide a very good quality of explanations around the site. It is actually a mix of Ummuyyads and Roman site, including a small museum.

After the Citadel we made our way to the magnificient Roman Theatre. This place can accomodate 6000 people and is still in us today. The city as taken all over, so you have a roman theatre in the middle of the city. Next door is downtown and all the Souqs.

The great place about Amman is that you can see that tourists are still a minority here, and you enjoy a really warm welcome from the population. My arabic is less than basic, but I was suprised with the very high quality of english from most citizens of Amman. Seems the education system is working some of his wonders here. Impressed!

Should I speak to you about the food! Every body rave about lebanese food. Well, Jordan may be similar, but we had great time for food around Jordan too.

So what is it that I don't like about Jordan? Euh, maybe the inefficiency of Royal Jordanian airline, beside this, what a great country.

We have one more and last entry to come on the country. This time to Jerash in the north of Amman follow by the "Castles" of the Eastern Desert...these are coming soon.

We have already left Jordan and make our way smoothly to Syria, but more to read on this later on soon.

Wishing you an Happy New Year wherever you are in the world. Wishing you the best for 2011! Our wishes, that the dream of 2010 is going to continue in 2011, and for Tiffany to share more of these dreams with us.

Love from Syria, another amazing place!

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Comments

[Donna and Neil]

Happy New Year!!
Hi guys, here's wishing you a happy and healthy 2011 with plenty of travelling to come. Hopefully our schedules will align and we'll finally be able to meet! Enjoy the rest of your trip Donna and Neil x

[Non gogoa]

Happy New Year family! Best wishes for 2011! ;)