Arrival in Amman - Part 2

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So we are driving down the road and we pass by this gigantic structure that looked like a modern day castle, it was absolutely huge. Zaid (Tareq's homey) asked me what building I thought that was. I had no idea but I guessed it was the King's; I was wrong, it's the U.S. embassy. This thing was heavily guarded with what looked like the entire Jordanian army. I had to take a picture of this, but as I was getting ready Zaid was like, "Stop! Are you trying to get a brother arrested?" I guess taking pictures of the U.S. Embassy is a BIG no-no.

We then head to get a falafel; Zaid drops off Tareq at this place while he takes me around a couple other blocks to do some more sightseeing for about 5 minutes. We pull up and Tareq is like, "Don, you'll never guess who I saw in that falafel place? Muhammad's mom and sister!" Muhammad's parents live in Lincoln. Small world huh? I haven't seen Muhammad's parents in a couple of years so it will be good to see them before I leave, inshallah! It's funny how I live 50 miles from them but I have to fly 4500 miles away just to see them.

Before I continue I just want to say a little bit about the architecture of the city. Amman is a very hilly, mountainous, and anciet city. The streets, sidewalks, and alleyways are very narrow. The closeness of everything gives it so much character and warmness. I will eventually put pictures up for you to see. I seriously feel like I'm living in a Naguib Mahfouz novel when I'm walking the streets of Amman.

Continuing on, we get to Tareq's pad and I just demolish this falafel; best one I've every had. It's also super cheap, I got 2 falafels for 2 J.D. (Jordanian Dinar, so about 3 or 4 bucks).

Tareq and Zaid want to go to the bars right away. I have a hard time sleeping on planes and so I only got about 3 hours total sleep on this trip. The falafel energized me but I'm still feeling like a Zombie from the lack of sleep; oh well, it's time to start drinking.

We go to this place called the 'Rainbow Cafe'; it's a very cool bar. They were playing good hip-hop music (like some Nas, etc.). One thing that Jordan needs to discover is 'good beer'. Their best quality beer is Amstel; which out of the bottle is disgusting, but it's pretty decent out of the tap, but they seriously had no Stouts or Porters and they've never even heard of an IPA. Oh well, 'when in Rome'; give me the Amstel.

The third floor of this cafe has a balcony with a beautiful view of East Amman. The green lights from the mosques dotted the hilly landscape of East Amman and it was really beautiful. I tried taking a picture of it but it didn't come out well.

Me, Tareq, Zaid, and some other of Tareq's friends decide to head to a house party. We walk a few blocks and on the way pick up some liquor. You'll see some pictures of this place later when I put them up, interesting.

The flat that we go is in a very ancient building in Amman. This building is built along a mountain and in order to get to the flat we had to walk down about 3 flights of narrow, old stairs in an alleyway that is super dark. I meant to take a picture but I never did and by the time we left I was so drunk/tired/jet lagged I completely forgot.

We head back to Tareq's place with about 8 other people (including a bunch of Germans). Tareq and Hamza were jamming on the djembe and Deema was doing some spoken word poetry. It was a lot of fun. I continued drinking until about 4:30 in the morning.

I know I have missed out so much because there is so much to tell and describe. Today was another interesting adventure in and of itself. It includes me hearing the morning adhan (the call to prayer for Muslims), going outside in a strange city at 3:30 in the morning, asking random people on the street if they speak English and if they could point me to the mosque, a taxi driver taking me to one for free, and nice guy named Ma'moun inviting me into the mosque, praying with the people, and then drinking tea with the fellas afterwards. HA HA! Don't worry I'm not converting to Islam any time soon, but I just I'll have to continue that on another post. I may not post another entry for a few days because today I am leaving for Israel and I have a feeling I am going to be even more busy than I have been here.

Ma Salaam!

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