Spring Break: Jordan Pt. 3

April 4

Before I go on, I want to do a little explaining about the last paragraph of the previous post. I do not want to feed into the stereotype that all Arab men are lechers who prey on women. Nor do I want to give the perception that Jordan is unsafe. In fact, of all the countries I’ve been to during this time, it may be one of the most orderly and law-abiding (minus driving) countries. However, even though Jordan has many tourists sites, many Jordanians are unused to seeing foreigners, especially young, unveiled women. The two girls in our group are both South Asians, they’re not blonde white girls, but because they were unveiled, they stood out and drew stares wherever we went. Frankly, unless you are an experienced traveler, preferably with a good knowledge of Arabic, I wouldn’t recommend going to Jordan as a single woman.

Anyway, now to our final full day in Jordan. We left this day to stick strictly to Amman, no long car rides to any new tourist places. We walked from our hostel to the Ancient Roman Amphitheater, which is right in the heart of downtown Amman. It is a very cool structure, if you walk all the way to the top you can get a good idea of just how many people it fit. Attached is a small museum of Jordanian and Bedouin culture and history which the 1-2 dinar ticket you pay to get into the amphitheater covers. When in the amphitheater, you may be approached by men offering to be your tour guide for a small fee. Trust me, it’s not worth paying for a tour of a single building for info that you can get on Wikipedia for free.

The Ampitheater

From the amphitheater you can see across the city to the ancient city citadel on top of a hill. We walked from the amphitheater, up the hill, through residential neighborhoods to get to the Citadel. If you decide to take a taxi to these sites, I’d recommend you take the taxi up to the Citadel before the seeing the Amphitheater, so that you can then walk downhill to the Amphitheater.

  The Citadel was first constructed by the Ancient Greeks and Romans and has been added on by the various civilizations that have come after them. Therefore, you will see a two thousand year old Roman temple next to an Arab mosque and palace. It is an interesting site and the panoramic view of Amman is truly special.

After the Citadel, we took a taxi to Rainbow Street to meet up with some CIEE students who were studying in Jordan. Our Istanbul CIEE director had given us the email of the CIEE Amman director and when I emailed her to ask her for tips, she had forwarded my email to CIEE Jordan students, several of whom wrote back to me to offer advice. One of them, a girl named Meghan, offered to meet up with us on Rainbow Street and take us to a bookstore/bar/café/restaurant that she and her friends really liked. Rainbow Street is known for being the area where all the expats and college students go and definitely has a very different feeling from all the rest of Amman, but we figured we had had enough of the authentic Jordanian experience and could treat ourselves to some Western cultural imperialism. The place Meghan took us to was called Books @Cafe and it had some of the most delicious frozen margaritas and pizzas that I have ever had. It was a welcome break and an excellent way to wrap up an amazing but also amazingly crazy trip!