A Whole New World!

**Disclaimer: ginnie chose the title; Anthony consented with the condition of this disclaimer J

“Welcome to Jordan!” is the phrase we hear from every single person we meet – from our hotel staff to taxi and bus drivers to everyone on the street. This is the friendliest and most welcoming country we have visited and is absolutely incredible. If it weren’t so expensive for we budget travelers (the Jordanian Dinar is worth the same as the Euro!) we would definitely want to extend our time here (we are certain we will return to this amazing country and see even more than we could this time).

Despite having 11.5 hours to sleep on our flight and arriving here at 4pm local time, we still had crazy jet lag and somehow slept until after 11am on our first morning! Considering that is only 5am in Massachusetts, we guess it wasn’t too late… it actually took ginnie longer to adapt (which is weird since she usually is the easier sleeper) but walking in Petra by the middle of the week cleared that up and now we are on schedule with the local time J

Our week in Jordan has been super full (hence the late blog entries) and we have been able to add another continent to our travel, visit quite a number of stunning places and encounter several interesting language challenges. There have been several times when we just wished we could at least read Arabic and we’d solve half our confusion, but for the most part simple phrases, head nods, and a lot of repetition between both us and those to whom we communicate have led to success in reaching all our destinations. We have really enjoyed visiting places that are far older than anything else we have ever seen (excavations show some homes and towers were built in the Stone Age!); it truly is a whole new world!

First stop: Amman, the capital city and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. We spent our first afternoon exploring the city center (where we are staying) and visiting the ancient Roman Theatre and Citadel that are just a short walk away from our hotel. These were our first glimpses that far into the past and they were stunning to walk through and imagine the ancient Romans and later Umayyads. The museum at the site even holds parchments of the Dead Sea Scrolls – how amazing is that? The history of all these sites is simply incredible and we spent a long time just enjoying being in the same space as these ancient civilizations and imaging it bustling with activity of a much different sort than awe-struck travelers.

In addition to our walks through history this week, we have enjoyed the tradition Jordanian mezze at nearly every dinner. We have had hummus, falafel (even at breakfast!), baba ghanouj (an eggplant-based dip), mutabal (an aubergine & tahini dip), khatoun (aubergine stuffed with chili pepper), and more pita than we can count! Pita is served at every meal – rather than use utensils, pita is used to pick up the food and eat it (much like using tortillas in Belize, particularly still in the villages). We tested it out and it is possible to get tired of pita, but we will eat it again! One image that will stay with each of us is the people carrying bags filled with pita through the streets. Good times J

Al Hub As-salam!