There was one superhost "experience" guide listed on Airbnb and, not having any luck looking elsewhere on the internets to find guides, I booked him to take us to the city of Jerash which is about an hour north of Amman. Originally we wanted to also go to the town of Um Qais (pronounced "case") but he told us it would be a long day and in fact, eventually admitted he had never been there. Of course, what we've learned is that everyone in Jordan is a tour guide. I asked our cab driver Khaled to come pick us up this morning to take us to our guide Raid and when I told him that I realized everyone was a tour guide in Amman he said, "No. Every guy in the middle east is a tour guide and every guy knows everything." Turns out - except Raid! Raid drove a beautiful black Mercedes and spoke beautiful English. We thought we had booked a tour guide but we really just booked a driver and lunch companion. He was a fascinating guy though and we got to spend 4 hours with him asking all about the culture here in Jordan. I won't go into his whole story but one of them involved over a dozen surgeries in Israel to have a tumor removed from his spine. Anyway, it was involved. We also got to talk a lot about Keto. More on that later.
The drive to Jerash gave us an opportunity to see more of Amman which, once you get over one of the hills, turns more modern and eventually more, for lack of a better word, dessert pastoral. It also gave me a bit of insight as to what driving is going to be like. Let's just say that driving seems to be an endless game of chicken and there don't seem to be lanes but cars move like flocks of birds without hitting each other.
Here are some pictures of the ruins in Jerash.
Of course I didn't back up far enough to get the entire entrance gate but here it is.
This is the hippodrome where they raced hippos. No, wait, they rode bicycles, no, again, they had chariot races and gladiator fights apparently.
This is behind the hippodrome and I assume was sort of a paddock but the information signs don't give a lot of information and Riad gave even less. At one point, he patted a piece of a column and said, "It's really really old." Thanks, Riad!
There was no way to get a picture to show just how massive this place was. We never saw anything like this in Greece in terms of the sheer scale and outlay of the town. Of course, it would have been even more impressive if the Parthenon was here.
We did read that this was a fountain and at every hole there was a stone lion's head whose mouth the water came out of.
Right outside the walls - goats.
The following pictures were taken by a guy selling trinkets. We didn't buy any trinkets but we gave him 2 dinar (about $2.50) for the photo shoot. To be honest, I tried to give him 1 dinar but he demanded 2.
We didn't know what he was doing with this picture but apparently, I was supposed to be holding a camera and taking a picture of ourselves.
We had a much-needed nap in the afternoon before walking down the hill for our nightly...
I asked Rebecca how long we would have to be here before we tried their other things...
Alas, twas not to be.
It was 6:45 and we didn't know what else to do with our evening, still being full from lunch and our Kanafeh. Rebecca had the idea to go up to the Citadel to watch the sunset. Traffic was getting nutty and it took us a while to get a cab but finally an older guy picked us up. He didn't speak English or know the name Citadel so he pulled over and asked some guys if they spoke English. One came and interpreted and took my phone with Google maps and gave it to the driver who used it to get us up the hill. We made it with 5 minutes to spare before they stopped letting people in.
We walked around a different way from yesterday when we came to a sort of dead end. Rebecca decided to find a way down.
This is what we were rewarded with.
Meanwhile, the wind blew my hat off and it landed on a wall behind us. Fortunately, I'm all "billygoaty" so I retrieved it without breaking my hip!
The call to prayer started as we were leaving which seemed pretty appropriate. Taxis were waiting outside and all wanted to barter for a price. I think cab rides are cheap but they never turn their meters on so they either ask me to pay what I want or quote me some fantastical price. They also want to take us other places to show us on the way home. I wanted to pay 5 dinar but ultimately paid 10 which was still better than the 20 they wanted. I'm not a barterer.
We went to a rooftop bar down the street before heading back to the apartment. Rebecca had a glass of wine and I had a glass of Arak which is their version of ouzo. It was a beautiful scene.
And that's day three. The real adventure starts tomorrow as we drive south along the King's Highway to Petra. Cross all your fingers!
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