Day 14: Jordan

I arrived in Amman, Jordan around 1am. The ride in, while dark, was an eye opening ride; there were huge houses made of marble and stone with driveways filled with high end European cars and some American made cars. Downtown Amman is getting a much needed facelift, in progress skyscrapers and offices are filling the area. My hostel is on the outskirts of downtown Amman in a poorer area. One thing I will say off the bat, Jordan is a very filthy country, trash is littered on every street and spread amongst the farms, it's pretty sad. When I got to the hostel, I settled in and got a couple hours of sleep.

I woke up around 7:30am and caught a share taxi to the city bus station, Tabarbour. Share taxis filled the streets near my hostel and wait until they are completely full before departing. When I got the the bus station, I boarded a bus for a city called Jerash, which is home to the Greco-Roman city Gerasa. Gerasa is currently one of the most extensive Roman cities still standing and was built around 120-130 AD. Of many other things, there is a hippodrome, large gates, and two theaters still standing. While the site is crumbling, the city doesn't do much to keep it up. The site, along with parts of the country are covered in trash. Many of the wholes or underground stairwells that I wanted to explore, were filled with trash. I spent the whole afternoon exploring the city. Lucky for me, as soon as I got back to my hostel, it began to pour rain. I haven't been talking about weather that much since I started this blog, but I have yet to have have more than 48 hours of good weather.

To my surprise the Jordanian people are extremely kind. Most that I walked by would either ask me where I was trying to go and then point me in the right direction, or say "welcome to Jordan."

Tonight is my last night in Amman, I hired a driver for about $30 to drive me to Petra on a 6 hour road trip.