Part 3: Couch Surfing in Amman

Salty and satisfied, Autumn, Cory and I hopped on a microbus back to Amman. It was the last day of Ramadan, which meant we had to head back earlier than we would have liked - Iftar would be an especially big deal tonight, and if we didn't make the bus by 5 we would be stranded on the shores. Luckily we made it ok, and we each snuck a Snickers ice cream bar before we left, taking clandestine bites from the depths of a white plastic bag that we kept crumpled around them.

We had been so careful to avoid obvious eating and drinking in public all through that long, hot, weary month. We couldn't bear the thought of taunting them poor Muslim population so soon before the end!

But Snickers ice cream bars are soooo goooood.

We had left our things at the Sheraton in Amman, not wanting to drag our bags to the beach with us. So we returned, reclaimed them, and tried to use their public phone to call Rami, who would be hosting us tonight.

The way we found Rami was through a magical creation called Couch Surfing. Couch Surfing is an international website phenomenon meant to help out travelers around the world. If you're going somewhere but don't want to pay for a hostel or hotel, you can check out people registered on Couch Surfers and see if they're willing to host you. The website is very good about guarding against creepers, too - if you stay with someone and have a good experience, you write them a reference so that other travelers can know that they're good people. Which is nice, and makes your mother feel better about the whole thing.

[Note: I did not tell my mother about any of these things. I figured it would be nicer for her to hear them when I returned home, safe and sound and fully satisfied with all my adventures and experiences. Love you, Mom!]

We had contacted several people in Amman about the three of us crashing on their floors / couches, and ended up getting in touch with a great guy named Rami. He said we could absolutely stay, and told us to contact him when we were ready to come over.

However, we couldn't get a hold of him for a while, and after calling three times or so we decided to find something to do in the interim. So we bid farewell to the Sheraton lobby and headed back out, into the later Jordanian afternoon.

After looking through several tourist maps, and again consulting Google, we decided to check out Amman's Citadel (seems like everyone's got one!). It was reputed to have an amazing view of the city, as well as, obviously, interesting ruins and architecture. Lonely planet had told us that the Citadel was beautiful at sunset, and it was almost sunset, so we thought, why not!

Turns out the Citadel is closed at sunset.

Really, Lonely Planet?

We were just about to take our taxi all the way back down the various twisty and turny hills that we had taken to get there (Amman is somewhat redolent of San Francisco), when the men at the gate had pity on us and said we could go in after all. "Just ten minutes!" they made us promise, and we ran.

And it was beautiful at sunset! We forgave Lonely PLanet their mistake (besides, we figured, maybe it was an Iftar thing - it being sunset and all) and took pictures to our hearts' content. Like this one:


And this one, of the columns:

And this one, of the view of the city

By this point we got in touch with Rami and made plans to come to his apartment, drop off our stuff, and go out for a tour of the city from one of its native residents.

Rami was absolutely wonderful - bursting at the seams with energy, fun facts about Jordan, and turkey sandwiches to feed our hungry traveling selves. We hung around his apartment and refueled for an hour or so, then set off on a tour of the town.

Amman was not so different from other Middle Eastern cities I've seen - crowded, lots of little tables on the sidewalk and shops set into the buildings behind. However, I must say, it was much cleaner, and smelled much nicer, than Cairo. It was also a good deal greener, we had noticed. Being starved for trees we appreciated this fact.

Rami took us all over the downtown area.
We bought scarves from a little booth (the man taught Autumn how to tie them on her head like a traditional Jordanian: see right), had sheesha and drinks at the coolest cafe (it was all dark wood and smoke, with a man playing 'oud inside), and tried an...interesting...desert that Rami swears Jordan is famous for: fried cheese covered in, I think, caramelized honey. At this point we were stuffed from all the chickpeas and foul and pita we had eaten at the cafe - and also not so tempted by the desert offered - but Rami was adamant! So we tried it, and to be honest, it wasn't so bad! Not something I would want to eat every day (I respect my arteries), but all in all it was pretty good.

By this point we were more than ready for bed. So we headed back to Rami's place, decided to get up at 5 am the next day and head to Petra, and with that, crashed thankfully on to the floor.