Today, we went out again with my friend's family friend and today, we went over to dinner at their house. We took a tour of their beautiful garden with countless herb and fruit trees and then headed inside to have one of the best meals that I have had so far in Jordan. It is called Musakhan, an incredibly delicious Palestinian dish of baked chicken and onions with sumac and an assortment of other spices and served over tabboon bread and you eat it with your hands. It is even sometimes considered the national dish of Palestine. After dinner, we sat on the porch and sipped mint tea and had some really nice conversations. We then went and visited the King Abdullah Mosque, the biggest mosque in Amman which has a capacity of 3,000. We then headed to The Boulevard, this huge new complex/mall with a huge outside walking area between these many shops with lots of lights and fountains. It was so nice walking around and then we stopped to get dessert. We had Aish al Suraya, a traditional Middle Eastern dessert and also a Nutella cookie with vanilla ice cream. We walked around and admired the beautiful modern architecture and the new storefronts and then headed home. Another really beautiful day.
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Today, two of my friends on the trip and I headed out to spend time with one of my friends's Jordanian family friend who had really kindly invited us to spend the morning with her in downtown. We headed for brunch at Shams-al-Balad, one of the best and most well known restaurants in Amman and it was fortunately open even during Ramadan. It was so cute and reminded me of something I might find in San Francisco; there were lots of mason jars and everything was seasonal and farm-to-table. It was interesting because when we pulled up, I thought it was closed because the windows were covered with brown paper, but it turned out that the windows were just covered because if restaurants want to be able to serve food during Ramadan, you can't be able to see anyone eating from the outside. We ordered many different Jordanian breakfast items and enjoyed the really fresh and tasty meal. We then headed down to the Balad, or the Downtown Amman Area by walking down this beautiful stairway covered in colorful umbrellas! We walked through the downtown area for a while and saw a really cool book stand and shops selling traditional dresses. We then headed to Wild Jordan, a restaurant/viewpoint/artisan goods store/wilderness trip planning center. First and foremost though, it had incredibly beautiful views of Amman. We then took a scenic drive back and passed the US Embassy, which was way bigger than expected. It was ginormous and there was so much security and even a couple of SWAT cars outside. You weren't allowed to take any pictures or even park within a 2 block radius of the embassy! Anyway, we headed back and headed to Madaba in the afternoon, which will be the subject of another post.
معسلامة!! صفية After an already eventful morning exploring downtown Amman, we headed to Madaba, a town famous for its Byzantine and Ummayad mosaics, to get a more historic perspective of Jordan. Madaba is a historically Christian city that technically is included in the Amman metropolitan area but is a 45 min drive away from downtown Amman. It was crazy seeing camels grazing on the side of the highway as we drove. We arrived and immediately headed to see the famous mosaics that Madaba is known for. There were many pagan mosaics and then as time progressed, they added more Christian mosaics. Amman is one of the longest inhabited cities in the world and has been ruled by the Romans, Greeks, Byzantines, Ottomans and more. Because of this. Nearly all of Jordan has several layers of history and Madaba is a prime example of this. We visited an abandoned church that had been a home, church and public gathering place at different points in time. Enjoy some pictures of the beautiful mosaics- And here are some pictures from the abandoned church- It was crazy seeing how much more vivid the colors were once the guide sprayed them with a light layer of water and you can see the contrast in the first picture. And this is the really famous Tree of Life- We then visited the Institute of Mosaic Art and Restoration, a high school that specializes in mosaics, and then went and saw a demonstration on how mosaics are made which was incredibly interesting. Then we headed to a church which is famous for a huge mosaic map of the Levant that covers most of the floor and is surprisingly accurate and demarcates multiple sites which had previously gone undiscovered but were found because of the map. Then we headed to the Church of Saint John the Baptist and climbed the bell tower to an amazing panoramic view and then went beneath the church in all these cave rooms with even more mosaics. We then had some free time to explore and two friends and I wandered into a spice shop with drawers full of spices covering the walls and had a great conversation for 20 minutes (in Arabic, of course :)) with the shop owner for, who was incredibly nice and showed us and let us smell and taste all the different spices. Then, my friend bought this string instrument with a boy and we were then stopped by some local boys who showed us how to play it properly and managed to coax a pleasant sound out of the instrument that seemed to screech anytime any of us tried to play it. Sometimes the most spontaneous conversations and interactions can be the most enriching. We then headed to Mt. Nebo (جبل نيبو), the mountain which is said to be where Moses was when he first saw the Holy Land and had views of Israel/Palestine. The topic of Israel and Palestine here is incredibly complicated and deserves its own post, because its been really interesting hearing different Jordanians' perspectives and attitudes on the situations (even just through observing casual comments or mentions). Anyway, Mt. Nebo was very different from what I expected because it was such a rugged beauty, however, the sunset was truly one-of-a-kind. After the sunset, we headed to dinner, had delicious kebabs on an outdoor terrace, headed back to Amman and then had an Arabic movie night and sipped cardamom tea and laughed and chatted. All in all, a really nice day! :) |
We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us. !أهلا و ساهلاHi! I'm Sophia, a high schooler from the San Francisco Bay Area. I received a scholarship through the State Dept. to study Arabic in Jordan in the summer of 2016. Categories
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