...after breakfast yesterday (Friday), christina, briana and i went back to our room to get ready...the other 5 ladies were ready ahead of us and decided to strike out on their own which left us to figure out where we were going...after asking at the front desk what was open (and were informed that nothing was open because it was eid),we set out on foot to see some of the old part of Amman...
...pretty dismal surroundings...lots of young boys wandering the street...we walked around for a while (i'm not loving it at this point), then got some lunch...pretty good shwarma and pickled veggies ?? and ice cream, then tried to get a cab back to our hotel (and were warned not to pay more than 1 Jordanian Dinar)but alas...couln't get a cab...either they drove on by not interested, stopped and wanted to charge too much or stopped and didn't seem to know where our hotel was...go figure...so in my 'quiet', unobtrusive way, i was complaining to the girls about our lack of luck in hailing a cab...lo and behold an 'angel' came by, heard our dilemma and offered to drive us to the hotel...chuckling as we got in because he said the hotel was very close...we explained that we had just 'got off the boat' as it were and he said 'no problem'...HE was a 25 year old, gorgeous (ok, i'm old but i'm not blind) jordanian man who had come to rescue us...he drove us to our hotel and asked if we wanted him to show us around later in the day...christina and briana were very happy because as i mentioned, he was very cute and very charming and nice...we found out that he is a sports tv presenter...his name is haitham...so we decided that he would come back for us about 7....
...after arriving back at the hotel, we had a snooze and then got up to get ready...it was unfortunate that the other girls had not been with us but they had their own fun shopping (at the few shops that were open) and seeing some of the old city..
...true to his word, haitham returned to pick us up at 7 and drove us all around the old and new parts of amman...showed us where he was born, the soon to be finished cafe that he and a friend were renovating and took us to one of his favourite restaurants with a roof top patio where almost everyone was smoking sheesha (sp?)a water infused, heated, fruit flavored tobacco kind of substance...very big in the middle east...thank goodness it doesn't smell like regular tobacco....they don't have any smoking bans in this part of the world...that was a lovely way to spend the evening....after playing silly games of 'truth or dare'...we left and haitham dropped us off at our hotel... promising to take us around again tonight...
...this morning after breakfast all 8 of us boarded a van to jarash to see roman ruins of a time long ago...very interesting and the other 7 were really into the 4 hours that we spent there...i was good for about the first hour and a half and then the same question remains....'why did they have to ruin it??'...ok, i'm being facetious but i feel the same way about ruins as i do about cathedrals, mosques, buddhist temples, etc.....ENOUGHT ALREADY...anyway, after having lunch and shopping in the little shops (i always feel somewhat assaulted in those little souvenir shops...too much haggling), we boarded the van again to return to the hotel...after another little snooze, christina, briana and i are again being chauffered around by haitham...this time we may take in some go-karting and not sure what else...it is so great to have a local to take us around because we get to go to places that we wouldn't normally see or know about...anyway, will tell you more about our adventure later....
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