The Roman Amphitheater

So after the Citadel we wandered down the hill to the Roman theater. Just getting down the hill was cool. You have to weave back and forth down stairs that run in between homes and little streets... like this:



This little girl was running so fast that I got my camera out at the last second... but I'm glad I did.

We wandered into the park that sits before the theater and meandered around a bit before entering the theater. There was an outdoor restaurant where you could potentially sit and have coffee, tea, sodas, or hookah, and a small row of shops. Alot like a town square park. Many locals and tourists... but lots of watchers.

The theater was built during the reign of Marcus Aurelius (169-177 AD). It's fairly large and quite steep to climb but was totally worth it of course, and it seats about 6,000 people. It is built into the hillside, and oriented north to keep the sun off the spectators.

Walking into the amphitheater:


This is one of my favorite pics from the theater because you can see the Temple of Hercules from it. In the previous post, I included a shot of this theater from up there. Pretty cool seeing it up there so high and knowing we walked all the way down to get the "full experience."


The theater is thought to have religious significance for the people of Amman as well. It's still used today for performances.


Taking it in.


Possibly one of the coolest things I've done since coming here is meeting Zaid. Scudder was eager to take me to his dagger/sword shop in the small market area that's outside of the theater. Last time he was here with Bob Mayer, they bought daggers from him and were thoroughly satisfied with the experience. Zaid has been in business for 20 years and has always held shop here. The people of Jordan are so friendly, if I haven't said it enough, and Zaid is the epitome of the kind. He will make you a custom dagger and personalize it for you. There's no pressure to purchase--which is something that the Jordanian vendors are known for, by trying to entice you into their shops--but not him, which makes you more willing to take it all in. The experience is worth it. He will bring tea or turkish coffee while you wait, (Scudder was upset that there was no more hibiscus tea that he and Bob had last time which was apparently memorable) and is eager to show you all the processes and impart as much information as he can. He will even encourage you to try practicing the design-making into the handle on practice daggers he keeps for customers to try. Using an age-old process, he will inscribe your name (or whatever you want) in Arabic into the blade, along with his information on the other side. There are pictures on the wall of him offering blades to the royal Hashemite family. In fact, he takes pictures with almost all his customers and will email them to you as well as will print them and put them up in his shop. He is a one-of-a-kind guy. I took the greatest video clip of him making daggers for us. It was amazing.


Scudder, Zaid and myself.


Zaid's store - next to the camera shop.



After the dagger shop we wandered around the downtown core. This city constantly surprises me with it's diversity and variety of eras just next door to eacht other. You can go from ancient Roman ruins, to a bustling, antiquated downtown that's dirty from car fumes (the oil seems very dirty and stinky here), traditionally Arabic and very busy... all the way to shopping districts that literally look like they belong in Paris or New York, complete with Starbucks and Mac Cosmetics. As a woman in the downtown area, I get a lot of looks, but it's not uncomfortable, just many glances from curious onlookers. Honestly, women are probably safer walking alone here (although I wasn't... relax Mom :), than in Burlington. Women are not viewed that way here, or in Islam; there is a lot of respect for women.


Downtown Amman - not a very good pic cause it was getting dark.


Gold - shops like this everywhere


Street vendor - some sort of beans


How books in Arabic, from texts to romance, are sold downtown.


After our adventures downtown (and getting sweets... oh my god Arabic sweets are so indulgent, I wish I could bring them home but most of them should be preserved or chilled)- we decided to go on a quest to find the only Mac (Apple) store in Jordan. Somewhere in the shopping area of Sweifeyeh (?? SPELL??) we were "told" (but we had no real clue what we were doing) there was a Mac store. If I haven't mentioned it already, I haven't had the use of my laptop since coming here because Burlington security forgot to give it back to me and I didn't realize it until JFK. So I needed a new charger for my MacBook, and we were on a quest.

It was the strangest thing--this shopping area turns out to be HUGE and pretty much the lunar opposite of the downtown core we just came from. Modern, clean, extremely Western, with all high-end European and American shops. It was surreal. Without any problem (surprising), we found the store and I squealed like a schoolgirl and skipped into the store. It was perfect! Looked like any other Mac store in America... I was pumped. EXCEPT WHEN THEY DON'T HAVE ANY MACBOOK CHARGERS IN-STOCK. Arrghhhhhhh!! It was such a bittersweet moment. I was in heaven but couldn't have my cake and eat it too. The manager kindly said they just ran out but that they had other Mac chargers... he offered to call Dubai and have one mailed, or to order one that would take 4 weeks! Oh well.

Mac Store - notice all the Paris shops surrounding it. Talk about typecasting customers.




I had to take this shot because of all the American shops all piled on top of each other... again, surreal.


Well that's all I can post for now, have to get packing so I can come home tomorrow. This all went by so fast. Will be in around 11pm on Sunday and I will be posting and catching up as best I can.

Love to all.
J