Hey folks! Karalyn here, and I can’t wait to tell you about our amazing time in Amman, Jordan!
Thursday, June 30th - Travel to Jordan
We woke up around 8am to depart from our Amsterdam “Botel” (aka our hotel that was on a boat!) and head to the airport. We took the ferry across the river to the train station, grabbed a quick breakfast, and jumped onto the train to the Schiphol airport. Schiphol is notorious for its extremely long lines, so we left ourselves about 4 hours to get from the entrance of the airport to our gate. Fortunately, that was just barely enough time. While the extremely long lines of people snaking through the airport made it difficult to navigate, we eventually found our way to the correct security line. Once through to the terminal, Mattheus, Elio and I headed off to find a post box to send our post cards! (If any of our family members are reading this, I hope they made it to you guys!). Thankfully, after a long and stressful airport experience, all Dins made it onto the plane.
This flight had quite possibly the most children under the age of 2 that I have ever seen on one plane. Noah and I sat next to the cutest 3-week-old baby (who was incredibly quiet for the entire flight!) We landed around 9:30pm and headed to purchase our visas, collect our baggage, and call a taxi. Unfortunately, Sam’s bag got lost in transit (but, *spoiler alert*, it was found in Turkey 5 days later!) We arrived at our beautiful hotel, the Landmark Amman Hotel, around 11pm. I was very excited to find that they had my favorite type of tea, English Breakfast, in each room and I promptly enjoyed 3 cups of it. Felix and I ordered a delivery of delicious falafels and enjoyed a much-needed night of longggg sleep.
Friday, July 1st – Amman, Jordan Day 1
Most Dins spent today enjoying the comforts of our hotel and catching up on some much-needed rest. Felix and I went to do laundry at a nearby self-service laundromat, and it turns out, it was the only self-service laundromat in the entire country! Thankfully it was so close to our hotel! Personally, I enjoyed a day primarily spent chilling out in bed, knitting the Jordan flag, and watching Netflix. Other Dins explored the city a bit, checking out nearby historical sites, and enjoying some delicious nearby restaurants!
Saturday, July 2nd – Amman, Jordan Day 2
Today was an exploration and adventure day! Noah, Mattheus, Hannah, Elio, Felix and I hired a van service to take us to Petra, an archeologist’s (aka Noah’s) dreamland. We drove for about 3 hours, stopping every once in a while to look out at the desert scenery. When we arrived, we grabbed a quick bite (falafel sandwiches), found a tour hide, stocked up on water, and headed out! Dating to around 300 BC, Petra is a historic city carved entirely into rocky sandstone cliffs. It’s nickname is the “Rose City,” thanks to the pink coloring of the rocks. The city’s most popular façade is The Treasury, known for its astounding intricacy, towering beauty, and famed appearance in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989. It was mind-boggling to know that the exact stones we were walking on had be tread by our human predecessors nearly 2000 years ago. Our tour guide was fantastic and showed us all the small details that a novice eye would overlook. For example, he showed us the water pathways carved into the side of the rock used to bring fresh water to the city, complete with large troughs every few hundred feet that were used to clean the water by letting the sediment sink to the bottom before travelling onward.
At the conclusion of our excursion, we purchased some fruit popsicles (the mango-flavored ones were a huge hit!) and cold water to rejuvenate ourselves. We all slept very soundly on the van ride back. Our driver kindly brought us a watermelon, which he sliced and served to us overlooking a beautiful desert landscape on the side of the road. Back at the hotel, we ordered dinner via delivery from a local restaurant.
Sunday, July 3rd – Amman, Jordan Day 3
The Dins enjoyed another restful and relaxing day in Amman, primarily spent lounging at the hotel pool. Sam and Samson found a delicious Yemeni restaurant for dinner, which we all enjoyed immensely.
Monday, July 4th – Amman, Jordan Day 4
This morning, Samson, Mattheus and I headed to Jerash, a city in northern Jordan that is known for its ancient Greco-Roman ruins in the middle of the modern city. The ruins visible today date back to the Hellenistic Age, around 331 BC – they are perhaps the largest and most well-preserved sites of Roman architecture in the world, outside of Italy. The city was founded by Alexander the Great and was later absorbed into the Roman empire. The large archway entrance was built to honor Emperor Hadrian on his visit to the city in 129 AD. Some of the pillars were inscribed with writing, which Samson enjoyed deciphering. It was so fascinating to think that, even back in BC times, humans had such immense knowledge of engineering – arches that truly stood the test of time, circular drain covers (the only shape that, no matter it’s orientation, won’t ever fall into the hole it’s covering), and stadium-style seating to fit thousands of audience members. And it wasn’t a museum or a picture book – it was a real city with real pillars and stairs and streets that you could climb over, walk on, and explore. I have never experienced anything like it.
We arrived back at the hotel around 2pm, just in time to check out and head to the airport for our flight to Nairobi, Kenya. The terminal of the airport we were in was quite small, so we grabbed a quick bite to eat and boarded the plane. The first leg of the flight was short and easy, about 2 and a half hours to Doha. The second was a bit longer, about 6 hours from 2am to 8am. Luckily, most of us slept soundly through the flight and woke up to find ourselves in Kenya!
