Citadel and Ghettos

We went up to the Citadel today. We were going to go to the Dead Sea but we all weren't feeling very good in the morning and since the ride to the Dead Sea is pretty curvy we decided that we should probably stay around Amman.

We left for the Citadel around noon. It's pretty easy to get there because the taxi just drops you off at the top of the hill (getting back home was a different story) and you buy your entrance ticket (2 JD per person) and explore. Nothing is labeled so it would have been nice to have a tour guide, but we did have the Lonely Planet book and it explained some pretty crucial things. It's strange exploring the ruins here because you can climb on anything you want. The only thing they have blocked off are the wells--and that's probably a good thing because they are deep and full of trash. Andrew knew quite a bit about the architecture from his history classes (he's excited for his humanity classes where he will learn even more).

It was really fun to explore everywhere but it was so hot! The only shade we could find was in the Ummayyad Palace so we frequented there quite a bit. We were noticing with the ruins that the walls were so thick making the rooms rather small, but apparently it pays off because the Palace was so much cooler than standing in the sun!

The museum (Citadel archaeological Museum) was pretty cool, too. They had a tour that went all through different time periods, showing the Bronze period, the Iron period, the Roman period, the Byzantine period, etc. They had a ton of things from biblical times that were so cool to look at! It really made us realize that this is a Holy Land.

After we finished exploring everything we decided to head back to town. The problem was, there wasn't really a great way to get back to town. We had two options: walk down the big hill to town or take the stairs through a Palestinian ghetto. We opted for the main road but, it didn't go all the way down, so we ended up taking a whole bunch of windy side roads anyway.

I was hoping that we would come across some of those windy roads since I had read about them in books...but hadn't seen any yet. They really are quite windy. I think we would have gotten lost if it wasn't for all the children pointing us to the Roman Amphitheater. We were so tired once we got to the bottom of the hill! We decided to go find a place to eat.

Andrew really wanted to go to a restaurant that is mentioned in the Lonely Planet so we found that place. It was pretty good, although I thought it looked pretty sketchy at first. We walked in and they threw pita bread in front of us and brought us falafel and humus. It was good...and super cheap. All five of us ate for 3 JD.

We also went to a fresh juice stand. The juice was so good!

It was a fun trip but short outing (since we weren't feeling too great this morning, I think it was quite an adventurous day).