Amman, Jordan: We spent another night in the Doha airport (a phrase I did not think I would ever be saying) on our trip from Tanzania to Arusha. Given that Linda will probably fly through here on her way back to the US at the end of the week, she will end up going through Doha three times in two weeks. Quite the traveller.

As I mentioned last time we were here, the Doha airport is very modern and nice. There are also some interesting art exhibits through the facility.

It operates pretty much 24 / 7 as flights are taking off and landing at all hours of the day and night. We arrived just before midnight and are departing for Amman around 8:00 AM. I had read online about Qatar Airways providing free in-airport hotel rooms for layovers longer than 8 hrs. Unfortunately, our fare class (cheapest possible) and limited room availability meant no free room for us. Back to the quiet room – hopefully, it will actually be quiet this time.

We arrived in Amman around 9:30 AM feeling a little more disoriented than usual – tired from our safari and lack of sleep overnight. Our cab ride to the airbnb was interesting as the cab driver refused to believe the directions our host had provided (in both English and Arabic) and instead kept on turning too soon and getting trapped in a maze of one way streets. We eventually got this sorted (a lot of pointing and gesturing) and arrived at our home for the week.

The apartment we are staying at is up on a hill (as it turns out everything in Amman is) overlooking the old downtown section of the city. Shown below are pictures of our apartment and the view from the balcony out over the city.

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Our host was wearing a Michigan sweatshirt and after a brief conversation we learned that he had grown up near Flint, Michigan and had lived there for much of his life. He gave us the basic layout of the city and provided recommendations for what to see and where to eat. He also noted that the two things that can be guaranteed for any visit to Amman are plenty of good food and plenty of exercise. There are seven mountains (big hills really) that surround the old downtown and it appears that everything is up on one of those hills or down in the central valley. Either way, there is a walk up or down involved in getting anywhere.

As we were quite tired from the day of travel and since it is raining pretty heavily, we decided to save our major exploration of the city for tomorrow. Instead we just picked up some basic supplies at a small store nearby and grabbed a quick dinner on a nearby street (Rainbow Street) famed for its many shops, restaurants, and night life.

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