I am currently sitting in my hotel room right across the street from the entrance gates to PETRA. Even with the call to prayer playing through our windows, it’s hard to believe that I am literally steps away from one of the most incredible wonders of the world. The site is closed for the night; otherwise, I’d be out exploring. I’m itching to be staring up at the famous Treasury!
The title of this post means “Foul and Bread”, pronounced “Fool wa khubz”, and is what I ate for breakfast! Dad and I both woke up around 6am, jet-lag giving us some extra time to get ready this morning for our 9am tour. Dad went to the gym, so after I got ready I wandered downstairs for breakfast! It was held in this beautiful dining room, where last night there had been a USAid conference. When we walked by last night I had to try so hard not to sneak in to listen! We talk so much about USAid in my program, and it would have been so incredible to see a real conference go down. Anyways, I was greeted by several of the incredibly hospitable servers, and was led to a table where they offered me Jordanian coffee (much like our coffee, but from Jordan, I guess) and was introduced to a beautiful buffet.
We’re here!! I’m sitting in the Four Seasons Amman on the tallest of Amman’s seven hills, snacking on “Cold Mezze”, a large platter of food that welcomed Dad and I when we entered the room. The houmus is incredible, and Jordinian tabouleh is incredible, but my favourite part so far is this sort of paste, similar to houmus, that I’m piling on to hard pitas with mint leaves and olives. Amman is beautiful. Well, from outside my window, that is. We haven’t had a chance to explore quite yet, but witnessed some of the impressive scenery out of the car window as Maher, our driver for the week, wound his way through the hills that Amman is so famous for in the Arab world.
We arrived in Amman at ten to four, local time, after a comfortable flight from Heathrow. I slept most of the way, at that point having been awake for 30 hours. As we landed, I pulled up the window shields and watched the most unique landscape I have ever seen pass us by. I feel like we talk about the desert as though it’s one single thing, but already I’m learning that “desert” is very much a blanket term for anything a little bit dry. The ground was orange for as far as I could see, with enormous cracks cutting through its vibrant colour. Little white buildings were scattered about it, all looking very similar. As we got closer, I caught a glimpse of that I was sure was the city of Amman. Little white buildings seemed to spill out from between hillsides with no semblance of structure at all. From the air Amman looked like nothing I had ever seen before: a sentiment I would later find reinforced on land.
Heather Wandering 