Ḩayy Jabal ‘Ammān

Coming back from Jerash, I was excited to refill my water as well as get my laundry sorted out as I was leaving the next day for Petra. I had already booked my bus ride with JETT as well. I hanged around the lounge and met these three girls from Belgium, Mexico and Japan. Amandine who was actually from Mongolia, Elisa from Mexico City and Rina from Tokyo. The good thing about the Wanderers Hostel is that I made a lot of friends, though the only strong takeaways were Josef and Elisa. Elisa was going to Egypt next and I connected her with Nuri, it was an amazing feeling to be a bridge to new friendships forming around the world. I heard from both of them later that they got along pretty well and Nuri was able to help her a lot. After Jerash, I was already a bit tired and was thinking of just lazing the day away instead of visiting the Roman Theatre and Citadel Hill but Josef convinced me with his stern words "Don't be lazy" and he was right, I was in Amman and I shouldn't take it for granted so I psyched myself up and got ready for another long walk.

I took an Uber to the Theatre, I didn't want to pay for the entrance ticket so I was quite satisfied seeing it from afar. The Citadel Hill was pretty far away from the Theatre and as I didn't have wi-fi, I had no choice but to do a mini-hike all the way to the top. The journey took a huge toll on my legs but I still pushed forward and eventually made it. Elisa had recommended to wait until sunset and I was planning on doing it but it seems like there was still so much time to spare. The Citadel was the same as Jerash in that it had remains of Roman ruins but in a much smaller scale. Its real selling point are the panoramic views of Amman, I could see the Theatre all the way from up there and it was pretty cool to think how far my legs carried me. I took my sweet time and went around the whole place and set aside a lot of time to just sit and be but sunset was still a ways off so I decided to start the walk back after a couple of more minutes relaxing.

It was at this point where I started to get a bit emotional, the same feeling of loneliness has been gnawing at me ever since I sat down at one of the benches at Citadel Hill. The thoughts seemed to be swallowing me whole and I slowly succumbed to these feelings of sadness. The trip back turned into a bit of a meditative walk as I played mantra music to increase my vibration. It was contemplative for sure, I didn't know where it was coming from, perhaps I was missing the bygone happy days when I was with Janelle and my family or those rad whacky times with Jasper, I've been alone for awhile now and meeting people in the hostel was fun and all but I knew things are pretty surface level and fleeting. I never got to figuring it out though as I passed through the city, I thought to myself that the walk was actually worth it because I was able to see a side of Amman that I haven't seen yet. Such a unique country, so foreign for me but still beautiful nonetheless. There was another massive hike to my hostel but I was just glad to be back. The three girls were playing board games at the dining area and as for me, I was quite done for the day. Josef was going to Petra as well but he was taking a different route though I did suggest taking JETT. My other roomie who I got to know as Jack was also going to Petra so we decided to take an Uber to the JETT terminal together the next morning to save on costs.Read more