Amman

It was already nearing midnight when I arrived at the airport in Amman. The crowds were immense for the first time since I started this trip. It took a long time for me to reach the immigration check point while I scrambled to get some dollars to exchange. I was lucky to follow my hunch to find a money exchange outside the gates instead of biting at the first one I saw because I was able to get a really fair price from the official bank of Jordan. I called an Uber and it was this shady guy called Ahmed, as soon as I got on he started to sell me some other hotel and tours as we talked back and forth with Google Translate, other than the ride to my hostel was absolutely awesome. Feeling the cool night breeze and smelling that fresh mountain air after coming from Dubai was an amazing feeling and it made me look forward to the days ahead. I checked in at the Wanderers Hostel, pretty kind folks manning the front desk. I started to fix up my stuff before I was told that it was the wrong room and so I moved to another one where I had the top bunk, the room didn't have any air-conditioning on so I opened up one of the balcony doors to let the cool air in. What I liked about the set-up is that it had curtains so I had some privacy which is one of the most important factors I look for in hostels. I exchanged greeting with the guy sleeping below me, Sam from Belgium but originally from Kurdistan. Unfortunately, it really is hard to avoid the snorers so I had to bust out the eye mask and ear plugs to try and get some sleep.

It was way too early when I woke up but the sun was already out and I sure was not going get anymore sleep so I took a morning shower to freshen up and made my way down. Sam was talking to another feller that I met the night before, Moussa, a black guy from Paris who also knew how to speak Arabic which was the language they were using. We started to talk about plans for the day and Sam mentioned that he had a friend who was willing to take us out for the day with their car, I was quite down to join him. Some time passed by and another person showed up, Josef from Czechia. The three of us went to get some breakfast and I was quite happy to find a place that accepted credit cards as I only had a limited amount of cash on me to survive until Wadi Rum as I had to pay that one in cash. The plans were really wishy-washy as Sam's friend ghosted us and he said there was another friend to take us around meanwhile we also planned to go to the Jerash Ruins. Sam said he will catch up so Josef and I booked a cab to the bus terminal where we caught a bus going to Jerash.Read more