A visit to Amman

Jordan has been a country I been curious visiting for years. Most of my friends I travel with has already been there and I haven’t really felt going there alone so when a college of mine planned to have some days off the same days as I did we went to the Middle East together to explore Jordan.

Travel there

There are plenty of options to fly to the capital of Jordan from Scandinavia. The national airline of Jordan Royal Jordanian flies directly from Copenhagen and you can also go with Lufthansa and Austrian for example. Our choice did though fell on Turkish Airlines due to night flights and their business class is the best on this route. It took us approximately six hours of travel to get to Jordan from Stockholm including a stop in Istanbul. The service on Turkish was as always premium quality. It is actually one of my favorite airlines for long haul flights and that is not only due to their superb lemonade drink.

Amman sightseeing

We got recommended to purchase a Jordan pass before arrival. That is a beneficial deal since it includes visa fee and also entrance to all main sights. You will though need to stay in an accommodation in Jordan for three nights as a minimum to be able to purchase the pass. If you just go to Petra you have saved on buying the pass. Amman had a fair share of sights that we planned to visit so after some breakfast we headed out to explore the city by foot. It’s not a huge city when it comes to things to see and do so one day was enough. We started off with the famous Roman Theater seating 6000 people. It was amazing although it is from the 2nd century. They still do have performances there.

After that we walked the hills up to the citadel. From there it was great views over the city and of course parts that were remaining from the ancient settings.

Then we wanted some local vibe so we headed to the souk. There you could really feel and also smell the local life. Fresh food, live animals, spices and everything you can imagine was sold at the narrow alleys.

We started to get hungry after quite a lot of walking so we headed to Rainbow street which is an upscale street on the top of a hill. There were quite a few hipster places so we walked into one and had some meze to share.

Filled with new energy we continued our walk and next goal was to buy a Starbucks collection cup to me. Some more hills and stairs later the mission was completed. It started to get dark so we headed back to another famous palm three lined street. None of us felt for sit-down dinner so we had a popular local sweet called Kunafa while doing people watching. Kunafa is a cheese kind of desert that you need to try if you go to the Middle East. It is a bit special but worth a try.

Last out for the day was to grab a drink. That was easier said than done. Jordan is very strict when it comes to alcohol so we thought our best option would be heading back to Rainbow street and so we did. Unfortunately there were like three bars serving alcohol and the one we ended up to had probably the worst Mojitos we ever tried. After that we were both tired so next stop was the hotel for a good nights sleep.

Amman city trip

That was a day in Amman. The very best thing I think was getting the feeling of Middle East. It’s not a city you spend a weekend in like Tel Aviv but well worth a visit if you heading to Jordan.

/ Pernilla that enjoyed the Middle East vibe in Amman