Day 2 - Amman and Exploring and Dinner

Day 2 - Amman and Exploring and Dinner #Jordan2021

Starting a new day because doubt I'll go back to sleep even though it's 5am, right now I'm wishing my dad hasn't taken the AC remote into his room so I could turn on the living room's... It's not tooo hot but feels stuffy.

Waking up early is a good plan anyway since we will be starting off the day very early tomorrow to get to where we need to go which will be Petra and Wadi Rum overnight, those seem really cool so I'm very excited, anywho trying to figure out how to kill time until people wake up

Lmao what, I turn on the TV and scroll and one of the channels is Family Drama and some lady is crying while the guy is just hitting her??? It's muted and would be in Arabic but i have to know more about why this channel is

No idea what's going on here but it's amusing, is this Jesus getting uppity with temple priests

I left this channel on in the background and the dude just got his head bashed in with a rock (cut away right before the hit) followed by blood slowly expanding from the body... Good kids show.

After idling and reading while the rest of the world wakes up, my dad's baggage saga continues, @_austrian is not the best at this, they told him when he called his bag should have arrived at 4am but didn't (via Turkey?) and that maybe(?) It'll arrive at 10pm

Then when he called the airline directly instead of the baggage contact number at the airport they gave him he got hit with the "it's Sunday lol, no one will be there at the baggage claims line to answer, why don't you try again tomorrow tehe"

The saga continues, after now calling United where he bought the ticket, and getting much better support it seems like his wife's bag never left Austria and is coming today, his went to Istanbul and maybe got sent to Ankara after? and now no one knows...

Almost 6 hours from when i woke up the day begins, off to brunch and then... Tbd

This is the plan 🤤

Lemon mint smoothie, very minty, very tasty

Turkish coffee, it's flavored with cardamom, so far, so good, now waiting on food

Here we gooo

Oh, guess it didn't send before but it was a very good brunch, now gonna check out the Roman amphitheater

This Uber is playing us for fools trying to take the scenic route... We did a loop, guy isn't even hiding it well

Drivers here do what they want, the car on our right signaled to our driver they were about to U-turn (how polite) which meant that car cut through our lane to U-turn on the left

The roman amphitheater is pretty cool, i love the sense of scale to think that at it's core it was built almost 2,000 years ago

And some actual pics

And now the view from the top, going up wasn't so bad, going down was much scarier because the steps were slidey from use, I'm just picturing the poor sap 2k years ago having to sit in the mlnose bleed section

In the amphitheater area there were some mini museums about folklore and traditional items, that first mosaic got real deep

Then while dad and wife went to the mall to get clothing in lieu of the one in the missing baggage, I suggested to my mom we walk on Rainbow Street which is allegedly picturesque, on the way she got a traditional dress but then...

The walk started off ok but as i briefly mentioned before (I think) Amman is built on many hills so while the map made the street seem close it was l all uphill, my mom tried her best even though she has bad knees but after struggling for a while we go to these and it was over

I called her an Uber back and I went onwards to explore the street

It did have some nice areas and cafes but mostly seemed a bit gimmicky and trying to cater to souvenirs

Then I ubered to a recommended cafe but it was unfortunately closed Sundays, luckily there were others close by so i say down to decompress before heading back to get ready for dinner w/ fiancee's family (feels weird to constantly use that word but I'm also trying to avoid names)

Just got on on an Uber back to the Airbnb, it's actually crazy how cheap they are, it's like a 30 min trip and it'll be around $6, this one even goes the extra kilometer and gives you free wifi

I realized it's even more extreme, guy had a full service station, tissues charging cables, water, hand sanitizer... And even though the ride was 26 mins long it came out to 5.8 USD

Now I'm spiraling cause I thought the dinner was fairly informal like jeans and polo but suddenly I got asked if I had slacks or button up shirts but they're at the dry cleaner... I'm told it's fine anyway but :doubt:, it'll probably be fine, just want to put my best foot forward

One of these days i need to record drivers at a traffic circle here

Almost at the dinner at their house so I don't know how much I'll be able to post or take pics of, time will tell

Quick update, this is much more formal looking than expected and some of her dad's sisters showed up

Summary of the night, the dinner was much larger than expected with aunt's, uncle's, parents' cousins, and lots and lots of very good food, I wish I could have taken pictures of it but it was a lot of meat dishes, amazing stuffed grape leaves, hummus, salads...

It was super nice to talk to her family, they were extremely welcoming to me and my parents and everyone seems to have a good time, they even busted out some songs for dancing and kept thrusting me and girl into the middle of the dance circle which made her very uncomfortable but

It was light hearted and fun, then some tasty knafe for dessert, I am eating way too much here... Tomorrow we leave at 8am for Petra but I'm very happy at how well it went and how lovely everyone was, felt like her parents were a bit sad we rushed out but we'll see them later

It'll be a busy few days but tomorrow should be really cool both Petra and Wadi Rum in the dessert overnight... Hype. Maybe I'll write more about yesterday during the 3 hour drive but for now let's see, I didn't crash at all today even though I woke up early, jet lag came through

Oh before I sleep, my dad's suitcases did actually bend up arriving on today's version of the flight they had taken and they got delivered during the party which is a huge relief!