Today was my first full day in Amman and it was very informative. I started the day with a walk around a bit of the city with some of my tour friends. we ended up going into the visitor gate at a mosque and browsing around their little market. Never done that before.

We all met up and went on a tour of the Citadel, which has been around for 10,000 years they say. there are ruins of temples/mosques/churches from all different ages. We also saw the ampitheater which is so huge and so tall (trust me, i climbed to the top on the steep old stairs.)

We took a detour thru some of the markets and the produce market was the best! lots of shoppers and vendors haggling over prices and vendors singing/calling out their deals - it was just a flurry of sights, sounds and smells.

Here’s a few more observations as i spend more time here:

Lots of smokers and all over the place.

Falafal is wonderful!

Pedestrians cross whenever and wherever they want to on very crowded streets.

There are 3 million Palestinian refugees here.

There are 1.5 million Iraqi refugees here.

There are a lot more men’s clothing stores than women’s in the shops on the streets. there may be more women’s stores in malls…i haven’t been in any.

The call to prayer is hauntingly beautiful