A Day in the City

Trip Start Apr 28, 2005
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Trip End May 08, 2005


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Friday, April 29, 2005

After missing breakfast we dragged ourselves out of bed at about 12. The city was alive outside; we had landed ourselves right into the real Middle East. As the only Western faces around, we walked through the downtown area, with street vender's selling everything you could imagine. The first site we saw was the Roman Theatre, Odeon and Nymphaeum. To get here we walked through Hashmite Square which is not much to see. The Roman Theatre is the only I've seen situated in the middle of a city and is pretty impressive. When entering we got harassed by guides trying to offer a tour. We said no to everyone, except one old man who was very persistent. Bad idea!! He was rubbished and offered only one thing to our experience, he showed us the sound dynamics of the theatre, and you can talk at either side to theatre, perfectly hearing each other. The guide made rubbish claims of where lions were keep and was a waste of 4YD. The site however is pretty cool and gives you a good view of downtown. Citadel
Citadel
 From here Clegg brought some Marinda and gave me my first taste of the sugar filled drink, it was surprising nice. This gave us enough energy to climb up the hill to the citadel. We walked straight through the back entrance of the Citadel and almost managed to get away with paying until will from a good picture opportunity and guards called us over to pay. Two Dutch tourists were arguing with the staff over mistaken payment. We then walked back into the site, which is nothing to special, but does give you amazing sites over the city and down to the Roman Theatre. The museum on the hill is again OK but nothing special. Clegg then took us a bizarre route out to the ruins and we got lost trying to get back down to the main road. After back tracking and getting ripped off by a taxi driver we found food at Jerusalem restaurant. This was first taste of traditional Middle Eastern food; again we were the only Westerns. I eat lamb and rice. I then made us trek about 40 mins walk to the King Hussein Mosque. A blue and white modern mosque which was unfortunately closed when we got there, but was an impressive sight. We then walked back through an active market with the mosque calling pray. Bizarrely we saw a mosque opposite a church. We then walked all the way back to the hostel. Later that night we had food at the blue fig café, where we meet two scousers. We ended up going to a karaoke bar in a hotel and got absolutely hammered. The locals love there singing.
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