Jerash: The Ruined City

Tuesday, November 17th

7 am. Today the plan was to wake up early and go on a trip together in nice weather. Unfortunately, my assignments once again got in the way, so it's already 1 pm when we set off. But better late than never is always my motto. Our destination today: Jerash. The well-preserved ruins of the city, located in northern Jordan, attract many tourists. So today, us as well.

I had already tried with Lea to take the bus from the northern bus stop in Amman to Jerash, but we failed back then. But today is Tuesday, not Friday, so this time everything goes smoothly, and an hour later we arrive in Jerash for one dinar per person. And we are really lucky with the weather: walking through a large old archway, reminiscent of the Brandenburg Gate, we enter the large site and immerse ourselves in a different world.

Our walk through the ancient Roman city begins with a horse racing track. From there, we continue over a huge old marketplace, through bumpy streets surrounded by columns, through ruins up to the old temple, from where we can admire the whole area in the beautiful evening sun. The mountains around Jerash turn a wonderful red, while huge flocks of ravens circle over Jerash. It all has something magical.

When the sun has already set and we are asked by a very nice but determined security guard to leave the premises, we make a detour to the Roman Theater, which looks very similar to the one in Amman. However, the backdrop here is even more impressive. While we try to capture this movie-like scene with our cameras, two security guards call out to us from below. This time more determined and less friendly. But by now we have seen everything we wanted to see and leave the ruins site very, very satisfied. This trip was definitely worth it, even if we started late.

While the bus ride to Jerash went smoothly, the return journey proves to be somewhat more difficult. At the place where the bus dropped us off earlier in the day, there is now a horde of taxi drivers pouncing on us like vultures. They shout at us that there are no more buses running, and offer different prices and deals to drive us to Amman in their taxis. Both for Ramo as a native Arabic speaker, and for me, who by now knows the tricks of taxi drivers quite well, it is very difficult to assess how much truth is in the taxi drivers' statements. Apart from that, the loud shouting and the size of the crowd around us is really disturbing.

I really don't know how it happened, but at some point we are sitting in a private car that has seen better days, with a stranger as the driver, who in turn has an obviously foreign woman as a passenger. For a total of 6 dinars, he would take us to Amman. In hindsight, it is difficult to say why we entrusted him with our trust (traffic rules, if there are any here, are definitely meant to be broken in Amman), but we are not disappointed: we reach the 2nd Circle without any accidents and actually only have to pay 6 JD. So, everything turned out fine.

Tonight we are going to have vegan shawarma at a cute restaurant that just opened three weeks ago, and then we'll treat ourselves to some Christmas cookies from mom. What a successful day!