There are many interesting sights and cities located in a 1-2 h radius around Amman, however only some of them can be visited easily on public transport – among which Jerash and Ajloun. Since I always like to see Roman ruins and Ajloun seemed like an easy addition, my plan for the day was clear! I started the day together with Monica who I had met in my hostel. Together we took a taxi to the bus station where we were lucky that the bus to Jerash was almost full already and left rather quickly (think: 20 min waiting time). After about 1,5 drive, we reached Jerash and hopped off the bus close to the entrance to the ruins.

The next couple of hours were spent exploring the ruins, an area bigger than I had expected. I’m not much into reading signboards so I cannot tell you much about the history, but it certainly was an impressive site to visit. I especially liked the many intact columns. It was a bit misty that day, so taking pictures was tricky, but at least the sun was not burning down as much.

Afterwards, I decided to continue to Ajloun by myself. I met a policemen who got me on a shared car which dropped me all the way at the top of Ajloun – at the entrance to the castle. For free! Jordanian hospitality. The castle itself was nice to see from the bottom, and the views were cool – but it was not that impressive to be honest. I was also getting a bit tired of the constant selfie requests from school kids around me (the castle was teeming with school classes!!), and it was difficult to find a quiet corner in between.

So after walking through all the rooms in the castle, and taking in the views, I walked back down to the village of Ajloun and hopped on the bus back to Amman. Unfortunately, the way back took muuuuch longer: first I had to wait for about 1 h for the bus to fill up, and then we got stuck in Amman rush hour traffic for a long time. Also, I had to take a shared taxi back to the city center which again got stuck in traffic, and still walk a while to reach my hostel. A longer day trip than expected, but a good one overall!