Schlagwort-Archive: jerash

Jordan, World Trip 2018-19

Jordan – Summary & Pictures

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People: There’s not a lot of backpackers, but there’s also not a lot of hostels – hence you meet again and again. I was lucky to meet some really cool people to travel with while in Jordan, and rarely spent time by myself. As for locals – sorry Israel, but Jordan wins. Miles ahead. I was so happy that people finally seemed happy again to see me as a tourist. My first day in Amman was filled with a constant „welcome to Jordan“ and kids wanting to take selfies with me. However, I also got lots of attention from the guys – never in an annoying or intimidating way, but it did get a bit exhausting sometimes. Women with low self-esteem: go to Jordan!

Food: Falafel, hummus and other „dips“. In the beginning I liked it, but did get a bit sick of it in the end. That’s when the buffet in Wadi Rum came in handy! I started missing fresh fruits and veggi- onees prepared in a way other than mashed into a dip. My favourite was yet again knafeh – I stuffed myself with the cheesy deliciousness in Amman! Not as good as in Nablus, but still really really tasty.

Weather: Apart from the one grey day in Petra, it was sunny and almost too hot all along.

Costs: At 50€/day I managed to stay below my 60€ target, but surprisingly spent more than in Israel, even though I would consider Jordan cheaper. Why is that? First, I did not find any female Couchsurfing hosts and did not want to stay with guys in a Muslim country. Also, the hostels were cheap but didn’t have shared kitchens so I had to eat out. Lastly, the cost of the Jordan Pass, while well worth it, also impacted my budget.

Accommodation: I only stayed at two different hostels – one costing 7€/night and the other one 5€/night. The first one was ok, the other barely bearable. The things you do to save money!

Infrastructure: I used busses and taxis (sometimes shared). There’s no trains. Unfortunately there’s not a lot of public transport in Jordan, so many places are difficult or impossible to get to without a rental car.

Illnesses: All good once again!

Safety: Felt very safe and welcome.

Itinerary: I basically did (almost) all I could on public transport. I would have loved to hike Wadi Mujib, Dana nature reserve and maybe see some of the desert castles but that simply wasn’t possible without renting a car. Amman (incl. day trips) – Petra – Wadi Rum is the standard backpacker route. Some add Aqaba but it didn’t sound appealing to me.

Highlight: Petra, no question.

Lowlight: Madaba.

Click here to see all my pictures of Jordan:

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Me in front of the Treasury
Jordan, World Trip 2018-19

Jerash & Ajloun – a day trip from Amman

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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!