Roman Ruins and Goat Entrails - Jordan, day 1

[gwyneth1362]

15 hours on a plane and what do you get?

• More sleep than you imagine;
• no chance to read any of the books you brought;
• 3 meals on sort of real dishes with real silverware (one was even good...)
• a chance to see Bulgaria from the air
• Arrival in Amman Jordan, at 8:30 at night during their worst weather in years.

I slept for possibly 6 hours on the plane.  I wish I had been one of the ones who quickly grabbed an empty set of middle seats.  They got to stretch out across 4 seats for the flight.  I got two, but more room would have been nice.  But overall the flights weren't bad at all.  It was a little weird to "wake up" and get breakfast and have it feel like morning, only to land in Istanbul 2 hours later and have it be 4:30 in the afternoon. Istanbul has the biggest duty-free store I have ever seen, and everything is really expensive.  But I had some yummy icecream, and John and I got to sit and kind of nap on and off for the two hours between the flights.  And the food on the flight from Istanbul was good - chicken skewers with rice and spinach, a salad made with smoked salmon, green beans and yogurt (which I liked, even bit liking salmon.)

After we got to Amman, we took a taxi to ACOR http://acorjordan.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1&lang=english where we are staying the first couple of days, until everyone arrives.  It was uneventful, but what they say about drivers here is true.  It is crazy!  No wonder John drives like he does.

We spoke with Alivia for a while, then went to the Souk Sultan down the road from ACOR) to get food.  Falafel and shawerma, both of which were lovely.   And then to a grocery store for some bottled water, and back home.  We went to sleep not long after.

More to come.

We got to Amman, and