Friday, January 25, 2013

In Amman

We woke up early and saw the sun rise from the roof of our hotel. It was cloudy, so it wasn't as romantic as it could have been. At breakfast I talk with the owner of the hotel who said he had left his home in Nabulus in the West Bank in 1965 when in was still part of Jordan. He then moved to Australia and made a fortune in the stock market before losing it. He owed people a ton of money and fled from south Australia to west Australia and changed his name. Then for ten years he was the king of the fashion industry before losing it all again. He also said he lost a ton of money when an Iraqi bank was shutdown in the wake of the first gulf war.

He had a half- Jordanian half- Australian accent and lamented the fact that his family preferred to remain over there and shunned Arabic culture. He moved back to Jordan a year ago and was very proud of his wife who is20 years his junior and is teaching at university in Australia.

The breakfast didn't have any meat. We saw the roman theater which was interesting. My girlfriend has been wearing a headscarf but leans on me when she walks, so it's interesting how some people react to us. But we saw lots of women with uncovered hair or holding their significant others.

A man started talking to us on our way up the hilly streets on our way to Rainbow Street and I made up some weird story that I had Bosnian ancestry. This guy kept talking until finally taking his leave after I declined his offer for dinner. He soon returned trying to buy us a gift. While he was doing so we ducked into an alley before heading on our way. Rainbow street is where the upscale foreigners and young people hang out.

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