First Roman Ruins

Plenty of history - old old history in Jordan. On Wednesday, June 5, we visited a Roman amphitheater in Amman. It was built during the time of Antonius Pius(138-161 CE). (Jordan Tourist Bureau)

The theater was built into a hillside and oriented north to keep the 
sun off the spectators.

 

The entrance to the amphitheater was made for skating.  This young skater wanted me to take his picture.

 

We think this was an Indonesian group. They wanted their pictures taken and we obliged.

The ruins are in downtown Amman. Truly. Here's the view across the street.

 

 And we strolled.

Knickknacks.

The Chicken Store -- also sold other "pets."

The Bakery

Clothes For Women

Just about here a young man was roaming the streets handing out flyers for a cafe with "Free Drink and Free Wi-Fi Internet"as well as "Henna Tattoo, Swedish Massage and Turkish Bath," so we followed him to the Pizza Roma Cafe just up the way.

I wanted ice cream. The menu said "Arabic Ice Cream" with chocolate sauce.  The best I could get from the waiter with my inoperable Arabic and his spotty English was it was "ice cream," but "Arabic" ice cream. What could that be? Made with camel's milk?   Me, the Bold ordered it - with the chocolate.  Turned out it was ice cream - real ice cream with pistachios - and not just chocolate sauce but with flakes of chocolate sprinkled on the two scoops and a chunk of chocolate sitting atop. Omigod.

When we left the cafe an older gentleman wandered up and pointed at the crew across the street. They were deaf mutes, he said and they hung around there every day talking in sign language. 

He was a Jordanian that had moved to Perth,  Western Australia, after the Six Day War. I also lived in Perth in the same time period. We wondered if we had ever met each other.  (At least I knew I had never dated him as I was busily being a wife and mom at the time.)

The fellow's name was Raymond and he had come back to Jordan and was now owner of a hotel/coffee shop on the street. We promised to come back to visit.

And...we found another alcohol store!!! A great day!