Day 119: First day in Amman — Wiped Out But Happy to See Grammie and Beepaw Jim!
OMG, we survived such a slog of a travel “day.” Good thing we’d been training for this — if we’d had such a day toward the beginning, I don’t know how we would have fared. But the kids know the drill so well by now and our endurance has gotten so strong that we made it with only minor casualties and bickering.
Around 5 am, we touched down in Dubai. We had enough time to get through security for our connection, grab breakfast at a Pret and board our flight to Amman. We all slept on that one, some more than others.
As we stumbled off the plane into the sun in Jordan, we turned to each other and asked things like, “Wait, what’s the currency here? Do we need a visa or something?” Sooo out of it and not planning ahead the way you would under normal circumstances.
Just as we were trying to Google this stuff on our phones, a guy with a “Sullivan Family” sign appeared! Turns out we did need visas — and this guy had them already filled out and processed, right in his little folder!! Hallelujah. Score one for using travel agents (thank you, Small World Travel!!).
Our guide for the next several days, Hessan, was there too and accompanied us in our van to the House Boutique Suites in Amman. We made a plan to meet up the following morning and he left us to unpack and eat lunch at a nearby Lebanese restaurant.
We were the only ones inside this massive, kind of grand place.
The call to prayer was projecting loudly from a mosque next door and James yelled, “What’s that NOISE??”
James was so bad at lunch, not surprisingly. Delirious. He even got tsk-tsked by a waiter for putting his hands in a decorative fountain. Famous James…scolded!
Btw the menu in this place bragged about all the famous people who’ve eaten there, including the King of Jordan, Kofi Annan, Nelson Mandela and….Mr. Bean.
After a light lunch, the four of us promptly went upstairs and slept for 3+ hours.
Meanwhile my parents were making their way to us by car transfer from Jerusalem, where they’d spent a week. They said it took about seven different checkpoints to make the trip, some slightly stressful.
We all met up groggily around 6 for a rooftop drink. My dad remarked as we were taking pictures that because of our blog and Instagram that it felt like he’d now be starring in a TV series he been watching all year.
Teddy took the kids back for a movie and room service and bed while my parents and I went out to Sufra, a restaurant recommended by my NYC friend Khalid El-Khatib, whose family lives in Amman. It was very good. And dry, like a lot of places here– which is also probably good for us after Africa’s gin and tonic bonanza.
We were asleep by 10.
