We woke up to worse weather. Of course this region experiences the worst weather in 20 years just as soon as we arrive. We bundled up and headed out, trying to make the best of our time in the capital city. We trekked over to the Roman Theater, and then started to make our way up to the Citadel.
En route, we ran into a Palestinian completely overjoyed to see us. Walking down the street carrying a tank of gas and two ceramic mugs, he immediately put down the gas and walked right up to us excitedly trying to talk to us in Arabic. He forced the two mugs into our hands and continued to talk to us, as if we knew exactly what he was saying. We didn’t, but by this time, a crowd had gathered in what we assumed was where he worked. From the glass front, it looked to be a paper mill or a printing press. The men in the storefront looked as amused – and confused as we were. One of them came out and tried to translate. The only thing we understood was that he was from Palestine and was really excited to see us in Jordan, and that the mugs were for us. He tried to fish out other presents from his pockets (a lighter) but I refused and told him to keep it. He tried to take a picture of me (with my camera) but I told him I preferred a picture of him, instead! Then his colleagues encouraged me to put my arm around him, which made everyone happy.
Not two buildings later, some men waved us into their garage to warm up near a fire that they had going in a metal bin. As I was only wearing my barefoot water shoes and my feet were freezing, I jumped at the opportunity. We made small talk – what we could in – and were given steaming cups of tea. I re-gifted the mugs from the Palestinian (don’t tell!) and one of them jumped up when we went to leave to give us a ride up the rest of the hill to the Citadel.
We walked in the gates right around three, and were able to get into the indoor museum just before we were told it closed. After walking around the citadel for a half hour, we arrived back at the front gate to find we were locked in. The whole city had shut down, and we were on the highest point in the city behind locked gates! Luckily, a taxi driver spied us and pointed to another exit.
I really love how all of the buildings are the same color and just stacked right on top of each other. Because the weather was so dreary, I couldn’t decide if I liked the images in color or black and white, so I decided to do both.
