The Kingdom of Jordan! Part 1: The Importance of Sleep.

For some odd reason I really slacked on blogging during this trip. I think it's because I didn't bring my laptop and I don't really like blogging on my iPad? That wasn't an issue in Greece, though, but alas! Or perhaps it was the 3 nights I got 0 sleep. Or perhaps it was how exhausted I was after wandering around Petra. At any rate, I will do my best to write the trip down. It's only been a week! I should be able to remember, no?

~June 21~

So began my überlang journey to Jordan. Plane tickets were quite steep no matter where you bought them in the US. I'm talking $1200-$1800. I discovered tickets out of Chicago were only like $1100, and that a plane ride to Chicago was only $200 RT, so thinking I'd use my mileage to buy a plane ticket to and from Chicago, I bought the tickets out of Chicago.

I purchased my trip back with my mileage a-OK (only 10,000 miles). But the trip TO Chicago was 25,000 miles, or $212 one-way. I was like heeell nah, and decided that I'd rather ride all night on a Megabus for $38. So that's what I did. So my journey began at the Megabus parking lot in Nashville at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, June 21.

I didn't sleep at all, though I tried. I couldn't figure out how to close my seat's vents, so I was freezing the entire ride. So cold. So so so cold! I also didn't want to drink anything because I didn't want to have to pee. My struggle was real.

~June 22~

We finally got to Chicago about 6 a.m. Sunday (June 22). I had all these glorious plans to gallivant over to the Bean! Maybe get breakfast! Maybe go to the beach! But by the time I got there I was like nah, and walked a couple blocks over to the metro station.

So I'd extensively Googled how to get from the Megabus stop to ORD, and I'd come across a $6 figure. Not bad, I thought, not bad. But when I tried to buy my ticket with their automated thingie, it was only $2? So I asked the lady working there if that would get me all the way to ORD and she said yes. My sleep addled mind was excited -- so excited I couldn't figure out how to pay for my ticket. Turns out you have to select your payment type, you can't just swipe your card.

This is why sleep is important, folks.

The metro ride was about an hour, 22-stops, but luckily a straight shot. I got to ORD about 7:30 a.m. and then set about on my next great adventure: finding the United lounge with the showers.

Showers!

I have the United credit card, so with it I get 2 free passes for United lounges a year. I never saw what the big deal was till I realized I'd be traveling for over 48 hours with no shower, so then I decided the best use of these passes was the handy showers they added to the Chicago lounges a few years ago. Yas!

Loungin'

I got to the lounge about 8 a.m. but was biding my shower time, see, because I wasn't going to leave for Toronto, then Frankfurt, till 5 p.m. I finally took a shower at 11 a.m. and it was glorious. I figured I'd nap at the lounge, but all I really succeeded in doing was losing my iPad. I forgot it in a lounge chair when I got up to shower, and didn't realize it was gone till an hour later. Thank goodness someone had turned it into the front desk!

Again, this is why sleep is important.

Nothing of substance happened the rest of the day besides not sleeping. My flight to Toronto was fine, then I hung around Toronto for 3 hours until we boarded the plane for Frankfurt about 9 p.m.

Oh! Except when the Canadian customs guy told me my passport expired in October (which I knew) and that some countries won't let you in if your passport expires within 6 months (which I didn't know). So I started freaking out and decided I'd just use my German passport in Jordan, JUST IN CASE. I tried to figure out if Jordan was a country that didn't let you in with a passport expiring in 6 months. It didn't look like it, but hey, I had 2 passports, why not use both. I then vowed to renew my passport as soon as I returned to America. (I actually just sent my passport in the mail yesterday, July 10, so I am good on my word!)

I love the Toronto airport, though

My big plan was to sleep the entire flight to Frankfurt, so I took some Nyquil tabs as soon as I got on the plane.

I did not sleep. I maybe dozed a few hours? The only way I could get my mind to shut up was to listen to the KidzBop station on the airport radio, so my moments of sleep swung in and out to the sounds of children screaming Wrecking Ball and Happy.

So I guess you can say my slumber came in like a wrecking ball.

#dropsmic

~June 23~

Too bad I didn't sleep because Germany looked lovely! I had a 9 hour layover in Frankfurt--more than enough time to go off and see my grandparents. But not on no sleep. There's no way I could have navigated the trains.

Deutschland!

I didn't really do much in Frankfurt for those 9 hours. I found the showers, of course. Frankfurt has showers that cost 6 euros. Not bad, not bad. So I took a shower, because flights across the Atlantic make me feel gross, then I wandered around aimlessly till I found a quiet gate, where I laid down and napped for 2 hours. Oh, glorious sleep! 2 whole hours!

Here is my issue with the Frankfurt airport: the terminals are not connected and it's huge. That means you don't know what gate you're connecting at till hours before, and then you have to go through security again. I landed in B, but was flying to Amman from Z. Not a HUGE deal because I had 9 hours, but I hate going through security, so I gripe.

I met up with Nicki at terminal Z around 3:30 p.m., then we spent a few hours trying to get the internet to work, mostly unsuccessfully, then ate some delicious currywurst (!!), then watched some World Cup, then caught the flight to Amman at 9:30 p.m.

Ich liebe currywurst

They served us dinner on the flight to Amman. I feel I should point out at this point my body wasn't as confused by time and dinner and sleeping because I hadn't really slept, so I was just eating whenever felt like it. This meal I mostly declined because I'd had the currywurst. I ate the bread and salad I think. I also tried to nap. Nicki says I dozed a little. Go me! At that point I'd forgotten what it felt like to sleep, ha.

~June 24~

We got to Amman late, about 2:15 a.m. maybe? Then we had to immediately rush to an ATM because you have to pay 40 Jordanian dinars to enter the country.

At this point I want to point out that the Jordanian dinar is worth more than the US dollar. 40 JOD is actually $56. That's not cheap.

The line for the visas as long, as to be expected. We waited and waited and I worried I'd have an issue with my passport, what if they tried to speak to me in German?! What if they demanded my US passport once they realized I am only half German?! But there was really no reason to worry. I got through fine. Then we tracked down Nicki's luggage, then we found the driver from the hotel who was to pick us up, which was easy because he had a sign with my name on it and the hostel name.

He was super nice and chatty for 3 a.m. He randomly stopped at a convenience store and someone brought him coffee. To his door. It was curb side?

The car ride was also my first exposure to the fact that in Muslim countries they chant their prayers from mosques on loud speakers throughout the cities. There was chanting periodically throughout the day and night. The driver also chatted to us about how Ramadan was coming up on Sunday. Nicki warned me no restaurants would be open. I was too sleepy to really think about what that meant.

We stayed at Jordan Tower Hostel in Amman. The customer service was great. The owner stayed up till 4 a.m. to let us in, poor guy. We were supposed to be staying in a dorm but since we got in so late he just let us have a triple room on the bottom floor so we wouldn't wake anyone. There were bathrooms and showers on each floor, but our room was the bottom floor, so we had to trek up a million stairs (OK, exaggeration) to get to the bathroom.

This shower situation.

Now, if you've picked up on anything in this meandering trip blog of nothingness so far, it's that I need to shower regularly or I go nutty. So of course the first thing I do when I get to the hostel, despite it being 4 a.m., despite not having slept for over 48 hours, I go to shower.

And I discover this conundrum: a faucet next to the toilet, with a shower head above it.

...the shower and the toilet were one. There were hooks on the door. There was a sink.

There was a shower next to the toilet.

I was so confused, and so glad I brought shower shoes.

Roman Theater

Nicki and I got up about 1 p.m. Tuesday. I had slept for 8 whole hours! We drank a liter of water each and then set off to find the Roman Theater, which our driver had told us was right next to the hostel. But we asked the hostel owner for directions anyway. He said go right and then right and then it was right there.

Where?! We couldn't find it!

We went up to a tourist police and asked him for directions. He pointed behind him and said it was right there.

We asked if we could have a map anyway. He looked at us like we were dumb Americans, but gave us a map anyway. We walked about a minute in the direction he was pointing and oh, oops, the Roman Theater was literally RIGHT THERE.

We then decided we were hungry, so we went back to the hostel and asked where we should eat.

So then I started getting Arabic texts

He suggested the cafe part of the hostel, so we ate there. Nicki got some chicken and rice dish and I got an egg sandwich. We were both pretty tired at this point, so we pretty much spent the rest of the evening watching soccer.

Oh! And we got SIM cards for our phones. It was 14 JOD for me, which I thought was worth it since I was going to be alone on Saturday-Monday. Turns out Verizon iPhones come unlocked...that's why I could just insert an Orange SIM card. Nice!

OK, I'm going to actually do some work now and I will continue June 25-30 in another blog entry. Plus this is hella long.