Jerash, a play in three acts

Setting: Jerash! The twelfth of February, 2010. A sunny day.

Jerash is (for those of you who didn't already know and/or didn't already check it out on Wikipedia) a city of ancient ruins about three quarters of an hour north of Amman. Greco-Roman era, to be specific. It's said to be Jordan's Pompeii, which is kind of a misnomer, considering the fact that it was never buried by a volcanic eruption. It's just very extensive and incredibly well-preserved. Oh, and some of it is fake. I think it's just the parts at the very entrance that have been "renovated." I'd like to believe that the rest is completely authentic. But back to the play.

Prologue: Thursday afternoon

After Thursday's Arabic class, friends and I talked about weekend plans. Caitlin starts talking about Jerash and invites me. Meet at the bus station at 8:30 to grab a bus up to Jerash. Confusion ensues with Rasha regarding travel forms and bureaucratic whatnots (she had just finished entering data for Jerash travelers, most of whom had been involved in paperwork fusses); confusion is resolved when I clarify that it's a day trip, not an overnight. No travel forms required. Alarm set, and sleep.

Act I: Taxis

Alarm refuses to go off. A very responsible host sister (thanks, Alia!) wakes up in time, realizes that I'm not up, and wakes me up. Saved. They made me a sandwich. And another sandwich. Aand put them in my bag. Aaand put in two snack cakes. Aaaand a bag of chips. (I will have to buy an extra plane ticket for the journey home, and they're going to have to roll me onto the plane. I'm so well-fed here.) I hurried out to the main road and tried to hail a taxi. Let me explain Fridays here: they're empty. If you see weekday rush hour, or weekday non-rush hour, or traffic on any day other than Friday, you won't believe what Fridays look like. Every taxi that went by already had a passenger - I think I counted about a dozen before finally getting an empty one. Partway there, I get a call from Caitlin. A bus filled up (you have to understand, the buses here don't have schedules) and left around 8:00, so they went to another station and were going to try to get a cab from there.

I got out of my cab near the original station, and got another one going to the new place. We went for about a block before realizing that the cabbie and I had no way of understanding each other. I got out, looked around, probably seemed like the most touristy tourist ever, lost in the big city. There were four policemen/soldiers standing near a gate behind me, and after my initial reaction to walk away as quickly as I could, I remembered CIEE's "the police are your friends" speech. So I walked up to them. They couldn't exactly figure out where I was supposed to be going, then two more officers came up, and we still weren't having very much success. I called my friends back, got them to repeat the name of the place to me, syllable by syllable, and hailed a new taxi with a minimal amount of hope. Even with my botched-up Arabic, it didn't seem like we were going to be able to figure it out. And as I opened the cab's door to get out and go talk to the officers again, one walked up to the taxi. Magically, somehow, he finally understood what I meant and was able to communicate it to the taxi driver. Miraculous!

I got to station #2, and found the others: Caitlin, Lauren, Emma, Nico, and Kinsey. We got two taxis, pulled a deal of 13JD per taxi, and started our journey out to Jerash.

Act II: Ruins

We got there, bought our tickets and entered. After finding the people who had caught the 8:00 bus, we all decided to wait for the 10:45 show in the circus. (Roman circus, not Ringling.) Although we craftily climbed a wall to get a view of the circus, and nobody stopped us from sitting there, they did eventually make us leave to go buy tickets for the show and sit in the real stands. Retaining the integrity of the ruins, whatever. But getting those extra dinars? That's what it's all about. Anyway, we watched the show, and it was GREAT. A combination of serious enjoyment and the completely farcical sort that comes from seeing full-grown men in historical costumes running around with wooden swords. It reminded me of Colonial Williamsburg in that way.

They demonstrated how Roman soldiers fought (above). We also saw gladiator matches, and got to decide if they lived or died. And there was a chariot race at the end. Hooray! After sufficiently enjoying the absolute touristiest part of the day, we went on to the ruins themselves.

Well, sort of. We walked through the ruins for a few minutes, but then we found big fields of weedy flowers. And then we found big stone holes in the ground. And then we climbed out and sat on the edges of the big stone holes. Yes, we came all the way across the world and paid to get into a tourist spot just to sit in flowers. Worth it.

After that, we really did come to the ruins. These are ruins, hidden behind a flower.

Ruins up front and the city behind. Jerash is also the name of the modern-day city right next door to ancient Jerash. It's a little strange to turn around and realize that you're right next to a normal city. Lightpoles and cars and signage everywhere.

Ruins. Self-explanatory, I guess. The coolest thing about Jerash is the level of freedom that tourists have, incredibly far beyond anything you'd get at an American attraction. We could climb on anything we wanted to. We could walk up hills, walk off of paths, come to the edge of something or other and realize that the only way down was to hop down some rocks and end up wading through tall grass. There were no carefully marked pathways lined by ropes and dotted with careful signs about not taking flowers and not feeding the wildlife. It was just a playground of immense stone ruins.

This is me in a giant birdbath thing! Hooray! We shared a miniature picnic (remember all that food my family gave me?) at the top of the highest hill around Jerash - it was a pretty cool view. But even after that, we were hungry. And thirsty. And just about ready to go. End scene.

Act III: Taxi?

We tried to get directions to the Green River (Wadi Akhdar) restaurant, which had gotten good reviews from someone's host dad, but no luck. We did, however, get a few offers for rides back to Amman. There were a number of potential options available, including various types of taxis and buses. We were pretty much hassled by these taxi drivers on the way out of Jerash, trying to give us rides back to Amman. First of all, their prices were ridiculous. Then they tried to tell us that buses didn't run on Fridays. Then we realized that one of the "taxis" was just hitching a ride in some guy's green sedan for a dozen or so JD. No, no, no. We got directions to the restaurant and started walking. For the first block or so, the would-be taxi drivers followed us, continuing to try to get a deal. A few blocks after that, we heard shouts of "Amman! Amman!" coming from a bus. Salvation! Extortionate taxis? No, thank you. I'll take my less-than-a-JD bus ride.

We got off at the same station where we got the taxi earlier in the morning, and then proceeded to take another taxi downtown to Hashem's. Ohhhhhh, Hashem's. There is little more satisfying than being tired and hungry, sitting right down at a table, being given pita and hummus (really good pita and really good hummus) within seconds of resting your feet, getting falafel just a minute or two later, and drinking sweet hot tea with mint leaves in it. If you come visit me in Amman, I will take you to Hashem's. It is amazing. It is one of King Abdullah's favorite eateries. (Think Obama/Ben's Chili Bowl on this one - except with fewer men in imposing black suits.) And it is cheap - 6JD for four people. (Do the math, that's about $2 a person.)

Epilogue: Rest

I'm in sock feet now, sitting on the couch at home. My feet are so so very tired. I'm watching Forrest Gump (some things will never ever change), and I will go to sleep early tonight. And it is good.

Curtains close.