In and Around Amman

Spring 2025

By Hector Gonzalez

July 8^th, 2025

We obviously didn't do much this spring in Amman. Though we tried our best not to suffocate with dread. Luckily, Amman isn't the worst city to ride out a heartbreak. Here are some of the excursions in town that we took as...all that stuff happened.

Fun fact: in ancient times, Amman was called Philadelphia. At the center of the city, the old citadel still stands with ruins that span centuries. This Philadelphia was at leveled by an earthquake in the 1400s and abandoned, but after a few centuries later the new Amman began to spring up in the valley below. Today, that area is considered "old" Amman and a newer, shinier Amman has spread out to the west.

This is Asa enjoying French fries on some steps in old Amman. I had kunafa, but luckily nobody took a picture of that, cause they sell it by the kilo and I ate a lot.

Meanwhile, in West Amman, our neighborhood Bedouin held up traffic taking his sheep home.

Laura and I went downtown to the Roman theaters (there are two!) but we didn't bring the kids because they were like, "We've already seen Roman stuff."

Laura celebrated her birthday. Our backyard tree grew some peaches, or maybe apricots, I'll be honest I can't tell the difference. Anyway, it grew so many that its branches fall off. Also, Asa and I found a Chinese hotpot restaurant, and we took Luna for a stroll through Amman National Park, which is weirdly in front of Ikea.

And to prove it wasn't a one-time thing, here is our neighborhood Bedouin taking his sheep out for a spin on our street about a month later.

I took Asa to the Royal Tank Museum and he had a blast.

And we returned to the Dead Sea for one night, to enjoy it properly. It was not exactly relaxing, as we were both making phone calls to transition to our new lives, but floating in the Dead Sea is pretty awesome.