Culture Shock

After the ease of travelling in Sweden, Jordan came as a shock. We very nearly didn't actually make it into the country. Sweden is heading towards becoming a cashless society, so even $3 train tickets were bought by card through a machine. Jordan is not quite there yet. On arrival we went to pay for our visas with MasterCard. "No, visa only." Ok, no problem and we hand over the Visa card. Declined. Try the other visa. Declined. "Machine broken, get change."

So, we became one of an ever increasing number of tourists who didn't have any Jordanian Dinar. There was an ATM, but we couldn't get that to give up any money. We did have our emergency $50 (US), but that wasn't quite enough for the two visas. After some rummaging in our bags and negotiation with the money changer we got the necessary funds with the US$50 and $10 Australian. One other guy was not so lucky at finding funds and was simply told to ask the other passengers for money.

Once out of the airport it became obvious that lane markings are considered decoration, rather than suggesting where cars should drive. Some drivers (ours included) seemed to think the road wide enough for four lanes, however other drivers thought three was more appropriate. This led to an interesting traffic pattern, which I'm sure was less efficient than actually obeying road rules.
Our hotel is in the middle of downtown, where it is noisy, chaotic, and slightly overwhelming at first. Our driver couldn't find a place to park, so he called two guys from the hotel to come and collect us from where he had simply stopped. We felt a little silly waiting to be helped across a road, but not so silly as to try it by ourselves.

We have just come back from dinner and this feels like travel! Following a recommendation from our hotel we found this place where you get ushered to a table, asked what you want, have that ignored and food starts appearing. Dinner consisted of the best falafel I have ever tasted, with hummus, some bean dish, bread and weirdly hot chips. Before eating I had asked how much and was told "5 or 6 dinar". However at the end of the meal our money was taken by someone else and it cost 3.500 instead.

The extra 1.500 didn't go to waste. Walking back to the hotel we were on the look out for a sweet shop mentioned in the lonely planet. At about the expected location we saw a long line of locals lining up outside what turned out to be said sweet shop. There was a cashier out the front and signs in Arabic suggested you could pay for items ranging between 0.550 and 4 dinar. This meant there was no option for pointing. After some dithering we joined the queue and once we reached the front proffered 2 dinar and shrugged when he asked what we wanted. He told us we would have two halves, gave us change and we then had to battle to get into the actual shop and give our bit of paper to someone. Jason managed to use his height to procure our food fairly quickly. It turned out to be soft white cheese on the bottom, with sticky sweet stuff on the top. I have no idea what it was, but it was completely delicious!

Ok, I now know it's called Konafa in case you're interested.