Jordan - Madaba Part One

After spending a few days in Amman we went to Madaba. We had a booked a car from our hotel in Madaba to drive us there from Amman. We waited about 45 minutes before Richard, the driver who picked us up from the airport, convinced us that the other driver wasn't coming and he took us instead.

Madaba isn't the prettiest city.

The Mariam Hotel was 40 JOD ($57) a night. The room was clean and comfortable.

Our room had a balcony that overlooked the pool.

Our bathroom had the smallest shower in the history of the world.

Breakfast was included with our stay, and was served on the floor above us. Starting at about 1 AM every night we could hear them moving chairs and tables around for a few hours. The breakfast was ok, but after the delicious Jordanian-style breakfasts at the Pasha Hotel in Amman, this felt a little lacking. (Especially when one of the pancakes I tried to eat bested me at cutting it.)

The morning staff (a woman) was very pleasant and helpful. The man that worked the afternoon/evening shift was totally rude and not helpful. I'm sure he deals with plenty of obnoxious tourists, but we gave him no cause to act that way to us.

The Mariam Hotel also has a restaurant so we decided to try it the first night. It was incredibly disappointing. The food was all American items like hamburgers and french fries, and it took quite awhile to get our food. They brought it in from outside (we think the only kitchen was in the breakfast area in a completely different part of the hotel), and my friend joked that it tasted exactly how he expected McDonald's in Jordan to taste.  

We decided to eat only breakfast at the hotel, and were not disappointed with this decision. We found a little falafel shop with ever-changing prices that was ridiculously cheap and delicious nonetheless. In fact, all the shops had super cheap food, and it was all amazing. 

Hint: don't get the weird pickle-ish things that they always want to add to your sandwiches. 

They don't taste anything like any pickle you've ever had, and that's not a good thing. 

This whole lot only cost 3 JOD ($4.25)

Those cookies were addictive, and we're pretty sure the cake was Chiffon.

I think it's impossible to find anything but mind-blowing sweets in Jordan.
This batch alone was worth flying there.

My friend enjoying his tasty falafel sandwich. 

We mostly ate in our hotel rooms for the trip because people smoke heavily everywhere, there are few places to actually sit down, and we were terrified of getting food poisoning. The added bonus was that we could take pictures of our food without looking like crazy people. 

Jordan - Ajloun

The day we toured the ancient Roman city of Jerash we also planned to visit Ajloun Forest Reserve. After arriving we discovered that all the trails were closed due to all the rain from the days previous. We were quite bummed about missing out, but decided to make the best of it and tour Ajloun Castle instead. The castle was well worth the 1 JOD ($1.41) entry fee.

My first proper castle tour, it even had a (dry) moat.

The castle was well-lit with modern lighting. 

I can't imagine how people lived here using only candles and lamps.

Me, happily exploring the castle.

Excellent views of the surrounding hills.

We had to admit, it's the perfect place to put a castle. 

We when arrived back at the Amman Pasha Hotel we decided to have dinner at the Pizza Roma Cafe, which is attached to the hotel. They had great food, drinks, and entertainment. The workers tried to lure us into dancing with them, including when one of the men donned women's clothing and gave us quite a show.

I am not cool enough to pull off a fez.

MTN DEW!

I might be slightly addicted to Mtn Dew. Back before I began my trip I was drinking a can or two, or three a day. Yeah, small addiction... Since I've been traveling I've found only diet Mountain Dew (gross) or regular US Mtn Dew that has been imported but costs about $1/can. My cheapness keeps me from buying it at that price. I finally discovered Boots pharmacy sells it, or at least some of them do.

Behold the sugary goodness! Supposedly, Mountain Dew Energy is different than regular Mtn Dew found in the US. Apart from it having sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup I can't taste any difference at all.

Here Mountain Dew comes with a High Caffeine warning. 

English Movie Theaters

My friend and I went to see the Lego movie at the movie theater here in Cambridge. It was a weird experience.

First of all, you buy your ticket and your snacks from one person. I haven't decided if this makes more or less sense than having separate lines. 

Secondly, you get assigned seats! Your ticket has your seat number on it. You tell the cashier if you want front, middle, or back of the theater, and then it's just luck if you have to sit next to someone or not. My friend tells me that you're not expected to always sit in your assigned seat unless the theater is rather full, like it was when we went. 

Thirdly, the popcorn. Popcorn in England is either salty or sweet, but not buttery. I don't understand how anyone can eat unbuttered salty popcorn. How does the salt even adhere to the popcorn kernels without the butter?

Fourth, the advertisements. In the states if you arrive well ahead of the movie start time you watch the same 10 commercials on a loop until the lights dim and movie trailers begin. In England the advertisements start when the lights dim and you sit through like 10-15 minutes of them before the trailers. 

Some things were the same, like the snack prices being insanely high, kids being annoying, and the temperature in the theater either being way too hot or cold.


**I'll be flying to Jordan on the 13th so I might be a bit difficult to get ahold of. I have several blog posts scheduled to go live Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays while I'm gone though.**

English Foods

Not to be outdone by the tasty treats fed to me by the Scots I've met, my English friend set me up with this collection of very British foods. 

Tea and crumpets

Toasted and slathered in butter and quite a tasty way to start the day. 

Jaffa Cakes

Spongey orange flavored cookie with chocolate on one side. This was the last cookie in the pack. They were devoured without hesitation. 

Hobnobs

Oat cookie. Delicious when dunked into tea. For when you want to eat an entire pack of cookies, but want to pretend you're eating healthily. 

Spotted Dick

Yummy, but no sticky toffee pudding. Meant to be eaten with custard poured over it, but the photo of that just looks weird. 

There were chocolate bars as well, but they didn't survive long enough to be photographed. 

Cadbury Fruit and Nut is AMAZING. I attribute my survival on an 12-hour megabus journey to this bar (and a very kind man from Kazakhstan, but more about that later).

British Sweets are Awesome, or Why I'm Now Diabetic

My friend in Dundee decided to totally ruin American sweets for me entirely. The ruination actually started with the Thorntons chocolates I wrote about in my previous post. He wasn't content to stop there. Over the course of about a week I had so many delicious sweets. Not all of them are shown here, they were devoured without thought of photos.

Behold the sweet yummy treasure:

First up we have the Double Decker:

***

Nougat, krispies, and chocolate. Yum! It's like a Krackel bar with fluffy nougat.

 

Crunchie:

*****

Honeycomb inside, chocolate outside. Good enough reason to never leave the UK.

Bounty:

 *****

Pretty much identical to a Mounds bar, but without high fructose corn syrup.

 Kinder Bueno:

*****

Hazelnut in a bar with amazing chocolate. NOM NOM NOM
If I win the lottery I'm getting my winnings in Kinder Buenos.

Munchies:

****

Little cubes of way-better-than-American chocolate.

Macaroon:

*****

Tastes like magic and coconut.

Picnic:

**

Chocolate, peanuts, and raisins. Meh. Still loads better than most US candy bars.

Sherbet Fountain:

*

Licorice stick and a powdered sugar that's like one part Pixy Stix, one part Fun Dip, and a hint of Pop Rocks. Sounds good, but I actually prefer any of those to a sherbet fountain.

Not pictured:

Aero bars: *****

Excellent chocolate bars. I highly recommend the mint.

After Eights: *****

Pretty much identical to Andes Mints.

Poppets: *****

Little bits of chocolatey delicious heaven.

The Food is Awesome, Wish You Were Here

From my second day in Scotland people have been feeding me. Americans, Australians, Scots, French... I'm not sure what it is about me, or if this happens to everyone - but it's fantastic.

The cook at Alison's Guesthouse kept urging me to eat various dishes even though she served me such a huge breakfast there's no way I could have finished it. 

The amazing people I met at the hostels in Oban and Skye kept offering to share their food with me. Everything from home-made crepes, fruit, delicious pasta, cheesecake, to unlabelled mystery alcohol. 

My hosts in Carnoustie cooked delicious meals for me, including haggis. My host's mother visited me every three days or so and always brought some kind of sweet for our tea. She also brought me various things like croissants, tomatoes, ham, yogurt, and sticky toffee pudding (my favourite). She also brought me Thorntons chocolate on her last visit.

My friend in Dundee had me try black pudding (not as good as haggis, but still quite tasty), fruit pudding (yum!), and loads of sweets. I think I've had more candy and chocolate in the past week than I've had in the past year. Here's a preview of what he plied me with:

 

Thorntons Premium: ***** 

Like Whitman's chocolates? You must not have tried Thorntons then.

Nougat: ***

Pink and white candy bar that resembles the nougat layer in a Snickers (but less corn syrupy sweet). I find it very odd to eat without the additional chocolate flavour, but quite tasty on its own.

Fry's Turkish Delight: *** 

Not to be confused with real Turkish Delight that tempted young Edmund in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. This sweet is (vaguely) rose-flavoured candy with a chocolate covering. The texture is very very strange.

Dog-Sitting in Carnoustie

 Buttons and me hanging out on the couch. 

Both dogs are currently sitting on me. I can't hear fireworks, but I saw a few earlier when I was walking the dogs. Cassie is particularly unhappy about the situation. 

Alex, for whom I am dog-sitting, made haggis, neeps, and tatties for me this afternoon. It was DELICIOUS. 

Glasgow

Here's what happens when you don't book a hostel before arriving in Glasgow on a drizzly Friday evening:

That's the full tour of my 6 bed female dorm at The St Enoch Hotel (£14). I'll spare you the horror that was the bathroom in this place. The toilet only flushed every 10th time you tried it. My dorm mates apparently couldn't shower without getting water everywhere. I mean literally everywhere. The floor, the top and back of the toilet, the shelf of the sink had an inch of standing water.

The good: a bagged breakfast of apple juice, milk, and cornflakes. The beds were reasonably comfortable, and the sheets and towels (small bar of soap and packet of shampoo also included) appeared clean. 

I decided to get the hell out of there and pay a ridiculous amount for a room to myself at Alison Guesthouse (£50). I have my own fireplace. I'm currently drying my things by it as I got lost on my way here and got DRENCHED, but by the magic of wool, not cold. 

An ode to Sam's muffins

Behold the elegant beauty.

My friend Sam brings me these muffins she calls "pumpkin" or "chocolate chip". I know what they're really made from though: magic. They're always perfect. Moist, not too sweet, and absolutely delicious.