Well our first impressions of Jordan have been overwhelmingly positive.
On our first morning out in Amman, we had Manakeesh (a flat bread with either Zattar or feta and herbs) fresh out of a traditional oven and met a beat poet, who gave us an impromptu show!
The town is a great mix of old and new, with roman ruins mixed in with newer buildings.
I think it also wins the prize for hilliest town I’ve been in, with buildings that appear stacked on top of each other. The hills mean it takes a long time to get anywhere in town – I think we’ve walked around 25km in the two days we’ve been here, and ascended and descended countless long and steep stairways. I hope there is never an earthquake here – it all looks like it might come tumbling down.
The food has also been very good. There’s amazingly good falafel and shawarma, fresh baked breads everywhere and traditional homestyle meals. Oh yeah, and then there are the sweets (but that’s for another blog!).
We start walking tomorrow, and already our bags are too heavy , partly because we keep finding awesome food. – an old guy talked us into buying two jars of his pickled olives and eggplants stuffed with walnuts today (amazingly good but heavy!), on top of what we already had decided was enough.
4ks an hour 
Mmmmmm… That food sounds awesome, brings back memories. That flat bread they make is just beautiful. Good fuel for walking. I hope your legs are ready for it. Al will be fine but I know your knees are a bit delicate Matt….
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Hey Rubes, We’re now a week in to the hike. Knees are holding up so far!
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Excellent, keep up the pastry intake – it’s medically proven to strengthen knee cartilage 👍🦵🦵🥐
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Good to hear! I’ll expect you to have learnt the call to prayer by the time you get back. Allah ahkbar…
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Oh my gosh Ruben… please don’t give Matt ideas like that! I can just imagine him practicing in the tent.
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Thanks for sending the link to the blog Allison! I am already jealous of the falafel, I bet it’s a good deal better than what you find here, haha. I hope the first week has been going well – I remember when I did my bike hike in 2009, the six day mark was the one where I had a complete mental and physical breakdown… so I hope you are not experiencing the same! It did get a lot better after that again though. 🙂
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Hi Jo. No breakdown this time, thankfully! – although we certainly had a few on our first big cycle tour. Perhaps we’ve finally got the hang of things 🤣
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