Travelling to Jordan

In the last few years I have been fortunate enough to make quite a few trips around the world, knowing the people and the countries. I had the opportunity to travel in countries like Morocco, Costa Rica and quite a few Europeans.

This year I managed to spend some days during Catholic Easter in Jordan where I had the opportunity to visit a lot of the places over there.  When I first said to my friends that I will spend five days in Jordan the first reaction that I got was something like, ”But Why?”.  I guess most of the people that I was announcing the trip never really believed that Jordan can offer anything to the traveller.

I wasn’t planning this trip either to be honest but it was something that came a little bit unexpectedly when a friend of us suggested it to me and my brother.  We took the opportunity and said yes almost instantly and…off we went!

Jordan is a 5 hour trip with the plane from London and its next to Israel, widely considered one of the safest and stable countries in middle east. The main thing you will get in terms of scenery is a lot of mountains and dessert but they are impressive.

The people are very friendly and they are training everything they can to make your staying more enjoyable. Nevertheless I have to say that as in most Muslim countries, they always are trying to sell you something… anything 🙂  . So in shops, it’s always allowed to look but always you have to bargain. Its not as bad as other places… but it’s a characteristic of most of the Muslim countries that I have visit until now.

Last but not least, even if it’s a beautiful country, is not the cheapest you will ever visit. For example, Petra, is a magnificent site in Jordan and truly one of the wonders of the world. Despite that paying £45 more or less for that just to get in…is a bit too much.

But let’s speak about food!

Every time when we go to a different country we take a loooot of time trying all the different plates we can find.  As Jordan is a country that was invaded in the past by Romans, and Greeks , I could easily find a lot of similarities to the dishes.

Jordanian cuisine has been affected from a lot of different societies during the ages and has developed to one with dishes that have a really clear taste. The dishes don’t have a lot of spices but are using a lot of different vegetables and sauces.  Obviously chargrilled meat, olive oil, and the use of tomato in the dishes are really common.

What really impressed me was the way they cooked us dinner in a Bedouins camp that we passed one night in Wadi Rum dessert on the south of Jordan. What they did was to build a big hole in the dessert and insert a barrel inside it. Inside the barrel they had put on the lower side the food and insert on the top side of the barrel hot coals for the fire. They covered it with sand and let it slow cooked for several hours. In Greek Food history this type of cooking is called “kleftiko” (translated: the thief’s way).  According to that the thieves in Greece during around 1800’s who lived in the mountains, when they stole a

sheep and they wanted to cook it, they did it with this way as no one could see the fire from far away in the mountains. So they could cook it without being seeing by the police that was hunting them.

It was funny to see it being cooked in front of me as it was being said and reminded me of the similar recipe I did quite a while ago. I didn’t ask, but I’m guessing there must be a similar story for that in Jordan also among the Bedouins.