The One With The Alley

WHAT a day today has been!

The apartment block now at 78, Uqbah bin
Nafe Street

I got a taxi at 9.15am this morning and got Yousef to drive to where our old house used to be, on Uqbah bin Nafe Street. We knew that it had been knocked down and turned into apartments since we'd left, but it was important for me to go back and have a look at the place that had so many happy memories for us. What sums up Jordanian taxi drivers is that I had to basically point out the way, despite him navigating around this crazy city for a living and me not having returned for eight years. Anyways - got there and the new apartment block is ugly but it was a nice trip down memory lane to stand and look at it for a while. In a testament to just how developed Amman has become now, the beautiful mosque across the Wadi that we used to be able to see from our windows in now completely blocked by more apartments. I had to walk a long way down the road to even get this snap, and it was only through a gap between to apartments. It's a real shame, as that was a lovely view.

The mosque we could see from
our old house, now blocked from view

I then meandered along very familiar streets, down past the little corner shop (still going strong), until I reached 4th circle, where I had the displeasure of trying to cross the road at the height of apparent rush hour. I must have been there for ten minutes before I thought "inshallah" (this city is rubbing off on me)  and just went for it. I'm still here to tell the tale, so maybe there really is something to that mentality.
I then wandered down Zahran Street. One thing that is really noticeable about Amman is that no-one walks around. The only company I had on the pavements were the Jordanian police/guards patrolling outside the various embassies and residencies along the street. When I got to 3rd circle, I popped into the InterContinental to see where I'll be working and it's a BEAUTIFUL shop, full of gorgeous jewellery. Also air-conditioned, which is a massive bonus as it's hot for September - it was 34 degrees today. My aim in today's ramble was to try and see as much as the city as possible, and walk about the kind of area that I'll be close to when I move into my apartment tomorrow. I wanted to walk to 1st circle, which is a really vibrant area. One street in particular was pointed out to me - Rainbow Street. It's full of cafes and shisha bars and is really bustling. I wandered up Rainbow St. a little bit, and decided to go and get a drink in a cafe...this is where the story gets 'interesting'.

Photo of downtown taken just
before "the ordeal"

Having looked in the guidebook, I decided that I would try and find Books@Cafe, a downtown cafe I remember from ages ago. The instructions in the guidebook were not that clear, so I decided to ask someone on the street where it was - I ended up talking to this really nice English guy who pointed me in the general direction and gave me some pretty vague instructions. I headed on my way, and after deliberating whether or not to take a right turn, I decided to carry on walking down the hill. I soon figured that this was not the right thing to do, so when I got to the bottom of the hill, I had another look at my map to see if I could cut back to the right street. I decided to take some photos of the downtown hillsides as I had stopped. An old Jordanian man, who had been walking down the hill at the same time as me approached me and asked if I was lost. I asked if he knew the Books@Cafe - he said yes, and pointed me up an flight of stairs up an alley on our righthand side.  This made geographical sense to where I needed to get, so I started making a move towards it. Up the alley, we were being watched by some other guy sitting on his apartment balcony who was having a cup of tea. Pretty soon I realised that the guy giving me some directions is not an adorable old Arab man trying to help. I'd taken one step into the alley before he moved close to me and put his hand on my back. I immediately ducked away from him, pushing him away and saying 'la, la, la' (arabic for no, no no). As I went to shove him off me, I looked down and saw that he had kindly removed his penis from his trousers. I pushed him really hard off me so that he stumbled and fell, shouted "YOU'RE DISGUSTING" and walked away pretty sharpish (an understatement...I cantered away). This guy whose apartment's balcony extended over the alleyway saw what had happened, and as I turned back on my way round the corner, I saw this guy shouting angry Arabic at this old man, and wielding a hammer. I don't know what happened to him next, but he was a bonafide creep. I should have been more careful too, and I'm so thankful to the hammer-man for yelling at this creep when I couldn't. I was only two steps away from the road, so I legged it, a bit flustered after this altercation, back up the hill and ended up bumping back into the nice English guy who, when I told him what had happened was horrified and very apologetic for not being clearer with his instructions. He offered to walk me to the local police station, but there wasn't really any point. He did clearly show me where to go, and I ended up finding Books@BloodyCafe although I just wanted to get back home at this stage. I had a quick Pepsi, and headed back home after a short while.

My evening has been a lot better, and the whole affair this morning is totally ridiculous, very lucky, and has made me realise I'm not in a European city - I do need to be careful. Although it was definitely an isolated incident with some loser who is clearly not right in the head.It's lucky I'm made of sterner stuff than that, otherwise it could have been an awful experience, and one that put me off Amman completely. Anyways....after all that, Pat and Hamed invited over the daughter of old friends, Hannah, who is from the US and is living here on a study abroad programme for a while. We got take-away hummus and mezze and had a lovely evening sitting by the fire pit, listening to loud Arabic music coming from a wedding across the Wadi and seeing the accompanying fireworks. Hannah and I got along well, and tomorrow night we are going to an Arabic rap show tomorrow night....at Books@Cafe...at least I know my way now! This event will actually be great - here's a video of the group, Arab MCs. Arabic rap is quite something....

Moving into my apartment tomorrow, which will be really good. I'll feel properly settled then. Work with Nadia is now starting on Saturday - I met one of my colleagues, who seems really sweet so all is well in that world!

What a day.