Welcome to Jordan

“Welcome to Jordan”

Whether you are a tourist or an expat living in Jordan, you will hear that sentence quite often, either at the airport, a security checkpoint or just while shopping down town. You will discover the different meanings later while you are here.

This website is about living in Jordan as Expat. Me and my family are from Germany and living in Amman, the capital of Jordan, since October 2016. I will share plenty of information that might be interesting for anybody, who is planning to live and work in Jordan or already residing here. I have already lived in Jordan for one year from 2008 to 2009, so have seen most of the touristic sites and am quite familiar with the country. I am expressing my views as an international expat living and working here, so I am neither a local nor a typical tourist or student, although many things might apply to the other, too. The site is an ongoing project and more content will be added as we go along.

Enjoy your stay in Jordan and on my Site. Please Like, Share, Comment, Suggest!

 

Recent Posts

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Hiking the Jordan Trail from Mathlutha to Wadi Hidan with Experience Jordan

A 1.5 hours drive from Amman we started our walk in Mathlutha, e between Dhiban and Wadi Mujib towards Wadi Hidan. It was a pretty dry walk with very few vegetation but an interesting views from the cliffs of the wadis. On the way near to Madaba we picked up our local guide Abu Seif, …

Continue reading “Hiking the Jordan Trail from Mathlutha to Wadi Hidan with Experience Jordan”

Amman, Orientation and getting around in the city

Amman

Amman, is the capital of Jordan and the biggest city of the kingdom. Most likely, foreigners, who come to Jordan for work, will work and live here or in the near cities of Fuhays, Salt, Madaba or Irbid. The following site shall give you some information regarding orientation in Amman and how, where to rent a place, as well as information on utilities such as Water, Electricity and Internet and finally banking. These are probably the main things to get settled.

Orientation

Amman is build on many hills known in Arabic as “Jebal”. Many parts of the city are named after these hills such as “Jebal Amman” or “Jebal Webdeh”. Keep this in mind when you want to walk, because short distances might turn out to be quite long and exhausting depending on the elevation between the points. That also applies of course when driving in a car. Another important word you might find useful is “Wadi” meaning valley. So you know already a part of the meaning of “Wadi Rum”. The other most important things you need to know are some main streets and the circles. Aside from Medina and Mecca Street, a long street runs from East to West through the city named Zahran Street. It connects the circles “Duwar” from the first up to the eighth circle. Since street names and house numbers are not commonly used by citizens or taxi drivers, people tend to indicate nearby landmarks when they want to tell somebody where to go or where they live.

Thus, it is very common to name the part of the town or a name of a big well known street, a mall, a mosque or one of the circles as a first indicator where to go. After that you go right, then right again, then left, then next to that small kiosk you turn left, after that a u-turn and than opposite you arrived…. Inshallah.

Luckily, nowadays you can use google maps and it works very well. You just need to make sure how the name is written in English or whatever language you use in case you don’t know Arabic. Since the translation into different languages with another alphabet than Arabic can differ, it is good to check before you go. Most streets have also the name in English on the sign, again that might be different to the name used by Google maps. Also, keep in mind that, at least so far, the building numbers are not taken into account when you search for something, hence google will just search for the street name. That might work OK with smaller streets but on larger streets it will just point to the middle of the street, which might be close to worthless. So, if you visit somebody and you don’t exactly where they live, ask for the building number additionally. If somebody knows the place or you sent markers on the map, there is no problem usually. Most of the restaurant and malls or other well known destinations are easy to find and you can search for them in English.

For further information on how to navigate through Amman see my Post on How to get around in Amman.

Delicacies

Where to Eat in Amman and around

Since the Arabic cuisine has so many great dishes to offer from Starters (Mezze) over BBQ (Mashawi) to nice Sweets such as Kunafeh, Baklawa and other treats, it deserves its own section in this website. Also tea, coffee, Shisha and fresh lemon juice not to forget. Below you will find the links to the different subsections.

There is a diverse range of restaurants and cafes offering anything from typical Arabic food to International Cuisine, Cake, Shisha either isolated, in a mall or in the hotels. You will find also descent food in all price ranges from ridiculously cheap to in-affordable. Please explore my posts about Arabic Restaurants, Drinks, Bakeries or Cake, Sweets & Ice in Amman.

 

About – What, Who & Why

“Welcome to Jordan”

Whether you are a tourist or an expat living in Jordan, you will hear that sentence quite often, either at the airport, a security checkpoint or just while shopping down town. You will discover the different meanings later while you are here.

This website is about living in Jordan as Expat. Me and my family are from Germany and living in Amman, the capital of Jordan, since October 2016. I will share plenty of information that might be interesting for anybody, who is planning to live and work in Jordan or already residing here. I have already lived in Jordan for one year from 2008 to 2009, so have seen most of the touristic sites and am quite familiar with the country. I am expressing my views as an international expat living and working here, so I am neither a local nor a typical tourist or student, although many things might apply to the other, too. The site is an ongoing project and more content will be added as we go along.

All pictures are taken by myself, if not otherwise indicated. Most of them are probably slightly color adjusted. Some of them have been taken in the time period between 2008-2009. The newer ones from October 2016 onward. I try to only use pictures taken in Jordan.

Amman
Flowers in the field
Abu Darwish Mosque
Wadi RUm
Mussaka
Dana Nature Reserve
Sunset Wadi Rum
Arabic Food – Mezze
Petra – Monestry

Also on this website I will not comment on Islam. Of course, you need to know that Jordan is a mainly Islamic country with all that is connected to that. It is a good idea consult other websites and travel guides, or better friends or colleagues who live here about this, before making a decision whether to move here or not.

Disclaimer

Keep in mind that this is a personal website reflecting my views and therefore am not liable for the validity of any of its content or anything else that might result from that. While I strive to update the site, within a fast changing world, it is impossible to keep track of everything. So please double-check information before relying solely on one site, especially when it comes to numbers. Also, I am not endorsed by either of the companies mentioned, unless indicated. If I mention or highlight them, than usually just for personal taste or because I had a good experience with them.

Last update – May 2018

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