Getting There is Half the Fun???

So the road to Saudi Arabia was not the smoothest.  When I got to New Orleans, I was told that the third leg of my journey, from Amman, Jordan to Dammam, Saudi Arabia, did not exist.  I called Orbitz and was basically told, "oh well, we sent you an email six days ago, figure it out."  Ummm I definitely wouldn’t be standing here trying to figure out how to not be stuck in Jordan if that was the case!  No call from Orbitz… no email… nothing in the spam folder, even.  Royal Jordanian Airlines was more than accommodating, however, and assured me that I could stay in a hotel in Amman overnight, and there would be a shuttle to take me back to the airport the next day.  

 

With that assurance, I hopped a short flight to Chicago, and then settled in for the 12.5 hour journey from Chicago to Amman.  Even with a middle seat, the flight wasn’t bad.  The movie selection wasn’t the best, but at least they had individual televisions.  I slept a good bit and read The Farm by Tom Rob Smith.  It was an interesting story that kept my attention, though the mystery/psychological thriller genre is not usually my favorite. 

Once we landed in Amman, I had to find the Transit desk and figure out how to get to the hotel.  A girl from Atlanta studying in Sudan, a boy from Wyoming going to visit his family in Iraq, and I found ourselves standing around looking confused.  Apparently being American and standing around looking confused is the fastest way to get where you’re going.  A very nice Jordanian man who looked an awful lot like Bob Barker took us under his wing and helped us fill out the necessary paperwork and get to our bus.  He spoke only a little English, but he knew everyone working in the airport and was able to get us where we needed to be by sweet talking everyone with his million watt smile.  We even went through the Jordanian nationals line to get our passports checked.  Without him, we might still be standing around the airport trying to figure out where to go.

The guy at the airport who helped us had a nice suit, orange-ish skin, and stark white hair.  He was basically the Middle Eastern Bob Barker.

We left Bob at the airport, and once we got to the Amman Airport Hotel, the three of us were back to standing around looking confused.  Eventually we were given our rooms, but not before a hotel employee opened two different rooms that were already occupied.  One of them had guests sleeping in it!   With a “Sorry, Sir!” we were quickly ushered back down to the lobby to get actual empty rooms.

I got free dinner and breakfast at the hotel (buffet style), and was able to watch two stations on the television.  The dinner was pretty good actually, but the breakfast wasn’t the best.  The “sausages” tasted like greasy Vienna Sausage from a can, and they had some kind of beans in a brownish red sauce that were still a little crunchy.  They did have hummus and pita on the breakfast buffet, which I will never complain about!  

Because I did not get a Jordanian visa upon arrival, I was forbidden to leave the hotel.  This was all I could really see of Jordan.  But I liked what I saw!

I caught the shuttle back to the airport and got on my flight to Dammam, Saudi Arabia.  It was about a two hour flight.  When I got there, after 41 hours of traveling, I was greeted by my awesome husband with some beautiful flowers and a can of Diet Coke.  Best. Welcome. Ever.