Saturday, July 7, 2007

Old Town



The mid-June heat wave ended, and with Duffy adjusted to the time zone, we headed downtown to see the Roman Amphitheater, built around 150 AD to honor Emperor Hadrian. We were immediately befriended by a semi-official tour guide who spoke very good English. However, he indulged our request and gave the tour in Arabic, pausing frequently to translate himself.



Acoustics were indeed astounding. When you stand on the "X" at center-stage and speak to the audience, your voice is naturally amplified. At the same time, conversations among people sitting in the bleachers were amusingly transmitted crystal-clear to the opposite side. My eavesdroppers no doubt heard me bemoan the lack of safety railings on the steep steep stairs.

Tucked into the amphitheater is a folklore museum, where Duffy posed with Bedoin mannequin heads.

No need to see everything in one day. After our leisurely amphitheater visit, we had the "city's best" shawarma - I have had better here - and watched "Transformers". The English-language soundtrack is played, very loudly, with Arabic subtitles. No movie previews beforehand, unfortunately, just quirky European-style soft drink ads.

It was a fun summer movie, with dazzling special effects and laugh-inducing captions like "Qatar - The Middle East". Or, at least we all laughed here in "Jordan - The Middle East".

3 comments:

Jules said...

Lol, the movie subtitles sound like a kick. The shawarma sounds good. The Roman Ampitheater would be neat to see as well as the museum. Thanks for the pictures. The "Transformers" movie sounds really good.

3XMom said...

Great pictures! Interesting that they get movies the same time they are released here -- I think Transformers just opened here this weekend. I would have thought they would be released later overseas.

kathy said...

completely unrelated, but I was talking to my sister-in-law this weekend, and she said the InterContinental hotel is the place to go for margaritas and mexican food.