29th to 30th of July, 2019.
Mohammed drops me in a place nearby the building where he is going to perform his exam and we contact Bander to come and pick me up.
Since the first moment we get along pretty well. Bander is a very nice and sweet guy. Super friendly and respectful. We have lunch at his mother’s house, who unfortunately I had not the pleasure to meet. After that, he is very understanding about the fact that I did not sleep last night so he brings me to the apartment where I am going to spend the night (his older apartment because now he is actually living in Dubai, teaching acting classes) and we agree that I will need a couple of hours of rest to be able to go around the city later, otherwise I will be dead.
After that he wants to show me the city a bit, so we go to the Amman Citadel. It is pretty nice and beautiful. We see the Roman Theatre from above and the Temples and caves. We take some nice pictures and soon we leave.
After that just going here and there to arrange some stuff and later on we go to visit a friend of his and check his new apartment. The couple is super friendly and I talk a bit with the wife, who used to be a flight attendant. The apartment has a pretty view and actually an amazing outside area.
Again, Bander is very understanding, actually even before we arrive there we had decided to spend just an hour or so because I would wake up very early in the morning to go to the airport.
At his apartment, after arguing about the best way for me to go to the airport, I finally accept that he pays for a Uber. He calls and arrange everything. Very sweet of him. I really wish we had more time to spend together. I believe Bander can be a very good friend.
In the morning the Uber is precise and arrives at 7 o’clock. The driver does not speak much English but is very polite and nice.
Before 8 o’clock I am at the airport. I wait for the first Exchange house to open and I can change my last few Jordanian money and then I go upstairs to check-in. Then the joke starts.
When I pass through the second metal detector, after asking for two security officers where should I go and show them my ticket, the security officer ask to see my backpack, The Huck, inside. I think it is very estrange. In the very few times I took an airplane, they never checked my luggage. When he sees my robes (for the camping, just in case) he says I cannot go on board with it. Even more strange. I travel always with them and never it was a problem. Anyway, here I am, walking into the boarding room. I sit and wait. Thirty seconds later, exactly like in a movie, I start to look around the lounge, taking a look in all the people, and I ended up with my eyes in my backpack. My Hulk which is with me in the boarding room! What a fuck?! That is why they looked all over, that is why they took my robes! They let me pass with my 65 Litres backpack to board in the airplane with it! Plus, my tent it was outside. Ridiculous! Laughable. Almost unbelievable. If I had not paid for the luggage already I would of course carry on and see what the people from the Ryanair would say on board. But since I had paid extra for the luggage already, when I bough the ticket, I came back, luckily in time, and made a big deal of it, so then they would not let me waiting or made me pass all over the same security checks again. So there was I, crossing through the special locked doors, just to check-in my luggage and finally go back to board.
On the waiting room, there was a lady with a 50 Litres Quechua backpack. And I believe she got in with it. So here it goes the two tips: you might get on board, with Ryanair, with your 65 Litres backpack. Or, at least, with you 50 Litres one. At least in Jordan you can.
The flight is a little late but the worst part is the service. Unbelievable that they do not serve any food. Any snacks! They just sell, of course. I never been in a 3 hours flight before, which had not any snacks. Even in Brazil, the one hour and a half flight, from Curitiba, Paraná, to Rio de Janeiro had biscuits and drinks. Plus the cabin space is a joke of so small. Anyway, I lent in Valletta, Malta, starving. And I still needed to walk from the airport to town. Until that time I had a plan. Everything would change completely very soon.
