Vegetable Market

This is a catch-up post.

In Islamic countries, the weekend falls on Friday and Saturday.  On Friday, June 24, Sahel, Chris and I walked from our home in Amman's Abdali neighborhood to the old downtown section of Amman, which the locals call "ال بلد" ("al-Balad, which also means "the country").  

***As background*** 

• Amman is a city built on, and between, hills (originally seven, but now many more, perhaps 19 or 20).  The better neighborhoods are located on the hills located west of al-Balad.  
• Running roughly from Al-Balad westward is Zahran Street, a major thoroughfare.  Along Zahran Street are eight traffic circles, which the locals call by their number from east to west (e.g., 1st Circle is the furthest east at the eastern end of Zahran Street, and 8th Circle is at the western end of Zahran Street, past the airport connection road).  
• Abdali, my neighborhood, is located just west of 3rd Circle, near the national police headquarters and Qasr Aadil (the "Justice Palace", where the appellate courts are located).

Here are some pics:

The "Justice Palace" - 

as we soon learned, taking photos of government ministries are "ممنوع" (prohibited)

King Abdullah mosque - 

located on شارع مخابرات القديم, Mukhabarat al-Qadiim Street, the closest main street to our house.

Counter programming - 

a Christian church located just across the street from the King Abdullah mosque.

Suuq Abdali (Abdali market) - 

a flea market/bazaar at the eastern end of Abdali that sells mostly clothing, 

and according to apocrypha, vegetables.

Merryland Hotel

Al-Balad -

Notice the empty streets and closed shops - Friday is Islamic prayer day.

In al-Balad, we ran our errand for the day - visiting the local vegetable market and buying some خضروات ("khudrawaat" - vegetables) for dinner.  Our host grandma was going to cook us some stuffed zucchini and stuffed grape leaves.

King Abdullah II, current king of Jordan.  

His photo is in nearly all buildings, public and private.  

He obviously ate his vegetables.

Pickles and cheese.