The Irish Pub Sucked

So I finally found the Irish Pub I was so looking forward to visiting here in Amman. I spent about 10 Jordainian Dinar ($15) getting to this place. It is called "Rovers Return." I knew it was near a certain hotel, but the cabbie had never heard of it and he had to stop twice for directions to the hotel. Even then, I had to search around the back and down some stairs to find the place.

I walked into a typical Irish Pub. Not typical as in you could mistake this place for being somewhere on the Emerald Isle, but typical as in it looked like a Bennigans in Indiana somewhere. Okay, but I'm in Amman, so the "throw-anything-with-the-word-Ireland-or-Guinness-on-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks" sounds pretty good right now. I spy a Guinness tap, lick my lips and walk towards it. "Salaam alakim" says the bartender. I give him the cursory "wa alakim a salaam" and quickly get in a "Guinness." He looks at the tap, looks at me and says in broken English "no Guinness." I said "are you out." He says, "no Guinness." I look at the drink menu and damned if he isn't correct. Guinness is not on the menu. Apparently the tap is for show. I then ordered a Heinken. That Heinken cost me 6.00 Jordainian Dinar, plus a 10% service charge and a 17% government tax on alcohol. Making my almost $11 Heineken the most expensive pint on record. Then came the ultimate insult. He pulled out a Heinken "mini-keg" (see my post a few weeks ago) and tapped my beer from that thing. WTF?????

It has rained and snowed here for the past two days. I was the village idiot for walking around in the rain. Apparently it rains so infrequently here that they still believe you may actually melt. Mothers brought their children out to look at me wandering out in the rain. Every cabbie in Amman tried to get me inside their vehicle. When I would wave them off, they would just stare in disbelief. I can't wait to get to London.