🇱🇹 Vilnius → 🇯🇴 Amman · 2 weeks

Visit the Amman Citadel (Jabal al-Qal'a) at dawn before the tour groups arrive — the Umayyad Palace and Temple of Hercules are dramatic at first light, and you'll have views across the white city's 19 hills completely to yourself.

Eat mansaf (the Jordanian national dish — lamb slow-cooked in fermented dried yoghurt) at Sufra restaurant on Rainbow Street. It's a Friday lunch institution; go with appetite and accept the communal bread-tearing tradition.

Float in the Dead Sea — it's 1 hour from Amman by rental car or a cheap shared taxi from the 7th Circle. Go on a weekday morning, bring flip-flops for the sharp salt crystals, and rinse off immediately after — the salt burns cuts.

Walk the length of Rainbow Street in Jabal Amman on a Thursday evening when it's at its liveliest — the galleries, bookshops, and outdoor terraces around 1st Circle are packed with Jordanian students and young professionals.