What's up Qatar?

Doha Skyline

One of my many plane tickets

So my trip has finally started! My exciting trip of various long stop overs and backpacking across Europe! Haven't you been dying to find out where i'm at? Well it's in the title now. Now you may be thinking what is Qatar? Where is Qatar? Why Qatar? Well my dear readers Qatar is in the middle east and it is a tiny tiny speck next to Saudi Arabia. Why Qatar? Well it happened to be apart of my flight and I just oh so happened to have a 13 hour layover there. I've always wanted to go to the middle east even with all the turbulence that goes on over there and plus it's not in every country only a few. So I decided to look up what's up in Qatar. Well first it is only 10% the native population and the rest are all foreigners that go there to work. Why? because almost everyone who lives there is insanely rich. There is an unemployment rate and crime of less than 1%! Isn't that crazy?
I was there from roughly 6pm-4am give or take and it was very humid and about 90F. Throughout the day, well four times a day they offer a complimentary tour of their capital city Doha and provide you with a Visa and a free bottle of mineral water! As soon as I got off of the plane after going through customs for the thousandth time I rushed around the airport asking the many people where I can go to find the tour desk and I was told about 3 times I had missed the time frame, did that detour me? Of course not! After finally finding the desk I was greeted by a man who said I was not on time and could only board the bus if some people didn't show up. Guess what? 6 PEOPLE DIDN'T SHOW UP! So I got my ticket and I held onto it like a child at the fair I was so happy!



Museum of Islamic Arts



The Pearl

After going through customs AGAIN and immigration (They had some crazy cameras) we were able to board the bus and we were given the itinerary of what we were going to see which included the Islamic Arts Museum, The Pearl, A near by village called Katara Cultural Village and Souq Waqif. As we took off the tour guide started telling us the basics about the currency they use and how they have the youngest leader of all time at 36. It was pretty interesting and soon we saw the traffic. Oh lord is it bad. Do you think California is bad? Well it's freaking wonderful after the traffic we saw. Our first stop was the Doha skyline, where we sat across the open water (can you believe Doha is a peninsula) and off to the right we were able to see the Islamic Arts Museum, which we didn't get to go into sadly, but our tour was only 3 hours. The Skyline was amazing and the museum from the outside was stunning as well. The architecture there is pretty wonderful. As we all tried to stop and take good photos without boats passing through our photos, I made sure I took the time to stop and breathe in the air and remember the smells and sounds so I can recall them every so often. After that we went on our way to the village and prior to that I was told I didn't need the local currency, the Qatar Riyal, that most people take cards. So wrong! We got there a bit late so only had 25 minutes to shop and I love souvenirs so much so that was time for me to pick up the pace. After seeing four vendors shoot me down for a card I ran to an ATM and got about 100 Qatar Riyals which turned out to be enough. The exchange rate was about 1 USD to 3 Qatari Riyals I believe. So then I went about to find a shot glass, key-chains, magnets and postcards.  I quickly found tons of shot glasses (which is funny considering how strict the alcohol laws are there with it being an Islamic state), tons of key-chains, magnets but no post cards! So I bought my stuff quickly and made sure to save a 10 bill for my international wall when I get home and I hurried back to meeting point. After we left there we were able to see The Pearl and the story behind that is Qatar used to have quite the fishing scene because they had so many pearls so it's a monument to the people and history of how Qatar came to be. We didn't have time to see the cultural village due to traffic which is very depressing but I must be grateful for what I did see.

The quiet room in which I
slept for a few hours

Now if you're wondering what I did for the rest of my time there minus that 3 hours you know, the other 10 hours. Well luckily they had burger king and some other various food places and some wonderful quiet rooms which were separated by genders as was most things. They also had prayer rooms which I found to be lovely because it was so considerate of those travelling in the airport. I grabbed a bite to eat and walked around the airport where everyone who worked there was dressed in purple suits, blouses and skirts (which was the color of the airways and national flag ((purple and white)). They were all incredibly welcoming and open to answering all of my questions. Also if you're wondering if they were wearing the regular Muslim clothing yes they were. 

                                                       Here's some info on that!

 Some women wore just the head scarf (Hijab) or the whole Abaya which covers the whole body. Some men wore a long white cloak that covered their whole body (Thobe) usually accompanied by a square scarf over a mans head called a Ghutra or Egal which comes in white or white and red checkers and we found out the red and white was more of a fashion statement! I found some of the Abayas to have intricate designs on them and some of the women wore some beautiful shoes! 

All in all I am very honored to have seen the beautiful city of Doha which is actually hosting the Olympics within (8? years) I don't remember the date exactly, but they were building the stadium while I was there. It is a beautiful city and it was really nice to be able to see inside and understand a civilization so different from my own. It was truly a life experience and I hope to go back soon!

My next stop is Jo- Just kidding i'm not telling you yet! Stay tuned!