Adventures in Doha, Qatar!

So I’m back in the USA! I had a lot of fun my last few days in Jordan and even more fun traveling back. Here are some of the last pictures I took of Madaba:

A view of Madaba, the city goes as far as we could see. So huge!

Staircase leading to some awesome ancient tunnels underneath the Catholic church.

Outside the Catholic church.

My flight back had an 18 hour layover in Doha, Qatar. For those of you who can’t remember where Qatar is, it’s on the southwest side of Saudi Arabia, on the coast. I had some vague plans to ask how expensive an entry visa would be, and then maybe figure out a taxi and a hotel since 18 hours overnight in an airport is a really long time, but I kind of anticipated it would be too much expense and hassle to be worth it. Luckily for me, things worked out great! I arrived at the airport and got ushered into this line for connecting flights. I handed the lady my boarding pass and she gave me a voucher for a stay and meals at a hotel, as well as a pass for a taxi. Sweet! Qatar isn’t one of the richest countries in the world for nothing.

So I rode to the hotel and got a look at Doha. It is a beautiful city! So different from Jordan, with tons of huge business buildings and hotels, and grass and sidewalks everywhere. It is a stunning, modern and clean city. The hotel we arrived at was beautiful, definitely the nicest hotel I have stayed in and they gave me an entire suite. I ate lunch at the fancy hotel restaurant and then decided I was going to try to go out and see what I could in the few hours left before sunset. I asked the concierge if there was anything within walking distance and he said just down the street was the Museum of Islamic Art. It was amazing! And right next to it was a nice park with tons of families outside, playing soccer or eating.

The lobby of the hotel.

A view of the city. My hotel is in the back right.

A look at the artificial island, Pearl. With some boats and jet-skis on the water. Who knew that Muslims enjoy water sports?

The Museum of Islamic Art.

Inside the museum. There were tons of every kind of art and artifacts, except paintings. 

Bad quality, but a view of Pearl at night. Even at night it was still close to 100 degrees oustide. I don’t know how those women covered in black from head to toe managed to walk around in that heat.

After my walk through the park, it was starting to get dark, so I laid out on the grass right next to the water and watched the sun set behind the stunning skyline of the artificial island across the bay. 

Also unlike Jordan, I felt completely comfortable walking around outside by myself, even at night. There were tons of families and kids and women walking around and no one stared at me or made any comments when I passed.

After the sunset, I made my way back to the hotel and went to dinner. It was a busy day and there weren’t enough tables for me to get my own, so I was seated with some random men. At first there was just one guy, he looked about my age, and not at all interested in talking to me. But I was so curious what he was doing in Qatar and where he was from, that I kept asking questions. I found out that he was from Romania, he was in Qatar working with a big group guys and they were all staying at the hotel for a few weeks. By this time, two other Romanian men had joined us and the first guy had relaxed a lot and was talking freely with me. His English was pretty good, but the two new guys didn’t speak English very well. I asked if either of them happened to speak Spanish, and one of them did. So between English and Spanish, we understood each other pretty well. I also really liked listening to them speak Romanian. I realized when they were speaking to each other that I understood some of the words they were saying and I asked if Romanian descended from Latin. Yup! Cool! I didn’t know that.

When we finished eating, they told me that on the top floor of the hotel there would be a dance later and they invited me to meet up with them. So I went dancing with some Romanian men in Doha, Qatar! It was really just a small club, but there was live music and the Romanian guys let loose, singing and dancing along with it. Possibly my favorite part of the evening was teaching them the electric slide. They loved it.

I didn’t stay very long, I had to leave super early the next morning and the smell of alcohol after a while makes me sick, but it was a blast. The entire day was amazing actually. I’m so glad. I was leaving Jordan with a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth, very disappointed with the way things had worked out. It was nice to experience such a fun and entertaining day in the Middle East and realize that someday I would like to come back and tour more of the countries in the area and learn more about their culture.

My flight from Qatar was 16 hours straight to Houston, Texas. Sixteen hours in one seat! I had watched a movie and read part of a book when I looked at the map and saw we hadn’t even reached Europe yet. Finally we arrived and I got to spend a few days with my sister and her husband in Texas.

Even though I started this blog to talk about my foreign adventures, I think I will keep writing occasionally. It’s been so fun to share my experiences and learn how awesome all my friends and family are. I have gotten so much support and advice from everyone and I appreciated it so much! I learned a lot from the whole experience. Such as my ability to be confrontational, gaining more confidence in meeting new people and getting around by myself in a foreign country, and realizing that I don’t need to live somewhere to enjoy traveling. I can’t wait to continue meeting neat people and hopefully travel a bit too!

So now I’m back in Utah and I’m feeling so good. It’s great to be back. Now I just have to find a job and a place to live. Suggestions and advice are welcome as always!