During the World Cup, I didn't plan to go to the Souq Waqif at all. I really like this place, but I try to stay away from it when it's busy.
I simply wanted to see a play at their theater. It was a pleasant experience. The only issue was that there was no buffet in the theatre, so by the time the play ended, we were starving.
What a wonderful way to make this evening unforgettable!
A Souq Waqif dinner seemed like a nice idea to me.
However, it was not. It was packed with ecstatic soccer fans. Moroccans, Saudis, Tunisians - a large number of Spanish-speaking people - a few Europeans - I recognized and heard a few Croatians. Some Poles were swearing.
The air was thick with the aroma of grilled food, waterpipe smoke, and the sweating of the crowd. It was way, way more crowded than I thought it would be. We decided not to have dinner then . Okay, I thought maybe after the World Cup we'd get our Souq back and postponed the family dinner idea.
WE walked to the nearest Metro station. There was an African employee with a sense of humor whose job was to announce over the loudspeaker. Metro - Metro - Metro . He must have grown tired of his motonon job. He tried to make it more entertaining by changing the intonations of this word.To spice up his announcement, he added "Hakuna matata" in a soothing tone, which put a smile on all of our faces.
I noticed something else that made me smile as we were leaving the station. A Korean or Japanese family with a young child, with the father dressed in traditional Qatari attire from head to toe.A new trend among tourists here.
After all, it's fun to see so many different kinds of people here, I thought as I was eating a cold sandwich from the metro station.
