East-West/West-East
It’s amazing how, just when you think it’s over and the final rest and travel days will be easy, you’ll be surprised by more experiences. I’m writing now from the familiar comfort of my office. Having woken early due to jet lag, I eagerly threw on a suit and tie (A French one of course) and a scarf for the colder weather, which was painful when I was hit with a wall of cold leaving JFK, but now is very comforting. I’m glad to not be in a soccer jersey right now. And very glad to be back at the office, I certainly see the issue with a lack of routine. It can be unsettling and exhausting. Some routine, some consistency, will be greatly appreciated (I say that knowing full well that we’re heading into the holidays, and there’s still a bit more travel to do).
But I digress, I still have a couple more stories from Qatar. We can start with the random things:
Self Driving Cars Aren’t Ready
I was driven mad by Careem (the Middle East equivalent to Uber/Lyft). The prices at the start were so enticing, but it turned out the majority of the drivers were newcomers to Doha just there to make a quick buck. Or at least tried to. It seemed very hard given the prices. They didn’t know the city any better than I did, and in fact, on our final day, I opened the car door whilst it was in motion yelling at him to stop and let us out of the vehicle. Drove me batty, as he (and many other Careem drivers) took phone directions so literally that they couldn’t process with their own two eyes that the road was closed. This particular incident was to try and get back to the hotel to get our things to head to the airport. So time was short. He drove us miles the wrong way despite my protests that clearly the road wasn’t open and that he needed to find an alternate route. He spoke English (at least his phone and GPS were in English), and simply couldn’t comprehend how to find an alternate route. Eventually during our third rotation of a rotary, I had had enough, and knew there was a taxi stand nearby.
Never before had I been so adamant about take official taxis. But they were consistently much better drivers, faster, and more reliable. As a person heavily invested in Self Driving Cars, this was a sobering moment that perhaps I’m too early of a proponent for it.
A classic photo of Mattos with her eyes closed. But the camel stepped up their posing game, and made up for it.
Architecture
We visited the Museum of Islamic Art and the National Museum of Qatar on our final day. Both, more notable for their buildings than their content. Unfortunately MIA did not have as much modern art as we had hoped, more historical on the interior, with modern art sculptures in the gardens and grounds. Beautifully stunning buildings, both host Alain Ducasse restaurants, and we had a fantastic prix-fixe dinner on top of the latter to cap off the whole trip.
The National Museum of Qatar, the Jiwan restaurant is at the top disk, the design emulates a desert rose, which is a cool souvenir I want, but forgot to buy, so I’ll find it somehow.
Airport Mishaps
Our final days were marked by me running around the airport trying to get to as many stores as possible to scope out gifts for my nieces / nephews and others. I failed pretty miserably. The stores weren’t very conveniently located. And the FIFA ones were mostly ransacked. I mean that very literally. The day prior we had spent some time in an airport because we had rented a car for the experience below, and I idiotically walked into a side table attached to airport seating and tumbled over the furniture onto the ground. After some very-football-esque moaning on the ground clutching my shin, I opened my eyes to see a group of Africans smiling and offering me a hand to help me up. I hope their security footage brings them joy in my pain. I called out to them that this is why we’re supposed to wear shin guards as I walked off. My most soccer moment happened on my last full day, unexpectedly capping off my World Cup experience.
I had pants on. This was strictly from walking into a shin height piece of furniture so hard. Ouch. Ignore the dry skin.
This wasn’t even the only injury of the day. Earlier we had seen a man ride his electric scooter through a glass door, not realizing it was closed. Shattered it. He seemed alright, but geez, was it startling.
East-West/West-East
Richard Serra made a sculpture in the west Qatari desert. A 1.15/1.30 hour drive from the airport. Mind you, this distance is the entirety of the country… across the water on the other side you can see islands owned by Bahrain (allegedly, they’re disputed still I think). When you’re dating a girl who is obsessed with land art, you may end up traveling off road through a foreign desert, with no roads, just a vague direction marked by what are hopefully other vehicles headed to the same place. Then it turns out to be weirdly and unexpectedly incredibly cool. I didn’t know what to expect, but the experience was wild. I highly suggest anyone going to Qatar try this. It’s fun to off road in the sand and even more fun to come upon them in the middle of nowhere. For an amateur photographer like myself, it just doesn’t get much cooler than sunset with these structures framing the desert and plateau, unlike anything I had ever experienced.
They happened to be filming a dancer for a Qatar Creates feature in the background, but the crew was pretty isolated, and we had a fantastic time. These four steel structures all top out at the same height but are different sizes based on the ground they’re on. We’re lucky our timing got us there as the lighting became so drastic. And that I had brought my tiny tripod I brought to Iceland earlier this year for some night photography. Enjoy these otherworldy / album covers that we got running around in the desert!
What’s Left
This is my final post of the actual trip, but I’ll be doing three more in summary over the coming weeks.
A critique and defense of Qatar
A summary of the entire trip (heavily based in numbers)
A look forward to the 2026 World Cup