We live very close to the Corniche, which is seafront walking area in Doha. All National Day activities take place at the Corniche, so we got to experience a very interesting set of events.
- Preview: the day before the National Day, I was driving home from work in very heavy traffic. The congestion was caused by a number of SUV's flying Qatari flags and honking and expressing their excitement on the roads. Eventually, I realized where they were going - toward the row of about 10 Qatari army tanks that were coming in for the National Day parade. I thought the excitement was over; but, when I was almost home, I saw a row of about 10-15 camels with camel riders in traditional clothes coming toward me. Talk about an interesting ride home.
National Day: we didn't go to the parade in the morning, but we did hear some jets flying over us. Before heading out to the Corniche for the fireworks and light show in the evening though, we had quite a show from our window. The traffic was incredibly backed up as you would expect. Some of the reasons for this were not so expected though. There were as many SUV's as lanes driving next to each other very slowly to block the traffic. Why, you may ask? Because some of the people would come out in traditional clothes and do the sword dance :) At other times, the SUV's would do donuts (circles) around the center of the road. It was very entertaining. Then, we went down and enjoyed the fireworks and the light show.
The Museum of Islamic Art: They recently opened the new Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar. Since we had a long weekend, we decided to go to the museum the next day. The museum is designed by IM Pei, so as you would expect, the architecture is amazing! The seafront location also adds to the beauty, and the views from the museum are very nice. There is a traveling exhibition that features historical interactions between Islam, Judaism and Christianity, which was quite interesting. Additional photos from the museum are here.
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