Doha - The last stop

Siena was the last stop of my month-long European trip... The next morning I caught a bus and made the three hour trip back to Rome. I was looking forward to seeing more of Tuscany in daylight, but I fell asleep! I woke up close to Rome...

I had booked myself a day-long stopover in Doha on the way home and was actually a bit nervous about it. The cultural differences are far greater than anywhere else I had been, and I have little experience with Muslim societies.

I arrived at midnight and it was almost 1:00am by the time I got to the hotel. I was blown away during the taxi ride by the view that I got of Doha at night... it is beautifully lit. I got this terrible shot of the street lights from the taxi...

The street lights are all different colours with designs going up them. In the light of day they look like the one in the right of this photo:

I have no idea what the Islamic writing on them says, but they look good at night and during the day.

I slept pretty late in the morning and then went for a walk around the nearby market, Souq Waqif.

Souq Waqif

I didn't get any pictures of the inside of the markets. It is really close and intense and I felt too intimidated to take photos! I was totally stared down like an intruder by everyone I passed! I stopped for coffee and planned my next move. I only had a few hours before I had to go to the airport. I had decided to go to the Museum of Islamic Art because it has great reviews and it wasn't too far away (and it was likely to be air-conditioned!). But on the way there I walked past a tour bus place that offered a tour of the city that took 2.5 hours. I decided that that was a much better way to see as much as possible in the limited time that I had.

So the rest of this story can be told in photos:

The front of my hotel

National Museum of Qatar (opening soon)

Museum of Islamic Art 

Qatar is known as 'The Pearl of the Persian Gulf' 

The skyline

Residence of the Emir (ruler) of Qatar

These buildings screwed with my head every time I saw them

I really enjoyed seeing how modern and traditional can work together. The bus also had a really good commentary which explained a lot about the history, politics, and progress of Doha and of Qatar as a nation. Everywhere you look there is construction work going on, a result of the oil boom. The country is making great efforts to develop the infrastructure for more sustainable sources of income to rely on when the oil dries up.

I'd love to go back with more time, and I definitely want to do a night tour! The city looks like it is spectacular at night.

And now I am back in Australia, back at work, and my epic month away feels like a dream.

Thanks to everyone who has read about my travels, and to those who have taken the time to comment. Time to start planning the next one!

Siena, Tuscany

It's a bit weird writing this from home instead of a hotel room...

After Paris I flew back to Rome and then took a three-hour bus trip into Tuscany to the city of Siena. From what I saw from the bus before it got dark, Tuscany is exactly how it looks in the photos. Rolling green hills, old homesteads on the high points that have belonged to the same family for longer than New Zealand or Australia have been settled by Westerners, orchard gardens...

I got to the hotel after dark and, once again, hauled my suitcase up two flights of stairs because there was no lift and no porter and the (very effeminate) man who checked me in threw his hands in the air and said "I couldn't possibly carry that... It's so heavy I would just die!". Thanks for nothing buddy!

Siena is a small medieval-style city built on a hill. It is steep! Everywhere you want to go is either up a hill or down a hill. Nothing is flat! The roads are just lanes so public transport like buses and taxis can't go into the city proper and must stop on the outskirts.

After walking through random lanes I came out into the square, Piazza del Campo.

Each of those little stalls down in the centre of the square sells handmade chocolates and confectionary. And you can watch them making it. The whole square smells like melted chocolate!

One of the buildings on the square used to be the municipal building of the city and has been preserved as a museum. Some of it isn't well preserved, but some of the decor is stunning...

After that (and providing the public service of checking the quality of the local chocolate) I headed up through another laneway and found the cathedral.

The outside is stunning, a shining pale building in an otherwise brown and grey city. The inside is equally stunning... very stripy.

Following from the cathedral I visited the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo.

And then there was this.... what a climb up the narrowest spiral stairway I have ever seen! But the view was worth it...

After visiting the crypts underneath the cathedral (not particularly interesting) and then the baptistry (quite nice), I had some lunch and went for more of a walk around the streets.

The baptistry

Hills! Everywhere is up a hill!!!

I only had the one day in Siena but I didn't feel like I needed more time. It was nice to get a glimpse of Italy outside of Rome before I left Europe.

Parisian icons

After heading back to the hotel for a rest we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower. I had heard reports from many people saying that the Eiffel Tower hadn't been something that they'd really been interested in seeing, but once they were there they'd found it to be quite impressive, and it was basically the same for me... I was happy to go and see it, but not at the expense of missing something else. It wasn't a priority.

And I am so glad we went! It really is quite an impressive structure.

After visiting there we stopped in at a pizzeria for dinner and then walked 3km back to the hotel through the Paris evening.

We started Sunday with a visit to the Louvre Museum. I wasn't particularly interested in the exhibits, but more in the building itself.

A cool Sunday morning

Inside looking out

My favourite room

Yes, we did see the Mona Lisa. And no, I still can't work out why it's so famous...

After the morning at the Louvre we walked through Tuileries Gardens. The day was warming up and it seemed all of Paris had come out to enjoy the sun.

After resting up at the hotel for a bit we headed out to Boulevard Saint-Germain for a coffee and then grabbed some picnic food for tea. It was very nice to sit on the bank of the Seine River and eat good food and drink good wine in excellent company.

Yes Mum, of course we ate our vegetables before we had dessert...

After dinner we took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe and then walked down Champs Elysees to the Roue de Paris (ferris wheel) on the Place de la Concorde while the sun went down. It was a very nice walk to take at dusk, despite the traffic.

Georgia took this great photo from the top of the Roue de Paris

And that was the end of Paris! The next morning we flew out... Georgia headed back to work in Iraq and I was on my way back to Italy. It was awesome to be able to share my first time in Paris with my sister!