We bid a fond farewell to Europe yesterday after a wonderful 24 hours in Fiumicino. I’m really glad we stayed there rather than in Rome. It was certainly much easier to get to the airport – just a 10 minute €16 taxi drive.

Breakfast at the little hotel was sensational. The guest rooms were on the first floor, the owner’s residence on the second and the breakfast room on the top/third floor. We saw the sunrise as we ate a lovely breakfast of muesli, pastries, juice and a great cappuccino.

Thursday night’s dinner was also delightful. Somehow I managed to order seafood spaghetti again. It wasn’t an accident, I’m aware of what pasta with seafood is in Italian. It’s OK to have the same meal for both lunch and dinner isn’t it? Dave enjoyed his veal cooked in white wine, with a side of fries. We started by sharing a braised calamari dish cooked with zucchini and almonds – particularly yummo 🙂

The flights from Rome to Doha and then Doha to Bahrain were good. Both planes were pretty much new and the food and service were excellent. I can highly recommend flying with Qatar airlines. We had quite a bit of turbulence while flying over the Red Sea, so much that at one point the captain announced abruptly,  ‘All passengers and crew are to return to their seats and fasten their seatbelts immediately’. I was then slightly uneasy, but hey, we made it.

 

The flight from Doha to Bahrain was on a much smaller plane and only took 20 minutes. As soon as we took off they started to prepare to land.

We had an easy transfer pick-up at Bahrain airport. The heat hit us the moment we got off the plane. It was 32C and very humid, even at 10 o’clock at night. The top temperature today and tomorrow is also 32C. I don’t think the temperature varies much.

Travelling around Europe is pretty comfortable, from a cultural difference point of view. Europeans are speaking slightly different languages from us, eating slightly different food from what we do in Australia and you can see a range of slightly different cultural sights. Their beliefs are mostly just slightly different versions of my Christian beliefs. It makes it all pretty easy. Things are slightly different but not totally different.

Things in the Middle East are culturally very different. A very different language and alphabet characters. Such a different climate and topography. Both Bahrain and Qatar are Islamic, so such different beliefs, society rules and clothing. (I keep accidentally holding Dave’s hand in public). The food is also quite different from what we generally eat in Australia, but many of us are familiar with middle eastern flavours and dishes thanks to the diversity in Australia.

The reality of the world being so diverse is certainly obvious here in Bahrain. Apart from getting another passport stamp which, with the visa took up half a passport page, we decided to spend a quick 36 hours here to get another view of the world. To remind us that we live on an amazing planet where things can be wonderfully interesting whether they are familiar or very different.

Last night, it was after 10pm by the time we got to the hotel. We are on the 18th floor with a great view.

Because it was late, we walked into the adjoining ‘Seef Mall’ -a HUGE shopping centre. We found an ATM to get some Bahraini Dinars and then went to the food court for some quick dinner. I couldn’t believe how busy the area was at 10.30pm. We ate… hamburgers and chips. Sorry, no gourmet Arabic mezze plates in a shopping centre food court. Dave also had a sundae :). All for six dinars, about $15 Australian.

Today we will explore as much as we can of the city of Marama, the capital of Bahrain. I’m not sure we will be able to walk much in the heat, but we will give it a crack. We also need to shop for a few prezzies. I haven’t had a lot of communication from Will – but he did send these two photos a couple of days ago as a hint 🙂

We will also finish the washing we started last night. Unfortunately the dryer doesn’t seem to be heating up. Hence the clothes hanging around the room. We purposely got an apartment for these two nights, knowing we would have a bit of washing. It didn’t totally go to plan 😉

I’m pretty happy Dave likes ironing. He is ironing things dry 🙂

Tomorrow – back to Qatar to spend 24 hours exploring Doha.

Ciao

(I’m sticking with the Italian theme, and still considering learning Italian)