Friday and Saturday are the weekend days here in Doha.  According to what I understand about Qatari tradition (or maybe arabic tradition), Friday is a day for families to spend time together and worship together.  Early in the day, families stay indoors and worship. Later in the day, families go out and spend time together walking about as a group.  In Doha, many families spend the second half of the day walking along the Corniche, the city coastline walkway, just being together.  So, if you’re a foreigner, and you want to practice driving or otherwise go to places that are normally crowded, Friday is your day to do that - there is hardly any traffic.  Also however, most stores are closed until after 3 PM as shop owners are with their families.

I had heard that the Carrefour (a french version of Walmart) is open earlier in the day at the City Center Mall that is just a few blocks away.  So I jumped into my car and shot over there at about 11 AM to get my weeks grocery shopping done.  Well sure enough, there was hardly anyone over there and parking was a breeze.  So as soon as I started shopping, I kept hearing an announcement over PA system that I couldn’t quite make out.  I kept shopping for 10 minutes or so and then I recognized some English words in the announcement - “10 minutes...store closing”.  What the heck?!  So I asked a person who was stocking shelves what the announcement was.  He said that the store was closing right away, for 15 minutes, for mid-day prayers and it would open back up at 12:15 PM.  So I learned something new about the culture here in Doha.  Friday noon prayers close anything that is open, at least temporarily.  So I did my shopping in 2 batches, no problemo!

Groceries here are different (duh!).  I can’t read many of the labels because they’re mostly in Arabic, but pictures on the labels help.  Some of the packages look similar to American brands and occasionally there is one word in English and a logo that really gives the contents away.  See the package below!