Sunday dawned and with that, the realisation that while the kids have school here, I’m still on my weekend. Once the kids got dropped off to school at 6 something, Afsha and I set out to the Corniche for a nice long walk.

Having worked up an appetite, we headed to Souq Waqif for breakfast. Afsha boasted of this woman entrepreneur who blazed a trail by running a restaurant called Shay al Shamoos that’s now iconic. It had to be visited. In any traditional society, this is a massive milestone. She talked about how patronage from the king and other people of influence catapulted her restaurant to iconic status.

We strolled past spice stores and garment stores and places very familiar to an Indian for its old bazaar charm,

At the restaurant, the famed owner walked in saying hello to Afsha, and she said how all this came has still kept her grounded. The lady proceeded to instruct her staff, in grandmum tones – kindly but firm. It was joy to dive into ragag, a dosa of sorts with cheese and honey and for my poor suffering nose that was fully developing a cold, karak.

I learnt that the souq police have special regalia separate from the more modern ones. In their traditional thobe robes, horse mounted, as they clatter down the cobbled paths, chatting away looking casually handsome, this felt like another element in the atmosphere of traditional cool that this place gave off.

It was the best Sunday treat to soak in this souq. They took down the original space with structures to rebuild it aesthetically. The original store owners have space here and the souq front has charming storefronts, restaurants and more. This has a distinct aesthetic, different from Katara. That is contemporary, this is unabashedly old school but with all the modcons and an aesthetic boost.

As we were headed back, Afsha talked about the love for falconry here and showed me the falcon hospital. And there they were, a few outpatient falcons just chilling out. Outpatient falcons. Not a phrase I ever imagined saying, till I said it.

Next venue: The Qatar National Museum, designed by Jean Nouvel. They’re really raking up the Pritzker winning types here. Inspired by the desert rose, (gypsum crystal clusters), this beauty is to be seen and then maybe still hard to believe.

Firstly, it’s massive. Second, the AV is actually using what present day options provide, not just a sad voice from behind a static visual.

A lot of innovation here too. For example, you put a rotary phone to your ear and you’ll hear eye audio to accompany videos of leaders of yore talking of the early days of modern day Qatar. Thought has gone into multiple avenues to engage visitors. While the content itself was fairly sparse, and out of their control, full marks for storytelling.

Visual artist Pipilotti Rist (her name derives from the Lindgren character Pippi Longstocking, apparently a childhood hero) has an installation called “Your brain to me, my brain to you” Words don’t do it justice.

And since that sensory overload wasn’t enough, we stepped out to gustatorily discover 3D printed dessert art by Dinara Kasko. She’s apparently an architect by training and that explains the dance of geometry and texture into flavour explosions.

After a quick break back home, and off we went to the park of the Museum of Islamic Art.

We added another 2-3km of walking to our daily repertoire and strolled casually, stopping for karak and samosa, to take pictures of Yoyoi Kusama’s installations all over the park. Oh did I not mention that was there? We’re intending to return the next morning to follow the Yoyoi path around the park leisurely.

As the evening light died and the city lights came on from the business district across the bay, we started back but not before one last look at a dancing pumpkin looking borderline dystopian but playfully so, against the city lights.