Activity level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Modes of transportation: 🚗👟🛫
We slept in as much as we could, which, since there was a decent time change, meant we still woke up in time for a normal checkout. We packed up our stuff, dropped it off at the hotel, and headed out for the mall to buy an abaya.
Apparently in Saudi Arabia, it’s only recently legal not to wear an abaya for women, but it definitely gets some stares. We just didn’t want to draw any attention, so we bought a cheap green one (never quite figured out how to properly tie the hijab portion, but it looked fine).
Eric needed some sunscreen, so we went into a supermarket, which looked weirdly American besides the Arabic script on (only some of) the products. Also, since Saudi Arabia is so dry, there was an amazing amount of shelf space dedicated to moisturizer (but almost none to sunscreen…).
We knew we wanted to see some sights, so we got a cab to the King Abdullah Park, which is listed as one of the main attractions in Riyadh. Nearby, we stopped by a well-rated restaurant which turned out to be amazing.
The manager was extraordinarily friendly when we walked in and helped us order. We got kebabs, muhammara, pita, babaganoush, Arabic cheese bread, and fruit smoothies (Eric got an avocado smoothie—strange but amazing!).
This food was seriously incredible, and the manager even gave us soup (2 rounds of soup for some reason) and free waters. (Side note: he looked at Eric’s hand, pointed, laughed, and said “very white!” to Sarah. Sarah was pumped that he implied she was tan.)
Middle Eastern/Mediterranean is Sarah’s favorite, so, even though we ordered way too much, we got through it no problem. And it all turned out to be about $17 (food and cabs are about the only cheap things in Saudi Arabia).
We made our way over to the park, but the gate was closed. We think there was another entrance, but we looked inside and decided we didn’t care too much (Sarah pet an orange cat also).
We hopped in another cab to the Saudi Arabia national museum, which was pretty neat. Weirdly, it was almost entirely empty while we were in there. They had a lot of great exhibits on the Arabian peninsula, and the very ancient history of the region, including the development of writing. It was interesting, but we had to speed through to get everything in.
We hopped in another cab to the old region of Riyadh and the Al Masmak Fort. It definitely felt like an old desert town, with so much sand in the construction.
From there, we walked over to Deera square, also known unceremoniously by tourists as chop-chop square. There were weekly beheadings there up until just a few years ago (they stopped pre-COVID, then had one big one there just last year). Apparently, when there’s a beheading, they shuttle the foreigners to the front to “bring more shame” to the victims. Honestly, it was insane seeing the spot where such a seemingly modernized country still engaged in such a barbaric tradition (until very, very recently). We didn’t stay too long, since we had to make sure we had dinner before the airport (and it was strange to be there).
We found a place recommended by the tourism board to be a very traditional Saudi dinner, called Najd Village. The food was awesome, and we ate on the floor in the traditional way. We knew we needed to hurry, so we didn’t want too much food; but the waiter suggested a sampling platter for two. It was all very good, but it must have been enough food for 6 people, and we felt bad leaving so much of it.
Our cab driver to the airport was hilarious. Didn’t speak a word of English, but let us select the playlist (all in Arabic) and showed us all the modern songs. They were actually awesome. He also handed us this sort of pipe looking thing—we think to just show us why the car smelled good. But it definitely looked like a pipe (we did not inhale!).
The airport was easy to navigate and we got to our gate pretty early, so we headed towards the lounge. Sarah got some help from an influencer (who also didn’t speak any English) to tie her hijab correctly, even though she was going to just take it off.
The flight was chill. We both just immediately fell asleep since we hadn’t quite adjusted to the time (the flight was at 9:00 PM also). Who knows if they even served a meal.
We got in very late, but luckily had some smooth sailing thanks to being business class—like a private bus from the plane to the terminal (it was about a 10 minute ride) and an expedited immigration line. (Side note, when we disembarked, many men in suits were there to greet 2 men from from our flight. They seemed pretty important).
Once we got our visas approved and into Egypt we fought off about 30 cab drivers while we tried to find our Uber. Sarah did interact with one persistent hawker who insisted he could get us to our hotel for a good price. We showed him the Uber price and he didn’t even come close to matching it (not a great negotiation tactic).
We had another awesome Uber driver, who gave us some tips for the city. We couldn’t find our hotel because it was hidden inside another hotel, but our cab driver got out and called the hotel for us to help us find it.
Finally, we made it at around 2:30 AM. Our concierge was extremely nice, and set everything up for us. He also took our laundry to do (for about 13 US—well worth it) and said we could pick it up the next day after our tour.
With that, we went to sleep for our early tour the next day.
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