What am I doing here, travel diary: day 16: an unexpected gondola ride in the middle of the desert

The other day, after getting lost for the umpteenth time on the endless and impossible highways of Qatar, I remembered the old saying that you arrived in Rome by asking questions and that here, instead, you had to catch up and say that Googling you get to Doha. And it’s true. There is no other alternative than to live with the GPS in hand to reach the destination. This Monday, before going to Portugal-Uruguay, we were looking for a place to have lunch. It was four in the afternoon. So, googling, we almost bounced back to Italy. It almost makes me say that by googling you arrive in Rome. Or in Venice… It’s a way of saying, of course.

It’s just that we were traveling by metro and the cell phone told us that there was a shopping mall, one of the many around here, in the station next door. And shopping, in every corner of the planet, is synonymous with the food court.

I have to confess that I don’t really like eating in the midst of so much noise and movement. But, continuing with the proverbs, necessity has the face of a heretic and I was able to negotiate my weak gastronomic principles in front of the imminent solution to satiate our hunger.

This is how, involuntarily, we arrived at the famous Villaggio Mall. Famous because it is the mall that everyone is talking about in Doha. Why is everyone talking about him? It is that it has some peculiarities that are obvious if you are not crazy about brands. It is the opposite of the abandoned mall that we showed you last time.

The first is that the ceiling is painted with sky. Therefore, if you are caught off guard or without glasses, you will believe you are in the great outdoors. Hand. Especially since the sky above the mall has clouds, something we haven’t seen since we arrived at this place. There are neither dogs nor clouds in the Qatari capital.

The second impact situation is a Internal gondola ride.

But we are not talking about the gondolas of supermarkets – even if there is one of those of the French capitals in the same shopping center -, but the gondolas, in miniature version, like those that cross the canals of Venice. Yes, you can’t be caught off guard here. You can’t get confused and believe that we arrived in Italy out of the blue, as if you had boarded one of those space flights a former president was talking about without knowing it. Those who would go into the stratosphere and in half an hour would leave you on the other side of the world, defying all the laws of physics.

The point is that the gondola ride is a real sensation. For just 10 riyals, about three dollars, you allow yourself the pleasure of a 150-meter ride. The boats have an electric motor which saves the gondoliers any kind of effort who only have to operate the rudder. The gondolas came and went without stopping. An incredibly round affair.

The last surprise the place has is an ice skating rink. A huge completely empty ice skating rink. Rare. Especially since it was full of kids. In that, the old and beloved Shopping Sur, the one that was in Avellaneda on the banks of the Riachuelo, beat him with a landslide. However, when sharing this detail with colleagues who had already visited the Village, we discovered that the skating rink was always empty. “You leave me frozen!”, I joked with a little humor, which unfortunately characterizes me.

But where the boys were, even if not many, was in Gondolania, a kind of sumptuous Sacoa where, in addition to the old and beloved girls, we find a bowling alley, a reserve for playing laser warfare and even a mountain Russian with cars in the shape of… gondola. Yes, it couldn’t be otherwise.

Beyond all those attractions, The main attraction of Villaggio is the big name brands that can be seen throughout the sprawling establishment. In the outdoor part there are activities for everything you can imagine. And behind the ice rink is the Vía Domo. There, next to each other, you can visit the shops of the most exclusive clothing brands on the planet, those worn by celebrities.

The best thing is that there are shops of these same companies but with exclusive clothing for the little ones. The unpleasant thing is that the prices are not seen in the window and when you consult the value of a shirt to make a little gift and make a good impression, they realize that they shouldn’t have asked so as not to get embittered with the reality of its sad power of purchase.