As you may or may not know, the weekend in Saudi Arabia is Thursday and Friday, because Friday is the holiest day for Muslims. So tonight was our first weekend night out! Our first stop was a walk along the Corniche, which is the waterfront along the Red Sea. Here is a picture of King Fahd's Fountain, which is the tallest fountain in the world (1024 feet). It's a little hard to determine the scale, but trust me, it's huge. You can basically see it from all over the city.
We asked some women to take our picture with the fountain in the background. They were mesmerized by the camera and held it up for what seemed like a minute while we posed silently. When they gave it back to me, I realized that they hadn’t even taken a picture. First attempt, failed. So instead, we tried to take it ourselves and each of us had an attempt at creating the perfect shot. I have crowned Hind the winner.
Finally, as we were leaving, we came across four women who were attempting the same fountain picture trick. They were not wearing headscarves and had blonde hair, so it was clear that they too were not from the area (let's be honest, we don't blend in all that well, even with the abayas). Turns out they were British and we happily helped each other take the coveted group shot with the fountain. Here it is!
Next was dinner at a French café, which also turned out to be a shisha bar. They had a Moroccan dish, which especially pleased Hind.
I am also starting to discover that the fresh juices in Jeddah are quite delicious. Here’s me with fresh mango juice.
After dinner, we enjoyed some delicious apple shisha. Before coming to Saudi Arabia, I wouldn’t have imagined that four women could go to a restaurant without a male escort, and on top of that, smoke shisha. I guess I was wrong. It was a lovely way to end the night!
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