Doha - Day 2

 Jay woke up a little earlier than I did and went down and got breakfast and brought me back a croissant.  
We booked an athlete package through the World Aquatics program and so we have 3 meals daily at the restaurant - he said that the breakfast buffet was amazing, so that's good news.  We also get free shuttles to the Asprire Dome, 3 pc of laundry daily each (which we are NOT used to travelling in hotels, we always rent a house or condo and have our own laundry to having laundry, even 6 pc daily is a huge bonus) and entry into events.  

We're staying at the Marriott Marquis City Centre Doha - we were originally booked at the JW Marriott Marquis City Centre Doha (right? I mean FFS).  But, as Maria was reading about the hotel about 2 weeks ago she realized that for the duration of our stay the pool area was going to be closed, and it was a nice pool area, one of the main reasons we chose the hotel.  So she decided that she and Jim would switch hotels regardless and that made me look up my reservation and realize instead of booking the JW Marriott Marquis City Centre Doha I had booked the Marriott Marquis City Centre Doha..not sure how on earth that might have happened - who names two hotels side by side the same fucking thing?  Anyway, I realized and then realized that it actually worked out in our favour since the pool isn't open at the JW - so proceeded to let Grey and Ashley know I screwed up but that we would move to the JW if they wanted - they preferred to have a pool so they moved to the regular Marriott and Jay's Dad decided to switch to the Four Seasons Doha to be at the beach (and also because they wouldn't charge him for early check in and late check out because he stays with that brand a lot) - so it all worked out in the end.

Once Jay was done breakfast he and Grey took off to go to the event space to do their accreditation, Jay had to pay for our hotel (I had arranged to pay on arrival so we could do it by credit card and get points and insurance rather than paying by wire transfer in advance) and then they went for a practice swim.

While Jay's gone I text back and forth with Maria making plans for a food tour in The Pearl district and with Chrissy Henderson, who I went to high school with, about getting together because she lives here and will take us to a Souq and we'll grab lunch on the 28th before Jay swims later in the day - he won't come likely because of the timing but it will be nice to see her and I read my book.  We have a nice room overlooking the pool area, it's a corner with floor to ceiling windows ( I just took a pic and I'll insert it here) all the curtains close so it's nice and dark at night but nice and bright during the day.

I'm a pretty confident, independent traveller but two things I hate: 1) paying taxi drivers (don't know why) and 2) going to eat by myself.  So while the croissant this morning was delicious by the time Jay got home from his sign in and swim I was starving (as evidenced by the text exchange below).

It's now 3:30ish and we decided to go to the Four Seasons to see Bob (Jay's Dad), it's about a 20 minute walk and this is not a city that is designed for walking - there is really not a sidewalk that's consistent.  I still haven't eaten since the croissant at 9am this morning and I'm cranky.

The Four Seasons is beautiful but very over the top, like you would expect.  Lunch is delicious - I ordered the tuna poke bowl and Jay and I shared a tempura shrimp roll.  He loves me most because when the roll comes out and there are 8 pieces I let him have 5 and only take 3, lol, it's the little things.

We get back to the hotel and Jay starts to fall asleep at about 6:45pm..I asked him if he's out for the night or if he's just napping and he says to wake him up in 45 mins because it's too early to go to sleep so I read and then wake him up at 7:30pm.  He's just sleepily closing his eyes again when I ask if he really wants to get up or if he wants to sleep..so we get up and go down to the restaurant to grab a snack.  The dinner is really good too - we both just get a bit of salad and hummus to eat because we aren't starving after having 'lunch' so late but it's good to get up and move about and have something not too heavy. 

We put our 6 laundry items in the bag and sent them for cleaning, they'll be back tomorrow.  You can't accumulate your wash and do it all at once so we'll be doing 6 items daily until we leave on the 1st so hopefully we have mostly clean clothes when we leave.  The second part of our trip is 6 nights in the Maldives where I really only need bathing suits and pjs so we should be fine.

I'm up reading a book until about 2am (partially because my time is still a bit off and partially because it's a good travel read) before I turn off my Kindle and go to sleep.