One of Clarín’s envoys tours the host city of the World Cup. The Boca-River between Argentina and Brazil, extreme luxury in every corner and the products of our country that arrive in the Qatari capital.
Finally Doha. Those of us who arrived in Qatar from almost the other side of the world had a long day on Monday. The trip, with stops in Sao Paulo and Addis Ababa, had it all. We will know more details of that journey that had an unintentionally cinematographic touch. The concrete thing is that we arrived at what will be the home of the World Cup and the group of special envoys from Clarion y olé he surfed, from the outset, a few other obstacles. A broken suitcase was the greatest damage to the entourage. And he ended up getting cheap because it could have been worse. Sergio Goycochea, the Goyco, the hero of Italia 90, left the airport with two less suitcases. That’s how finally, after almost two days, we moved a little away from the planes and managed to get into the cars that were waiting for us to spend the night in a hotel.
The first culture shock occurred immediately. The streets of Doha have that I don’t know what. Because there are almost no streets, except in the neighborhoods and shantytowns. The rest is like being in a Panamericana in the shape of a Moebius strip. It is the city of eternal highways. There are, or seem to be, hundreds and hundreds of avenues that cross the city from one side to the other and that force you to maintain extreme concentration behind the wheel. You have to go straight and turn successively and slightly to the right or left to reach your destination. Paved paths open and close with little signs or zebras that sometimes play tricks on the unsuspecting foreign driver. You have to follow the orders of the GPS as if they were a commandment. A distraction can take you to the other end of the city and what was only 5 minutes away becomes half an hour away. Bottlenecks? They are formed, above all, in the most central places. However, in general, it flows. We will have to see what happens when the fans from all sides start to arrive.
Of course, there is not a well in the avenues. The streets that we were able to travel are a little more uneven or untidy. They are, in reality, narrow streets that in some parts of the city do not lead anywhere. Because the capital of lavish and intelligent buildings seems to be under perpetual construction. For example, in the cordons of the Msheireb Center, a thriving city, it is striking to see old ruined houses that it is not known if they are in the process of being built or destroyed, as if they were part of a scenery of the scorching desert of Tatooine, one of the planets of the fictional universe of Star Wars.
It is also striking that not many people are seen on the streets. It is full of cars, but there are no people, the kind that one would wonder where they go when it rains. It doesn’t rain here either. So it sounds logical. Workers are seen working everywhere, yes. But you hardly see families or children walking on the sidewalks. It seems, no more, that everyone goes by car. And it is logical. It’s worth your own thermal sensation: it’s hot in Qatar. And that winter is about to arrive…
We had to wait until nightfall -although, to be honest, we didn’t have to wait that long because it gets dark early- to find people walking through the streets. in the pearl, one of the most chic neighborhoods in Doha, where luxury car dealerships coexist with haberdasheries, ran around a few little ones with the shirt of the Argentine National Team to the rhythm of an enthusiastic local music band. If life is about first impressions, it is worth drawing a hasty conclusion about it. Beyond the gigantographies that are seen in the downtown towers with the stars of different teams, La Scaloneta is all the rage. In clothing stores, not only sportswear, replicas of the albiceleste shirts are on display. They beat the verdeamarelas of Brazil by an overwhelming majoritysecond in the ranking that ends there just. It is as if it were a world River-Boca…
But not only in t-shirts can you see Argentina. Curious detail to close this consignment: in a place where they sold shawarma -there are everywhere- and where spices, rice dishes, nuts and huge drums of olives were also sold, we found a very national product. Missionary yerba mate, in 250-gram packets, is also available in Qatar.
Doha. Special envoy.
