We had enough things in the fridge to eat breakfast in the room. As it is Friday, the final day of the weekend, things got off to a slow start. We walked our area and again went to the abra crossing at the creek. It was a pleasant 25C at that hour.
It started to get warmer. After returning to the hotel for a bit, we walked for lunch at around noon. We'd notice a sign at the Mount Royal Hotel for a Dhs 20 buffet. We were the first to arrive at about 12:30 but by the time we'd eaten our fill, the place was hopping.
We were not really running on this time zone yet. It takes a long time when one's body is still on a schedule that is the complete opposite to the wall clocks. In fact, it's no wonder that shuttle diplomacy and international politics are in such a state of perpetual mess. I don't know how people can 'fly in' and get anything useful accomplished. We needed a short nap, but ended up sleeping from 2 to almost 6 pm.
We figured we might go see Karama, the location on the other side of the creek where we lived for five years. We never had the option of jumping on a complete Metro transit system in those days. But today we went by both the red and green lines easily. The big stop was on the Bur Jaman side of Karama so we walked right past the Al-Kifaf building, where we lived for four years, as soon as we hit the streets. We went to the market side and think we probably spotted the Al-Tayer building but that complex may sport a new name.
It was a little scary how little I could remember from a mere 20 years ago. Also, I seldom did most every errand by car back when I worked here, so the perspective would be different. Karama seems quite a few notches worse for the wear, with some housing that one might expect to see in a much poorer place. It was nice to retrace places stepped so long ago though.