First full day in Riyadh! We would have never imagined saying that before 2019, and now we’re here! Let’s see what we can get up to! 

So, first thing is first. Let’s explore what’s close to us and try to find where the busses run. The map for the busses that we found online is not helpful at all. The routes are shown… but you can’t zoom in on it. So we don’t know where the actual stops are, just the general area in the city (close to us). And we will need the bus for tonight!

We leave and quickly make our way toward King AbdulAziz Historical Park. With a name like that, we’re sure to enjoy it. 

On the walk there we see something that would become something that we would see daily around Riyadh. Buildings that are either abandoned, destroyed, or the rubble left behind, along with many, many vacant lots. We really don’t know how a city that is so populated has all of this undeveloped land. If anyone knows if this is for the Vision 2030, let us know (we’re not counting construction sites that are clearly progressing, of which there are a lot, a lot). 

And then we make it to where the busses should be (we think)… but we don’t see anything. The bus stops that used to be here are closed because of the construction of the metro station nearby. And we don’t see any busses in the direction we’re supposed to look for… so… not sure what to do with that information. But we don’t want to waste our day looking around, so we will just keep going towards the park. 

In no time at all we’re here. But….. this is as close as we can get. 

It’s all fenced up, and the doors aren’t open. Maybe we’re just at the wrong entrance? So we keep going. Eventually we make it to a big gate that’s open with a big sign explaining the park to us in our perfect Arabic (sarcasm, we speak none). We enter through the gate… and we’re told to get out. It’s all closed and a construction site. 

Well… what else can we do but keep going? We’re also looking for a SIM card today, so maybe we will have luck if we just keep going. Eventually we make it to the corner of the historic park, it looks like it would be nice. But, notice the door firmly closed. 

Whatever, we can’t get down so easily. We keep going and find a “store” to get a SIM card. We say it in quotation marks because it’s not what we would expect, instead it’s just an older man sitting behind a desk without any other indication that this was a legitimate store other than the small sign outside. Well… we know we should be okay while in Saudi Arabia, so we go in. We don’t speak Arabic, he doesn’t speak English. Okay… with hand gestures and writing numbers down we get on the right track. We had read online which plan to get, so we ask. “No no no, Red Bull”. We have no idea what’s going on. “Red Bull, Red Bull”. Well… from the sounds of it they only sold plans by Red Bull (we had no idea they were a phone company as well). Not too bad of a plan, but we can’t compare it to anything because there weren’t options. 120 SAR (Saudí rial, about 40 dollars) for 50 GB of data, unlimited calls and texts, and unlimited social media (Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, etc.). And it lasts for a month. We don’t think we will need a month, but comparing with prices at home… crazy to think how cheap it is. My partner gets fingerprinted with a little scanner that the man plugs into his phone, we pay cash, and off we go. Another man comes in and gets the same prepaid card for the same price. Good, confirms that we were treated appropriately. 

So we continue onto our next stop of our unending search for something to do. Our next stop is the Red Palace. 

Well, well, well. Closed. Construction. Iiiiiinteresting. At first we think it’s because it’s winter, there’s not much tourism in the winter, but no. There’s no tourism in the summer because it’s 50 degrees and the Saudis all stay inside. Must just be bad timing. Right across from it is the King AbdulAziz Public Library. A building that is open, but we don’t go inside because it doesn’t seem like there’s much to it looking from the outside. 

Then we just look around the area at some mosques, at some construction….

And then we found what we really want to visit. The National Museum of Saudi Arabia. It’s not really looking like it’s open, but it’s also late. We don’t have enough time to go inside, look around as detailed as my partner does museums, and then make it to our evening commitment. So, we will save it for later.

So, we found it. That’s the important thing. We will be back for sure. And we get to enjoy a bit of art in front of the museum

Then we just make our way back towards the hotel in a direction we haven’t walked yet. Cars, cars, and more cars. 

At least the walk is on a wide sidewalk, so that’s not bad. What is bad? The coooooonstant honking. We were not prepared for that. In Oman taxis would honk to ask if you wanted a ride, but here in Riyadh the cars are just talking to each other through their horns. The worst is around traffic lights where the second the light turns green, the entiiiire lane of cars all start honking at once. Haha. 

Then we get back to the hotel area and take a few “landmark” pictures for our taxi ride back to the hotel late tonight. The suspense is really building, huh?

Well… we sit in our hotel as we contemplate how to go and come back from our event tonight, without really being sure. We need to go very far, without really knowing how. We download Uber just in case, and then we’re off. We go outside and the hotel next to us has a taxi waiting outside. We go ask them how much they’ll charge. 100 SAR. “No chance! Uber charges 60!” Then a classic line “how much you pay?” We told him 60. He said 80. We said 70, but he was firm on 80. Off we go. 

Nothing notable from the taxi ride other than this big blue mosque. Not sure which mosque it is. 

And then we made it!

Well, unless this is your first post, you know we’re crazy about football. So, here we are at the King Fahd International Stadium. Now… you may be aware that Cristiano Ronaldo signed for Al Nassr which is based in Riyadh… but we couldn’t get tickets to see him. So who do we see instead? While in Saudi Arabia? None other than the Spanish Super Cup semi final between Real Madrid and Villarreal!

So excited!! And tomorrow we have tickets for Barcelona vs Real Betis! But today we focus on the game at hand. But first, the most obvious question… why is the Spanish league playing the end of their tournament in Saudi Arabia? Well… it’s the obvious answer. Saudi Arabia paid La Liga A LOT of money to host the tournament until 2029. Works for us. 

So… we fully enjoyed the game, of course. What’s not to enjoy when you have so many of the best players in the game playing in front of you? And look at our seats! Not bad, huh? We’ve never lived this before… our ticket was only for a section of the stadium. Once we got there we could sit wherever we wanted! Interesting. At least we got there early enough to pick a good seat to watch the game! Good thing to know if you want to watch a game in Saudi Arabia.

Even with the game starting, my partner has a little bit of his mind on the end of the game as well. How do we get back to the hotel? The game will end around midnight. The busses (which we remind you we didn’t even find) end at 11 pm. There’s no metro. Maybe, hopefully there will be taxis? As the game goes on we casually ask the guy next to us. He’s from Riyadh and he assumes that taxis will be available, BUT!, he said he has a spot in his car if we want it. It’s not to our hotel, it’s to the financial sector, but there are hotels there, so there will be taxis. Awesome! We relax a bit (and I mean my partner, I was always relaxed and fully enjoying the game). 

Guess what. We need extra time! Really getting our money’s worth! But the Saudis start leaving. The guy who said he’d drive us says they don’t want to be stuck in the traffic. Yeah, I can imagine it will be insane with an attendance over 50,000 people and all of them having cars. 

And then… our drive asks if we want to leave because he’s leaving with his friends. Now it’s a split second to debate going with a guaranteed drive back to the city or watch extra time…? We stay and watch. A little stressed. But, it goes all the way to penalties before Real Madrid wins! We only took a picture of Cavani stepping up to take his shot.

Well… we ask a man who was speaking Spanish close to us how they’re getting back to the city. He’s Colombian and will take an Uber, but to the airport. So… I guess if we don’t have anyyyyything we could split that and get a taxi from the airport. An extremely long loop. We leave together.. he can’t get an Uber. There’s no service. So many people all together is probably crashing the signal. We ask workers where there are taxis. They’re not sure, but go try this gate over there. We go. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. And then! One taxi! We rush over and ask how much they’ll charge us. “250”. My partner’s jaw drops. “No, brother! 100! We pay 80 to come here! 100, please brother.” “No, 150”. We walk away, but then my partner thinks “where the hell will we find another taxi?”  Fine, 150. We’re stuck at the entrance to the stadium. The parking lot is absolute mayhem. And then a group of guys ask to share the taxi. Yesssss! Of course! They hop in. They only need a ride to their car that’s parked pretty far, but they’ll contribute. No problems for us! We leave. 

Let me tell you, it was mayhem. So many cars every where you looked. And to top it all off the police have many roads closed. Roads that we need to go down to get to the guys’ car. At one of the checkpoints the police turn us around but the guy that’s sitting in the front seat asks the police to pleaseeeee let us through to their car. Why was it the guy in the front? Because he’s from Bahrain, so the police will likely be more hospitable to him. The others are all Saudis and stay silent. They let us through! “Shukran sheikh!” Haha. That’s what the Bahraini said like a million times. Finally, we get to their car and they pay, for everything. My ride as well. Whaaaaat?! We didn’t expect that at all. Thank you thank you thank you. 

Now, it’s not so out of the blue. We told you factually what happened, but, this took about 45 minutes to an hour because of the traffic. During that time we talked to the guys. They were from Dammam (including the Bahraini) but really from Al Khor. They were amazed that we knew what they were talking about. Then came all of the questions of what we were doing here, what did we like, what were our plans. We told them our lack of plans and they gave us a list of things to do. Thank you very much, and we will try to do them.

They were especially interested in the fact that we were westerners, because tourism isn’t very big yet in Saudi Arabia so they wanted to make sure we had a good time and we were able to say good things to the rest of the world. And then they were introduced to this blog and our other social media. They took pictures with me and my partner… but my dumb partner didn’t ask them for a picture! What a dummy! Maybe he was still a bit stressed with the whole situation. 

We also talked about the countries in the region and which to visit and which not to. They said Kuwait was boring, which we found pretty funny. And they told us that they couldn’t visit Yemen because of what’s happening between Saudi Arabia and Yemen. But they were also interested in what we had done so far and our thoughts. 

Needless to say, it was a great car ride! We really enjoyed their company and talking to them all. Super fun! We hope they’re reading this! 

And then, it was a looooong taxi ride back to the hotel. We didn’t get back until 2 or 230. And then we didn’t get to sleep for another long while. Quite the full day! Goodnight from Riyadh!