One month is left since my arrive in Doha. Not to much time but sufficient to start understanding some amazing qatari traditions.

Here a list of what you can expect to find (or NOT find) in Doha after a month of daily routine.

1. Crazy traffic.

Forget about highway road around Milan at 8am or 5pm. Forget about Rome. Forget about Naples. Forget about Italy, in general! Here traffic is more bad! Further, Qatari people are really crazy when they drive. Roads are quite big so speedy limits are higher than in Italy.

And what about roundabouts? You arrive, you slow down a bit (and you’re doing that because you are not from Qatar), you go inside, you close your eyes, you think about your loves, you crush the accelerator, you go out from the other side and you just say “Thanks”!

2. Petrol is cheap.

All people from ALL places in the world understand how good this news is. Thanks for this it’s possible to buy a bigger and more powerful car. Well, actually you have to buy one of these huge suvs if you would like to survive here ( see point before).

So, when I was in Milan I used to drive my little Fiat 500. Now I drive a 7-seats-car. It scares me a bit but it makes me feel even stronger!

3. No puff pastry.

I’m not able to find puff pastry at the grocery store. And I used to go to Carrefour store which is really big. No, huge. I hope to find soon some little “Eataly” stores where it is possible to get puff pastry (at the same price of a Celine bag, of course).

I know that don’t-find-puff-pastry doesn’t sound as a disaster. But even if I’ve been leaving alone since 10 years, I’m not exactly a fan of cooking. I’m not bad, but it’s not my passion. So you can understand that puff pastry often saves me by allowing me to cook easy recipes!

4. Opening hours.

Stores are open till 10pm. And grocery stores till midnight. And trust me, one day I finished to follow my grocery’s list 5 minutes before midnight!

5. Cool. Warm. Hot.

If you come from outside Qatar you will never talk about cold temperature. In winter there are between 24 – 30 degrees. And this is what Qatari people call cold temperature!

Actually you need a light jacket or a sweater in the evening, And if you go in a mall. Air conditioning makes me feel crazy. It seems to enter in a refrigerator room.

Even in the summer A/C is too high. Ok summers in Doha are hot. Really hot. More then 40 degrees. But if you are thinking to go inside a mall (where else would you go with 40 degrees?) you have to go out with a scarf or a sweater.

6. Mall means everything.

Since summers are hot – and when I refers to summer I mean from May to October – most of entertainments are inside malls. In fact, in malls there are: luna park, ice-skating rink, all kind of stores, food courts, spa (some for Ladies only), gym.

Well, you can find everything in a mall. Except the puff pastry.

Yes, one month is already over. Some things are strange. Some traditions are so far from mine. But at the moment I’m happy to be here. My husband and my home are here now!