While most of my friends are uploading pictures of themselves in front of a blazing fire, with a hot chocolate in their hand and a cozy warm sweater on, I finally can share pictures of myself living and enjoying the outdoor life. The weather is soooo perfect at the moment in Doha. Around 30 degrees during the day, 24 degrees at night.

Last week I was checking The Pearl Qatar Instagram account when a particular post took all my attention. The post announced that finally Medina Centrale is a pedestrian-only area during weekends.

Oh god, this is such a wonderful news!!

I live on the other side of the city, but The Pearl is defintely one of my favorite destinations where to spend my weekend time. Medina Centrale is really the best neighborhood at The Pearl. There is a quite big square in the middle surrounded by tons of different restaurants.

So, last Thursday I proposed to my husband to head over to The Pearl to see how the area looks with no cars around.

We were a bit worried that we wouldn’t have been able to find a park or to find one but quite far. I thought that closing the area around Medina Centrale would have caused some problems to the traffic. I was totally wrong. To reach the place was as easy as to find a park not far at all. Actually we reached that parking area behind Novo Cinema and it didn’t take so much time to find a space there.

As soon as I walked in Medina Centrale I became the happiest girl in town. The atmosphere was fantastic! The place was full of people who were sitting outside restaurants, walking around, playing with kids. Just fabulous!

I know, if you don’t live in Doha, you might not understand my excitement. What I just described might sound a normal situation for most of you. But actually it’s not so common in Qatar. And let me say that having a place where you can just walk and enjoy the cool weather it makes me feel million of times happier than to hear about a new 5 stars restaurant opening!

It wasn’t my first time at Medina Centrale. As I said, this is a place where I like to come. But by the fact that we really walked around without the stress of cars, we also ended to discover new places. Like the Souq Medina which is a nice place with a lot of new openings. If you cross the building there is also a gorgeous fountain. The perfect spot where to shoot some photos (blogger life!).

We had a quick dinner in one of the restaurants but we saved some spaces for the dessert that we grabbed from a Kiosk along the square. Two portions of mini pancakes covered by a huge layer of Nutella brought us to the heaven. lol.
Than we strolled about to try to burn some of these calories that we just ate and to check also the shopping windows of the many stores around Medina Centrale.

I had a blast the other night! It was great to see this mix of people, locals and expats, both doing what we all love to do: enjoying quality time with friends, eating great food.

*On a side – fashionable – note: I wore flat shoes for a comfortable walk. But – actually – if you want to dress up wearing high heels, you can still have a walk and, as soon as you feel tired, you can catch one of the many Golf Carts available there. That’s smart!

Timing of Pedestrian Access

THURSDAY: from 2pm

FRIDAY: all day

SATURDAY: all day – midnight

*Last throughout the winter season – you can also download The Pearl-Qatar app to get all updatings