First Impressions of Riyadh
Don't wanna get ahead of ourselves here, but can't remember the combination of such a terrible first impression (see those first two photos from seat 14F after landing) and lower expectations (see basically anything that's ever been said about the city) being completely transformed in such a short amount of time, namely a few hours and 16km of walking around Riyadh's central Al-Bat'ha district last night.
Was it the 90min sunset Uber ride crawling through gridlocked rush hour traffic? The cheapest hotel in town being way nicer than the reviews suggested? All the pretty lights? The tasty falafel? Seeing a guy in short shorts (knees!) stopping for a falafel while walking a husky puppy? Randomly wandering through both Little Peshawar and Little Dhaka? The well-stocked Filipino supermarket? Every TV tuned into the opening match of the World Cup next door in Qatar?
The craft late night coffee opposite an old fort? Overhearing the barista enjoying a vape at the next table say 'Ah, shit' out loud in English, when a customer entered the café? The bizarre juxtaposition of watching some French girls doing high kick dance moves for their TikTok (presumably) on the same square where public beheadings take place every Friday? Or just the fact that the weather was perfect, especially coming from the sweltering heat and humidity of Jeddah?
To be honest, the last one probably would have been sufficient for both exceeding expectations and overcoming the bad first impression, but the rest didn't hurt....
