I live on Muroor Street. I'm told that Muroor means traffic but it was not named for the amount of traffic or the traffic jams that occur regularly on this street. Apparently the Traffic Office was located somewhere on this street at some time and it was named for the office. I'm not sure if that's the Department of Transportation or what. I do have a bus station just down the street from me and there's a huge taxi stand next to it. Why my street is called 'traffic' is a small mystery but there are some interesting establishments along Muroor anyway, ones that have nothing to do with traffic.
When I walk in one direction I walk past a gold souk, then cross Electra -that's it's nickname- and, if I continued walking in that direction, I'll hit the Corniche, the park along the Gulf.
Tonight I walked in the opposite direction. Earlier in the week I had spotted the National Library from the bus on my way to work. When I got home from work today, I wanted to get out and get some exercise, so I decided to go for a walk in the direction of the library. Its less than a mile away but the heat and humidity at night can be suffocating (Right now it's a temperate 93 degrees F. with 67% humidity). so I wasn't going to push myself, just see how far I would get. As I got farther than I had walked previously in that direction, I came to a string of chocolate and sweet shops: my sweets souk. These stores are very upscale, new and large. The chocolate shops have lots of gold and silver platters heaped with foil-wrapped chocolates on display. These are big. I think that people here, the Emiratis have a lot of celebrations and parties and I was thinking that these shops might cater to those. Besides chocolate shops, there was one selling traditional sweets. As I was walking by, they opened the door and invited me in for samples. They gave me a taste of a date sweet. It appeared to be dates, mashed or cooked with a little rose water mixed in, with pistachio pieces sprinkled on top. It was quite delicious. I explained that I really was just out getting exercise and not looking to buy and so they sent me on but first gave me samples of another sweet, halwa. I looked it up on the internet (it sounds like it would be halvah but it isn't) and it's an Indian sweet so I guess this was a traditional Indian sweet shop. I'll have to go back and get some (I liked the date paste). Just down from that shop was a Bahraini shop selling foods, and a little bakery. No it wasn't really a sweets souk, I made that up. It just seemed like it could be. They are all grouped together. I haven't found any chocolate that I particularly like in the markets so I will also check out the chocolate shops for some good dark locally made chocolate (I hope).
I made it to the library! It's a beautiful new building. The library itself is tiny but there are different floors with a printer/publisher and other floors that may be information related. I will go back and take photos if they let me. I plan to spend more time there, exploring. I know that they have plans to open branches all over the city including putting a children's library in one of the malls. I'm so glad I found it and so, so glad it's close to my house.
I look forward to cooler weather and more discoveries. I'm very tired and blogger is not letting me preview so I'll post this complete with grammar errors. I'll add photos later if I can take them.
The next day... I've been set straight. The National Library I visited is a branch (but what a beautiful building for a branch) of the library and the main one is somewhat farther away, on the corner of Electra (see above) and Airport Road (I think). It's opposite the Etisalat office building. You have to understand, that is how you find your way around here, addresses are descriptive not specific.
No comments:
Post a Comment