Qatar

For our 146th country (which means there's only 50 left!) we're headed back to the middle east for the richest country in the world (albeit one with some terrible working conditions), Qatar. This tiny peninsular country about the size of Connecticut, juts out into the Persian Gulf. 

After watching the UAE and Saudi Arabia become luxurious countries thanks to their oil wealth, Qatar decided to join in. It's the third largest oil and natural gas supplier in the world, and it leads the world in production and reserves of oil in gas if you're going by per capita.  As such has becoming the fastest growing economy in the world. 

So what have they done with their riches? Look no further than our landmark, the Skyscrapers of Doha, reminiscent of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The cityscape of Doha boasts a eclectic collection of buildings including the 300 foot tall Aspire tower and with a rotating restaurant, and the circular Doha tower overlooking the gulf. The Tornado Tower is one of the most iconic of all the buildings. It was built in 2008 and is meant to look like.. you guessed it, a tornado! It's 52 floors, but it doesn't house anything all that exciting- just some office buildings. But, at night time the displays over 35,000 colored lights. 

Qatar also took a page out of the UAE's playbook in making man made islands. Located in the capital city of Doha, 'Pearl Qatar' was built on top of Qatar's once world renowned pearl diving site. The island was only a cool $15 billion to build, and it's quickly becoming known as the Arabian Riviera.  

Beyond the Riviera, you'll find any people hanging along the beaches and in the warm gulf water kite surfing, and riding jet skis. 

Also in Doha you'll find the Arch of Swords. The two gigantic swords form an arch over the road- so you can actually drive under them. The swards are famous in Qatar as being part of a wedding dance and is  the country's national emblem. 

But if you want to get out of the capital city of Doha along with all of it's swanky hotels, iconic skyscrapers and impressive museums and art galleries, for a more traditional experience of the Persian Gulf, Qatar won't disappoint. There are plenty of excursions to take you out into the desert to see rock carvings and  sand dunes. 

If the Qatar flag looks similar to something you've seen before, that's because it's VERY similar to the Bahrain flag. However, Bahrain's is red, and Qatar's is maroon. That flag has the world record for being the world's largest too. In 2013, they made a flag the size of 14 soccer fields. The flag also served a purpose besides just breaking the record: once it was verified as the largest ever, it was recycled into 200,000 backpacks for kids across 60 different countries. 

A couple more fun facts for you: 

A popular sport in Qatar is Falconry. It's where Falcons are trained to hunt and then return to the trainers outstretched arms. It's so popular on Qatar Airways flights, you can often see these guys sitting in first class with their handlers. 

Foreign maps of Arabia didn't even show Qatar before the 19th century. 

The pictures are a bit out of order here, since Qatar was another breakfast meal. We made Balaleet and paired it with some grapes (green ones and moon grapes, which are like the new 'thing' in the produce aisle these days). 

Balaleet earned .... No spoons up? 

Ok, let me explain. This dish is basically a sweet cinnamon sugar noodle mixture with a plain omelet on top. Yea, that sounds weird. And it IS weird. In fact, Balaleet might be the weirdest thing I've ever tasted. 

We all took bites looking confused. It's not that it's bad. It's just WEIRD. Like, we took bites, and then said 'ok, wait, lets try it again'. We were just trying to figure it out. 

Weirdly enough, Peyton LOVED the noodle part. He had seconds of it. But together, he just couldn't get behind that. 

I'm not sure anyone finished the whole dish. Honestly, I think I ended up having a breakfast sandwich from the freezer that day. But, it was an interesting experience. 

We did our lesson later in the day, so Asa had to video call in for Postcard presentations. 

Calib's included the big flag and the arch of swords. 

Peyton's was similar, but he also put the Persian Gulf in his. 

While Hayden's featured a couple of the skyscrapers. 

Qatar falls right on the center crease of the table, and so my mapping in the very beginning wasn't great, which meant there really was no outline for it. Then, the boys chose a the light brown color, so it kind of gets lost there. But if you look close you can see it sticking into the Persian Gulf from yellow Saudi Arabia and north of the bright orange United Arab Emirates. 

That's 146 countries down, 50 to go! 

Next Up: Mali