Although I love kids too much, I have to admit that I’m no good at all when it comes to dealing with them. So, while my brothers were here for the weekend, we rarely really talked. However, I tried my best to let them enjoy their stay, and those two days were kind of exhausting. And as much I wanted them to have fun (I didn’t want to be the boring brother), I also wanted them to learn some stuff and see things they don’t usually see.

On Thursday morning, we went to the National Museum and it was great (I’ll post more on that later). After finishing our tour there, we roamed around in the parks surrounding King Abdul-Aziz Historical Center. The weather was nice, so I also took them to a walk in the good ol’ Batha, showed them where my father (may his soul rest in peace) used to stay during his visits to Riyadh.

In the afternoon, we went to the Science Oasis, recommended by a friend and a reader, but it was a big disappointment. I mean, after the tight security we had to go through to enter the Diplomatic Qr., we found that most of the educational games in the oasis were broken and did not work. There was nobody there but us, which was not a surprise to me, because I already know scientific experiments are not what come to the mind of Saudis when they want to have fun.

Next we went to Al-Watan Park, a nice little park where you can also find the Riyadh Water Tower. We bought the tickets, but the security man at the gate refused to let us in because “me and my brothers are not a family.” I went to the manger of the park, and thank God, he was understanding and told them to let us in. The kids liked it very much, but I wished the park was open to the other little parks and open spaces surrounding it. I can imaging how this place can be very crowded on holiday seasons. Later in the evening, my brothers were too tired to do anything or go anywhere, so we just went to have dinner at Al-Fakhar on Prince Sultan St.

On Friday, there are not much places that are open, and as the kids were leaving on the 1645 train, we had only little time. We went to the Riyadh Zoo in Mallaz. It was nice, especially that my roommates came along. My little brother Hadi was really excited as he was about to meet the lion, because he wanted to solve some problems with that creature (don’t ask me; Hadi has a lot of problems with a lot of people, animals, and things :-) But he was really disappointed, because the lion was not in its cage. So, we left the zoo, I took them to the train station, and that was the end of the boys’ trip to Riyadh.

The next day, I called my mom to ask her what the kids thought of Riyadh and if they had a good time. She said they liked it, and “your other brothers can’t wait to come!” I was like, yeah, right! Maybe next year :-/