First, last night, instead of working on notes for class, or the exam I will give tomorrow, or even taking myself out to a nice dinner, I went walking randomly again into the Bab Al'Bahrain souk.
Big wahoo, right? I haven't really gone much of anywhere on my own yet. Haven't toured a mosque, haven't even tried getting to the water (which might be a complicated affair - when you are actively "reclaiming" land from the sea, the true nature of all sediment at the land-sea interface comes into question!), haven't hit any random museums (they tend to be open only in the mornings and early afternoons, during the weekdays, mostly).
Big wahoo, right? I haven't really gone much of anywhere on my own yet. Haven't toured a mosque, haven't even tried getting to the water (which might be a complicated affair - when you are actively "reclaiming" land from the sea, the true nature of all sediment at the land-sea interface comes into question!), haven't hit any random museums (they tend to be open only in the mornings and early afternoons, during the weekdays, mostly).
So, as I said - This afternoon I walked around the Manama souk. The shopping district -- think Faneuil Hall, but with narrow, narrow streets, and lots of people - mostly men - walking around, and lots of trash, and no one giving way on the narrow walks, and men greeting me, and trying to talk me into coming in their stores... blocks and blocks and blocks of it on winding streets, with different "zones" - one for women's clothes, one for men's, one for fabrics, one for spices and nuts and candies... Really cool, but being alone, it was a bit hollow. I had no one to exclaim to, "Look at the dried seahorses!" Anyway, I did that for three hours, and the "daring-est" I got was going into a cafeteria for a grilled sandwich - which was VERY good... egg and eggplant, I think.
But just tiny little storefront after storefront after storefront... And all those men were mostly trying to sell me clothes for small children. (It is, apparently, inconceivable that I don't have children, and even more so that I am not married. I tend to deflect such questions!)
I did see some gorgeous robes.
And I was absolutely in LOVE with Muhammed, an old Egyptian gentleman in this one spice shop I went into, and his wares, and his willingness to educate me on them all. If I could, I would have spent every bit of money I had in there! Picture a combination of the Atlantic Spice 
company on the Cape, mixed with a spells-n-potions witchcraft store in Salem! (This is, obviously, the place that had the dried seahorses... and shells... and dried starfish... and pieces of blue sulfury stuff. Incense things. Myrhh (Myrrh?). Sandalwood sticks. All sorts of smelly stuff to throw in fires or grind up... I would have bought the sandalwood, but one stick was about 7 bucks. But it really looked so cool, I might have done it anyway, but for my fear that it would be confiscated at Customs.
company on the Cape, mixed with a spells-n-potions witchcraft store in Salem! (This is, obviously, the place that had the dried seahorses... and shells... and dried starfish... and pieces of blue sulfury stuff. Incense things. Myrhh (Myrrh?). Sandalwood sticks. All sorts of smelly stuff to throw in fires or grind up... I would have bought the sandalwood, but one stick was about 7 bucks. But it really looked so cool, I might have done it anyway, but for my fear that it would be confiscated at Customs.The Souk... scary-narrow. But no problems. Even walked down narrow, dimly-lit passages between buildings to get from one section to another. No problem. And the whole weirdness of it all was compounded when, at 6:30, the call to prayer began to be broadcast over the loudspeakers installed on the minaret of one of the local mosques. (Yes, it is just the CALL to prayer. The prayer actually occurs inside the mosque, quietly and respectfully.)
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