Dubai!

I arrived close to midnight expecting to find my friend that would be hosting my stay fast asleep and unwilling to await my late arrival. A key was left for me to let myself in. I was pleasantly greeted at the front door by my friend and a glass of wine. It was now 1:00 and the next three hours would set the tone for the week ahead.

We stayed up drinking wine and laughing until 4 am. The kind of laughing that hurts your stomach. The kind that prevents you from saying your words in between the gulps of air supporting the laugh. The laughs continued night after night as we hit the town for dinner, drinks and a mirage of fun.

I spent the days sightseeing at places I have only read about for the last eight years. The Burj Al Arab which is a seven star hotel in the shape of a sailboat carefully placed in the ocean, The Burj Al Khalifa which is the tallest building in the world, the Dubai Mall that has an aquarium, a skating rink, a gold souk, and a fountain to make the Bellagio Hotel’s look like a lawn sprinkler, The Mall of the Emirates that has a ski slope built inside the mall and massive buildings that were newly built in shapes of architecture my eyes have never seen. I visited the Dubai museum, the old town, the gold souk and spice souk. I rode the Abra along the Dubai creek and watched the sunset fall behind a skyline built with oil rich hands. I took a desert safari into the Sharjah desert for a 4 wheel sand dune adventure. I rode a camel, did some sand boarding and visited a camel farm. 

My friend and I took a day to drive to Abu Dhabi to try out the new Ferrari World theme park. They were, unfortunately, closed that day so, instead, we enjoyed a quiet lunch on the sidelines of the Yas F1 race track at The Yas Hotel. We visited another 7 star hotel, The Emirates Palace, that has its own gold vending machine all while my friend would tell me stories of the opulence and wealth that flows from the government and the rivalry that is apparent between Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

It was the perfect ending to a perfect world tour. I would now have to fly back to Los Angeles to attend a court hearing where I will testify against a girl that robbed my storage unit a year ago. A trip I do not want to take, but is necessary.

Once I return to the US, I will take a short detour back to Italy to visit the city where my great Grandmother is from, then head back to Cincinnati for the holidays. I will resume my travels again in February where I will revisit some of my favorite spots. Dubai is top of the list!

I haven’t decided if I should continue the blog in the meantime. It takes up a lot of time and has prevented me from focusing on the writing I would like to do about many of the things that happened to me on a daily basis during the trip. Things I did not include in the blog. Stories best shared amongst girlfriends. All of the juicy gossip. The good stuff!!! 

If there is interest, then maybe I’ll write more as I feel fit over the next few months. We will have to see where the road leads. Until next time.....

My favorite building

At the gold souk

Gold!

Riding the Abra

More on the Abra

Saturday afternoon boat ride

I love this picture

Camel chillin in the desert

Sand dune

Ridin the camel

Sand boarding

Camel farm

I ran into a friend from Los Angeles very randomly

At the Yas F1 race track in Abu Dhabi

Cool building

Gold To Go....just in case there's an urgent need for gold.

Burj Al Arab

Burj Al Khalifa