Before I move on to all things Christmassy, here are some photos from our weekend in Abu Dhabi, UAE, where we stopped on our way back to England for Christmas. It was so nice to get some winter sunshine! It was 30 degrees and just what we needed after a hard 18 week-long term at school.
We'd never been to the UAE before, so weren't quite sure what to expect. We both really liked it, although it did get a bit tiresome every time we both said hello to someone, the reply would be 'hello, sir'. Otherwise, it seemed like a very chilled out, relaxed, laid back and friendly kind of place.
Our hotel was on Yas Island, which is where most of the tourist hotels are. as well as the theme parks and the formula 1 circuit, which we could see from our hotel window.
We landed at 6am, but were able to have a leisurely breakfast in the hotel and then get straight into our room at 7 - now that's good service! The first thing we did was go for a walk to see the F1 circuit, which was having a 12 hour GT endurance race, which we could watch from the viewing platforms around the track. It was awesome to see the cars whizzing around and we got a real feel for what the F1 race must be like there.
After a couple of hours relaxing by the hotel pool, and the delicious lunch buffet, we were picked up at 3pm in a 4x4 and headed out into the desert for a private dune safari. The desert is so amazing! We'd never seen anything like it. I was shaking sand out of my shoes for several days afterwards! We had some photos taken while our driver let some air out of the tires and then we drove very quickly up and down and all over the very high sand dunes. I did not like it. At all! It made me feel very travel sick. And the more I squealed as we went down near vertical dunes, the more the driver laughed and did it again!
I was very glad when we stopped to watch the sun set!
After our desert safari we were taken to a camp, where we could ride camels, get henna tattoos, hold a falcon, try Arabic coffee, try sandboarding and get all the soft drinks we wanted. There was a buffet and a show with a man in a big skirt who span around in circles for 10 minutes. His skirt even lit up like a UFO! I don't know how he didn't get dizzy! There was also a belly dancer.
On Sunday, we went to Ferrari World, which has the world's fastest roller coaster. The roller coaster is totally awesome! There's a photo of what our hair looked like it after going on it. It's so fast!!! There weren't many people at the theme park at all, so we enjoyed ourselves going on various rides and not having to queue for more than 10 minutes for anything. There were classic ferarris all over the place, and some F1 cars, and mock ups of the pit lane wall, which were fun to pose with.
In the evening we met up with Stacey and her 3 daughters, who lived in Abu Dhabi for a long time, and are now in Dubai, which is an hours drive. We realised that we haven't seen each other for 7 years! It was so nice to see her though, like nothing had changed at all!
On Monday morning, before out lunch time flight, we headed to the Grand Mosque, which you don't have to pay to get into, you just have to book a time slot so that they can make sure they have enough clothing for the women. As you can see in the photos, I had to be completely covered apart from my face. I didn't mind at all. The mosque was absolutely stunning, and as we were there at 9am when it opened, it was very quiet. The floor is completely mosaic and the columns and symmetry of the arched doorways are a photographers dream. i'll let the photos speak for themselves...
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