Dubai, UAE

Well my first real post is going to be a LONG one, so get ready! But I can't help it! Dubai was amazing and so photogenic!!! Over Thanksgiving week, I went to Dubai to visit my sister Talia and her husband Dennis. I was their first visitor in the 3+ years they have lived there! I had no real expectations of Dubai as a city - it wasn't high on my list of places to visit. The reason I was going was to spend time with my family. Well, both the city and family time was better than I could have imagined!

Upon returning home, I realized that this trip was the longest, real quality time Talia and I have ever had. We had a lot of fun! I also got to really know Dennis. And the two of them are super cute together :)

Dubai was also very pretty.  However, I'm glad I was able to experience it with the locals. Otherwise, I can see how you can get stuck in one part of town and the city becomes a little like Vegas or a resort you could find somewhere tropical. That's not what I flew across the world for!!! Going around with Talia and Dennis allowed me to see the whole city, and really the whole country. We drove through or visited 5 of the 7 states of the UAE. And we ate at random local places like the most legit Chinese food in China mart (mall that covers a square mile, sells all sorts of goods from China and has a small town built around it for its Chinese workers). I also learned so much about the culture from them, as well as the country's background and the way of life for the locals while going around with them. The most interesting thing I learned was that everything is status - even down to their car liscense plates (2 numbers = Sheikh,  3= really affluent, 4 with a pattern = good!....and people will get out of these cars way)

The first day we visited the traditional

Market where there was everything you can imagine for sale - huge terrines, whole stores for combs, and beautiful huge barrels of spices. There is also the gold souk section, where there was the largest and most ridiculous jewelry.

I also walked along the creek, where these traditional boats are loaded by hand with goods like refrigerators and TVs before the travel to Indian and Africa.

Later that day, we had an amazing lunch at Flooka with this view:

It was a medditeranean meal and the flavors were amazing!! The best tuna tartar I've ever had!!

The next day I convinced Talia to go on a camel ride and sand boarding tour in the desert. Only one of us was deemed coordinated enough to sand board though ;)

That night, we went to the Burj Kalifa. It is truly a beautiful building! It is astonishing from the outside - it really towers over the town! I had to use panorama to get some of the photos. It is currently the tallest in the world and it has the most floors, fastest elevators, most workers….The -est everything! When we went, the building was swaying too much to have the elevators at full speed. We went to the top observation deck, which offered amazing views! If you plan on visiting, I would also look into visiting the bar, which is just a floor below vs. the tour - actually cheaper and you get booze. 

Afterwards, we watched the light show outside and then went for Shisha and drinks 

The last day, we traveled to Abu Dhabi to see the Grand Mosque. We did the free tour, and it was so worth it! The building is beautifully ornate. They created the mosque to expose the world to the Muslim culture and it was so amazing to see, and experience, a part of their culture. 

that chandelier beats the Bellagio! 

It was a great trip! I saw more than I expected, went fishing in the Persian Gulf, ate better food than I could have imagined thanks to Dennis and his need to make sure I tried all of their favorites on every menu, and enjoyed sitting in the courtyard, drinking wine and chatting.