No television, no cell, no computer for 2 full weeks, and no I didn't need Oprah's help. My family and I visited a mosque filled with marble, a record breaking size chandelier full of Swarovski crystals, the biggest Persian rug made by hand and breath-taking views of the detailed architecture. We later visited the Souk in the old Dubai area which was filled with local goodies from gorgeous pashmina's, handmade local embroidered shoes, old silver containers, embroidered bags, lots and lots of beads, objects made with love and care and full of beauty and color. We later ate at a local restaurant. Our local lunch was topped off with Morrocan tea which was remarkably clean feeling.
After the kids played the next day at the beach and our batteries were charged again, we headed off to Dubai for the day again. This time we went to the modern "western" mall. I thought, "Oh well another mall". Well, I thought America had it all, this made New York City look silly. We visited the biggest mall in the world. First stop was for coffee after an hours drive in the car with kids, we recharged again and marked off on the mall map were we all wanted to go as looking at the whole mall in a day was impossible. I have to mention I went to the biggest book store that I had ever seen, it was huge, superhuge, monsterous. We had lunch just outside the mall across from the man-made waterfront fresco style with a front and center view of the tallest building in the world which opened the day we flew out. It made the other tall buildings look like lego blocks. So, so space-age I was blown away, I love progress and this reminded me of a sci-fi show that I watched as a child and now there it was in front of me. All that was needed was a small spacecraft to fly in on one of the sides and park. At the end of a very successful shopping day we headed off to the same coffee shop with lots of bags in hand and beaming smiles from everybody. Another cup of coffee before we headed back to Abu Dhabi for a good nights sleep.
Wide awake and off we were to get our nails done, seems no matter where you are in the world, looking good and keeping well groomed is important. That night we went out sans kids and my sister-in-law treated us to drinks at the world famous Yaz Hotel which looked like we were on a space ship, even the staff looked futuristic. After an hour a driver picked us up and took us the The Chamas a Brazilian Grill Restaurant where we were treated to an amazing dinner with all types of meat and anti-pasta known. What a blissful feeling, good company and taste-bud-partying food, a saturated feeling in every aspect. Happy Birthday Steve and thank you Nicki, an unforgettable evening.
In between life had to carry on, so we headed of the local supermarket which is equivalent to our Walmart/Target. Lulu's...oh so much fun, in the checkout line there were French, German, British and the list goes on, such diversity in such a small country, but this means all sorts of accessibility to wonderful foods from all over the world. We had a blast shopping for groceries, who knew?
We thought a visit to United Arab of Emirates would not be complete without a look at The Royal Palace Hotel and their exhibit of the forthcoming Louvre, Guggenheim and several other humangus and never-tried-before buildings. The Louvre will resemble white lace and one of the other buildings have been modelled after a detailed version of a leaf to be built in white. This was so interesting as in my other life I did Architecture, so I thoroughly enjoyed this.
That night we had dinner at the Lebanese Flower Restaurant, oh my was this delicious. Falafel, kofta lots of olives, garlic spread (beware whoever did not have any) and lots of salads topped off with Arabic coffee.
Our cherry on the top of this vacation was a camp in the desert. My mom asked me, "Which hotel did you stay in?". I had to explain to my mom there was nothing, nothing, nothing but you the sun, sand, a GPS and two 4 x 4's. We saw camel tracks, other brave campers tire tracks, lots of dunes the which took 20 minutes to climb with a proud exercise in the English language. Yes...I finally made it up just before the sun went down to have sun-downers with my husband, Steve and Nicky. What a breathtaking view. The kids Summer, Skylar, Josh and Ben were forming a club on the other sand dune and where collecting pebbles for trading. As the sun went down Steve went down the dune on a snow sleigh, Sean opted to go down as is on his butt, collected lots of sand in places you don't want sand, and I took super large steps and ran down, it felt like I was walking on the moon, I felt so very skinny as I felt very light, while the sand made a barking sound with every step, deep and pretty loud. This was my first experience at camping and it wasn't bad at all considering Steve and Nicki had done this many times before, each family had a tent with air-matresses hence the bedrooom, a sisel mat bordered the kitchen which had a 4 seater table for the kids to eat, a 5 gallon container held fresh water, a huge picnic basket held all the plates and so forth, and a huge basket held all the marshmellows, chestnuts, olives, coffee and the list goes on. The best food of the night was the casserole that Nicki had prepared before hand by Jamie Oliver based on a recipe in The Ministry of Food (which I could not find in the USA and was forced to get it from Amazon UK, I cannot wait for it to arrive), and was cooked on the great fire that we all huddled around to keep warm and eat this wonderful casserole, it was delish. :) Nicki was clever enough to bring glow-in-the-dark bracelets for the kids who had fun to no end with them.
When Steve called about 6 months ago and said this might be our last Christmas here you guys need to visit, I was reluctant. Considering it's location I was hesitant, the news was constantly bad about the Middle East and it had a big black mark to the Americans, so it made me think more than twice. After uhmming and ahhing we actually went for the winter break of 2009-2010. I am so glad we did it, we saw a part of the world I never thought I would see, didn't cook a meal in 2 weeks, or do any housework and had no electronic gadgets except the photographic camera. What an amazing trip, I feel more patient, more kind, better paced and don't feel guilty to do for myself first sometimes. Many, many thanks for coaxing us to visit, Steve and Nicky, and for showing us Abu Dhabi and Dubai like no-one else would have. Thank you for showing us so much love and being exited about the adventure and our visit. ps: The girls already miss the boys and the trampoline.
by Vanoula Tzouroutis
