Abu Dhabi- Day 4
Since the weekends here are Friday and Saturday, today was our last sight seeing day before our next work week starts tomorrow.
We left the hotel early this morning to set out for Abu Dhabi. We took a trip to the Emirate Palace- though when we got there, we were told that Ayo's shorts were unacceptable (so scandalous, those man knees!!) so we went to the mall to find him traditional garb to throw over his clothes. I was really glad we had to go there too, actually, because I never thought to check my camera battery and it had gone dead. Makes sense if you have taken 700 (literally) pictures. ......
The palace- which is actually a hotel, starting at $1,000 a night (I still don't understand why we couldn't find it in our student budget to pay for that........j/k ;) ) and is amazing. I'm pretty sure everything was made of solid gold. Ps- can I just say that I HATE these shorts??? Omg, this body stunting length is just killing me. I didn't even know I owned a pair this long. I must have cut off some work pants or something along the way for something....I miss normal shorts....
While we were inside, the Professor took us inside the perfume room and had the woman behind the counter explain to us all about the incense- where each wood comes from, how they use it, what its used for. That guy is SUCH a character- you never know what he is going to say or demand and we LOVE it!!! He really keeps EVERYONE on their toes!! (example? "Waiter!!! Come HERE. If you want to talk to me, you do it by my side. Not from three feet away." No shame. Love it.)
Apparently, people use it to scent their hair, their scarves, for under their arms and for their nether regions...... lol, alrighty then. We made Ayo test it out- he's such a great sport!
After, we went outside for some pics and, ha ha, as a Floridian, I am embarrassed to say that I did not test out the bench in the sun before I flat out sat on it and I fried myself. It actually felt like you were sitting on a stove. I think Michelle caught the moment perfectly.
From the palace we hailed a van taxi cab.... it was the SAME driver that drove us home from Masdar the other day! Of all the places, it was really cool to see him again. So weird! We took the taxi to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.... it is truly unlike anything I have ever seen. Breathtakingly beautiful does not even do it justice.
To enter, we had to put on an abaya (traditional robe) and a shayla (headscarf). I have always been curious as to what that would be like and was very interested in the experience. Clearly I couldn't do it right- but to be fair, I did tell the lady mine was broken at the top.... the four inch span of lady skin wasn't on purpose I swear!
(*for purposes of following UAE rules and regulations regarding opinions on anything having to do with religion- in order not to even potentially offend the government- which monitors all internet activity, I have removed previously posted commentary from this site that could potentially be construed as inflammatory in any way to respect the laws of the UAE while I am here)
But, we took it for the moment and truly enjoyed experiencing something new and beautiful.
After the mosque we took the cab to the marina where we had a very, very late lunch, watched the race cars race around the track at Ferrari World and then we headed home for the day to get some rest for our full working day tomorrow!
We left the hotel early this morning to set out for Abu Dhabi. We took a trip to the Emirate Palace- though when we got there, we were told that Ayo's shorts were unacceptable (so scandalous, those man knees!!) so we went to the mall to find him traditional garb to throw over his clothes. I was really glad we had to go there too, actually, because I never thought to check my camera battery and it had gone dead. Makes sense if you have taken 700 (literally) pictures. ......
The palace- which is actually a hotel, starting at $1,000 a night (I still don't understand why we couldn't find it in our student budget to pay for that........j/k ;) ) and is amazing. I'm pretty sure everything was made of solid gold. Ps- can I just say that I HATE these shorts??? Omg, this body stunting length is just killing me. I didn't even know I owned a pair this long. I must have cut off some work pants or something along the way for something....I miss normal shorts....
While we were inside, the Professor took us inside the perfume room and had the woman behind the counter explain to us all about the incense- where each wood comes from, how they use it, what its used for. That guy is SUCH a character- you never know what he is going to say or demand and we LOVE it!!! He really keeps EVERYONE on their toes!! (example? "Waiter!!! Come HERE. If you want to talk to me, you do it by my side. Not from three feet away." No shame. Love it.)
Apparently, people use it to scent their hair, their scarves, for under their arms and for their nether regions...... lol, alrighty then. We made Ayo test it out- he's such a great sport!
After, we went outside for some pics and, ha ha, as a Floridian, I am embarrassed to say that I did not test out the bench in the sun before I flat out sat on it and I fried myself. It actually felt like you were sitting on a stove. I think Michelle caught the moment perfectly.
From the palace we hailed a van taxi cab.... it was the SAME driver that drove us home from Masdar the other day! Of all the places, it was really cool to see him again. So weird! We took the taxi to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.... it is truly unlike anything I have ever seen. Breathtakingly beautiful does not even do it justice.
To enter, we had to put on an abaya (traditional robe) and a shayla (headscarf). I have always been curious as to what that would be like and was very interested in the experience. Clearly I couldn't do it right- but to be fair, I did tell the lady mine was broken at the top.... the four inch span of lady skin wasn't on purpose I swear!
(*for purposes of following UAE rules and regulations regarding opinions on anything having to do with religion- in order not to even potentially offend the government- which monitors all internet activity, I have removed previously posted commentary from this site that could potentially be construed as inflammatory in any way to respect the laws of the UAE while I am here)
But, we took it for the moment and truly enjoyed experiencing something new and beautiful.
After the mosque we took the cab to the marina where we had a very, very late lunch, watched the race cars race around the track at Ferrari World and then we headed home for the day to get some rest for our full working day tomorrow!
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