My First Day In Abu Dhabi

When I planned to go to Abu Dhabi, my main purpose was to go and see my friend Christine, and so I didn't give much thought to what I would actually get to see there, or that this was my first time seeing a country which isn't totally westernized.  Coming out at arrivals in Abu Dhabi airport, I was so so excited to see Christine and it was amazing to be reunited with her outside Starbucks.  We got into a cab outside the airport, and driving down the motorway for the first time was a totally surreal experience.  It felt like a never ending road to nowhere.  But seeing all the different mosques all over the place it started to dawn on me how different (in a good way) this country really was.  After about 20 minutes in the cab, we drove past the Grand Mosque, one of the biggest mosques in the world, and what would be one of the stops on our sightseeing.  Driving into Abu Dhabi centre was so interesting.  Some of the buildings looked like something out of an Indian slum, very run down or even half destroyed, whilst others looked brand new and very expensive.  Christine's building inside was very fancy, like nothing you would find in Cape Town.  As neither of us had had any sleep the night before, we got into bed, but I soon heard the nyaaaaaaaa of the mosque across the road singing their ''call-to-prayer''.  As Christine had told me about this so many times it was rather exciting for me to finally hear it live...so I went to her window to see it, though there really wasn't all that much to see!

After getting about 5 hours sleep, we woke up very hungry and so headed down to the corniche (a strip of restaurants and such along the beach front of Abu Dhabi).  It was there I discovered one of the new loves of my life - the tortellini pasta at Rosa Belina.  Most amazing spinach and riccota pasta with a sundried tomato sauce and balsamic vinegar drizzeled over it...too amazing!!  Over the course of the trip, I managed to eat this meal 4 times.  After we'd finished our lunch we walked along the corniche a bit more and bought some YogaDay - a very yummy frozen yogurt with some interesting toppings like pomogranites.  We sat on the beach a bit and then hailed another cab to take us down to the Grand Mosque as it had started getting dark. The roads in the UAE are very strange.  For starters you drive on the right hand side of the road, and secondly, when you come out of somewhere, there is no option to turn either left or right, you have to turn right and then do a U-turn.  The city is also not very friendly to walking, as pavements and padestrian crossings are few and far between.

We got to the Grand Mosque and it was very beautiful from the outside.  The lights on the water features by night were just stunning!! We had to wear proper Muslim abaya to be allowed in so we got givenn some in the changing rooms.  Christine and I looked pretty funny in them!  Although the place was pretty breathtaking, a lot of the decorations, especially those inside were very 'kitch' and a lot of the gold looked very fake, so I didn't really know what to make of a lot of it. 

After being at the Grand Mosque, we went to one of Christine’s friends, Shannon’s house and from there headed to an Irish bar.  Abu Dhabi has ladies nights where drinks are free for ladies, and it was tonight, so I enjoyed a couple of free vodka mixers which was nice.  There were some very weird guys who danced very strangely but made for funny entertainment.  I went to bed very exhausted that night, but having had an amazing first day in Abu Dhabi.  It’s a funny feeling being in love with several cities around the world, but your own city not being one of them.  This is definitely a place in which I could see myself living.  Tomorrow’s Plan – Yas WaterWorld!