5am, Dubai airport. Temperature: 32 degrees!!! Too hot to move actually. Cold water in the shower?? Haha, would be nice … so it has to be a hot shower. Then a little nap, during the flight I couldn’t get much sleep. This time I wasn’t lucky to get a whole row for myself. And the very nice but pretty loquacious Greek-Australian couple next to me didn’t help either …
So when I arrived at the hostel I felt pretty exhausted. But two hours of sleep in the sauna called bedroom later I felt a little bit better and ready to explore Dubai, the city of crazy hotels and lots of money.
First I went to a mall together with the German room mate Christian that I’d just met to get some noodles for lunch. While he kept browsing through the little shops with very pushy and annoying sellers trying to get rid of incredible trash, I went for a stroll to the famous 7 star hotel Burj al Arab to take some photos. Walking for 10 minutes was enough to make me sweat and I was happy to quickly get back to the mall again where Christian joined me and we took another cab to the Mall of the Emirates. For the first time in a year I saw real snow. Snow in the desert? Yes, the emirs were crazy enough to actually build a ski resort in the desert. There are even lifts, an apres-ski pub and an original St. Moritz cafe.
After a coffee in an originally Italian cafe we headed back to the hostel and I went for an early sleep. Ah, and I managed to destroy my camera what actually really pisses me off! I’m just glad that it hadn’t happened earlier.
Now I’m typing on a keyboart without letters on the keys (I’m pretty proud of myself how seldom I need to retype the words) and wait for the gate to open.
My thoughts about Dubai? Hmm, I’d only stay here again if I was willing to spend more money to stay in a better hotel and rent a car. And maybe a different time of the year, it’s really unbearably hot at the moment. The city itself is pretty ugly because it’s basically one big construction site. Maybe in a couple of years it’ll look nicer. Maybe not if they don’t stop conjuring buildings up out of nothing.
And a final advise: never buy magazines such as Men’s Health or FHM at the Dubai Airport. Why? Just trusty me, you won’t quite get what you’re paying for …