City built on sand & Zayed Grand Mosque

City built on sand

After visiting Doha in Qatar i did not think that i will be so excited about to visit UAE. nothing against those countries but huge modern buildings built on sand with the highest level of social being has never been anywhere near my travel radar. 

My friend´s sister wanted to have a little hen party before she get married so we choose this destination. in May there are a lot of sales in malls. We dropped by A LOT of places— and by dropped by I mean we visited a lot of places but some only quite briefly— though it was enough for me to easily tell you which locations were my favorites. we spent there only 4 days and we saw a lot. I never seen some people walking around like we were. Non stop on feet. We walked like hundreds kilometers because we wanted to see everything what was possible.  

Madinat souk

The city runs along the coastline and is easily navigated by the main 14 lane road known as Sheikh Zayed Road. Starting in Deira, known as old Dubai you can see how Dubai used to be. Next is Downtown Dubai where most tourists spend all their money and time shopping. Further on is the man-made Palm Jumeriah Island and the Marina. The metro runs along the road all the way and it is quite cheap.

My favorite part of the town are souks. We found one by mistake. Usually I am intuitive explorer. I am going whenever I want however I want where I feel "power" who leads me there :) no maps needed. 

To be honest, I saw in distance Burj Al Arab so I wanted to see this luxury "boat" hotel, and close to it is Souk Madinat Jumeirah. It combines traditional Middle Eastern shopping culture of stands, barrows and stalls with a mix of boutique brands, home accessory stores, souvenir gift shops. All Souk Madinat Jumeirah restaurants and cafés have picture perfect views of the Arabian architecture, waterways or the iconic Burj Al Arab. 

The Palm. You know it, man made island what looks like palm tree. It has 16  palm leaves, 8 on each side. There are houses, apartments, hotels...Luxurious hotel called Atlantis is located at the apex of Palm Jumeirah. What comes into your mind when you hear the word Atlantis? Submerged ruins? Lost civilization? The fictional island from Plato's work?

To get there from the city, you have to take the Palm monorail. Next to Atlantis is Aquaventure park. Amazing. According to very strong sun I felt quite dizzy and I did not enjoyed it. 

I am the biggest hater of shopping malls. I do not like crowded spaces, lot of people, stress...but...we have to. because the entry to the highest building in the world was from the Dubai mall and it was really hustle to find it. However everybody told me that there are big signs along the shopping mall and I can not missed it. I am not good at finding right direction. Thanks to my VIP card to the all towers what belong to the world federation of the great towers I did not wait any single minutes in this 500 meters long crowd of people. I have no idea about price of the ticket. I just came to the guy and showed him a ticket and he immediately took me to the first place, give me ticket and showed me the elevator.

 

View from the TOP

Once you are at the top, on 124th floor, you can fully enjoy the stunning view from the tallest building in the world. The observation deck is not very spacious, and when there are more people, it may be crowded. You can spend as much time as you want there, take some pics. Hope you will be lucky and have clear sky. I came up when sunset started. From the top you can see and hear clearly on Dubai Fountain and then you will understand, why is it biggest fountain in the world.

Very heart - touching experience. 

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

It took my breath away. It was really amazing, literally brilliantly BEAutiful. So precious monument. Before the entrance women are asked to wear traditional clothes called abaya and headscarf. No shoes are allowed, so you have to walk along barefooted. It is so hot that really never mind that you do not have a shoes. Holding hands and kissing is disrespectful and also women and men can not take a picture together. There is no entry fee to visit this BEAUTY.

Interesting facts about mosque:

• the carpet in the hall is the largest carpet in the world
• the largest chandelier in the mosque is the third largest in thw world. There are seven chandeliers containing  Swarowski crystals.
• there are 96 columns in main prayer hall made by marble and pearl

total feeling: oriental :) and HOT, but it costs for 4 days only 250,-eur -flight plus accommodation  in Shangri-la hotel.