United Arab Emirates
Dubai was super cool, staying at Atlantis, Burj Khalifa, getting to do sand dune buggy runs and ride a camel.
June 10: Around the World in 42 Days- Dubai
So today we got off to a late start. We all woke up at about 10 o'clockdue to jet lag, plus the fact that I was sick the day before setting us back a bit.During the time Aleisha and Ansley got ready, my dad and I went downstairs to participate in a voyage to find a good breakfast option in our hotel because we get ready in like five minutes. We were unsuccessful, finding only a place that serves fruit tarts, so we all decided to take a taxi to the Dubai mall to get food there. The second we walked in the mall, there were these dancing fountains that we're like "epicness!" We gazed around at this enormous mall, it is the largest in the world. For instance, what mall has a huge aquarium in its center? There were tons of fish, sharks, and stingrays, just like the one at our hotel, but bigger! The first thing we did when we got to the mall was satisfy our mad search for somewhere to eat breakfast. However , as a result of Ramanan, a time where Muslims are to fast from the time the sun rises till the time the sun sets, most places were closed. We ended up walking all the way around the mall looking for somewhere to eat; finally, looking at a map and walking across the mall to an IHOP. Yes, I know we went to like the most American place we could possibly go. However, once we got our food from IHOP, we had to walk to the food court to eat because the Muslim holiday of Ramanan prohibits us from eating in public, so there is a designated food court where tourists like us and not-Muslims can eat because we are not fasting. I don't want to forget to mention I found an Australian dollar bill, worth 4o US dollars, laying on the floor, in the middle of nowhere! It looks like now for our trip to Australia, I am starting with a budget of $40! Nonetheless, after we ate, we just explored the mall. Aleisha, Ansley, and I shopped in places like H&M, Forever 21, and other places that I forget completely. I noticed that most of the locals were wearing burqas if they were women, or a white dress like attire if they were a guy. So I was having fun appreciating my view of different cultures of the world, and it was very interesting to notice different types of people, as well as different beliefs, customs, and traditions. Furthermore, after shopping for a while, we went out of the largest mall in the entire world to see the largest building in the entire world, The Burj Khalifa. We were going to go up to the top of the 828-meter skyscraper, but then we found out that it was extremely expensive,(like 185 dollars per person!) like pretty much the rest of the Dubai has been. Therefore, we ended up just taking photos in front of the skyscraper from some different locations. For example, my dad and Ansley both attempted handstands in front of The BurjKhalifa, my dad and I stunted up Ansley in front of the Burj, as well as we did things like heal clicks getting cool photos. The Burj Khalifa was so tall, it was crazy! It was obvious that that was the tallest building in the entire world. Though, they had like this antenna thing that went at least 50 feet above the actual building, so that helped, but I looked at the closest buildings to the height of the Burj Khalifa and even without the antenna, The Burj Khalifa always totally won. Although right next to the Burj Khalifa, Dubai is building a new, mile high building that's going to beat the Burj Khalifa, so I can't wait to see how that looks. After concluding our photo shoot with The Burj, we went back into the mall. Of course, Ansley dragged me into places like The Apple Store and other places I don't remember, and then we were playing the "floor is lava" at the most random times. This game is played for fun when there is nothing around you and you have to run in circles looking for some possible way to get off the floor, but it was impossible in this situation. It's always fun! Also, my dad had this crazy fear that one of us(Cough, Cough"Me") was going to jump up on this rail, playing "the floor is lava", that below that rail was like three stories, and well it would've been a bad fall! Luckily, none of us are that stupid, not even me who always tries to win the game, so none of us will be plummeting 3 stories anytime soon, thank goodness! Then, after that, we were just walking around the mall, and funny thing is, we went into thisone baby store, for parents of infants, and the clothes were ranging from $300, to like even more expensive such as $500, and some were even $600! Unbelievable ! Then I went back into the store, trying to take a picture of the price tag, yet as I was acting like I had a baby sister, Claire, for the reason I was in there, my sister, Ansley, completely threw me under the bus by exclaiming out loud, "Who is Claire?" At that point, the owner of the store was extremely suspicious and saw me taking a photo, therefore, got mad at me. So, I kind of ran out of the store realizing I bet get out of her way. Also, we got Starbucks at the mall, yet weren't allowed to drink it until we went to the food court for the same reasons as IHOP! Next, we got a taxi and went to this really nice restaurant called the Beach House, and it was awesome! This restaurant was also a hotel and in this hotel it had little Villas as you walked out, and your backyard was technically a pool. Anyway, we had this awesome view of the beach and occasionally we would run down and put our feet in the water and play in the sand, and it was a great restaurant. The food was phenomenal. I got gluten-free spinach gnocchi and then Ansley and I got Mock- tales that were so good. Then there was this super guy who was the manager of the restaurant who gave us an in-depth explanation of the culture and area of the United Arab Emirates, and eventually at the end, he offered us free drinks. So we all told him to surprise us except Lee, she ordered something off the menu. My mock-tail turned out to be a concoction that tasted kind of like mango orange juice, that's the only way I can describe it. After that, we came back to the hotel to suit up for the pool area, yet of course because of Rammanan and lack of a lifeguard, we could not swim in the pool. This lead us to thinking that we could maybe get away with swimming at the beach, yet there were multiple security guards that stopped us and told us that we cannot swim because of Ramadan and jellyfish, so we walked along the beach trying to find a location where we were out of sight of the security guards. However, there were at least 10 of them along the beach and yet there were no lifeguards so that makes complete sense, so we just ended up going back up to our room after no luck finding a way to swim. Once we were in our rooms, we got ready for bed. Yep! that's really all we did, so yeah I guess you can say I am living the dream:)
June 9:Around the World in 42 Days-Dubai, United Arab Emirates
So today was our first day in Dubai. As soon as we got off the airplane and grabbed our bags, we started all calling "the floor is lava" laughing as one another were forced to locate a way to escape the floor. Anyway, as we were leaving the airport, my dad forgot his suitcase by the currency exchange machine, so Aleisha, Ansley and I were all laughing as Aleisha grabbed my dad's suitcase for him, and we walked for a good minute or two before my dad realized. It was funny! So the second that we walked out of the airport, we knew the heat would take some getting used to, it was over a 100° and it was only the morning! Anyway we had a van take us back to our hotel, which is on the Island the Palm in Dubai, it was so nice and it was really cool as far as the decorations went. For example, when we walked in there was this awesome, ceiling high, blown glass work of art in the center of a fountain. We experienced a few complications with getting checked in, but after we were all checked inwe decided to explore the hotel.Then we all got hungry, so we all put on our bathing suites, lathered up on sunscreen and headed for the resort pools, yet accidentally at first I put on insect repelliont rather than sunscreen, oops, but I quickly fixed that, for Aleisha, noticed right away. So at the resort pools, we got lunch, I got mac and cheese, and all enjoyed the beautiful day, yet the 103° heat was not our friend. The only thing we wanted to do was to just run over and swim in the Persian Gulf, so that's just what we did. We floated on the salty water mindlessly and admired the tiny fish swimming at our feet; as well as we swam out to the rope enclosing the swimming area, I sat on the rope which I was not supposed to touch, and so we were forced to move away from the rope. Next, we all went down to the water park and enjoyed the lengthy walk to get there. First, we were looking for our locker rooms, yet after eventually finding them, we took full advantage of the waterslides right away.There was one problem, only four of the eight waterslides were open because the rest were being worked on by maintenance, and one of the 4 we could ride I didn't weigh enough to participate in. So we first did a few group rides, and then after those, we went to the lazy river and enjoyed the river rapids, which they incorporated in the lazy river. As well as we just hung out in the water because every second that we spent with our feet touching the concrete was torture and hurt so bad, and it was so hot that I thought that I was getting a 3rd° burn.After we've ridden most the slides my dad and Ansley decided to go back to the hotel, yet with Aleisha and I stayed and we started going on the individual water slides, which the first one which had a straight down drop and a glass door that just opened, I did not weigh enough for, so I ended up not being able to participate on that side. Furthermore, Aleisha being a good kind person didn't ride the slide because she felt it would be unfair if she could ride it because I couldn't ride.However, there was another slide meant for racing, which I and Alicia both raced down and of course, Aleisha won by like 10 seconds or something crazy! Next, we just hung out in the lazy river for the most the rest the time, and then we were forced out of the lazy river because someone threw up in the river, and they needed to clean the river out.So we eventually just decided to head back to our hotel, but before we went back we got one strawberry slushy, for both of us to share. On our way back, we walked by a slushy truck full of every single type of slushy creation that you could think of, and we were disappointed with not knowing about this sooner before we bought the slushy in our hand! Anyway, later Alicia and I went directly to get a snack at a sandwich place and we brought back food for Ansley and my dad. While downstairs at the sandwich place we ended up stopping by the large fish tank aquarium with sharks, stingrays, and every fish you can imagine in it, and Alicia and I looked at all the fish and watched as they interactived for about 30 minutes before we finally returned to the hotel room. Then we were going to explore, yet Ansley and my dad both awoke from their nap and we all headed to dinner, where we search the whole perimeter for a place to eat because most places were closed due to Ramanan, yet we found anItalian restaurant to eat. Aleisha and Ihad already eaten, therefore we only got an appetizer to share, while my dad and Ansley both got an actual meal. Afterward, they gave us these really good pastries and they were delicious, so yeah and then all we did was go up to our room and get ready for bed. Then I felt really sick due to little sleep and dehydration, and believe it or not I accidentally threw up in my suitcase rather than the open floor next to it, yet as morning came and I slept a whole night, I recovered. So I guess you can say I'm living the dream :)
June 8: Around the World in 42 Days-Dubai, United Arab Emirates
So today was more of a chill and relax kinda day.First, of course, we woke up and we just talked and got ready for breakfast; where we went to this really cool restaurant where they had bulldog sculptures on all the tables and it was awesome. Also, right next to us was a huge pony made out of glitter and stones and jewels, and it was great. Then we went to the famous family landmark restaurant, Fire, where we took photos because that was where my aunt was on TV because there was a Rachel Ray cooking show there, and she was interviewed and she announced in her highlight how glad she was that the restaurant offered red wine, white wine, and they brought it to your table.A well-told family story.After we took selfie's with the famous landmark, we went to this really cool shop where I got three macaroons, one coconut, one lemon, and one caramel; as well as a nonalcoholic form of a piña colada.The bartender was so nice and we had so much fun, as well as I got to chew like four lemons. I love sour things, the taste of bursting lemon juice in my mouth is heaven! Anyway, after that, we were running home in the pouring rain, and all of us were drenched by the time that we got home.Welcome to Dublin! Next, we just chilled at our hotel, I watched TV and tried to beg Ansley to play with me, but I was denied like a thousand times! Then later, my dad let me go to the market down the street all by myself, he gave me money which I kept in my pocket, as well as my phone. Also, I took the precautioned of waiting until a woman passed by and I followed behind her and acted like I was her daughter. Therefore, I would not look like a child alone on the street without a parent.With that said, I also made sure that whenever I walked I was within the large group of people. So I managed to walk to the market all by myself without getting kidnapped and I bought candy and chips, it was awesome. The rest of the day we spent at the hotel, my dad found a way for us to leave early and now our flight was rescheduled for tonight, so we could be in Dubai for an extra day.Consequently, there was a dilemma, the people apparently thought Ansley, Aleisha and I were dead or something because they did not include us when rescheduling the flight and only rescheduled my dad's flight, but we worked this out at the airport. Not skipping too far forward, back at the hotel we packed our bags and then went to the airport. After passing through security, we went to a restaurant in the airport, where we all play trivia crack and of course my dad and Ansley's team beat my and Aleisha’s team three times!It was sad! I mean really we are still smarter, I think.So then while we were waiting to board our flight, we played “the floor is lava” and one of the times I jumped on my dad's shoulders, and he couldn't go anywhere, but technically I won. Anyway, we just boarded the plane, and for the rest of the plane ride, I am going to finish this entry and sleep on the floor of the plane; for it is night time and this is a night flight. I'm so excited because the floor is always comfy, so yeah that's been my day.You can say I am Living the Dream:)