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Published: January 11th 2013
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Slan go Foill
leaving home - again The six weeks I had at home after returning from Spain flew by in a blur of visiting, eating and drinking, and before I knew what was happening, I was at Dublin Airport en route to South Korea. I had successfully managed to squeeze my allocated 23kgs into my new rucksack, 7kgs into my cabin bag, aswell as another 5kg into my handbag and a camera bag to boot. It still hadn't kicked in that I was embarking on the longest section of the biggest journey of my life...not sure that something like this ever does!!
My flight took me first to Abu Dhabi for a 15hour stopover, where luckily I managed to spot two guys also on the EPIK program, Denis and David from Cork. We were able to leave our bags, find our way our of the airport and were immediately bowled over by the 33deg heat. And it was only half7 in the morning! We met a couple from Belfast at the bus-stop - Suzanne and Colin, and we all decided to hang around together for the day. It was a long way into town and there wasn't a lot to look at really - it's a
very modern city built along very straight lines. Of course we managed to miss our intended stop, and got off somewhere random. At this point we decided to start following a German guy who was on the bus and had a map. Our first port of call was a hotel for some air-con, water and more maps. We ditched the German man and met a Chinese man instead - Yan Li. We wanted to try and find the Corniche waterfront area and its malls, so we started out on foot. This proved a mistake!
It was ridiculously hot at this stage - edging into the 40's - and before long we were all drippin with sweat! We walked for ages but the distance proved too long and we eventually gave up and flagged down some taxis for the sweet relief of air-con. Even still our taxi driver nearly kicked us out as the boy's jeans were soaked through with sweat!
One last race outside from the taxi to the shopping centre and we were surrounded by cool air again. We went in search of breakfast and ended up at the food court. I got a lamb kofta with
old v new
streets of Abu Dhabi salad and rice - delicious. It was still only 11:30! After our brief respite we were determined to see something of Abu Dhabi. First we went up the tower in the centre for panoramics over the city. Then we got a bus all the way to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, one of the main draws of the city. The bus took over an hour to get there, and me and Suzanne were segregated from the men who were all squished together at the back of the bus.
The mosque was impressive - huge, white and shimmering in the sun, it made us all think of the Taj Mahal. I think it's the 8th largest mosque in the world and can hold up to 40,000 people. Unfortunately for us it was closed but we snuck in around a corrugated iron fence along with about 30 other people and got a few photos at the front of the mosque before getting chased off by security! At this point it was the early afternoon and we were nearly passed out with the heat. We reckoned must have hit the mid-high forties, never experienced anything like it.
We flagged down some
taxis and retreated back to the airport for the rest of the day. Unfortunately we didn't have a very good impression of Abu Dhabi. There was many other places we wanted to go and see, but everything shuts on Sunday as far as we could make out. And it's simply too big and too hot to go exploring around on foot. A very modern city with little character it appears to me. The airport provided us with refreshing showers and we spent the remainder of our time there together in the bar chatting, drinking, playing cards and ultimately trying to stay awake for our nighttime flights.
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