Weekend in the Big City

One of Paul's coworkers who lives in Dubai invited us to come spend an evening with them in Dubai and hooked us up with a deal at a hotel in the "Old Towne" area which is where the Burj Khalifa is.  We decided to be social and take them up on the offer.

We headed up to Dubai on a Friday morning with our first goal of having lunch at Taco Bell!  Yes, we finally found a Taco Bell in the UAE.  It was definitely not the typical american joint you'd find back in the US, but I was still excited (after studying abroad in Paris for 4mths--there were 2 things that i craved, bagels & cream cheese and Taco Bell...that was my first stop on the way home from the airport).  To start off, they didn't have the same combo deals or one of my favorite items which is the "double decker."  They also had Chili's-like menus at the counter that you could order from.  AND they actually checked your ticket number when your food was ready.  I mean really?  Do people actually steal other people's Taco Bell orders?  Anyways, it was still delicious.

Our surrogate taco bell

Then, we walked around the mall and bought some clothes.  Unbeknownst to us, it was the start of the Dubai Shopping Festival which is about a month-long event every year where the stores have crazy sales (we ended up finally buying a tv the next weekend bc it was on sale).  Paul got some nice dress shirts and I got a few items from H&M.  I don't know what my deal is, but the first thing I bought from there a few months ago ended up being way too short after I washed it.  Then I realized one of the shirts I bought this time was too big after I took it to the dry cleaners to get it ironed...maybe i grabbed the wrong size bc I switched out the one I tried on since it had a ripped thread.  Anyways, I'm struggling a little bit right now with finding the right H&M european sizes.  Oh well.  Also, I don't think I've mentioned this before, but we take our clothes to the dry cleaners here after we've washed them ourselves to get them ironed.  You can get 4 shirts, a skirt, and a pair of shorts all ironed for $3.26--I don't think I will ever iron again!

On of the nice hotels on the "lake"

Day shot of the Burj Khalifa

Fountains during the day

We walked around the fountain and took a lazy stroll back to our hotel.  Then we met up with Paul's coworker who got us checked in.  We change for the evening and then walked over to his apartment to meet his wife and have a drink before we headed to a Wine & Cheese event where we met up with a few of their other Dubai friends.  It was a fun evening, there was quite the mix of people that we met...and I'll just leave it at that :)

Self-portrait in our hotel room

The next morning we had brunch at the sister hotel and Paul's coworker showed us around the Old Towne a bit more.  It really is a beautiful area.

I love the architecture of the Old Towne

Just a fun, relaxed, lazy Saturday morning