After a day of travelling me and the girls have arrived in Abu Dhabi! The last few days have been such a blur, i can't remember anything! All i did was rush through each day making sure uni and everything for the trip was organised- i have to say, without my dad doing so much for me it wouldn't have been possible! He looks after me!
I can't usually sleep on planes but after days on end with no sleep i slept the whole trip, plus a ten hour sleep last night! I was so exhausted i don't even remember falling asleep or the plane flight itself! The flight was not drama free though! As soon as i walked through the gates the security checkers removed my bag and asked who's it was, asking me to return through the gate. The man said there was something really serious in my bag in a voice that scared the crap out of me! I mean i have huge anxiety about going through those machines at the worse of times, i even check my luggage ten times to make sure I'm clear, so as you can imagine this gave me a heart attack! He proceeded to tell me how serious it was and that i had a aerosol can in my bag- from this i removed a small zip lock bag (as required) with mini toiletries and a sealed, never been used deodorant can. "Oh thats ok, no worries" he said. I was pin shock i was like, "thats it? so I'm all good? everything else is ok?". To this he laughed and said "yeah, now you can relax". Clearly he doesn't know me because that sick, anxious feeling lasted an hour! My friends think he may have been joking after hearing the conversation but in my books - so not funny! The first flight we all ate then slept and then used our six hour lay over to shop, look at all the chocolate, eat and buy new carry on bags, new shoes and medication, you know the usual! After a coffee- bad idea might i say! We got on the next flight and rather than doing what i planned and writing all my corporate study notes, i got a blood nose and then a migraine and had to close my eyes the whole trip- it was horrible! The steward looked after me though, checking up on me and getting me Pandadol for the flight and afterwards! I don't think you often fine stewards like that!
We arrived after eating all our amazing snacks and with some of us doing study. The view was all desert, it amazed me. I mean yeah we had planned on coming here and knew what the country was like but arriving was completely different. The last 3 weeks, packing, assignments and flights were a complete blur but this was real. The airport has glass doors protecting the flights in, minimal windows unlike western airports where the walls are glass and men were sitting around in groups, some in customary clothes and others in casual clothing. The Airport was a globe. It had all the shops and desks in little semi-circles that surrounded a large circle and mosaic tiling on the roof. It was absolutely amazing and made me want to travel the world and see everything else! Being obsessed with photos i really wish i could have taken some but its not respected and i didn't fancy getting in trouble before i even left the airport- first stop jail! I think we all expected the customs process to take at least forty five minutes and to be very strict, however it took us ten minutes to get through with one bag scan. once we got through customs we met up with the other girls and headed back to the hotel. We almost skipped the taxi line- once again risking getting in trouble before we even stepped off the curb of the airport! We got two taxis and got them to follow one another. As we headed to the car a man intercepted the trolley and proceeded to unpack our bags into the car, we then closed the door and behind Sarah i could see the man glaring at us, not happy at all- we forgot to tip him! Having only money from the exchange the smallest we had 20 dirhums- a little too lucky for that man if you ask me! The taxi ride was interesting to say the least, dry desert skys and construction bridges that looked - interesting. I was so out of it it took me 20 minutes to work out he was driving on the opposite side of the road! Were staying out of the city so we drove away from the excitement to a island area with 5 hotels in a circle. The taxi driver decided to test us in our first hour here - we gave him 50 dirhums and he gave us 10 change for 23.75 cab ride- i dont think so! It was nice though the other girls sent over their belle boy and he watched us and stayed by our side until we got our change. That taxi driver picked the wrong girls to mess with!
After the drama we went up to our rooms, showered to remove the plane smell from us, changed and had room service for dinner. It was so good! Then we changed into our pj's and drifted off to sleep. Abu Dhabi is amazing, coming was the best decision I've made this year. Now day two begins with the hard task of deciding what to order for breakfast. .
