The United Arab Emirates: Abu Dhabi

I remember as a boy watching a particular episode of Garfield where he mailed a cat he hated (Nermyl) to Abu Dhabi. I remember thinking as a boy how silly a name that was. It couldn't possibly be a real city right? Well, it is. Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates and a pretty nice city as well. It isn't quite as impressive as Dubai, but definitely well worth a visit. The first thing we did when we arrived was go to Sheik Zayad Mosque. Zayad was one of the Shieks who unified the Arabs in this country. The Mosque they built is pretty incredible. It is hard for me to decide what mosque I like the most - Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque or this one.

Here is a picture of the mosque. It is fairly large. This mosque has many garden and flower designs which is kind of unique for a mosque, or at least the mosques I've been to. Mosques usually don't have much in the way of pictures.

Another view of the mosque. We had to go in the morning during tourist hours. We also had to wear long sleeve shirts to be conservative and respectful. The women who visit much cover their hair.

Here I am in front of the mosque.

I love getting pictures of the women in the abayas. It gives you a nice picture of how people live in this part of the world. However, unlike Saudi Arabia, women are not required to wear these if they don't want to. The Emirates is an interesting mix of very modern, and what many Westerners would consider old fashioned.

Here I am in front of the Mihrab. I love the wall because it contains the many different names of God. I think there are 99. You can see the flower designs on the carpet. This picture doesn't really give you a good idea of how large the room is.

Here is Chris and I. You can see the awesome chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

For all you Mormons, there was something about the design of this mosque that reminded me a lot of the temples. It is very impressive - again, I think it is one of my favorite mosques. I'll have to go and look at the pics of the other mosques I've been to and compare.

The outside court. You can see the flower designs in the marble and an Arab family coming to pray.

After the mosque we drove around the city for awhile looking for a place to pay Chris's fine for his car wreck. We couldn't find a place so we had the car rental company pay it by taking it out of his security deposit. The above gateway leads to the Palace hotel. It is very beautiful, but I'm not sure if it really was a palace in the past or if it is just a name.

Just a random view of the city. It was a pretty hazy day so a lot of my pictures didn't turn out very well.

The above picture may seem kind of strange. It is a picture of Ferrari World. Ferrari World is an amusement park based on the cars. It is very impressive looking. The park itself is very much for little kids. Most of the rides are kiddie rides but there are many Ferraris scattered throughout the park for car lovers.

Entering Ferrari World!

I wish I could take one of these home with me.

Despite the many children's rides, Ferrari World has the fastest roller coaster in the world. I'm not kidding when I say it is pretty crazy!

Here is a picture of my hair after going on the world's fastest rollercoaster. Chris and I went on this ride twice and we were lucky enough to be in the front seats the second time (they made us wear goggles that time). The roller coaster goes from 0 to 150 miles per hour in 5 seconds (that is very very very fast!). It is a very intense feeling. When the coaster takes off you can't even make a sound. I remember trying to make some kind of noise but I wasn't able to do so. The ride is only about a minute and a half but it is a rush.

Chris and his girlfriend above. Our trip to the Emirates was pretty good although the car wreck did kind of put a dark spot on some things. We drove back to Dubai after this (only a little over an hour) and headed to the airport. Usually when Chris and I go back to Saudi we brace ourselves for the welcome back at the airport. However, this time we were very fortunate to run into some of our good friends the Hansens, who we know from Saudi. They were coming back from Ohio and happened to be on the same plane as us! Its a pretty small world. That made coming back to Saudi kind of nice.

It is hard to believe I only have three and a half weeks of teaching left! Yet we still have one more trip to go. Soon we will be going to Kuwait so stay tuned for that.