Abu Dhabi
Day 6 - 14th May 2024
You’d think with two young boys at home, one of which can climb the 2 flights of stairs to wake us up at 2am because he “lost his blanket” or “can’t find Mickey/his penguin pillow” we’d sleep through the night but no… I don’t know how many times we both woke up so by the time it was morning we both just wanted to fall asleep again and did… I woke up at 10:30 and watched videos until Stefan woke up at 11:30 so it was another late one leaving the hotel.
Because the food order hadn’t worked the other night and I had taken us to the wrong mall another day we were still desperate to try Biryani Pot at the Galleria Mall Al Maryah Island so this time I booked the Uber for the right mall… while we were waiting for the car the concierge approached us and asked if we wanted a taxi but we told him we had already booked the Uber. He told us the taxis are cheap but when we explained that we get €50 towards transport from our work and that we use the credit to pay for Uber rides, he completely understood why we didn’t want to pay for a “cheap” taxi.
When we got there we found another confusing mall… according to Google the restaurant was on level 2 at food court south so upstairs we went… we walked nearly the whole length of the mall but nothing so we consulted one of many interactive mall maps which told us to go down to the ground floor and around Chanel - so it was back to where we started. But when we got downstairs again we couldn’t find Chanel so back to the map we went and entered Chanel because we knew roughly where to go after that.
We must’ve looked pretty confused because seconds later a security guard appeared behind us and asked us if we were looking for Chanel so we explained we were actually looking for Biryani Pot so he told us to take the 1st left, go down the stairs, follow the corridor and we would find Chanel and the restaurant. So we repeated the instructions back to him - because I’m rubbish at remembering directions unless they’re very basic but instead of just nodding and walking away he escorted us to the stairs! If you were in Germany (and even the UK sometimes) they would just say “it’s that way” and walk away so this was a huge shock.
We finally found what we were looking for and ordered Panipuri, Chicken Masala Chaat, Prawn Biryani, Roasted Paneer Tikka and one Mango Lassi. It took about 10mins to come and was totally worth the wait! If you’re ever in that mall and love Indian food, we would definitely recommend it!
After lunch we went back upstairs and went into Virgin Megastore and Fandom to see what Loungeflys they had. I had been looking at Disney bags but Virgin had one Looney Tunes one which I quite liked but I still couldn’t decide which one to get. Half way down the mall and talking to Stefan I suddenly realised how daft I was being… we had just been to WB World the day before - the home of Looney Tunes - so why was I so focused on getting a Disney one when I can do that when we’re in America in September so we walked back into the Virgin store and I bought the Looney Tunes one.
Yes, I know what I just said but we also decided to have a cheeky peek at the Disney stand within Debenhams but all of the stuff was far too expensive. Before we left we get a drink at Starbucks and a slice of Mango Key Lime Cheesecake (it’s addictive!) to take back to the hotel….
Usually when we’ve booked an Uber we’ve said hello, the pin, thank you and goodbye to the driver but not much else - it’s as if there’s an unwritten rule that they’re not allowed to talk - but this one started complaining about a car who was blocking the car park entrance which meant we couldn’t get past another one waiting to get in and we just laughed. After that we didn’t stop talking. We told him about the boys and us enjoying the peace and quiet for a week and he told us about his family. He told us very proudly about his 4 children but he couldn’t tell us exactly how old they are because they don’t celebrate birthdays, only that the eldest was born in 2014 and they are about 2yrs apart. When Stefan asked him if they like it here as much as he does, he told us they still live back in Pakistan and then completely shocked us by saying he hadn’t seen them in 2yrs! He absolutely loves Abu Dhabi and admitted to hating his own country, despite loving the people. He also told us he supports 25(!) people back home. Once we got out the car Stefan and I both agreed, we may have problems at home and would move away from Germany tomorrow if we could, but we are never complaining about our situation ever again!
When we got back to the hotel we changed into our swimsuits (and trunks) and finally went down to the pool for a swim and to lie in the slowly disappearing sun. It only took us until the last day to finally do it but the pool was always shut by the time we got back to the hotel… just as we were walking down to the lift one of the maids stopped us and asked if we were in room 1003 and if we needed the room done because we had had the do not disturb light on all day - we both looked at each other in shock that she knew who we were! Once we got out the pool we had a drink each and then went upstairs to change before walking down to the Marina Mall for dinner. Don’t judge us, but we went into Chili’s again except this time instead of stuffing our faces we just had a main each.
After a quick walk around the mall and Carrefour (which we overheard a German woman call “Care Foor”) we got an Uber back to the hotel and finally started packing… We had bought quite a few things - for us, the boys and our mums and our weight coming was already nearly 21kg so I was dreading weighing the suitcase but we decided to pack our cabin trolley up and just check it in because it meant we could take some weight away from the big bag plus we had one bag less to worry about in the airport… when we weighed it the last time before going to bed it was about 23kg so well within the Qatar Airways economy class limit of 25kg.
After I finished the packing and bossing Stefan about we finally got into bed at midnight so had about 2hrs to sleep before the 6 alarms (3 on each phone because you just never know, right?) we had set for 2am, 2:05 and 2:10 went off… why, oh why, do we book early flights? Oh yeah, because Stefan didn’t want to take the wotsit out of mum and leave her with the boys much longer and because we could be home in time to pick them up at Kindergarten and the childminders since we land in Berlin at 1:55pm.
Just now we’re sitting on the plane to Doha, so travel day has already started, although the amount of time it’s taking to taxi I think we’re driving there…oh no, wait, we’re finally taking off… if I can stay awake long enough to write it I’ll post today’s blog before bedtime but I can’t guarantee anything.
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