It had been a long time since I had been the Middle East. It had been a long time since I had been able to travel at all.
I had been given the opportunity to take some leave and so I decided I would make the most of it by going to visit friends in some far away places. I was now in a better financial position than I was when I was younger and so I even made the decision to purchase less direct tickets so I could stop in some other places and visit different people.
The first stop I decided to make was in the Arab gulf.
The United Arab Emirates has done an incredible job at promoting itself as a tourist destination, but I wasn't convinced yet. My personal love for the Middle East was driven by what I would consider to be the genuine or "real" parts of the region that I had discovered back when I was backpacking. There was something about the shininess of the UAE which didn't feel completely right. It felt almost like a theme park version of the places I had grown to love.
Still, I hadn't actually experienced it yet. I needed to look at it all with my own eyes to be able to make a proper judgement. This trip would give me the opportunity, and it would also let me see my old friends Nader and Pinar again. Meeting the two of them had been one of the great (and few) highlights of my trip to Egypt and so if nothing else, it would be amazing to see them again.
I landed early in Abu Dhabi. So early in fact that there wasn't a chance that they were awake. I decided to stay in the airport for a little bit to give them time to wake up. Soon enough, I watched the sun rise over the desert and again felt the rush of comfort knowing that I was back in this part of the world that I loved so much. I found a taxi and before long I was at their beautiful modern apartment next to the ocean. The only way I can describe seeing Pinar and Nader again was joyful. The happy expressions we all had combined with overall excitement is something that continues to encourage me to travel. Seeing old friends is always an amazing experience.
So now I was in Abu Dhabi. It seemed like a beautiful place and I was now with my beautiful friends Pinar and Nader. They wanted to show me some of the most famous sights of Abu Dhabi and so decided to take me straight to see the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.
I had seen a lot of mosques over the years, but this was definitely on a different level. There was a modern opulence to it that I was completely unfamiliar with. Everything glistened and the white of the exterior almost glowed in the strong sunlight. The size of the entire complex was also incredible and the grounds didn't seem to have an end to them.
Once we walked inside, we were given another shock. The interior was covered with gold and other beautiful jewels. There was an enormous chandelier that overlooked the prayer floor.
It was all very nice. It was incredibly impressive. Yet for all of this opulence and grandeur, it didn't quite impress me in the same way that other mosques had when I was young. This felt big and it felt a bit manufactured. It lacked the intricate beauty that was in the mosques I had seen in Turkey and Syria. Those mosques were near antiques from a time long gone. This mosque however was a modern construction. As a modern construction, I couldn't help but think that it was actually overly simplistic for its time. The real monuments of this era didn't look like this after all, they were the skyscrapers and enormous museums that were down the road.
It was still nice to look at though.
I had been given the opportunity to take some leave and so I decided I would make the most of it by going to visit friends in some far away places. I was now in a better financial position than I was when I was younger and so I even made the decision to purchase less direct tickets so I could stop in some other places and visit different people.
The first stop I decided to make was in the Arab gulf.
The United Arab Emirates has done an incredible job at promoting itself as a tourist destination, but I wasn't convinced yet. My personal love for the Middle East was driven by what I would consider to be the genuine or "real" parts of the region that I had discovered back when I was backpacking. There was something about the shininess of the UAE which didn't feel completely right. It felt almost like a theme park version of the places I had grown to love.
Still, I hadn't actually experienced it yet. I needed to look at it all with my own eyes to be able to make a proper judgement. This trip would give me the opportunity, and it would also let me see my old friends Nader and Pinar again. Meeting the two of them had been one of the great (and few) highlights of my trip to Egypt and so if nothing else, it would be amazing to see them again.
I landed early in Abu Dhabi. So early in fact that there wasn't a chance that they were awake. I decided to stay in the airport for a little bit to give them time to wake up. Soon enough, I watched the sun rise over the desert and again felt the rush of comfort knowing that I was back in this part of the world that I loved so much. I found a taxi and before long I was at their beautiful modern apartment next to the ocean. The only way I can describe seeing Pinar and Nader again was joyful. The happy expressions we all had combined with overall excitement is something that continues to encourage me to travel. Seeing old friends is always an amazing experience.
So now I was in Abu Dhabi. It seemed like a beautiful place and I was now with my beautiful friends Pinar and Nader. They wanted to show me some of the most famous sights of Abu Dhabi and so decided to take me straight to see the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.
Once we walked inside, we were given another shock. The interior was covered with gold and other beautiful jewels. There was an enormous chandelier that overlooked the prayer floor.
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