GETTING TO KNOW MY HOME BETTER - WEEK IN DUBAI, TIPS

Living alone isn't easy, especially living alone for the first time and being thousands of kilometers away from home. It makes you realize where your true home is, where your loved ones are and how much you miss them each and every day. It also makes you appreciate the moments with them so much more and having the chance of flying back home for couple of days or having someone over in your apartment feels like Christmas time. At least that is how I feel. Anyway.. 

Writing this post makes me realize how lucky I am to call Dubai a home and even how lucky I am to have such a nice mum who came here to stay for a week in April. A week full of surprises, plans, joy and adventures. A week that we both wish continued forever. We had such a great time together and as I told my mum before she came here - "we have so many plans to do so prepare for a busy schedule, it won't be a lazy holiday spent on a beach" and I meant it. 

I didn't want to be unprepared and people who know me well know that I have lists for everything. I have a list for my wish list, I have a list of things I want to buy/do/see etc. So by the time my mum came to Dubai, I had everything planned for us because I asked other crew whom have been living here for a long time, to give a piece of advice about where to go, what to see and their best recommendations. And that is exactly what they did. Since it has been a second visit for my mum here, we have already seen the basic tourist attractions such as Burj Khalifa and Dubai mall (plus the fountains in front of it), we went to the Global Village and Miracle Garden, we also made a trip to Abu Dhabi to see the famous mosque...

So this time I wanted to give my mum more insight look into the life in Dubai, as weird and impossible as it may sound. 

RESTAURANTS

We tried all the different restaurants - The Fish Dubai, which is one of my favorite ones, also The sum of us surprised us in a good way. If you ever go to Dubai Mall and feel like trying some untypical place to eat at, go to the Rainforest - the food is very tasty and it looks like a jungle with animals making noises every 15minutes. Arabic Tea House is the right place for you if you like an Arabic cuisine along with a great cup of tea and very nice interior and decorations. By Parkers is a restaurant that I visited twice already and I could definitely go there more often. I also wrote about it an article a while ago HERE, so go ahead and read it! And as the last one I would recommend a place called The Shakespeare and Co. just in front of the Dubai Mall with such a nice view on The Burj Khalifa and very nice and romantic interior. 

PLACES TO SEE

Dubai is one of the places that you can spend days at and you will still have places to see and things to do. Our days were full from the morning till late at night and because of the heat and the kilometers that we walked each day, we slept like babies. 

We went to the Old and Gold Souk again, because we both like the atmosphere of it and all those little shops and markets. Of course, it wouldn't be a trip to Dubai without visiting the Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates which is very close to my apartment. I also celebrated 6 months since moving to Dubai so we went to the Atlantis Waterpark and had a great time there. 

Seeing the fountains at night in front of the Burj Khalifa is one of my favorite things to do when I am around so we didn't miss that either. 

On my mum's request, we also spent some time on a beach, either with the view on Burj Al Arab hotel or at Fairmont The Palm which was really nice time when we just relaxed. Madinat Jumeirah is one of the popular markets in Dubai full of shops, restaurants, cafes and hotels. It is such a nice place whether you go there during the day or at night with a breathtaking view on Burj Al Arab hotel. I also had the chance to go there with my friends during the night and we took the abra (boat) to the other side of the souk which was so romantic and beautiful. You definitely shouldn't miss this place when you are in Dubai. 

Visiting Creek Park was also on my list because I read some blog posts about it and it caught my eye. We initially wanted to take the cable car in the park which I read about on the internet but apparently there is no such thing anymore which made me very angry and sad. There used to be a cable car years ago. So we only went around the park which was huge and well maintained, there are benches and barbecue places. On one of the last days we went to see the Dubai Water Canal which is about 3km long waterway, there is a running track and a cycling path, there are also pedestrian bridges and boats to use. We went there only during the day but I have seen pictures of the canal at night and it is a must. Lastly on my list, there was a boat ride in Marina. We bought the tickets at one of the ticket office in Marina (there was no need for reservation in advance) and enjoyed the 45minute ride around. We started the ride at around 6pm so by the time we got back it already got dark so we had the chance to see Marina during the daylight, at sunset and at night as well. 

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That probably sums up the whole 8 days that we spent together, and let me say - we had a great time! I wish I could have my family/friends over more often. Hope you enjoyed this post and that it gave you some tips of where to go and what to see and most especially, where to eat. 

I would be very happy if, maybe, you live in Dubai as well and know about nice places to got to or you might have been here on holidays and have some recommendation, because it seems I will be here for a while hah - so any tips are appreciated. 

See you in a next post :)

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TRIP TO SHARJAH

One day we also decided to go to Sharjah which is one of the emirates of the United Arab Emirates. We used to make fun that we basically lived in Sharjah because we were really close to it before I moved to the centre of Dubai. People from Dubai travel there often because of how cheap it is - when it comes to food, clothes ... We took a bus from Dubai and started our day at one of the Souks. Sharjah was very different from Dubai, there weren't many people on the streets, lot of shops were closed and it was hard to find any restaurants. But we still enjoyed the day along the water, went to three different markets and had really delicious, inexpensive food.