Living La Dolce Vita

This is something a little different. It is the diary of a trip I made to Italy in January 2008

Dubai

© A Product of Silence

Day 1 & 2

I have to start this story by telling you that I undertook this tour of Italy with a girlfriend and her daughter as part of a high school group. I have three children and a lovely husband and this fifteen day trip was the longest I have ever been away from all of them. Therefore I set out with very mixed emotions. I have wanted to visit Italy for as long as I can remember so I was excited about that but to do that meant leaving those I love the most behind. Saying goodbye to them at the airport was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. But once that was done things got easier, except for the waiting that is. Earlier our flight had been delayed by seven hours meaning instead of departing at 8pm we took off at 3am. This delay then meant we missed our connecting flight in Dubai. So instead of a two hour stopover we had to be put up there overnight. While I was happy to get a look at Dubai, which we wouldn't have done otherwise, the delay meant we lost a day in Venice, the place I most wanted to see in Italy. 

However after a brief stopover at Singapore, where we didn't even get off the plane, we arrived in Dubai at 3pm. This city was an eye opener from the word go. The robed officials at the airport seemed a friendly sight to our tired eyes until we looked at their Id. tags which where all taken with them in military uniform. We weren’t feeling quite so relaxed then. Nor did our first encounters with toilets without benefit of porcelain fittings improve matters. However after being transported to our hotel, not far from the airport, we checked into our rooms, had a quick shower and some lunch and feeling more human, set out to explore. Getting on a bus we were transported to a local shopping centre. Here the thing that struck me on entering the centre was that except for the large number of robed individuals frequenting the shops, it could have been a shopping centre anywhere in the world. The architecture was very generic which was a little disappointing. After a few hours of retail therapy the only thing I can say about shopping in Dubai is that it is expensive. It cost $8 Australian for a cup of coffee. 

Back at the hotel we had an early dinner and then happily, an early night, inspecting the many gold shops in the lobby of the hotel on the way to bed. Next stop Venice.