We have come to the final location of our holiday! It’s hard to believe that 3 months of travelling has come to an end. We decided that on the way home we would break up the flights and spend a couple of days in Dubai since the plane was going there anyway!
Day One
Our flights both went pretty well. There were at least 6 screaming babies on the entirety of the first flight, but thankfully that flight was only 2 hours! The second flight was a lot longer and was through the night. We had hoped that we would be able to sleep because we were landing at 7:30am in Dubai. Unfortunately that wasn’t really the case! The first 3 hours of the flight were taken up by take off and food service. Don’t get me wrong, I was very grateful to eat (we left Portugal at 4:30pm and had only eaten a pack of chips over about 6 hours), but I also really wanted to sleep! I was 2 hours into an alright airplane sleep when the lights came on in the cabin and they were handing out breakfast food before landing. Could have done with that extra hour, but oh well!
We arrived in Dubai and figured out the metro system to get us to our hotel. We needed to get the metro and then a bus. We arrived at our metro station and walked outside to the bus stop and this was the first time the heat hit us. Both of our glasses completely fogged up and in no time at all we were very sweaty! I had seen that the temperature was going to be about 35° and I didn’t think that was too bad, but I didn’t factor humidity. Far out it was hot! After standing around for a while, I re-read the bus stop and realised the next bus was about 45 minutes away. We weren’t standing in this heat for that so we jumped in a taxi. Thankfully in this very expensive city, the taxis are actually not too bad!
We got to our hotel and it was about 9:45am. We were shattered (Miriam had less sleep on the plane than me) and we looked terrible! The hotel that we booked was extremely fancy (and cost about the same as some of the hostels we stayed in in Europe!) and we definitely looked out of place. The front desk were very kind and told us they would send us a message when a room was ready for us even though check in wasn’t until 3pm.
I really needed a coffee so we got one from the hotel cafe. We hadn’t quite figured out the currency exchange yet and the coffee was 24 AED. I had in my head that you divide by 4 to get the NZD price, but it turns out that gets you Euros. To get NZD, you divide by 2. I paid $12 for a coffee. At least it tasted good!
We spent the next hour or so relaxing by the hotel pool which has a view of the Burj Khalifa! Eventually we got the message that we could go to our room.
Our room is huge! We are very stoked that we booked a nice hotel to relax for a couple of days before coming home. It’s a bit of a treat!
After a bit of a rest, we went to Dubai Mall. Dubai Mall is no Glenfield Mall. It’s not even Sylvia Park. It’s so big that the app will give you turn by turn directions on how to get to shops. There is a waterfall inside. There is an entire aquarium inside. There’s an ice skating rink. It’s insane! It holds the worlds largest OLED screen. What a crazy place.
We needed food so eventually we found the food court. We decided that fried chicken was the way to go so got Texas Chicken. It was alright.
We then spent a while walking around the mall and checking it out. It was a good way to keep ourselves awake! We didn’t buy anything because Dubai really is an expensive place. Most things were cheaper at home! After a while we headed back to our hotel and had an early night!
Day Two
Our second day in Dubai we had decided was going to be a relax day. We didn’t really do anything other than sit by the pool, eat food, and have a bit of a walk through old town. It was a good day and a nice way to relax.
Day Three
This is our activities day! We had a desert tour booked for the afternoon which we were very excited about!
We spent most of the morning sleeping in, chilling in our room, and eating a half price lunch at the hotel bar. At 2:30pm, we were picked up in a 4WD to go out for the afternoon and evening.
We started with a drive out to a quad biking place. We had decided that we didn’t want to do the quad biking because it was quite a bit more expensive and neither of us were really that interested in it. So while the others in our car did that, we chilled in a tent-type room and drank water and juice. The people running it were super accommodating. They kept coming and asking if we were ok and if there was anything we needed. It was great!
The next thing on the list was dune bashing and camel riding! So we jumped back in the 4WD and headed into the Arabian Desert. The part of the desert we were in is known as the Empty Quarter. It is the largest continuous piece of land covered by sand in the world. We drove over sand dunes at speed and it was very exciting! We got to the camels and had a quick camel ride before getting back into the car. We headed over more dunes and the man driving kept saying “remember, the plastic bag is there if you need to vomit”. I was very glad I took anti nausea medication before going! I would have definitely needed that bag otherwise.
Our next stop in the dunes was on the top of a hill with an incredible view of the desert. The sand just goes for miles and seems like it never ends. Here we got out of the car for some photos and some sand boarding! This is like a less thrilling version of snowboarding where you just stand on a snowboard and slide down the hill. It was actually pretty fun and Miriam and I were the only ones who managed to stay on all the way down. I did it all the way first, so the Nigerian and German in our car thought I was a hero. I obviously just went with it.
Next we were back in the car and flying over sand dunes again. We made it back out to the road unscathed and we headed to “camp” where we were having dinner.
We didn’t really know what to expect with dinner. We eventually headed off the motorway and drove through what seemed like the middle of nowhere in the desert. We eventually arrived at camp which was amazing.
There was a lake surrounded by festoon lights and tent-like shelters with tables in them. You could smell the food cooking and we were offered soft drinks and water. It was very cool!
We sat down at our table and eventually were invited up to the buffet for a massive feast! There was so much food. It was incredible.
After dinner we sat down for a show where there were a couple of solo dancers and a fire breather. Obviously the fire breather was the star of the show! He was awesome to watch.
After the show we jumped back in the car and headed back to our hotel. This was such a highlight of our time in Dubai! It was awesome to be able to experience something like this.
Once at the hotel we had to pack up because we were heading to the airport at about 5am!
It’s time to go home
This trip has been incredible. We left New Zealand back on the 27th June and we have covered 17 countries since then.
England > Scotland > France > Belgium > Netherlands > Germany > Czech Republic > Austria > Hungary > Croatia > Greece > Italy > Vatican City > Switzerland > Spain > Portugal > United Arab Emirates.
There have been many highlights – particularly Croatia, Italy and Switzerland for their incredible landscapes, and London, Vienna and Florence for their incredible cityscapes. Bruges comes in top of the list for food (waffles, chocolate, fries).
There have been plenty of times when we have been exhausted and had to encourage each other out of our room to go and explore the amazing city we were in! If we were to do this again, we would definitely be planning more rest days!
We have travelled on at least 24 intercity trains. We have tried out almost every form of public transport including metro, trams, trains, buses, ferries and gondolas. We have been on 7 planes. We have walked more than 1.2 million steps and covered nearly 1000km by foot.
This trip has been an incredible time in our lives. We are hugely privileged to be able to take a trip like this and we have memories and experiences that will stay with us for the rest of our lives. We hope that one day we will be able to travel more and see more of Europe and other parts of the world, but for now we are ready to be home. We are ready to see our friends and family, and we are ready to settle back into normal life (whatever that is).
Thanks for coming on this journey with us by reading along. I’ve appreciated your emails, your social media likes & comments, and your messages with recommendations or memories of when you were at a place.
See you soon! 👋🏻
