Dubai part Deux

How's it going?
We're really glad we're not in NY right now with this weather; seems like you guys are not getting a break in the East Coast.
Well, we been getting hit with some storms out here too; Sandstorms.
You know is not a good sign when you're sitting outside on a nice restaurant over looking the Grand Mosque, and then it gets cloudy, and suddenly it seems like the Mosque is slowly disappearing in front of you and then the Waiter comes in and says "Excuse me, you need to go inside because there's a sandstorm coming in from Dubai and we need to close the outdoor area. You can stay here but there will be lots of sand on your food." Now there's something you don't hear often !!
That was last Friday and since then there's been a couple more, all-day ones ! Its not like in the movies where this huge wave of sand comes at you its more like imagine a rainy day when its cloudy and its drizzling all day, well its the same. Its cloudy and very windy and there's this constant fine-grain sand in the air and all over.




Now imagine the WHOLE day being like that ! I'll take a rainy day over this any day.

Last week we went back to Dubai. Made was attending this huge conference; by huge I mean a conference with 65,000 attendees ! and of course I tagged along.
While Made was doing work I was out there checking the city (which mainly means visiting Malls !).
I got to check out the Mall of the Emirates. Famous all over the world for its internal Ski Park which I got to check out.





I also got to check out the train.




The train by the way was somehow pricey considering they don't really need the money. They charged me like 2 US Dollars for like 5 stops. Of course this may not sound like a lot for New Yorkers but don't forget that in NYC with one fare you can go from Washington Heights to Far Rockaway !
Train was obviously SUPER CLEAN.


I also managed to find my favorite junk food spot in Dubai ! Thank God they dont have em' here in AD.


Some more pics :

new year and stuff..

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!
Damm, Im a little late. Sorry.

So, New Years in Rome; it was a blast. Cold, but a blast!
We had a great time; our great friend Nicola invited us to a friends house to spend New Years Eve and in a low key hangout with an amazing feast!
I barely made it to dessert which included Tiramisu AND ice cream, there was so much food that I had to "hang the gloves" at dessert. Now you might say "well, you made it to the end then?" Wrong, I did say that we were at an Italian home, right? It doesn't end at the dessert, at least not on New Year's Eve. We were supposed to also eat the traditional New Year's dishes like a cake from the South (Naples) and this delicious lentil soup from further South, I mean there was A LOT OF FOOD. After the New Years Hugs and Kisses I was (embarrassingly) passing out in a couch.
The next couple of days were filled with even more food and some shopping with our good friend (and blog reader) Erwin, who joined us in Rome from Chicago.
It was chilly in Rome, not that cold but when you go from Abu Dhabi, it feels very cold.
The city was PACKED with tourists, but it was still great, its Rome.

Since all three had been there before and both Erwin and Made had lived in Italy before we decided to skip most of the tourist spots and just turn the trip into a food, drinks, and shopping trip; and I can say that we succeeded.
I actually put up about 3 lbs, that's a little more than a Kilo !! but we had a great time.

We got back on a late flight with a stop-over in Doha (by the way NOT feeling Doha airport). When we got to Abu Dhabi it was about 3 am, and there was a fog like I have never seen fog.
I've heard about the fog here and I always thought that people were exaggerating, but they weren't. At times (I'm not exaggerating) you couldn't see 10 meters in front of you, or about 2 cars distance, so we were driving extremely slow on a highway ! Then our driver got lost and we could barely read the street signs (they're also in English) but eventually we got home safe, thank God.

This Monday we head to Dubai for a couple of days. Made has a conference there and I tagged along, so hopefully I'll get to see more of Dubai.

We're also planning a long weekend in Oman. Its only an hour flight and its suppose to be very cool.

Other than that everything is good and we hope is as good for you all.

I guess is not too late to wish you all a super awesome 2011 filled with happiness, health, love and all the good stuff that your heart desires !

peace !

Some Italy Pics at the link below
PICS !