A Whirwind Weekend in Abu Dhabi

I recently went for a weekend trip to see my amazing littlest sister Francesca, who bravely to the plunge to move to another country and see what life is like somewhere new. Embarrassingly for me she has been out there over 18 months before I managed a trip!

Lovely pic from the plane showing the curvature of the earth!

But we packed SO much into a short trip! I arrived on the Thursday night and we immediately got ready (with the help of a bottle of Prosecco and some Duty Free Rum of course!) and proceeded to go Mad, THE nightclub to go to in Abu Dhabi where Nelly was supposed to have been making an appearance (unfortunately he cancelled).

Me and my beautiful sister getting ready to go on the razzle

Early (but not too early) the next day we were on a boat laden with food and beverages and were heading for a secluded spot in the ocean with a beautiful sandy beach. We met up with a few other boats there and had a lovely day chilling in the warm clear sea until the sun went down.

Chilling on the boat after the sun went down

The next day we were up early to go to have High Tea at Emirates Palace. Now this is how the other half live. The Palace was exquisite. Beautifully decorated, clean and the service was impeccable. I had a Gold Leaf Coffee which was smooth and strong and looked beautiful.

That's what a £20 cup of coffee looks like

For food we decided to go for a mixed plate of local food which included Hummus, Olives, Dips and Local Pastries. I also had to tag onto the order 24ct Gold Sweet Potato Fries which were out of this WORLD! Super crispy on the outside, perfectly cooked in the middle with a dusting of Gold Leaf, which was completely unnecessary but decadent and gorgeous nonetheless.

Gold Leaf Sweet Potato Fries - the fries to which all fries will now be measured!

For pudding we shared some Scones, which are a hard thing to get wrong, a living in the West Country now I find myself a bit of a connoisseur of this sweet treat. These though, were the best scones i had ever eaten. They were so light and the perfect size and came with a delicious selection of Jams, Clotted Cream (from Devon!) and Lemon Curd.

I was well and truly stuffed after that but we had no time to sit around and let our food digest! It was back to the apartment for a quick change because we were off to a Desert Safari! We were picked up by our guide who was so lovely and taken Dune Bashing (terrifying and simultaneously hilarious), to a Camel Farm, then off to a camp for some delicious traditional food, Arabic coffee, Shisha, Belly Dancing and a camel ride! It was certainly a day to remember!

I love this picture I took of the desert at dusk

When we got back we went out for Tea and a Shisha in a local Mall which was delicious! They served a Green Tea with Mint in an exrravagant silver tea pot and my sister recommended a grape and mint flavour Shisha (dont smoke kids - it's not cool).

Sunday morning was another early rise as my sister wanted to show me Dubai and the WORLDS LARGEST SHOPPING MALL! Wow - I thought I knew shopping but this was something else!

apparently i forgot to take any photos from inside the Mall! so here we are in the car. In Dubai. *face palm*

Once we had had a good LONG walk around, which included seeing a huge aquarium, waterfalls, spas and every brand of shop and designer you can think of from all over the world (and didnt see a fraction of it) we headed back to catch the picturesque mosque in Abu Dhabi by dusk.

We had to wear an Abaya to enter the mosque as our hair, shoulders and knees had to be covered, and in fact it was really comfortable! The mosque was an amazing realisation of what human kind can make possible. It was truly awe inspiring!

After this we went to dinner and then unfortunately my weekend came to an end. My flight was delayed by 3 hours! But I got chatting to a thoroughly lovely chap and we kept the conversation going nearly the 7 hours home as well! I always say, a stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet! All in all a bloody fabulous few days!