On April 30th was my birthday. I had to figure out how to get from Muscat to Nizwa that day so I posted in the group on facebook the night before if anybody was travelling that way and could take me. Prem from India replied to me that he was going the same way and he would pick me up from my host's place in the morning. I offered to pay him but he refused because he had a fuel card from the company. We left Muscat around 9am and we had to hurry to Nizwa because I had to continue travelling to UAE the same day. We drove there 2 hours and I admired the landscape, the road was surrounded by mountains which were dry and without vegetation. You can watch the video here.
When we arrived in Nizwa we went immediately to visit the fort. Nizwa fort is one of the oldest forts in Oman. It was built in 1650's while its underlying structure goes back to the 12th century.



The fort is fascinating with a great view on palm plantations and mountains. When I walked there remembered the game Prince of Persia.                                                 

After visting the fort we met Rommel from couchsurfing. He was from Philippines but he worked in Oman. Prem had to go back to Muscat because of his job but I went to Rommel's flat. We talked and he prepared rice and chicken, it was very tasty. He had two cats. I wanted to visit the city but he didn't want to go out because the temperature reached 38°C that day. It was around 15:30 when we went out to look for a bus which would take me to UAE. We went to several bus ticket offices but everywhere we were told that there were no bus from Nizwa to UAE and I would have to go back to Muscat. I couldn't afford going back because I didn't have enough time so I decided to hitch-hike to UAE. Rommel was strongly against it and recommended me to take a bus to Muscat. I waited until he left and then I went to the road and hitch-hiked. Drivers were obviously not used to seeing hitch-hikers in this part of the world, two of them stopped and asked me for money to take me to Emirates which I refused. Finally a guy Youssef stopped and took me around 10 km to a highway. He was nice and he told me to be careful because when it was dark people became bad. He asked me why I didn't take a private car with a driver to UAE and I told him that I had no money. Then he gave me 5 Omani Rials which is nearly 11 Eur and dropped me on a highway. I got a lot of attention there and soon after a couple stopped and asked me where I need to go. They said they were going to Bahla which was around 30km far away but it was on the way to Emirates so they took me. The couple was around my age but they didn't speak English much and they didn't pay any attention to me. There was loud music playing in the car and I didn't even attempt to talk to them as they showed absolutely no interest in me. They stopped in Bahla and while I was just dragging out my suitcase of the car another driver pulled over. His name was Ahmed and he was 27 from Badiya. He said he was going to Emirates for work. He took me Al Ain which is on the border. He was apparently very delighted about his hitch-hiker but he didn't speak English well therefore he used a translator in his phone. He was typing while the car was speeding on the highway. We were driving over 100 km/h and several times I was scared that we would drive out of the road. I just prayed that we didn't crash. We drove through a storm and then Ahmed stopped to buy me a cup of a tea and a thin pancake with cheese. I heard strange noise from the back of the car and he showed me a box with two small rabbits. He told me their mother was killed by a cat and he was going to give them as a present for his small son.

We crossed the border and Ahmed said that he would continue driving to Abu Dhabi the following day because he wanted to stop overnight in Al Ain to visit his family there. I was invited too but I couldn't stay because I had to continue to Abu Dhabi the same day. There was a bus after 9pm and it costed 25 dirhams. I got to Abu Dhabi at 23:30 and I sent SMS to my host Shady from Palestine. I waited in front of a shopping mall and he picked me up there. 

We went to the sea and we took photos with the buildings illuminated at night.

Then we went home and I went to sleep soon because I was tired after spending all day travelling.