On Monday 1st May in the morning we went to visit Abu Dhabi. Firstly Shady took me to Emirates palace which is a luxurious hotel. We entered and admired its grandiose lobby and spiral staircase.

We couldn't enter firstly because Shady was wearing shorts and the guards didn't let us in. He had to go home to change. I also wore revealing clothes but it wasn't a problem.

Although it was a hot day the sky was cloudy. We went to visit Umm Al Emarat Park with a botanic garden. Then we spent some hours on the beach, the water was around 27°C. We should have hurried up because my flight from Dubai was departing after 7pm but Shadi told me that we had enough time to visit also Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. It is the largest mosque in the country made of marble stone and gold. It was decorated with carpets and huge chandeliers. You can watch the video here.

Unfortunately we lost too much time while visiting the mosque and it was 5pm when we left. Shady still thought that we would make it on time but we got stuck in a traffic jam in Dubai. I saw sunset from the highway at Burj Al Arab and the panorama of skyscrapers which make Dubai's skyline impressive. I phoned my mother and told her that I was going to miss my flight. We arrived at the airport more than one hour after my flight departed. I wouldn't really mind missing my flight and prolonging holidays but the problem was that I was supposed to start a new job in Prague the following day and I didn't know if the new employer was willing to wait for my return. As they were willling to wait for me my start date at a new job was postponed by two weeks. 

When we got to the airport it was evident that there was nothing we could do and we left. I didn't want to take another flight the following day so I bought later another flight ticket for Friday afternoon.

We had to go back to Abu Dhabi but before we went for dinner in Dubai to the Yemeni Zam Zam restaurant. We ordered fish and rice and the food was juicy and very tasty. We returned to Abu Dhabi late at night and on Tuesday Shady took me on a desert trip to Liwa oasis.