One of the biggest events this year was our move from Abu Dhabi to Dubai. Frenchie and I stayed in our little beach shack in Abu Dhabi for 9 months, all the while counting days until we could move somewhere else. Anywhere, really, but there. Technically we should have stayed in AD for a year, given that we paid our rent in advance, but for sure I would have lost my mind if we did. Now I know that the line between sanity and insanity is a whooping 18,000 dirhams.
I totally get why everyone I know in Dubai doesn't want to leave and why we should have come here in the first place. For one, there is never a lack of entertainment in Dubai Marina: beach, numerous cafes and restaurants, bars and clubs, the breeze marina.. Even grocery shopping can be done on foot!
In comparison (no, there is no comparison), all we could do in Abu Dhabi was stay cooped in the house, completely voluntarily. A meal out in Abu Dhabi requires serious mental preparation to want to sit in traffic, then look for virtually non-existent parking in the city just to finally give up and leave the car far away, then take a smelly and crazy Peshawar-style cab to our date - sounds exotic the first 3 times!
Surprisingly, at times this seemed like a better option than to stay in the shack that was filled with aroma of our Indian and Arabic neighbors' dinners. One at a time perhaps would have smelled nice, but a combo deal that we had going? No, thank you.
Oh, the big upgrade - we actually have a stove in our new apartment, adios microwave dinners! (Courtesy of our subdivided villa that didn't have wiring for a stove. Such fond memories.)
I totally get why everyone I know in Dubai doesn't want to leave and why we should have come here in the first place. For one, there is never a lack of entertainment in Dubai Marina: beach, numerous cafes and restaurants, bars and clubs, the breeze marina.. Even grocery shopping can be done on foot!
In comparison (no, there is no comparison), all we could do in Abu Dhabi was stay cooped in the house, completely voluntarily. A meal out in Abu Dhabi requires serious mental preparation to want to sit in traffic, then look for virtually non-existent parking in the city just to finally give up and leave the car far away, then take a smelly and crazy Peshawar-style cab to our date - sounds exotic the first 3 times!
Surprisingly, at times this seemed like a better option than to stay in the shack that was filled with aroma of our Indian and Arabic neighbors' dinners. One at a time perhaps would have smelled nice, but a combo deal that we had going? No, thank you.
Oh, the big upgrade - we actually have a stove in our new apartment, adios microwave dinners! (Courtesy of our subdivided villa that didn't have wiring for a stove. Such fond memories.)
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| From this.. |
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| to this! |
