Dubaï – Day 01

Yesterday, no blog. It was a transition day. We just took a short walk in the afternoon (not easy with the backpacks) and Doo ate the best chicken skewers of his life. We took off late at night and arrived early this morning in Dubaï. It’s 3:30 am but outside, it feels like we’re cooking in an oven (“Imagine during the day… we’ll turn into bacon!” says Côme 😁). We had planned to sleep a bit at the airport, waiting for our hotel room to be available, but… you know… plans change. We really want to be in a comfy bed right now, so we take a night bus and head straight to the hotel. Everyone we meet is really nice here too (and everyone speaks English).

In the streets leading to our hotel, we see a lot of business cards on the floor (which is surprising since everything here is really clean). The cards are actually women in underwear with a phone number. We really didn’t expect that in Dubaï. At the hotel, the receptionist tells us we have to wait an hour and a half to get our room or pay a full night. 55€ is a bit expensive for an hour and a half so the beds will have to wait and we just sit on the lobby couches. They are comfortable though and the receptionist offers us an orange juice and gives Côme a little present: a teddy bear. Côme is the only one who’s happy and full of energy. We are tired and wonder “Where are we going to put the teddy bear? Our backpacks are full!”.

After being turned into ice cubes by the freezing air conditioning, we finally get into our room/appartment. It feels really good! The bed is HUGE! Doo can stretch his entire body in every direction, nothing protrudes! We take a 4 hours nap and ask Côme to choose from the three activities we had planned for the day. Of course, he chooses the dinosaure park. We check the schedule on the internet… No luck, the park is closed for maintenance… Thankfully, it will reopen during the week, so we’ll go later. We then choose to go to the museum of the future (“What is the future?” Côme asks – “It’s tomorrow…”). But once again, we are out of luck. You can only go there if you book tickets online and there are no more tickets until Septembre 19th (we’ll be leaving Dubaï on the 18th). We are all upset. This museum is unique in the world and we really wanted to go there… We don’t know what to do. Côme negociates an hour of swimming pool and we decide to go to the museum nonethess. We’re hoping we’ll be able to buy tickets there.

The metro station next to the hotel is incredible, all decorated in the theme of the sea. There are pictures on the walls, wave patterns, even jellyfish lamps. It’s gorgeous! And when we arrive at the museum, it’s incredible too! The corridor, the hall, the stairs, the elevators, the machines we can see… it feels we’re in the future already! Doo goes to the counter with Côme (we had told him to look really sad in order to convince more easily:). The man tells us it’s impossible to have tickets before Septembre 19th, but Doo insists (“I’ve been telling him about this museum for months”… “We won’t ever come back…”, “Isn’t there a way?”, “None?”, “Please…”). After begging for a few minutes the man accepts to sell us 3 tickets for the 16th. We are delighted!!! We celebrate, have our first family hug. We enjoy the moment and stay in the hall of the museum for a while. We follow the “beluga” robot flying in the sky (Côme even touches it), Julia has the parfumerie of the future create 3 fragrances according to her personality (she misses her parfume, it didn’t fit into the 7kg backpack), we take pictures of this incredible building. We are really looking forward to the 16th!!

After a good hour, we finally head towards the third activity we had planned for the day: Dubaï Frame (a gigantic frame). It is a landmark so weird we thought we’d do it. When we reach the frame, Côme panics knowing we are going up. He is afraid to walk on the seethrough glass. We reassure him and get to the top. And there, it’s really awesome! Côme is a bit fearful at first, but then he runs and even jumps on the glass floor. We stay there for a while to enjoy the view and we head to the park. We have never seen such a playground for kids. It’s already getting late so we head back home. Côme plays with fountains, we go to the grocery store. It was a long day but we’re all impressed by Dubaï so far and can’t wait for our next adventures in this city.

Today, Côme:
Did not understand: why the pedestrian green light is so fast you don’t have time to cross the street.
Learnt: that there were robots that could fly in the air without any strings or cables.
Enjoyed: going to the park and watching kids laugh in a mini bus.
Laughed: in front of Lilo and Stitch, when Stitch throws a book to a man’s face.

Julia:
Did not understand: how people can live all year long with this heat.
Learnt: that you had to book the museum of the future way ahead.
Loved: the subway station and the family hug after being able to get tickets for the museum.

Doo:
Did not understand: the “business” cards on the flood.
Learnt: that a machine that created a perfume according to your personality existed.
Loved: the family hug and when Côme fought his fear and went to the top of the frame.