Day 19: Jumeirah Beach

Once again, greetings from Kuwait! 

After an incredible weekend in Dubai, I'm back in the Holiday Inn Salmiya. Today was a lot of fun, as I ventured out with a few other members of the group to Jumeirah Beach, a public beach about 10 minutes outside of city center. It was absolutely beautiful, and the water was so warm! This was actually a little frustrating, though, because it was so incredibly hot in the sun. There is no such thing as cooling off by taking a dip in Dubai, that's for sure. Unfortunately - don't be too disappointed, Mom - I got very sunburnt. I wore sunscreen, but was clearly not careful enough. Hopefully it will turn to tan. Just kidding, that's definitely not going to happen. Oh well! I had fun, so that's what matters. The beaches are absolutely beautiful, and it was a great time. 

The bright, beautiful beach!

Later in the evening, we arrived at the Dubai Airport and found our gate without many issues, but there's just one thing I have to mention. After I went through security and was getting my things together, I noticed a man holding a cell phone up, looking like he was going to take a picture. We made eye contact, and he motioned at me to smile. I did, not realizing what was going on, and he snapped my picture and walked away! How weird is that?! I have no idea where that picture is going to end up, but I'm slightly frightened. I've gotten somewhat used to people taking my picture and staring at me in Kuwait, but I never expected to encounter the same thing in Dubai. 

Overall, I really loved Dubai. It is an incredible city that has really done a great job with modernizing itself into a real economic and tourist attraction. However, this is also probably the most expensive city I've ever visited. Absolutely everything costs money, and nothing is cheap, or even reasonable for that matter. I recommend that anyone who travels to Dubai makes peace with the fact that you're going to spend way more money than you want to, before you arrive in the UAE. If you do that, you'll have a great time! There is so much to do here, and I'm bummed we were only here for 2 days.

I had a fun time at the visa counter in the Kuwait airport...I met someone who was wearing a Chicago White Sox hat who I later found out was from the South Side of Chicago. I told him I was a Cubs fan, and it was fun to experience that joking all the way over here in Kuwait. He was on his way back to Chicago and had been in Afghanistan since 2009. I'm not exactly sure what he was doing there, but I can't imagine being away for so long. He seemed so excited to finally be going home. 

Well, now starts the final stretch on this crazy adventure! I'm so ready to enjoy my last 6 days in the Middle East!