Dubizzle

A month ago we found out about an opportunity for us to move to Dubai with Ram's company.  A few weeks later, Ram accepted and last week we went for our looksee.  The last time I went to Dubai, it was 2007, and so much has changed since then so it felt like I was visiting a new city.  

If I had to describe Dubai in one word, it would be luxurious. If I had to compare it to a city, it would be Vegas.  The architecture and decor in the buildings and hotels (all of which are 5-star quality) are gorgeous.  I felt underdressed walking around in my black sun dress, tory burch sandals and purse.  Everywhere you turn people are decked out in their finest. I couldn't turn a corner without bumping into a Fendi/Gucci/Louis Vuitton strutting person. Dubai is not good for my shop-a-holic tendencies. 

Hanging out at the Mall is the cool thing to do.  It's no longer just a hang out for teens who cannot go the bars/clubs.  It's where you get good food (my ex-pat friends can appreciate this: Shake Shak, PF Changs, Cheesecake Factory, Popeyes to name a few), book city tours, visit the underwater aquarium, go grocery shopping, and enjoy indoor skiing. The shopping is amazing in Dubai, all my friends are here: Fendi, Gucci, Burberry, but it's 20-30% MORE expensive than the US. Congratulations Ram, you finally found a way to curb this addiction of mine.  

They also have freeways and normal sized driving lanes and drive thrus! Oh, how I've missed the convenience of the drive thru. This idea is severely underrated in Europe. I will probably gain 10 pounds re-acquainting myself with Wendy's and Burger King but I know I'll sweat it out walking from my front door to my car. The heat combined with the big city factor make me nervous to make the transition from Aberdeen to Dubai, but I know we're moving in the right direction.  Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Malaysia, I've got my sights on you.  

But sadly my love affair with bonnie Scotland is coming to an end. I will definitely miss living in a city with four seasons, castles and nothing but countryside.  Not to mention our amazing ex-pat friends, all of which have made Aberdeen feel like home.  I feel very lucky to have met all of you and will miss you on this new adventure.  We hope you visit:) Now hurry back from all of your vacations so we can maximize our last few months here! 

 

 

Kunal's visit: Bayou City to Granite City

After Munich we all flew back to the 'Deen.  The next day, Ram flew out to New Orleans for work and Kunal and I went to Edinburgh. This was my 3rd time in Edinburgh but I love the city and was determined to see/do new things this time. During the day we walked around some familiar spots and this time I finally went into the Edinburgh Castle to see the Crown Jewels. I think I had very high expectations because I was disappointed when I saw them.  Oh well. The views from the towers were awesome. We ended our night by eating at Bon Vivant and had a few beers at 99 Hanover.

The next day we flew to Dublin.  This was a first for both of us.  Ram, of course, was not happy to miss out on this adventure.  Maybe you should quit that pesky job of yours that's getting in the way of all our travel:) Our first stop was the Guinness Storehouse.  We toured the 7 story building and ended up at the top floor with panoramic views of the city while sipping gulping down a pint.  I have to say, I've never been a fan of guinness but the minute I tasted it in Dublin, I was hooked.  There was no bitterness! I also learned some interesting facts. The beer contains a large amount of iron and only in Ireland will anemic pregnant women get a prescription to drink guinness.  Now I know where I'll be going for my future babymoon! I also found out why I don't like guinness anywhere else in the world.  In Dublin, the factory sends employees to all the pubs to clean out the kegs weekly.  This means we get the freshest pour of guinness every time.

If it's poured correctly, you don't let it fill up completely and wait for it to change color before topping it off

Top me off please! 

Top Floor Guinness Storehouse

Our second (and last) day in Dublin we did a bike tour and were joined by my good friend Jillian and her guests, Faye and Donna.  I hadn't been on a bike in years and the constant stop/start made me an uneasy rider.  But I didn't fall:) Overall I liked the sights that we saw but Dublin felt like just another big city.  I'm hoping to venture out to the countryside next time.  But I'm enjoying these unconventional ways of touring a city.

A notable sight: this used to be a leper colony.  When they added these poles to memorialize the area, you know that saying, "I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole!" That originated here. 

Harp Bridge or as our tour guide would call it, "stiffy of the iffy." The harp is a symbol of the region and Guinness adopted it as their logo

U2 was here

After biking for a few hours we indulged in our first pint of the day.  The neighborhoods in Dublin are not the most creative, we stayed at the Temple Bar Hotel, in the Temple Bar area, and drank at Temple Bar (not the hotel bar).  It didn't matter because every pub had live music and there's nothing like a pint of guinness and live music at the end of the night.

The day we flew back to Aberdeen, the sun was showing off so we dropped off our stuff and caught the next train to Stonehaven (another must see).  Dunnotar Castle is simply breathtaking under the glow of the sun.  I'm sad that this is my 3rd and last time there.  This was the 1st castle I saw in Scotland and it will always hold a special place in my heart.

On Friday, we ventured out to Inverness, 2 hours west of Aberdeen in search of the Lochness Monster.  Though we didn't see Nessie (and I highly doubt she exists), we took a boat tour over the lake which is 42 degrees (6 degrees Celsius) all year long.  The boat dropped us off at Urquart Castle  which has a rich history dating back to the 15th century.

Never seen a complete rainbow before! This has to be good luck. 

The next day, Saturday, we finally got a chance to sleep in and be lazy.  That night was our fall social for my ex-pat org, where Nary Pena and I, my partner in crime, put on a sports themed bowling event for 50 people! It was a hit, and I'm getting tired of writing (and if you've read this far, congratulations, you're almost done) so you can read her blog about it here.  Next up we have our Thanksgiving Potluck Dinner, a Holiday Shopping event & a Christmas Luncheon to close out the year.


Now I just want to stay put for the next few weeks! But that will not be happening folks.  I know, you all hate me.  Next week, Dubai is calling....

Oktoberfest

The minute we found out we were moving to Aberdeen, the first thing we did was book our hotel for Oktoberfest.  It's been on my bucket list for years and it was going on the weekend before Ram's birthday, so it was a no-brainer. I wish it would have been just as easy to get tickets to a tent. I kept reading that they sell tent tickets in May.  On May 1st my stalking began.  Day after day it said tickets will be sold in May.  In mid-May I finally emailed the Hippodrome Tent (this is one of the most famous tents and one of the larger ones) and they responded that they will start selling tickets at the end of May.  May 31st rolls around and the site says tickets are not on sale yet.  I checked 3 different times on this day.  After persistently checking the site daily, on June 3rd I looked and they were SOLD OUT.  How could they do that to me?! I frantically tried to email other tents for availability and just when I was about to curl up in a ball and cry, Ram found a tent that had tickets available for Saturday night at 6:30pm with a live band.  It's important to have tickets because that guarantees you a seat and when you have a seat, you get served.  Otherwise you are SOL.  Phew, at least on Saturday night we were golden! Or so we thought.  More on that later....

Luckily our hotel was a 2 min walk away from the grounds.  The minute we walked in we were surrounded by carnival rides, food stands with schnitzels, bratwurst, ice cream and beer.  Row after row of beer tents. This was like the rodeo on steroids (and my happy place for the weekend). Each tent sold beer from a different brewery in Munich.  Only beers that are brewed in Munich are allowed to be sold at Oktoberfest.

Bucket List, check! 

Wish we could've gone in there....

One of the many types of rides...

We lucked out and got into the Löwenbräu tent on Friday night. After 30 min of trying to find an open spot at a table (and trying to get past the language barrier), this guy indicated to me that if we stand near his table the waitress will serve you. I was skeptical at first but when she came by he nudged me over and a glorious 10 minutes later we were sipping on these bad boys: 

That first sip of beer tasted SO good.  Though we ended up standing the whole time, we chugged 3 of those beers (each) in no time.  Sufficiently intoxicated, we agreed to go on a carnival ride at my brother's request. Needless to say that didn't go over too well with somebody's stomach, but I won't call anyone out (it wasn't me). 

The next day, I decided I needed to take it easy to I stayed back in the room.  After all we wouldn't need to spend hours looking for a spot in a tent because we had reservations at night! My brother and Ram went ahead and bonded over a few more beers.  As 5pm rolled around, I got up and changed back into by dirndl (a traditional dress that all the girls wore, which I had courtesy of my friend Nary).  Tent tickets in hand, we proudly walked through the festival IN THE RAIN in search of our tent.  Of course we weren't prepared for rain, but we were on a mission. About 20 min into our search and officially soaked, we started asking people if they knew where the tent was located.  Sure enough the language barrier grew increasingly frustrating as people pointed in opposite directions, "it's 100 meters that way," or "its on the other side of the row."  It was now 6:30pm and we had 30 min to find our tent or we would lose our reservation.  Half-frozen and sopping wet, I pulled out my trusty iphone to look up the tent.  And there it was in black and white, "This tent is actually in the city centre, 30 minutes away from Oktoberfest." NEIN!!!!!! How did we miss that when we booked?! Oh I know, it's because we were so happy to find a tent that was available we just assumed...well you know what they say what happens when you assume something.  So we dragged our wet asses back to our hotel, changed and partied it up in the lobby.  It was still the best weekend ever and I wouldn't have changed any part of it! 

!Madrid!

After our relaxing stay in the Canaries, we flew to Madrid.  I was suddenly reminded that our sun tanning days were over as we stepped out into 50 degree weather.  Well at least I got some Vitamin D to last me the next few months (I hope)!

Madrid is a big city and we stayed in the city centre with all the action.  There was even a huge billboard that reminded me of Times Square.  We spent our first day just walking around and soaking up the energy.  We ended up at the San Miguel Mercado which was tapas heaven, seriously.  This market had rows and rows of stalls with different companies selling wine, cheese, seafood & dessert.  It was so fun grabbing a glass of wine from one stall and walking around to sample good eats.  Such a great idea! Wonder why there aren't more of these in the world.

Having a glass of wine on the top floor of the Hotel

Tapas Heaven! 

These are just a few of many stalls that we saw

Our second (and last) day, we scheduled a segway tour.  It was such a great way to tour the city in a non-traditional way.  It turned out Scotland was representing that day because our tour guide and the other couple were all from Scotland! Felt like home:) We saw some really great stuff. There are way too many pictures to share so will have to send them out later. Madrid is such a beautiful city and I wish we had one more day there to explore but alas Munich was calling our name....

Las Palmas Gran Canaria

The last 2 weeks have been a whirlwind of travel.  Our first stop, Las Palmas Gran Canaria, seems so long ago! We decided to forgo city life in the Canaries and stayed at a resort on the beach. The resort had everything we needed at the tip of our fingers.  Want a massage? Downstairs.  Want to lay out at the beach? Have a seat.  Want to play pool? Sure!

View from our room

Cove near our hotel

I was hesitant to stay at the resort for 4 nights.  4 nights seemed so long to do a whole lotta nothing.  But Ram quickly reminded me that this is a vacation for him and he wants to relax.  Wait, why am I complaining?! Being a house wife is tiring too y'all. So we spent our days working on our tan and played some games.

Cava welcome drink.  I love how they think here...

I won!

Once or twice we actually peeled ourselves off the lounge chairs and walked around to other areas of the beach.  We were pleasantly surprised when we stumbled upon this Tex-Mex restaurant. Just a reminder for all you tex-mex eating jerks, I’ve managed to survive 6 months without this delicacy (yes it's achieved delicacy status because it's a rare find) so the minute I saw this place, I made a beeline for a table.  Nachos and Fajitas por favor, oh and Margaritas para dos! Gracias!!! (I do know Spanish!). And I have to say, it was not bad. Not bad at all.

So cute! 

We also came across a group of restaurants where they had dancers entertain guests at night in the center of the square.  As we walked past, I heard the Gypsy Kings and couldn’t help but stop and watch.  Here’s a little clip for your viewing pleasure:

On our last day, we decided to check out Palmitas Park which housed animals from all over Africa and even held a Dolphin show.  The Park was in the mountainy area which meant that we had to hike to see some of these beautiful creatures, but it was well worth it.  Of course my camera died halfway through but here are some of my fav shots:

These Meerkats were such posers! Very cute creatures...

Flaminco! I'm very proud I captured this...

Hilltop view

Dolphin stadium and show.  Saw some really neat tricks including the videos below

In hindsight, I'm SO glad we had those days to relax because everything since then has been GO, Go, go.  Next stop (and blog) !Madrid! But that will have to wait till tomorrow.  I need to go wake my brother up so we can enjoy his last few days here.