At the Emirates

After all the stress with the flight from Istanbul we arrived in the morning in Sharjah and got invited by a beautiful sunrise. Too bad that it is forbidden to take pictures at the airport.
We got on a bus to get into the centre of the city, Bernd wanted to look out of the window and see the desert passing by, but he was so tired that he felt asleep. A few minutes before we had to leave the bus I woke him up and we left the bus on a random street. We still did not have a place to stay at and needed to make some online booking.
So first mission was to find a WiFi.
During our search for a place with a WiFi or an open WiFi we arrived at a small fort, looking like the old Arabic forts, it's located in the centre of city, so it felt kind of weird. We both wanted to get inside, but there were some construction works going on.

The next interesting place we saw, was the heart of Sharjah. An area built like the old Arabic style, also called the Sharjah heritage area. The buildings are very beautiful and we both liked it a lot, so we walked through the area and enjoyed seeing that ancient looking place. For sure we knew that it was not the original, only a reconstruction.

We left the area still in need of finding a place to stay at. There was no bar with WiFi or another open WiFi so we went into a travel agency and asked the guy working there if he might help us. And he did, lucky travelers. He gave us access to one of the computers and also gave us hints about the places we were looking at. And we found a good place, not far away and at a place we already knew, a hostel in the heritage area. A great place to stay at with a good location.

Now got a place to stay, everything great. Now start explorations, there is still a lot of time left. We went to the harbour area, took a look at the Sharjah court at the other side and were sure that it might take hours to get there unless we jump into the water and swim.

In the harbour were a lot of old ships, called Dhows. Every ship looked different and they are not only ships for fishing and transport, the owners also live on this ships. For us it felt interesting the way the people live here and could imagine living the same way.

Along the bay we got to a bazaar, with a lot closed shops, still the Islamic holidays making it big different then it was supposed to be. At least the place was not to crowded and we could walk around without being asked to buy something.

From there we walked to a skyscraper with blue windows letting it look like crystals, well and that was the big plan and also the name for this place, the Crystal Plaza. Inside the plaza it was rather cold after being outside during noon. Also inside Bernd found a new car he wanted to keep and make a trip with it.

After leaving the Crystal Plaza we went across the next bridge and walked along the busy street, it felt like every cap passing by wanted to offer us a ride to somewhere, but we were not interested, also there was no need. On the other side we arrived at flag island, the only thing there is a huge flag pole and the flag of the Emirates.

Every step from there brought us closer to the skyscrapers and also to the border between Sharjah and Dubai. It was already afternoon when we arrived there and sunset was not far away. Sunset is rather early down here.

We kept on walking along the skyscrapers and found a good place in a park to relax and enjoy seeing the sunset. It was a real great view we got.

On our way back to the hostel we passed by at a beautiful mosque, the lighting made it look even more beautiful. This time we did not plan to go into the mosque, especially because it was praying time and we did not want to disturb or offend anyone.

We were almost starving on our way back and it was not easy to find something to eat. Well we did not go into a restaurants, we were more interested in getting something in a small food place at the street. And most of them only served western food, but we found a small one not far away from our hostel serving tasty Shawarma, for both of us it was the first time we were eating it and we liked it a lot.
I think you know what happened when we got back to the hostel, Bernd got to bed and felt asleep, well we missed some sleep after having this overnight flight. Because I met some friendly travelers in the inner yard of the hostel I did not join him and had some good conversations, well also we decided to get into the area where the night life takes place and went to a bar, coming back late.

For the next day we had the good idea to get together with one of these guys to get on a desert safari, but the guys did not show up for the pickup and after calling them several times they told us that they already left for today, at least we did not pay anything. So we changed the plan, we decided to go to Dubai spending the day in the centre.
We were a small group going on this trip, a guy from Pakistan, a guy from New York, guy from Poland, Bernd and me. We never had a big group like that before. First Bernd did not like the idea and was very shy, but after a while he warmed up and had a lot of fun with us.
In Dubai we got to see inside the mall an ice rink and watched the people scaring, Bernd also wanted to try it but after coming closer to the ice he changed his mind, he was to afraid to fall on the cold surface.

Because the mall is not only used for shopping we got to see a lot more different things. Like a big aquarium with millions of fishes in it. It was also possible to walk through a tunnel and take a closer look, but for some strange ideas they charge a not realistic amount of money for a tunnel which is only about fifty metres long. And from outside the view was already great.

Another interesting thing was a waterfall inside the mall, with statues looking like the silver surfer on it. Or did only we get that idea ?

To not only spent the time in the mall we went outside to the Dubai fountain. The fountain is a big artificial lake, and every thirty minutes they make there a fountain show with great lighting and fitting music.

Also outside we got to see a very tiny building, the Burj Khalifa. It's currently the highest building in the world and Bernd got already high sick looking at it. I was only thinking how great the view from up there would be.

At the end it may have been better going to Dubai instead of getting into the desert, maybe we manage to get there later or on a different place.

 And we could see that the people here a so rich that they also cover their camels with gold.