3 flights and 21 hours

I came up with an idea, 2 days before I left, to attempt to acclimate to the time zone of Abu Dhabi while I was still at home. After my last day of work, I went to sleep for 6 hours, then stayed up all night, with a nap at around 3 am. Then back to bed around 2 pm and repeated the schedule. I managed to adjust my meal times as well and then made sure I stayed on schedule through the 3 flights over. It seems to have worked well, slept all night and didn't have my normal 4am wake up call from jet lag. I will say.... so far.

The flights went well, they just took 21 hours to complete, ugg. Not too many screaming kid and had mostly comfortable seats. On the flight from DC to Geneve, the gentleman that was supposed to sit next to me at the window decided he would find a seat in the middle of the plane to "spread out", so I got the 2 seats to myself and had a nice little bed for the overnight flight. Nicely, I woke up at 8 am AD time and was refreshed and watched a movie while the rest of the passengers slept; peaceful!

Geneve was amazing to see in the early morning light. It was cold and the Alps were grand, beautifully dressing in white. Clouds were low and danced on the peaks, hiding them for most of the visit I had in the airport. I likened the clouds to the veils across the faces of women in some areas of the middle east; just a small window allowing a glimpse into the mysterious. The brief visit and flyover, really makes me want to go back to Genenve someday and see more. It did remind me a lot of Ouray, Colorado; we do call that area "Little Switzerland".

My final flight was on Etihad Airways, what a wonderful airline. The flight attendants have the most stunning uniforms, the interiors of the planes are gorgeous, the food is fantastic and all the outer skins on the planes have an F1 logo; it's the official sponsor of the F1 race in Abu Dhabi. I had to work hard to stay awake on this flight, so I entertained myself with a couple of movies. Being inquisitive with the touch screens in front of me, I found digital boardgames, how exciting, so I played Backgammon for a couple of hours, I was in heaven. Finally, upon preparing for the landing, all the screens on the headrests were set to a live camera set on the nose of the plane. We had a birds eye view of the whole city and watched the plane land, it was fascinating.

The airport was simple to maneuver and I was awe struck by the architecture. Gorgeous tile detail and I stopped to snapped a couple of photos. I'll try to share some. I quickly found my cousin Dan and we were off into the city. It was fascinating to see all the lights, palm trees and of course, the sand! I'm excited to see the city in the day, it's mysterious to me at the moment.

To get the hang of what the Cady's do in Abu Dhabi, after a quick stop to their home and a couple of sips of the Sailor Jerry's rum I brought to them, we all headed out to neat little place for some shisha or hookah. Met a couple of the ladies that work with Lisa and just had a mellow night. Chatted about all the exciting things I could do while they are at work Wed and Thurs and then made our way home and to bed.

I'm excited to see what in is store for me here and I can't wait to share the adventures with you...

Wikipedia link about Abu Dhabi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Dhabi

The Beginning

My desire to travel and having a cousin living in the United Arab Emirates, brings to me to here, establishing a blog to tell the tale of my visit to Abu Dhabi. I can remember my cousin Dan, making a comment on his facebook page, that his wife Lisa was applying for a job in Abu Dhabi as an English teacher. I asked myself, "where is Abu Dhabi", then I kinda forgot about it. Yet, while traveling through Europe last summer, I saw posters and signs for AD all over the place, thinking to myself "Dan and Lisa live there, how cool is that?" Then, on my birthday last year, the final Formula One race of the season... yep, in Abu Dhabi! The place looked amazing, or at least the track did and most of you know, that's a huge attraction to me. That started a little bit of conversation between my cousin and I about his new home. Continuing the trail of events, when this year's season of Formula One started, one of the teams are sponsored by Abu Dhabi, to encourage ticket sales to the final race of 2010.

Upon my divorce in 2007, I had found a desire to treat myself to birthday trips. Mexico in 2007 (although it was delayed a month), San Francisco in 2008 and Las Vegas in 2009. This year, my trip has been kicked up a notch, Asia! PLUS, frosting on the cake, I'm going to the Formula One race in Abu Dhabi, and a bonus Prince concert the night of the race. Dan and Lisa are wonderfully awesome people and have welcomed me to visit them, with a enthusiastic "Dude, of course you can come visit.... you are always welcome" response when I asked back in June (I think). So, preparation has been drawn out, but I'm very excited, I have just over 2 weeks to go before I leave. November 8th is my takeoff date and November 16th I'll return.

Keep checking back to see what my adventure entail, possibly a trip to the newly opened Hard Rock Cafe in Dubai and a ride on a camel!

*side note; Asia is my 4th continent, 3 more to go, all South of the Equator, I'm excited for those too.