I have got the visa now :) It is pink and all :D
Stopover in Munich was nice - 14h beauty sleep took care of my sleep deprivation very nicely. Now to breakfast and then back to airport and off to Dubai I go!
(dea is dancing.... and singing in the shower :-P)
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Stopover in Munich
I have no clue what the deal with the visa is. For now the the flight has been rescheduled and postponed for 24 hours - meaning, I get to spend the night in Munich :) I'm staying in a beautiful village close to the airport. It is total spring here, temperature outside is +5C, sun is shining and the birds are singing so loud that one can't hear his/her own thoughts. It is nice here.
Airport is wonderful as well, wireless does cost and is quite expensive, but at least it is available in quite big part of the airport (as I discovered by accident).
News about the visa is that it will be approved tomorrow morning at 7:30, my flight leaves at 14:25 so there should be plenty of time to get the documents across and figured out. My friend in Dubai has pulled quite many strings and gotten things stirred up quite a bit as I understand. Will hear the full story once I get there - all efforts are much appreciated!
Sleepless night is doing it's trick and I'm falling asleep as I'm typing here so I'll just go to sleep. More updated tomorrow. Tadaa!
Airport is wonderful as well, wireless does cost and is quite expensive, but at least it is available in quite big part of the airport (as I discovered by accident).
News about the visa is that it will be approved tomorrow morning at 7:30, my flight leaves at 14:25 so there should be plenty of time to get the documents across and figured out. My friend in Dubai has pulled quite many strings and gotten things stirred up quite a bit as I understand. Will hear the full story once I get there - all efforts are much appreciated!
Sleepless night is doing it's trick and I'm falling asleep as I'm typing here so I'll just go to sleep. More updated tomorrow. Tadaa!
Friday, February 19, 2010
Unplanned take-off in less than 9 hours
Long story short - Air Baltic has apparently very very strict regulations on letting passengers on the plane and I did not qualify :D Basically the magical visa printout was a stopper (Kaisa, they did not accept your version! Can you believe this??) and here I am in Riga airport waiting for my flight to Munich via Stockholm. From Munich I have hopes to get to Dubai by tomorrow evening.
Uh traveling is fun as always, sitting in airports is not, but adrenaline kicks rock :D
All this precious free time I got now and here are the results:
Top 50 funny computer quotes work e-mail reading pays off well, perhaps should connect to Yammer as well, probably more goodies are waiting there :)
I have already watched 3 episodes of Californication, 8 more to go. I have a selection on movies to choose from: up in the air, the cove, the reader, state of play, seraphine, moon, public enemies, disgrace, bright star
I learned that there was a pearl market collapse around 1930's, year 1966 oil was found in Dubai - and after this the world was never the same :) 1971 Britain left the Persian Gulf and 1973 Dubai joined the other emirates in United Arab Emirates. Today the area has become known for its ambitious building projects or artificial islands and tallest ever buildings and biggest malls and so on.
My task list has numerous rows about training plans, competition guides to complete and e-mails to reply to.. so back to being productive I go :) Will try to keep you updated on my doings!
Oh and just a note about Riga airport - it is a horrible horrible place to be. First of all it is kinda cold in here, it is small, not very clean, here are no eating places (except this one pizza place which provides items that does not qualify for food) and all the smokers use toilets for smoking as there seems to be no separate area for them :( A horrible horrible place to be (well, right next to Hanoi airport I guess). At least they got wireless! It's not for free, but it is cheap.. and it works well.
As one of my friend's status message read: take a chill pill and relax!
Uh traveling is fun as always, sitting in airports is not, but adrenaline kicks rock :D
All this precious free time I got now and here are the results:
Top 50 funny computer quotes work e-mail reading pays off well, perhaps should connect to Yammer as well, probably more goodies are waiting there :)
I have already watched 3 episodes of Californication, 8 more to go. I have a selection on movies to choose from: up in the air, the cove, the reader, state of play, seraphine, moon, public enemies, disgrace, bright star
I learned that there was a pearl market collapse around 1930's, year 1966 oil was found in Dubai - and after this the world was never the same :) 1971 Britain left the Persian Gulf and 1973 Dubai joined the other emirates in United Arab Emirates. Today the area has become known for its ambitious building projects or artificial islands and tallest ever buildings and biggest malls and so on.
My task list has numerous rows about training plans, competition guides to complete and e-mails to reply to.. so back to being productive I go :) Will try to keep you updated on my doings!
Oh and just a note about Riga airport - it is a horrible horrible place to be. First of all it is kinda cold in here, it is small, not very clean, here are no eating places (except this one pizza place which provides items that does not qualify for food) and all the smokers use toilets for smoking as there seems to be no separate area for them :( A horrible horrible place to be (well, right next to Hanoi airport I guess). At least they got wireless! It's not for free, but it is cheap.. and it works well.
As one of my friend's status message read: take a chill pill and relax!
Planned take-off in less than 3 hours
Status update:
- it is snowing heavily outside at the moment, blizzard warning is up
- I have no visa to enter Dubai
- the person who needs to arrange me a visa is stuck in Brisbane (yes in Australia) for all I know
I was assured that all will be ok... so I try not to panic :)
I guess the biggest challenge will be getting on the plane from Riga as apparently they do check visas already there. Oh well, will see what happens :D Not to worry.
The worst case scenario is that I will be stuck in Dubai airport for couple of days I guess :) Simply waiting for my friend to get the visa arranged :D Fun huh? It will be an interesting trip... and I will call it a success if I get into Dubai before my birthday :)
I'll try to keep you all up to date via tweets at least (they are displayed on the right hand side on my blog as well)
- it is snowing heavily outside at the moment, blizzard warning is up
- I have no visa to enter Dubai
- the person who needs to arrange me a visa is stuck in Brisbane (yes in Australia) for all I know
I was assured that all will be ok... so I try not to panic :)
I guess the biggest challenge will be getting on the plane from Riga as apparently they do check visas already there. Oh well, will see what happens :D Not to worry.
The worst case scenario is that I will be stuck in Dubai airport for couple of days I guess :) Simply waiting for my friend to get the visa arranged :D Fun huh? It will be an interesting trip... and I will call it a success if I get into Dubai before my birthday :)
I'll try to keep you all up to date via tweets at least (they are displayed on the right hand side on my blog as well)
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Leaving the day after tomorrow
The bad news are:
a) I still have no visa :)
b) I have not even started to think about all the necessary preparations like packing/money exchange or anything of that sort... I really hope I can figure out in time where I keep my passport :)
The good news are:
a) My friend who I'm going to visit promised to arrange the visa for me by tomorrow - it should arrive to my e-mail during the day
... and that was the only good news I got :D
Ok, well I can think of few other positive aspects, for an example the temperatures while I'm there:
No complaints :)
a) I still have no visa :)
b) I have not even started to think about all the necessary preparations like packing/money exchange or anything of that sort... I really hope I can figure out in time where I keep my passport :)
The good news are:
a) My friend who I'm going to visit promised to arrange the visa for me by tomorrow - it should arrive to my e-mail during the day
... and that was the only good news I got :D
Ok, well I can think of few other positive aspects, for an example the temperatures while I'm there:
No complaints :)
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
a bit about Dubai plans
did a bit of research and here are some thoughts on what I could do with my week in Dubai:
beaches - I definitely would like to lay in the sun for a day or so... hot sun, warm white sand, bright blue sea... yeap. one of those please :)
islands - those strange land formations right off the coast or artificial islands... as I have read it is possible to take boat cruises around them to get a closer look
desert - would be wonderful to cruise around on the sand dunes or take a hot-air balloon ride across the endless sand fields
skyscrapers - tallest building in the world was opened 9 days ago :) it is possible to visit 139th floor :) this would be fun, there are also numerous other buildings to check out
local culture - Grand Mosque, gold and spice markets, boat rides in the old quarter. Fujairah was also suggested, it is a bit out of town - great place for snorkeling, has lots of fish and sharks :)
luxurious shopping centers - if spare time then would be nice to visit some of those as well. one has a skiing hall inside it for an example :D would not mind to check this out :D
beaches - I definitely would like to lay in the sun for a day or so... hot sun, warm white sand, bright blue sea... yeap. one of those please :)
islands - those strange land formations right off the coast or artificial islands... as I have read it is possible to take boat cruises around them to get a closer look
desert - would be wonderful to cruise around on the sand dunes or take a hot-air balloon ride across the endless sand fields
skyscrapers - tallest building in the world was opened 9 days ago :) it is possible to visit 139th floor :) this would be fun, there are also numerous other buildings to check out
local culture - Grand Mosque, gold and spice markets, boat rides in the old quarter. Fujairah was also suggested, it is a bit out of town - great place for snorkeling, has lots of fish and sharks :)
luxurious shopping centers - if spare time then would be nice to visit some of those as well. one has a skiing hall inside it for an example :D would not mind to check this out :D
Thursday, December 10, 2009
quick escape to United Arab Emirates - Dubai
Less than 2 months from my return I bought the next set of plane tickets :) I'm just that hungry for traveling again! This travel addiction is getting worse and worse I must admit :)
Anyhoo, this time I will be visiting Dubai for 7 days at the end of February - will visit my friend who has lived there for few years by now. Dubai has always seemed to me like this amazing cartoon like wonderland with wonderful beaches, newer before seen architecture, fancy buildings and strange coastal land formations (or should I say artificial islands instead?). I must admit I'm quite excited to go and check it all out, to wonder between those fabulous buildings I see from TV and web, to lay on those staggering white beaches (in February!) and to take a peak into the desert as well.
It will be a fun trip and it will be great to celebrate my birthday in Dubai next year :)
Anyhoo, this time I will be visiting Dubai for 7 days at the end of February - will visit my friend who has lived there for few years by now. Dubai has always seemed to me like this amazing cartoon like wonderland with wonderful beaches, newer before seen architecture, fancy buildings and strange coastal land formations (or should I say artificial islands instead?). I must admit I'm quite excited to go and check it all out, to wonder between those fabulous buildings I see from TV and web, to lay on those staggering white beaches (in February!) and to take a peak into the desert as well.
It will be a fun trip and it will be great to celebrate my birthday in Dubai next year :)
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