First a bit of an introduction to the city. Barcelona is the capital of autonomous region of Catalonia, official language here is Catalan (all the signs are both in Spanish and in Catalan). Besides great architect Gaudi, this beautiful city is the birth place of Joan Miro, Salvador Dali and Antoni Tapies. Pablo Picasso spent his formative years here and Pedro Almadovar is also from here.
As mentioned - had a whole day to look around in the city and no plans :) Oleg&co took us around, we started from Eixample, walked down to old town and finished up by the sea. First stop was Sagrada Familia - greatest work of Gaudi, building of this Neo-Gothic church started year 1882 and it is not expected to finish before 2026. Passed by Arc de Triomf and walked through beautiful Parc de la Ciutadella. Arrived at Barri Gotic or the Gothic Quarter which is the oldest part of the city, Romans founded new 'colonia' or a town here during reign of Augustus (27 BC - AD 14). Enjoyed wonderful tapas in one tiny eating place with cava and wine. Next headed to El Born, walked down La Rambla - definitely the most famous street in whole Spain, it is a lively street full of newsstands, caged bird and flower stalls, musicians and mime artists. Good thing about being taken around with half locals is that they know all sorts of nice local eating places - chilled with a big bucket of sangria just a block from La Rambla. Final destination was Port Vell area, beautiful seaside complex. As you can imagine, this all meant loots of walking :)
Barcelona is wonderful - city made for people. Streets are wide, buildings are all about the same height, architecture is fabulous and everything just looks pretty. Houses at the intersections are chamfered to allow the buildings to overlook the squares or junctions. Oldest part of the city has very narrow streets, but majority of the streets are wide and city planning has quite rigid structure - streets are strictly parallel and form even squares, there are just few diagonals running through the city.
Evening was topped of with visiting absinth bar (yeah) and dinner + wine at the apartment. Yet another long day was put behind.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
24.03 - Wednesday - Arrival
Flying in Europe is so quick and easy, 2+2 hours and boom you're there - very convenient. Haven't been really traveling only in Europe for many many years so makes you forget how it even works. Another major convenience is traveling with an ID-card :) I had never done that before either. I'm always going somewhere further away and passport is required. I don't think I have even gone to Finland with ID-card? Anyways, now I have - very easy and convenient.
Kaspar was already waiting for me at the airport as he arrived 2 hours before me. We quickly located bold convict looking Oleg as well :) and our journey began. Oleg lives in downtown and as we arrived just in time for the trainstation to close we ended up taking the night bus and then walking half way across Barcelona :) It was all good though, first sightseeing tour was on the way. Passed by Casa Batllo and Casa Mila - great works of Antoni Gaudi built around 1900 to 1910. He was the leader of Modernisme, a variant of Art Noveau that became means of expression for Catalan nationalism.
Once at the apartment I headed to sleep right away - it has been a long day with a whole day at the office + 2 flights and touring the city. Tomorrow we have a whole day for this wonderful place called Barcelona.
Kaspar was already waiting for me at the airport as he arrived 2 hours before me. We quickly located bold convict looking Oleg as well :) and our journey began. Oleg lives in downtown and as we arrived just in time for the trainstation to close we ended up taking the night bus and then walking half way across Barcelona :) It was all good though, first sightseeing tour was on the way. Passed by Casa Batllo and Casa Mila - great works of Antoni Gaudi built around 1900 to 1910. He was the leader of Modernisme, a variant of Art Noveau that became means of expression for Catalan nationalism.
Once at the apartment I headed to sleep right away - it has been a long day with a whole day at the office + 2 flights and touring the city. Tomorrow we have a whole day for this wonderful place called Barcelona.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Long weekend in Spain coming up
On Wednesday I will be leaving to Spain for a long weekend, will be back late night on Monday. You ask what the plan is? The plans are grand once again. Just as a side note, there will be a time when I'm gonna go traveling and I can say "there are no plans, absolutely none" :) Someday this will be the case - promise I have made to myself :D
My route will be Barcelona-Valencia-Benidorm-Barcelona. There are 3 goals for this trip:
1) to visit my friend Oleg who moved to Barcelona about a year ago and now happily lives there
2) to celebrate Kaspar's birthday, he is living in Ireland for a year and is flying down to meet me in Spain
3) to say hi to couple of my students who are in a training camp in Benidorm
Quite grand huh :) ?
But so the plans-plans:
- leaving Tallinn on the evening of 24th and will arrive in Barcelona just before midnight, meeting Oleg and Kaspar at the airport and will camp over at Oleg's place
- spending a day in Barcelona on the 25th
- renting a car on the 26th and driving south during the day with all three of us + Oleg's flatmate, hopefully will make it to Valencia in the early evening. Celebrating Kaspar's birthday and staying in Valencia for the night.
- will head to Benidorm on Saturday, morning of 27th, and will stay there till Sunday evening
- driving back to Barcelona on the evening of 28th
- flying back to Tallinn on Monday afternoon, on the 29th and arriving a bit before midnight
Wish me/us luck :)
My route will be Barcelona-Valencia-Benidorm-Barcelona. There are 3 goals for this trip:
1) to visit my friend Oleg who moved to Barcelona about a year ago and now happily lives there
2) to celebrate Kaspar's birthday, he is living in Ireland for a year and is flying down to meet me in Spain
3) to say hi to couple of my students who are in a training camp in Benidorm
Quite grand huh :) ?
But so the plans-plans:
- leaving Tallinn on the evening of 24th and will arrive in Barcelona just before midnight, meeting Oleg and Kaspar at the airport and will camp over at Oleg's place
- spending a day in Barcelona on the 25th
- renting a car on the 26th and driving south during the day with all three of us + Oleg's flatmate, hopefully will make it to Valencia in the early evening. Celebrating Kaspar's birthday and staying in Valencia for the night.
- will head to Benidorm on Saturday, morning of 27th, and will stay there till Sunday evening
- driving back to Barcelona on the evening of 28th
- flying back to Tallinn on Monday afternoon, on the 29th and arriving a bit before midnight
Wish me/us luck :)
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Ending the topic of Dubai
Got back from Dubai already two weeks ago and have forgotten to close the topic :) Getting back home was hundred times easier than getting there. Nap at the plane was much deserved, nice and peaceful. Spent the layover in Riga uploading photos and watching movies. Due to the time changes on the way there my notebook showed a bit incorrect time and I almost missed my flight to Tallinn. Oh well :)
Afterthoughts about Dubai - good place to go for a long weekend I'd say. There is not much to do besides shopping and few sights, other than that one gets bored there quickly. There is quite a bit of luxury there, but one needs to look for it, it isn't everywhere and sometimes it isn't even accessible. I've heard that there is not much local culture there - i'd have to say the opposite, but again, one must look for it. Dubai is a desert city, with few green areas and with looots of sand flying around :)
It was a great week, thank you Jaana and Dominique for showing and taking me around!
Now on to booking my accommodation and rentals during my trip to Spain in two weeks.
Afterthoughts about Dubai - good place to go for a long weekend I'd say. There is not much to do besides shopping and few sights, other than that one gets bored there quickly. There is quite a bit of luxury there, but one needs to look for it, it isn't everywhere and sometimes it isn't even accessible. I've heard that there is not much local culture there - i'd have to say the opposite, but again, one must look for it. Dubai is a desert city, with few green areas and with looots of sand flying around :)
It was a great week, thank you Jaana and Dominique for showing and taking me around!
Now on to booking my accommodation and rentals during my trip to Spain in two weeks.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
26.2 - Last day in Dubai
First things first - laying in the sun for couple of hours in the morning. Finding the house pool half way filled with water was the best surprise yet :) No need to walk all the way to the beach now.
Jaana booked me a safari for the afternoon. I don't know what she told the guy on the phone, but I got special treatment from a handsome tour guide throughout the trip :) Locals seem to have all gone to some charmers courses or something :) But the safari - it was all good. After pick-up we were taken out of town, it was about 45 minute drive towards Oman, to the gathering point.
From gathering point convoys of 4 wheel drive cars were formed. Our tour guide explained the drill that convoys are formed so that if something happens to some car the others can help out. Well, there were no other cars in sight anywhere :) He just smiled and assured that our convoy is somewhere around here, we found it after a bit, turned out that our tour guide is the coordinator and he needs to review all the activities during this tour. Going up and down the sand dunes was neat, made me wanna drive there myself :) Later on we were taken to a little village where lots of food was offered, couple of activities lined up (like riding a camel) and main attraction of the day - belly dancing show took place. We were taken back by 9 in the evening.
Rest of the evening went on the name of my last project - kill time till my flight at 4:50am :D This project looked like it will be a fun one :) Jaana and her friend were gladly planning the time and kept telling one location after another while I just nodded to questions "should we go to place X or Y?" :D
Number one on the list was a Southern African sports bar offering wonderful food, luckily it also had nice big TV's to follow an ongoing rugby game. South African team lost their home game :(
As all sources say, one of the many must visit location for looking at the city of Dubai is The Address Downtown Burj Dubai 63rd floor. Yesterday it was closed, but today it was quite open and packed with people. View was grand, apple martini as well :)
Another pub followed, this time a hidden Irish one. During those lonely 3 minutes we managed to stay in there we saw the band leaving, had a chat about why are they leaving (because everyone wanted to see the rugby game instead) and where can we follow them to (some hotel far away) and witnessed an uncomfortable situation that was so close to lead to a fight - out we went and headed over to a night club :) Me looooves dancing and dance we did, me a lot and the others a lot-lot. Quickly found another dancer with whom to take over the dance floor & let the rhythms take over :D
Party till 2, walk back to the apartment, quick shower, goodbyes, 14 minute taxi ride to the airport, endless lines of baggage scan/check-in/security/entry to the gate. Buuh, can't wait to get to the plane to take a loooong nap - it's been a tiring day.
Jaana booked me a safari for the afternoon. I don't know what she told the guy on the phone, but I got special treatment from a handsome tour guide throughout the trip :) Locals seem to have all gone to some charmers courses or something :) But the safari - it was all good. After pick-up we were taken out of town, it was about 45 minute drive towards Oman, to the gathering point.
From gathering point convoys of 4 wheel drive cars were formed. Our tour guide explained the drill that convoys are formed so that if something happens to some car the others can help out. Well, there were no other cars in sight anywhere :) He just smiled and assured that our convoy is somewhere around here, we found it after a bit, turned out that our tour guide is the coordinator and he needs to review all the activities during this tour. Going up and down the sand dunes was neat, made me wanna drive there myself :) Later on we were taken to a little village where lots of food was offered, couple of activities lined up (like riding a camel) and main attraction of the day - belly dancing show took place. We were taken back by 9 in the evening.
Rest of the evening went on the name of my last project - kill time till my flight at 4:50am :D This project looked like it will be a fun one :) Jaana and her friend were gladly planning the time and kept telling one location after another while I just nodded to questions "should we go to place X or Y?" :D
Number one on the list was a Southern African sports bar offering wonderful food, luckily it also had nice big TV's to follow an ongoing rugby game. South African team lost their home game :(
As all sources say, one of the many must visit location for looking at the city of Dubai is The Address Downtown Burj Dubai 63rd floor. Yesterday it was closed, but today it was quite open and packed with people. View was grand, apple martini as well :)
Another pub followed, this time a hidden Irish one. During those lonely 3 minutes we managed to stay in there we saw the band leaving, had a chat about why are they leaving (because everyone wanted to see the rugby game instead) and where can we follow them to (some hotel far away) and witnessed an uncomfortable situation that was so close to lead to a fight - out we went and headed over to a night club :) Me looooves dancing and dance we did, me a lot and the others a lot-lot. Quickly found another dancer with whom to take over the dance floor & let the rhythms take over :D
Party till 2, walk back to the apartment, quick shower, goodbyes, 14 minute taxi ride to the airport, endless lines of baggage scan/check-in/security/entry to the gate. Buuh, can't wait to get to the plane to take a loooong nap - it's been a tiring day.
Friday, February 26, 2010
25.2 - Tourist in Dubai
Another wonderful morning of sleeping in till 9 :) Relocated for the night to another part of the town - much different one. One with green grass in back yard, two level private homes, area with on the premises tennis courts and aquatic center - a very nice location to live. Sunscreen and bikinis on and out to the sun I went :) Later ended up by the pool - oh the joy of jumping into refreshing water in about every 15 minutes, outside temperature is close to 30C again.
Afternoon went for relocating back to the apartment and visiting the Mall of the Emirates. Yeah, that was a bit fancier shopping center. Not to even mention the skiing hill at the one end of the mall. Looking around one would see quite a bit fancier stores this time like Gucci, Versace, YSL, Ralph Lauren, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Christian Dior and so on. Of course all the regular stores were present as well. This mall has over 450 stores, over 75 restaurants, largest indoor amusement park in the region and the ski/snowboarding hill.
For the evening we had great plans: starting off with drinks at Atlantis on the artificial islands, then to dinner at one of the skyscrapers to have a look at the lit up city and later to the pubs. Wonderful plans, was waiting forward to the evening. Now it turns out that Prophet Mohammad has a birthday tomorrow which means there will be no alcohol served from 2pm today for the next 24 hours (or something similar). So there goes our plans for the night.
Alcohol in general is allowed here only in the hotel premises. Due to this all bars and night clubs are located underneath hotels. Alcohol buying license is needed to get liquor from the stores. All private areas (so houses, apartments) require an alcohol permit to have any alcohol in the premises. There are some free zones where the rules don't apply, but I could not figure out what is behind those.
We decided to still go out besides the dry law, we assumed all the places to be totally empty and we were correct. Started at Barasti restaurant located on the beach, with marina, view was very nice - Atlantis across the bay and skyscrapers on the other side. Dubai night skyline is beautiful. Second stop was Atlantis hotel where we simply walked around on the beach, enjoyed Dubai skyline from the other side and peeked into the luxurious hotel lobby. Now was desert time :) For this we made our way towards Burj Khalifa and Mall of Dubai. In front of the tower they have dancing water fountain show in the evenings so we found a cafeteria close by to enjoy our cakes. For the last spot there was a plan to go up to a restaurant located high up in a skyscraper close by, but for some reason this place was closed - so no pretty view from up above for us tonight :( Oh well, there is always tomorrow :D
Another thing about restaurants and clubs here (all sorts of clubs like nightclubs, sports clubs etc.) is that many or even most of them are with restricted access, one needs VIP pass to get in. The place where we went to eat is a complex with a restaurant, marina and a sports club, as I understood the yearly pass there costs about 30 to 40 000 dirhams (so about 100 000 EEK). Good deal that we have the right connections for the occasion :)
Afternoon went for relocating back to the apartment and visiting the Mall of the Emirates. Yeah, that was a bit fancier shopping center. Not to even mention the skiing hill at the one end of the mall. Looking around one would see quite a bit fancier stores this time like Gucci, Versace, YSL, Ralph Lauren, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Christian Dior and so on. Of course all the regular stores were present as well. This mall has over 450 stores, over 75 restaurants, largest indoor amusement park in the region and the ski/snowboarding hill.
For the evening we had great plans: starting off with drinks at Atlantis on the artificial islands, then to dinner at one of the skyscrapers to have a look at the lit up city and later to the pubs. Wonderful plans, was waiting forward to the evening. Now it turns out that Prophet Mohammad has a birthday tomorrow which means there will be no alcohol served from 2pm today for the next 24 hours (or something similar). So there goes our plans for the night.
Alcohol in general is allowed here only in the hotel premises. Due to this all bars and night clubs are located underneath hotels. Alcohol buying license is needed to get liquor from the stores. All private areas (so houses, apartments) require an alcohol permit to have any alcohol in the premises. There are some free zones where the rules don't apply, but I could not figure out what is behind those.
We decided to still go out besides the dry law, we assumed all the places to be totally empty and we were correct. Started at Barasti restaurant located on the beach, with marina, view was very nice - Atlantis across the bay and skyscrapers on the other side. Dubai night skyline is beautiful. Second stop was Atlantis hotel where we simply walked around on the beach, enjoyed Dubai skyline from the other side and peeked into the luxurious hotel lobby. Now was desert time :) For this we made our way towards Burj Khalifa and Mall of Dubai. In front of the tower they have dancing water fountain show in the evenings so we found a cafeteria close by to enjoy our cakes. For the last spot there was a plan to go up to a restaurant located high up in a skyscraper close by, but for some reason this place was closed - so no pretty view from up above for us tonight :( Oh well, there is always tomorrow :D
Another thing about restaurants and clubs here (all sorts of clubs like nightclubs, sports clubs etc.) is that many or even most of them are with restricted access, one needs VIP pass to get in. The place where we went to eat is a complex with a restaurant, marina and a sports club, as I understood the yearly pass there costs about 30 to 40 000 dirhams (so about 100 000 EEK). Good deal that we have the right connections for the occasion :)
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
24.2 - Day in Abu Dhabi
Took a few hours before we were ready to head out of Dubai towards Abu Dhabi - the capital. It is the second largest city in the United Arab Emirates. United Arab Emirates Government is located here as well as Emirati Royal Family. Abu Dhabi is the richest city in the world as stated by CNN and other sources.
While driving from Dubai to Abu Dhabi I saw all this sand all around us, fields of sand. But apparently it is soil not sand! And very fertile, as soon as it gets water, plants would grow there very nicely. By the roadside there are always trees and bushes, planted of course. To keep them growing there is irrigation built into the ground to keep constant water supply for watering. As I learned, there is a huge desalination plant to create clean water (since it is a desert here and not much clean water around). Apparently this plant produces way too much clean water and they had to dump whole lot of it back to the sea, so now they have the plant running only for 3 days a week. Also learned that UAE is one of the biggest wheat exporters, they also grow quite a bit of dates around here.
Plants are necessary by the roadside to keep the sand off the road when winds pick up. It is about 160km between the two cities, having 4-by-4 lane road all the way all lit up with street lights :) Very nice I must say :) As the speeds on the road can go up to 160km/h the ride was quick :D And they have similar speed check boxes on the highway here as they are installing on Tartu road ;)
On our way I managed to see some wild camels by the road as well. For obvious reasons could not take a photo with a camel though :) Perhaps some other day ;)
As Wikipedia states, Abu Dhabi city is geographically located on the north-eastern part of the Persian Gulf in the Arabian Peninsula. It is on an island located less than 250 metres from the mainland and is joined to the mainland by the Maqta and Mussafah Bridges.
There is much talk about oil, Abu Dhabi holds 9% of the world's proven oil reserves and almost 5% of the world's natural gas. It has taken on an active diversification and liberalisation programme to reduce the UAE’s reliance on the hydrocarbon sector.
More from Wikipedia: the majority of the inhabitants of Abu Dhabi are expatriate workers from India, Pakistan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Philippines, the United Kingdom and various countries from across the Arab world. Consequently, English, Hindi, Urdu, Tagalog, Tigrinya, Amharic and Bengali are widely spoken. Apart from Urdu and Hindi spoken by Indians and Pakistanis, many South Asian expatriates also contribute other South Asian languages to the cultural milieu, including Malayalam, widely spoken in Kerala.
First we visited Sheikh Zayed Mosque - the largest mosque in UAE and 6th largest in the world (Wikitravel). It was opened year 2007, capacity is 40 000 people. Building was magnificent - all white marble, beautiful decorations, floor is covered with carpet all the way, it is just gorgeous and very spacious. A must see place.
Next stop was Corniche - Abu Dhabi's spectacular waterfront that stretches for miles from the Breakwater near Marina Shopping Mall almost up to the Mina Zayed port. It has a walkway for the entire length, and certain stretches have sandy beaches. Had lunch in Marina Shopping Mall and of course had to squeeze some shopping in as well :)
Right after Marina Shopping Mall there is Emirates Palace - built at an estimated cost of US$3 billion, this was by many accounts the world's most expensive hotel to build, with oodles of gold and marble plating every available surface. The scale of everything is gargantuan — you need directions just to find your way from the gate to the lobby! — and the hotel feels like it's straight out of Las Vegas, minus the slot machines. Day tripping visitors are welcome, and entertainment options include caviar and champagne at the Caviar Bar, a fine Cohiba and cognac at the Havana Club, or a Turkish coffee (Dh 30) at Le Cafe. Rooms for the night start from about US$500 (Wikitravel).
Peeked in Emirates Palace as well - it is exactly as grand as they say it is. Managed to see an exhibition about Guggenheim Museum plans for making cultural center at Saadiyat Island. Seems to be a huge program with co-operation between Guggenheim Museum and UAE - all the plans seem fabulous. If all the financing goes through then seems like Abu Dhabi will be a grand place in few years.
Getting back to Dubai was even quicker as speedometer showed mostly 170km/h - no I was not driving this beautiful grey Porch suburban :D
Now the plan is to go over to Jaana's friends place and make Estonian food for dinner, watch some movies and have good time with the whole crowd :)
While driving from Dubai to Abu Dhabi I saw all this sand all around us, fields of sand. But apparently it is soil not sand! And very fertile, as soon as it gets water, plants would grow there very nicely. By the roadside there are always trees and bushes, planted of course. To keep them growing there is irrigation built into the ground to keep constant water supply for watering. As I learned, there is a huge desalination plant to create clean water (since it is a desert here and not much clean water around). Apparently this plant produces way too much clean water and they had to dump whole lot of it back to the sea, so now they have the plant running only for 3 days a week. Also learned that UAE is one of the biggest wheat exporters, they also grow quite a bit of dates around here.
Plants are necessary by the roadside to keep the sand off the road when winds pick up. It is about 160km between the two cities, having 4-by-4 lane road all the way all lit up with street lights :) Very nice I must say :) As the speeds on the road can go up to 160km/h the ride was quick :D And they have similar speed check boxes on the highway here as they are installing on Tartu road ;)
On our way I managed to see some wild camels by the road as well. For obvious reasons could not take a photo with a camel though :) Perhaps some other day ;)
As Wikipedia states, Abu Dhabi city is geographically located on the north-eastern part of the Persian Gulf in the Arabian Peninsula. It is on an island located less than 250 metres from the mainland and is joined to the mainland by the Maqta and Mussafah Bridges.
There is much talk about oil, Abu Dhabi holds 9% of the world's proven oil reserves and almost 5% of the world's natural gas. It has taken on an active diversification and liberalisation programme to reduce the UAE’s reliance on the hydrocarbon sector.
More from Wikipedia: the majority of the inhabitants of Abu Dhabi are expatriate workers from India, Pakistan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Philippines, the United Kingdom and various countries from across the Arab world. Consequently, English, Hindi, Urdu, Tagalog, Tigrinya, Amharic and Bengali are widely spoken. Apart from Urdu and Hindi spoken by Indians and Pakistanis, many South Asian expatriates also contribute other South Asian languages to the cultural milieu, including Malayalam, widely spoken in Kerala.
First we visited Sheikh Zayed Mosque - the largest mosque in UAE and 6th largest in the world (Wikitravel). It was opened year 2007, capacity is 40 000 people. Building was magnificent - all white marble, beautiful decorations, floor is covered with carpet all the way, it is just gorgeous and very spacious. A must see place.
Next stop was Corniche - Abu Dhabi's spectacular waterfront that stretches for miles from the Breakwater near Marina Shopping Mall almost up to the Mina Zayed port. It has a walkway for the entire length, and certain stretches have sandy beaches. Had lunch in Marina Shopping Mall and of course had to squeeze some shopping in as well :)
Right after Marina Shopping Mall there is Emirates Palace - built at an estimated cost of US$3 billion, this was by many accounts the world's most expensive hotel to build, with oodles of gold and marble plating every available surface. The scale of everything is gargantuan — you need directions just to find your way from the gate to the lobby! — and the hotel feels like it's straight out of Las Vegas, minus the slot machines. Day tripping visitors are welcome, and entertainment options include caviar and champagne at the Caviar Bar, a fine Cohiba and cognac at the Havana Club, or a Turkish coffee (Dh 30) at Le Cafe. Rooms for the night start from about US$500 (Wikitravel).
Peeked in Emirates Palace as well - it is exactly as grand as they say it is. Managed to see an exhibition about Guggenheim Museum plans for making cultural center at Saadiyat Island. Seems to be a huge program with co-operation between Guggenheim Museum and UAE - all the plans seem fabulous. If all the financing goes through then seems like Abu Dhabi will be a grand place in few years.
Getting back to Dubai was even quicker as speedometer showed mostly 170km/h - no I was not driving this beautiful grey Porch suburban :D
Now the plan is to go over to Jaana's friends place and make Estonian food for dinner, watch some movies and have good time with the whole crowd :)
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