First flight, two days in Dubai, and second flight

Now it's finally happening. The first days of the big adventure are already over. And they were really exhausting.

Our first flight couldn't have been more comfortable, as we got an upgrade and flew the 6 hours from Frankfurt to Dubai in Business Class :D The food was really delicious, the service top-notch, and the legroom fantastic! We could even get some sleep because we flew overnight (22:20 to 6:00).

After arriving in Dubai, we realized that our hotel was a bit far away, and we had to take a 45-minute metro ride and then another 20 minutes walk. And it was sooo hot! Very unusual for a European. It was okay in the morning, but towards noon/afternoon, you would start sweating completely just by standing outside for 2 minutes without even moving. I hadn't experienced anything like this before. I can understand very well why everyone stays indoors and uses air-conditioned tunnels to get from the metro stations to the malls or other important points. It's rare to see someone walking outside. The whole city is designed for cars, anyway. Huge highways and huge dimensions everywhere.

But let's go back to the beginning: After freshening up at the hotel (we couldn't check-in early), we went to the Marina Mall. We walked around and were impressed by the skyscrapers in the Marina district. We also took a tram ride to see the harbor basin and get an overall impression. After that, we went to the Palm Jumeirah. Unfortunately, the ticket for the monorail that goes to the Palm Island is not included in the day ticket for the metro, so we had to pay again. But the ride was really nice, as you drive directly towards the famous Atlantis Hotel. However, we were disappointed that we couldn't see anything of the Palm Island itself. All the beaches that offer a view of the city are private beaches of hotels or belong to the large water park (which, by the way, costs 80€ per person for admission!!). Since it was very hot that afternoon, we couldn't do anything else but go back. We went straight to the hotel because we wanted to rest and go out again in the evening. However, we were so tired that we fell asleep in the room at 6:30 pm. The next time I woke up was at 11 pm, and then I set an alarm for 8 am and went back to sleep until the alarm went off. It really felt good! And the 2-hour time difference was immediately gone.

The next day, we were very glad that we could have breakfast at the hotel because we didn't have dinner the day before. And the breakfast was really delicious. We checked out and wanted to plan our day in the cool lobby when we met a German-speaking tour guide who had also been to Australia and gave us some good tips for Dubai. So instead of going to the "old town" of Dubai (which apparently is not what tourists imagine), we went to the beach and enjoyed the view of the Palm Jumeirah and the Burj al Arab from there. However, this beach outing felt more like a desert expedition, and the seawater was probably 35 degrees warm! After that, we went to THE tourist attraction, the district with the Dubai Mall and the Burj Khalifa. This mall is really huge! Probably the biggest in the world. And it also has the largest aquarium in the world. Outside, there is the truly lake-like fountain with the Dubai Fountains, whose water show is really beautiful. There is a show every half hour, and we saw one from below and three from above, from the Burj Khalifa. We booked a ticket for the Burj Khalifa at 9 pm. Before that, we quickly went back to the hotel and picked up our backpacks. We could store them for free in the storage before going up. And it was really amazing up there! Such a beautiful view! All the skyscrapers and streets and everything looked so small! It was incredible. And we were not even at the top, but only on the 124th and 125th floors :D

So we concluded our Dubai excursion up there and went directly to the airport. We arrived there at midnight, and our flight to Perth was supposed to depart at 2:55 am. This time, we didn't get an upgrade and had to settle for the booked Economy Class. But then we really noticed the luxury we had experienced on the first flight! Especially because my headrest was mounted the wrong way, and I couldn't install it the other way around. It probably took about 5 minutes for a flight attendant to notice that I was struggling with the headrest: D

But ultimately, everything went well, and the flight was good. It was just really long, and I was relieved when we finally landed. Then we took two buses from the airport in Perth to our hostel, which took a very long time (about 1.5 hours) (somehow the central locations of the accommodations didn't quite work out when booking at the travel agency). But we arrived there safely and now look forward to 4 days in Perth :)