Remember the time last year when I stopped over in Dubai on the way back from China?

I figured, why not do it again – only this time it had to be a new place, like Abu Dhabi:

My first stop was of course the famous Sheikh Zayed Mosque, finished in 2007 and spacious enough for 40.000 worshippers at the same time:

It is said to be the eighth largest mosque in the world:

I didn’t have time to go in, and I wasn’t so sure if I would have allowed entrance anyway, but I thought this mosque was probably the most beautiful modern religious building that I had ever seen.

Obviously, just like Dubai, Abu Dhabi sports a bunch of sky scrapers and tall buildings as well, and there seems to be construction all over the place:

At one point, the taxi driver (a dude from India) was like:

“You want to see the Emirates Palace?”

A PALACE? Awesome!!

…we got precisely to the front gate, and not one step further:

I thought it was understandable, this being a palace and all.

“No, no, this is not the palace, this is the Palace Hotel,” said the driver. The REAL PALACE (where Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan lives) was apparently even more spacious and more luxuriant than this 714m 5-star hotel building complex. But it was even less accessible. Duh!

…

Anyway, leaving the taxi to sort of “wander around” was a big mistake – after hours and hours in the air-conditioned surroundings of airports and airplanes, of gangways and waiting halls, this 40+°C Arabian city felt like the inside of a baking oven.

…made me want to dive into the turquoise waters and never come back out:

But instead, I just hauled my three bags of carry-on luggage around and around, leaving a trail of sweat on the deserted sidewalks of Abu Dhabi:

It was just too hot.

Oh, sometimes the Sheikh was there to greet his subordinates and visitors alike:

And eventually, there was the safe haven – a massive shopping mall, complete with air-conditioning, cafés…

…and a million things that I wasn’t even remotely able to afford.

Abu Dhabi, so pretty.

Yet so hot.

Soundtrack: Snoop Dogg – “Drop It Like It’s Hot”