Desert, but fun!

The dear fellow readers of my blog might have noticed that i've spent quite some time in the desert in the last couple of months. With my job, sleeping in a noisy container. But last weekend was different.

We had our company-organized & -payed trip last thursday. Safari in the desert. So on thursday, usually the last working day of the week here, we had a five-hour exam and after that the weekend started. We went two hours with a hired bus - felt like a high school trip, just without the beer. Because here one can only buy alcohol in special stores after acquiring a license, which has to be signed by your employer. Anyways, no beer, so the travelling didn't even get close to our time in the train in "die legendäre Romreise"... hmmmm, back then, well i was seventeen. If you have no idea what i am talking about now, ask me next time you meet me... but i'm loosing my point here.

Desert. Voluntarily. For having fun. So after two hours of driving we switched from the bus to 4x4s, six people per car. And offroad we went.
What can i say, a whild ride. So much fun. Shaky. Just imagine the best roller coaster ride you ever had. And you not quite close to it. No tracks, just a driver and dunes. Up and down, and i was sitting in the back of the car. Basically being thrown around, held back by the seatbelt, holding on those pipes they put into the car so it won't crush once it might topple over. Trying to hold my camera, luckily strapped to my wrist, taking pictures, laughing... a bit hard to grab all that movement into pics, so just two quick impressions of the inside of the car whilst driving.

After about twenty minutes of up and down - you know, you just see the sky dis- and reappear in front of the car, hehe - we stopped at the top of adune. Take shoes of, enjoy the fine sand. Take one of the two snowboards and slide...
Or just enjoy the whole scenery in general...
After that we went back over some dunes, this time not so whild ride.
And back to the camp, i.e. the place where we were going to spend the night. Open-air, deserrrt. When we arrived there were quite some other people there, a couple of families, sitting around on carpets, smoking waterpipe, riding camels and driving around on quads. We joined them. And had dinner. BBQ, local style. Sitting on the ground and stuff.

Then there was a show. Belly-dancing, obviously. We all sat around a big carpet, on pillows. The bellydancer was Romanian. Beautiful. Shaking, too. Sooo traditional. Well, it was for tourists, but she did a good show, involving people, in the end getting all of us up and dancing around. Fun. After that all other people went home or somewhere else, and the camp was ours for the night. A couple beers and waterpipes to start off, then they turned of the generators and left. Just us, the desert, the sky. Quite nice, lying around on carpets, walking barefoot on the sand, watching the stars (not many visible, but some, and also a fire of burning gas from a nearby rig). We were just sitting around and talking, cool.
I slept about three hours under the sky. We got up at six in the morning to see the sunrise. And have a camel ride. Very dignified animals. And funny, too.
Breakfast on carpets and pillows again:
English breakfast, actually. Whatever. Some people tried the quad bikes again, and then we started our travel back.
Three and a half hours later we were back at our staff house in Abu Dhabi. Most people went directly to sleep. But well, not all of us:
These are my two best friends from KL, and you might wonder what's that thing on the right. Obviously the reason for not going to sleep after coming from the Safari was the following:
No, not the beverage station, but the Red Bull Airrace here in Abu Dhabi. Quite a spectacle. Impressive how fast they can turn their little airplanes. A fun afternoon. Weather was perfect, so we just sat on some stones next to the water, enjoying the sun and the planes doing their insane stunts above us.

One more day left of the last weekend to tell of: Saturday. Got up late, hehe finally some sleep. And then, first time cooking since November. In our pathetic little kitchen.
My flatmate had never ever cooked spaghetti bolognese, i had to teach him. Live&learn! On the left there's my UK/Mauritian friend. Cooking with friends, hehe. Almost like back in Madrid (see blogs below...). As for the rest of the day, we went to the beach!
Just chilling. So as as you can see, i've had a blast last weekend.

This week was quite tough in school, but it's already over and here's another weekend, just about to start in twenty minutes. Time is flying. I'm already here for six weeks, four more to go.

Have fun, drop me a line, drink a beer with friends,

Cheers
CGA

ps: Hab gestern ein Packl Soletti gegessen. Fein. Und ja, die echten. Mit Freunden.
Red Bull und PEZ gibts hier bei jeder Tankstelle zu kaufen. Und vorgestern hab ich Soletti im Supermarkt gegenueber meines Staffhouses entdeckt. Made in Vienna.