Usually Rolf and I travel during our anniversary and therefore we were also planning on going to Italy in October. Oh well, the Covid-19 is here stronger than ever so we let go off that plan... Anyways, Rolf was very determined to get some sunshine and in order to keep his digital nomad lifestyle he needs to change the location once in a while so he flew off to Dubai.
Me, who was extremely concerned how people might judge me for travelling during pandemic, stayed in Finland. Ok I also was not up for being away from Pyni and got some school work etc... Well, luckily Rolf got me convinced to go to visit him in Dubai regardless of my excuses. So after doing the mandatory Covid-19 test I set off to Dubai on November 19th.
The first leg of the journey was to fly from Rovaniemi to Helsinki. Then I camped the night at the airport before flying to Frankfurt and from there to Dubai. The Frankfurt-Dubai plane was fairly empty so I got to travel in some comfort. I was also very happy that Lufthansa offered a vegetarian meal :) But the whole journey took about 24 hours and I arrived around 1am to Dubai so I was pretty dead afterwards to say the least...
At the Dubai airport the passports and the Covid-19 test proofs were checked before tourists were allowed in to the country. Rolf picked me up from the airport and we took a taxi to the airBnB. When entering into the building where the apartment was we needed to walk through this like disinfectant steam. In addition to disinfectant everywhere, wearing a masks was mandatory out in public and there were often temperature checks before entering a restaurant or other establishment. The safety measures seemed all right to me and I think it's a one way to keep the tourism going even during these times.
The very next morning I had an eyelash extensions appointment. Me is a big lover of the lashes and a hot climate is one of my favorite excuses to get the extensions. I had found this extremely cheap place to get the lashes which was also in the Dubai Marina area where we stayed. Okok well I ended up finding out that the extremely cheap eyelash extensions deal I saw online was too good to be true... and the lashes ended up being 89€ instead of 25€ what I saw online. Apparently there had been a typo, oopsie!! But anyyyways, the lashes looked gorgeous so I recommend Queens Beauty Lounge Spa & Salons - Dubai Marina. Worth it. Well I might be biased as any lashes just make me feel soooo good and I just luvluv big lashes. Only thing is that my natural lashes are weak and delicate so I try to give them lash free periods every now and then to grow back... SMH. Somebody smart would probably advice to take shorter lash extensions which my natural lashes could hold easier but I aint about that short lash life... Okayokay, so then after I got the lashes we had a lunch at a cute pokebowl place called Poke Zone. A lovely place.
After getting some food we did some minor shopping as I had forgotten the mic for recording and I had some meditations which I wanted to record during my time in Dubai. At night, we headed to the Dubai Mall area, where we saw the famous fountain show. Cool!! We also went to the tallest building of the world - Burj Khalifa. It's 828 meters tall - and we got up to the 149th floor. The view was spectacular!! It was funny how all the other super tall buildings looked all of sudden so small hahah.. Oh and we also got some super nice snackos and arabic coffee :) luv it. And after Burj Khalifa we ate at this super nice restaurant called HuQQa.
For the next day, Rolf had booked us an activity out in the desert. A driver picked us up and we drove for about an hour to the place where we got a buggy and the other necessities needed in the desert. A nice worker guy, whose name I don't remember now, came as our guide/leader to the desert and buggydriving in general. Ahhhh, the desert was beautiful!! And driving the buggy up and down and around the dunes was all fun!! At first... until I started feeling all dizzy.... But luckily, we stopped to take some gorgeous piccos and to try some sand surfing and everything was fine again until we had to start driving again. Well, I held my nausea till the next stop, during which I focused on meditating and laying on the sand in order to feel better. Worked pretty good and I was even able to do a kuperkeikka (forward roll??) on the sand and enjoy the sunset and all. But on the way back though I ended up throwing up :) Still no ragretz tho! A cool experience!!
After the desert and a very well needed cooldown period we headed to a dinner with Rolf's friends. Rolf had met these kiddos through his dropshipping networks but it was my first time meeting them. We went to a Mexican restaurant which was very cool - but unfortunately there were like tons of problems with our order and we received wrong dishes and some kept missing and yeah it turned into a big drama... Maybe not the most organized place but the food I got tasted good regardless. Afterwards we also smoked some shisha at the beach bar.
The next day we changed our accommodation to the Five Palms Jumeirah Hotel. Our check-out was already at 10am from the airBnB and we could not get the early check-in to the hotel so me was such a sunshine hanging out five hours in the hotel café :))) Oh and when we finally got the room there were some problems with our luggage and it took like an hour extra for them to arrive to the room and also the room did not have the view Rolf had expected, so we requested a room change which also took like a day... But yup apparently the hotel was fully booked and somehow the information did not seem to go through that well.
Anyyyyways, in the end everything turned out perfect! We got our bags and the room with the perfect view and all was well. Also in general the premises were amazing! The hotel was located just next to the beach, there were tons of pools and cool hanging out spots, like five restaurants and some clubs and bars also.
The first two days at the new hotel, we stayed mostly in the area. I needed to study for a Swedish exam which I had online. I also did make a new meditation for my podcast and met up online with my other study group. Very happy that I managed to be pretty productive even during this trip!! At nights we tried out the hotel's restaurants and also a bar. I was super happy to get some oysters at the Italian restaurant - sooooo good! And Rolf is slowly starting to warm up for the oysters too huhuh. We also tried a cigar and that was pretty fun.
After the two days of semi-intense studying I had the Swedish exam - which went okay. We celebrated at the Tulum restaurant at the Dubai mall. It was a super location above the fountains so we were able to watch two fountain shows while enjoying the amazing food!! The cherry on top of the amazing location and tasty food was this beautiful music performance we got!! Likelike these two musicians in the restaurant sang and played us a very romantic Spanish song. Ahhh it was amazing!! Too bad I only took a video so no piccos this time. But a sneakpeak to the amazing food :)
The next day we went to the beach for jetski! Jetski was very fun. It was even nicer than the last time in Valencia, because there were not so many waves this time. Rolf had bought a gopro and he took some videos of the jetski ride too, and I was of course stoked to get some piccos in the water hahah. I really enjoyed the one hour of jetskiing around and we also had a lovely lunch at the beach restaurant :)
Later that night we invited the same group of friends to join us at the hotel restaurant which has like the best view! After dinner we got hyped up about going out but the hotel club was having like a crazy AED 10000 minimum spend requirement to get in so plz no... But we ended up trying our luck with some electro club I found in google called Analog Room. We took a taxi to the address told in google and then we wandered around the area for like good twenty minutes finding only some private dance class... Hahah so apparently Analog Room is shut down.Too bad. No clubbing this time then. A very nice day eitherway!
The next day we went to check out the Black Friday deals in the Dubai mall. I did not buy anything but Rolf got some perfumes for his mama. There were quite a lot of people in the mall but yeah the corona restrictions with the masks and the social distancing seemed to work fine. From the mall we went to La Perle to see a show. The show was very cute and got a very nice storyline with some crazy action parts included. After the show we also ate at the lovely Lebanese restaurant at the hotel.
The last day we spent at the pool and at the beach. Rolf found this super nice pool area which was a bit more private than the main pools and I got a nice shady place to chill out with a cocktail so I was very much enjoying the life. But when we went to the beach, I let my insecurities take all over and felt like superduper uncomfortable and out of place. This caused a minor mental breakdown... I had never seen so many super wealthy and gorgeous people so I guess I somehow let it sink in then and felt all small and ugly, but yeayea I know it was all in my head. A progress aint linear, so little mental breakdowns here and there are all cool haha. But here is some happy piccos also!
We went for the last supper at this cool and super trendy fusion kitchen Koko Bay at the beach. The setting was lovely, so was the food. The moon was nearly full and we had a very romantic walk on the beach in the moonlight and ahh it was all perfect ❤
Then at the hotel we only packed our stuff and headed to the airport as our flight was leaving at 1.50am. All together we travelled again for like 25 hours so oh la la what a fresh couple arrived to Rovaniemi. But we tried the sleep capsules at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport! Well I was studying in those but anyways very comfy, me likey.
After coming from abroad we had to take two corona tests like 72 hours apart and quarantine together while waiting for the negative results which was pretty tough. The contrast from the sunny and all lovelydovely Dubai to the complete workmode in snowy and dark Rovaniemi was just huge and harsh... So I've been basically mad at Rolf for the past 96 hours :)))) So just know if you find any hidden hatred towards him in this post - blame it on the quarantine.
All in all I think the trip to Dubai was very cool! Glad I went. Like Dubai aint normally my top choice, but in this world situation it was definitely the best place to go. Everything felt safe and well organized. Of course the weather was perfect! And the food was great everywhere. Also it was lots of fun to have this kind of fancy hotel experience! A whole new world to me, but could get used to it hahah.
Dubai is funny, like it's so made up city with basically no soul - but somehow that's exactly the interesting thing about it! I am now way more interested in exploring the other emirates one day also and getting little deeper into the culture next time! But this trip was definitely a perfect and relaxing sunny holiday :) all credits go to Rolf of course ❤