Story No. 1. Prague, Florenc bus station, 5:15am
It’s dark, it’s empty, it’s 11 degrees Celsius. Poles sat by tables and started eating sandwiches they took with them. A couple is eating blackberries from a huge plastic box. Blackberries are tasty at 5am. A German couple came, they looked at closed Burger King with sad faces and left. And Poles continued with their sandwiches. The end.
Story No.2. Dubai Airport, 11pm
Hot and dense air hit us right into faces and said “Salam alejkum, welcome to Dubai”. Buses stuck in a traffic at the airport, roundabout at the airport and a huuuuuuuuuge line to passport control. On the right: young sheiks and their wives. In front of us: Czech couple touching each others butts. On the left: passangers from the airplane from Kabul, one of them with a huge watermelon. You can see a cultural difference here.
Story No. 3. Hotel in Dubai, midnight
We arrived and we’re causing chaos everywhere. The guy at the reception desk is trying to explain with his very strong Indian accent that today they have twin beds, but tomorrow they will change it for a one bed. Do you have booking voucher? It’s in your suitcase? No problem, sir. Bring it on your way to breakfast, sir. 7th floor, beautiful room. And a cold shower. What? Ok, so maybe if it’s that hot, you’re supposed to take a cold shower. Ok, so how do you turn on ventilator in the bathroom? Oh, here’s a switch. What does it say? “Hot water”? Human vs Dubai 0:1.
Story No.4. Air has layers as onion or ogrs
So we went to Dubai city center. Well, we took a metro. Ticket for a week was 80 AED. It’s driveless, it smells like a brand new car and only like a brand new car. No other smells. It’s so clean it hurts. And it goes above the ground. The station is divided from rails by a glass wall. Metro cames, it stops exactly where it’s supposed to stop. Metro doors open, doors of the glass wall open. We’re entering. Funny feeling: when you’re entering air conditioned train from an air conditioned station, you’re going through a thin layer of non air conditioned air. There’s like 25 degrees of difference in the temperature.
Story No.5. Sunset in Dubai
On our first day we decided to take a metro from Burj Khalifa to Dubai Marina to see the sunset. We’re leaving Burj Khalifa when the sun is still high, but slowly going down. We’re arriving in Marina when it’s totally dark. Well, we failed. And again, next day. And again. Wait, what’s wrong? Metro is fast, we’re getting from point A to B in 20 minutes. Well, in Dubai sun sets faster. Surprisingly faster.
Story No. 6. It’s easier to buy a Ferrari than lunch.
We want to have lunch. Not a fast food. And we don’t want to splurge on lunch. Regular lunch please, something typical for Middle East. There’s no food in sight, but we could buy around 10 new cars of different brands. Well, apparently there’s no food around our hotel or it’s easier to buy a Ferrari in Dubai than lunch.