New Apartment

I can't believe I was in my old apartment for over a year. I can still remember the first day I moved in and did the Sarah Jessica Parker in SATC movie where I walked into each room and said "hello, I live here :-)" Today as I was moving out my last few items I had that same feeling. It was such a great apartment. Now, I'm 12 floors down, in a 1b1.5b apartment. It's smaller, but same building, so same great furnishings, still have room service, twice a week maids, and an amazing balcony overlooking the Jumeriah Lakes district. So why move? Well, the first year, my company pays, the second year- It's up to me to pay the bill and while I loved living on the 38th floor in a 2b2b lux apartment, when it comes to me paying the bill, I can live on less :-) I'm glad I stayed at the Bonnington. The pool, restaurants, the staff here, my friends are here, and having twice a week cleaning- I couldn't really ask for more. So attached are pics of my new place; smaller kitchen- but all the same appliances, great wall of windows in the living room, and same bedroom setup as before, just smaller.

It's not exactly Judge Judy

With my car accident I had to go to court due to the guy not having insurance. This morning was my court date, 8am, which to begin with, is like 4am to me, but I got beyond that and made it to the courts. One might expect to see a courtroom when you walk into the traffic courts, no. There was an information desk, I presented my papers, and he hit a button and gave me a number and told me to sit down. There was a really nice waiting room, plush leather chairs, plasma screen tv's showing arabic news and soap operas, and along the far wall was 6 desks with women sitting behind computer screen with the numbers above them. I'm kind of antsy- like "am I in the right place?" why do I have a number and not a lawyer? As much as I loved catching up on "Harem Al-Sultan", my favorite turkish/arabic soap opera, I kept feeling like something was weird. My number comes up, and I go to the desk, give the women my papers, and after pulling up my case she goes "You're not guilty. Come back on Sunday between 8am and 1pm to pick up the ruling." and she folds up my papers and hands them back to me. ....?? I looked at her, probably stunned, and said "I'm not familiar with this kind of court proceedings. Can you explain this to me?" :-) LOL I mean, I sit down at a desk like in a bank, and she clicks a button and it's like "not guilty" and I'm done??? I had been up all night working on my testimony, do I cry, do I not? Is there going to be a sassy Emirate Judge who has a witty and humorous reparte with his bailiff like on Judge Judy? No. Apparently they do things differently here. She explained that I was not at fault, and the other driver had been ticketed and fined, and so all I needed was documentation for the insurance company. And I was done. Quick, efficient, out of the courthouse at 8:04am. Can't complain about that!

back in Dubai

My last two days in Vienna were just as fantastic as the first two. The museums were so big, and the quality of the collections was stunning. I spend 6 hrs in the Kunsthistoriches Museum (KHM), then 3 hours in the Museum of Modern Kunst (momuk), and then it was so gorgeous outside that I ended up just walking around and taking in the city for the rest of the time. There are cafe's everywhere- even more than in Istanbul. A very pleasant surprise was that beer is cheap and everywhere, and did you know that vienna was the home of the vienna sausage- and hotdogs in general? So let me recap- beer and hotdogs on every corner, cafe's and art museums (excitedly) "THESE ARE MY PEOPLE!" :-) And now I'm back in Dubai- it's another 110 degree day, with a blazingly hot sandy breeze blowing.... Vienna, oh Vienna.

More pics of Vienna

K- so you are probably asking why I took a picture of the scaffolding in the church. So get this- it is permanently there. It has an elevator next to it that you take to the top of the dome. Then there is this big viewing platform so you can see all the fresco painting on the ceiling. THen if that wasn't cool enough- they have stairs from the platform built all the way to the TOP of the coupala- the lantern looking thing at the very tip tip top of the church's dome! Did I do it? well, I went to the viewing platform and that gave me a whole new perspective on how hard and dangerous it was to complete these paintings! But no, I did not climb the extra 50' to the top. I might go back... probably will go back just because if I don't do it when I'm here, I will regret it forever. But it is so high, going up in the elevator I almost had a panic attach because you can't see up- you can only see out and I was like "we're going to high! We're going to crash!" LOL but I kept it together and didn't do anything crazy. And got some good pictures.

Architecture!

Well this city is unbelievable. I walked around the downtown district today which is alot of the Palaces, a long very busy pedestrian mall with all the normal shops like Starbucks, Zara, and Benetton. The Palace district is just breathtaking. Huge windows, columns, carvings, marble everything, and the basilica's that are attached to these palaces are just.... well you'll see the pictures. Many of the buildings are under restoration at the moment so have coverings on one side which is disappointing to not see the full grandeur. I walked around for 6 hrs today, and even though the sunset is prefect pink and purple, I have to get some sleep- Dubai is 2hrs ahead of Vienna, so I'm stuggling to keep my eyes open (at 9pm here). Plus- tomorrow is "THE DAY" I am going to the "Kunsthistoriches" The art museum I have been dreaming of seeing since I was in college. And it's right next door!

Vienna!

So I was sitting at my apt on Tuesday night and all of a sudden I was on spg.com booking my hotel for Vienna. I can't really explain it, but it just felt like the right thing to do. Three days later here I am!!!!!! The hotel is amazing, and the neighborhood is pretty much the best I ever could have dreamed- tree lined street two blocks from all the museums! ah! I'm so excited to sight see the next three days. It's only in the 60's- which when I left Dubai it was 110 degrees, and all the green, and the historic buildings... it is everything I dreamed it would be :-)

Pictures of the views from my apartment- I'm on the top floor so look out over the trees. Have a living room with guest bath, great bathroom and 4 big windows to see the city!!