The fires, Dubai photos and Glasgow

Categories: travel

Tags: Glasgow, Dubai, snow, fires, Victoria

Date: 10 February 2009 10:23:07

Firstly, my prayers go out to all those in Victoria and for those volunteers and firefighters helping from other parts of Australia. It's quite hard to fathom exactly what is going on from this side of the world but I have been trying to keep up-to-date with local news reports. It's quite unbelievable really.

Dubai: This is the apartment I stayed in. It was the cheapest place I could find that didn't have a nightclub underneath it (so I could sleep before 3am). It was really nice and had a stove, microwave and fridge so I didn't have to spend money on eating out. I can highly recommend the Golden Sands Hotel. They even let me check in at 6.30am so a huge thumbs up from me.

These are the traditional quarters in Dubai. It's so clean and polished that it doesn't feel very welcoming but it's still rather pretty. It's definitely not indicative of Dubai which seems to have construction going on every way you turn.

The Dubai Creek

The air-conditioned bus shelters (I really liked these)

The gold souk

and an interesting fashion parade in the shopping mall where all the clothes were made from balloons

On Saturday, I arrived in Glasgow. After one day of glorious sunny, but brisk, weather it snowed.... and snowed.....

I went to church on Sunday morning at St Mary's Cathedral and by the end of morning tea, had managed to talk myself into the choir. I sang in the Evening song service that night. It was difficult as I was still quite a bit jetlagged but it was fun and they sing good music.

This is me outside the church on Sunday (before it started snowing)

and snow pictures from Monday when the snow had melted a bit and I wasn't afraid of falling over on an icy footpath