The next day we visited a gorgeous Masjid (aka Mosque), not just any Masjid either, Sheikh Zayed Mosque. It's a grand Masjid, the largest in the country and also where he (Sheikh Zayed) is buried.
I tried to take a Panorama of the Masjid. They had beautiful fountains everywhere, it was absolutely gorgeous!! Words cannot describe how stunning this Masjid is. Every detail is just, wow!
Now before we get into more pictures let me just say that they are very strict in terms of dress code here. It is after all a Mosque, modesty is required and must be respected. Jeff wanders through life in a t-shirt and shorts, which frankly isn't respectful attire so they didn't let him in. Well they would have if he wore the garments they were giving him but he decided to stay out instead of that "hassle". They have a changing room for people that were not dressed appropriately (which were 100% of tourists) to wear longer pants, a jilbab for women as well as scarves to cover your head. I was wearing a scarf but it was a bit see through and they also deemed my outfit too "tight". I can't even remember what I was wearing but ALL my outfits are loose fitting, except my skinny jeans but I wouldn't dare wear that here of all places. Anyways they told me to put on a jilbab and a thicker scarf that covered my long hair (it was in a ponytail but my thin silk hijab kept sliding around).
You had to take off your shoes at the door pretty much. They had a shelf for everyone's shoes.
This side was more the men's side. If the women tried to cut through as a shortcut they got yelled at.
Just look at these hallways! They go for so long! I could stare at it all day. To the left was that large space and to the right a beautiful fountain. You couldn't just keep walking and wandering around they had guards directing where you could and could not go. HOWEVER. Perks of being a Muslim, if you wanted to pray you could go further into the Masjid! Woohoo! First though we needed to use the restroom so we could do Wudu (ablution, cleansing oneself) so we could pray. We had actually done this first but the pictures uploaded backwards and I'm too lazy to rearrange them. Plus it's nice to see pics of the Mosque before the restroom am I right? :P
This restroom was one of the fanciest cleanest one's I've ever been to in my life.
Look at all those perfect, pretty, cool seats! Rows and rows all around!
Ammie is standing next to a water fountain! It was so refreshing!
The toilet's were also fabulous, if you can describe a toilet as fabulous. There was a woman that as soon as you used the toilet she went in, mopped, cleaned and had incense blowing to make it smell amazing. I'm the biggest bathroom germ-a-phob there is, frankly I don't use them, ever. I'd rather pee in the forest. I dread the 9 months when I one day become pregnant. But yeah I'd totally use these all day everyday. SO CLEAN!
This is inside the women's praying area. You weren't allowed to take pictures but I got off a few before someone told me NO. There was a woman guard in here too. It smelled nice, the carpet was soft and it was so relaxing to pray. The ceiling was also gorgeous mA! It was a great way to start the day, visiting this beautiful Masjid!
Next up on our itinerary, a boat ride to see the city from the ocean!
Ammie always comes up with the best ideas while on vacation. Go Ammie!
Jeffrey gave me his sweater (that man always plans ahead) because oh was it chilly racing through the water! My family is all styling in sunglasses and I'm blindly smiling, luckily for me the sun had just hid behind a cloud! FYI take this trip as the sun is going down you'll get the BEST experience!
Funny side story, we were waiting for two people that had paid for the boat tour that were supposed to join our boat. Jeff said "I hope they don't show up so we have the boat to ourselves" I told him you have to stay "InshAllah" and if Allah (swt) wills it, it will happen. So he said "InshAllah" and guess what! No random people showed up and we had the boat to ourselves!! I'm slowly teaching him Arabic words!
How gorgeous is the city skyline! MashAllah!!
The ferris wheel from afar was so pretty!
Reminds me of the London Eye in England!
To the left we have the most expensive hotel, Atlantis. We originally were going to stay 1 night at this hotel, I think it was $315 a night? I can't remember but we decided to stay in another hotel instead which was closer to places we wanted to sight-see at. Next time! To the right that is the Burj-Al-Arab I think. They have a helicopter landing pad at the top! We have a miniature statue of it we brought back. :)
This was Atlantis at night, the buildings changed with all the beautiful lights on!
Another view of the beautiful night-time city skyline!
I must say the boat ride was fun BUT scary. The dudes (brothers) that were driving the boat were pulling all kinds of stunts and tossing the boat around, I have a video I need to upload. Even though we were wearing life jackets, none except Jeffrey knows how to swim. Not to mention we had our purses on us and if we flipped there goes our money, cards, passports, everything we need. That's my biggest fear, drowning.
I can't remember what hotel this is. It was another hotel that we were planning on staying at, there was so much security just to get through the doors. We asked them if we could just LOOK at it from the outside and they let us in. We parked in front of the hotel for 2 minutes, snapped a few quick shots and then booked it out of there because they were trying to get us to move on.
Stay tuned for the last part of the trip! :)
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