I woke up around 9am, still tired because I had gotten used to Murt's nocturnal sleep schedule. I sat in bed on my phone until Irena barged in to wake me up around 9:30. We had agreed that we would aim to leave around 10 to drive to Abu Dhabi to visit the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. We ended up leaving the house around 10:20, which is not too bad given our typical schedule the past few days.

On the way to Abu Dhabi, we stopped at Last Exit, which is a highway rest stop just north of the border between the Emirate of Dubai and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The rest stop was designed to look straight out of Mad Max, with a variety of fast food restaurants each inside of an apocalyptic trailer that you could drive up to and order food. We got some coffee from the Starbucks trailer before heading back onto the highway.

We got to the Grand Mosque at 11:45. They have separate parking for worshippers and visitors, and the visitors park very far away. There is an onion shaped dome where visitors enter and go down an escalator to a full underground shopping mall that we did not expect. From there, you go through airport-style security, where they also make sure you are wearing appropriate clothing, and head down a long tunnel with a series of moving walkways that carry you the distance from the parking lot to the mosque itself. The mosque is a stunning building covered in white marble with floral designs. The courtyard in front is enormous. The border of the courtyard is full of beautiful columns adjacent to teal reflecting pools. The interior was also beautiful, but a little underwhelming compared to some of the mosques we saw in Istanbul at the end of December (such as the Hagia Sofia). One highlight from the interior would be the colorful chandeliers in the center of the room.

We spent about an hour at the mosque before heading back towards Dubai. On the way back we stopped again at Last Exit for lunch. The Abu Dhabi and Dubai bound Last Exits are a bit different: on the northbound side of the highway, the decor is more reminiscent of 1950s or 60s America. The restaurants are all in retro trailers, and the indoor seating area had American license plates all over the walls. We bought some food from KFC and Pizza Hut to share, before continuing on our journey.

We stopped at Murt's briefly to change, and then headed to Dubai College, Murt's high school, to pick up Murt's younger sister Jannat and Jannat's friend Ryiah, before heading to Kite Beach, a public access sandy beach on the coast of the Persian Gulf. It was very windy, but the water was a comfortable temperature and the sun looked stunning with distinct rays shooting out behind the clouds. The women spent a long time taking photos, but while they were doing that, a creepy guy who was walking down the beach decided to stop an stand uncomfortably close to them. It was particularly ridiculous because the beach was very empty, he could've stood anywhere, but instead he just stood there with his headphones in right next to them, which made some of us feel uncomfortable. He did not leave until after we had left to walk over to Salt, a popular slider restaurant right on the boardwalk with plentiful outdoor seating. Jannat and Ryiah hadn't eaten much so they ordered some sliders, while the rest of us just enjoyed the sunset and tasted a couple bites.

We left the beach after sunset and headed back to Murt's house, but received a call from another friend Sachit inviting us to stop by his house on the way. Sachit goes to Carnegie Mellon, so I met him a couple of times last summer in Pittsburgh. Luckily it was not a major detour. We got to Sachit's house planning to just say hello and leave, but we were convinced to come to his backyard for some snacks and chai. We spent around 40 minutes catching up while some fresh, delicious chai was brewed, before we said farewell and continued onto Murt's house.

Back at Murt's, we quickly showered to wash the saltwater and sand off, before getting into a taxi and heading to Downtown Dubai, home of the Dubai Mall and the Burj Khalifa. The Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world at 830 meters. Dad and I went to the top when we visited Dubai in March 2022, but going to the top is very expensive and a little underwhelming (the most interesting thing to look at in the Dubai skyline is the Burj Khalifa, which you of course cannot see from inside of itself). Instead, we watched the fountain light show (set to Michael Jackson's thriller), then walked into the Dubai Mall to look at the aquarium. Mel and Irena were mesmerized by the aquarium, and spent at least 15 minutes watching the fish swim by.

While they were watching the fish, Murt figured out our next move. Our goal was to meet Murt's good friend Sophie and her sister Holly at a bar, so we got into another taxi and headed to Weslodge Saloon, an upscale bar located on the 68th floor of the JW Marriot Hotel. On Wednesday nights the bar has a ladies' night deal with unlimited drinks for 100 AED (about $30), but that leaves the men to order from the list of cocktails that average 75 AED, which is obnoxiously expensive. At the bar we met Sophie and Holly and a group of Holly's friends, who were all college-aged Brits. We stayed for a bit before heading to another bar called Lock, Stock & Barrel which has a reputation for having lots of dancing, which some in our group were eager for. Unfortunately, possibly because it was a 1AM on a weekday night in the winter, the bar was pretty dead. We stayed for a little longer before finally heading back to Murt's house, where we watched TV and finally went to bed around 5AM.