Thomil's Random Ramblings

Continued from Part 1 Once safely in the arrivals hall, my first order of business is to get some Dirhams, the local currency. Those ATMs seem a bit wonky at first, but I finally find one that works fine. The second task is to get out of the airport and to my hotel. I had chosen a hotel that is close to a metro station, so getting a ticket for the metro is my second task. I end up picking a Nol card, as the local public transit smart cards are known, and purchase a 7 day unlimited ticket. More than I need, but better safe than sorry. With those technicalities out of the way, I head down to the airport metro station. Luckily, the airport and my hotel are both served by the same metro line, the red line, So all I have to do is to take a train heading to UAE Exchange, which isn’t exactly hard, as those trains run every five minutes even at this off-peak time.  Not Card is the key to the metro, tram, bus, and waters systems in Dubai. Really practical. Too bad they haven't i...

It is shortly before 4 PM, somewhere in the Irish midlands, probably approaching Portlaoise, before I can even get started with this travel blog. My luggage is stowed, my weather blog updated with the latest forecasts, and I’m finally able to relax a bit. I’m finally on my way. This trip to Dubai has been a rather last-minute decision, with me only giving serious thought to it six weeks ago, and finally booking flights and hotel rooms two weeks ago. To be honest, I’m still surprised I got a decent offer for flights and rooms at such a short notice. Anyway. The plan is as follows: Take the train from Cork to Dublin Heuston, and then take the Airlink from the station to the airport. From there, it’s an overnight flight with Emirates to Dubai, where I’ll stay for three nights. Then, it’s the whole thing in reverse, with an extra stay at a hotel in Dublin. I’ll be arriving in the evening, and I don’t think I’ll be in the mood for a three hour coach trip from Dublin to Cork straight ...