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| Shoes for sale at the Souk |
30 Million, you read it correctly....
And yes, I will wash my feet again!
Started my day at the Grand Mosque, the first order of business was go to the Abaya counter. They make it easy to find by having guards at ever corner pointing you in the right direction. Down the stairs, through an empty underground parking lot around a few corners and finally you arrive. Before they lend you an Abaya you have to cough up ID, cannot be a passport, thankfully I had my drivers licence and they accepted that. I did contemplate leaving it there but then I also had to give them my phone number and I had given the correct one!
A few facts about the mosque:
-the third largest in the world
-took over ten years to build
-largest hand made carpet in the world , estimated value of 30 million US dollar - a gazillion Canadian at todays rate!
-largest and probably the most expensive chandelier in the world, weighs 9 tonnes and is gold plated (24K) also has millions of Swarovski crystals . Needless to say it sparkles and shines and is stunning!
The mosque was the inspiration of Sheikh bin Zayed, he wanted a place of worship that would help people come together to understand Islam. The tour guide was constantly asking for questions and said do not go home and google your questions, ask me. Well, someone asked how much it cost to build. His answer was " you give charity with the right hand and the left hand does not need to know" I can live with that. He said you will find all kind of answers about the price on google but no one really knows - guess when you have no budget no one cares!
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| The Grand Mosque : view from the front . |
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| inside courtyard |
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| The CARPET!! |
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| Our guide |
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| Beautiful flowers on every pillar. |
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| The largest chandelier in the world! |
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| cool design |
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This was my fav
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OK, enough pictures, obviously I have tons more but will save them to show later. I hopped back on the bus and went to the Galleria Mall - looking for a birthday gift for one soon to be 18 yr. old. Was kind of successful. From there, I hate to say it but I then went to another mall, I tell ya - its all about the mall here! The next mall was across from the Souk - a new one but set up in the traditional way. The only thing I bought was a fridge magnet ...everything else seemed to be made somewhere else - like Turkey.
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| blurry spices - woops |
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more spices
Some random pics from the day out and about!
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The national bird of the UAE - the Crane
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| At the mall! |
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| Abu Dhabi bikers |
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The Louvre Abu Dhabi - still under construction.
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| Now were talking, my all time favorite mode of transportation! |
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| HA HA - my first attempt at a selfie! |
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