Nostalgia and the pastry that tasted like perfume

So finally yesterday I got to skype with my two best friends in the whole wide world. I was quite a happy camper and am still cheery as a result. Unfortunately, my friend skyped from the hospital but despite being in pain and a bit shaken up she seemed to be in a good mood. These girls are my lifeline so I was quite distressed when I heard about the car accident that one was involved in. I feel very relieved to have finally spoken to her and can now proceed with living the fabulous life. hehe.

Yesterday I woke up still stressed about my serious communication issues. I lingered about the hotel room and moped around a bit. For the first time in the last week in this wonderful city, I felt on the verge of a mini breakdown. I'm a firm believer that a monthly breakdown is good for you. haha. With my friend's accident, it was hard to focus on anything else. I started feeling nostalgic and missing all my usual surroundings. I've established a wonderful support group here of people that I've come to really like but they are all moving to the neighboring city of Al Ain. This morning they went away to check out their new city and I was left behind to think (which is indeed a very dangerous past time). I started longing for my usual adventuring with my best friends, my grandma's warm smile and delicious food, and the quirky humor of my boyfriend (amongst a million other things). Call me delusional but I just can't bring myself to think of him as an ex. It's a relationship that at the time of my departure I felt had not run it's course. Sometimes I just want to hide in the summer of 2005. My first boyfriend was supposed to be my travel buddy along with my best friends and I feel somewhat lonely while I'm experiencing so many new wonderful things. I'm quick to make friends so it's not a real loneliness, just more of a feeling that I'm incomplete without the people I love. I feel blessed to be experiencing this new adventure and want to share my excitement with them.

After lingering in my room until mid afternoon, I decided that enough was enough, and I needed to make myself happy. I turned on my ipod, grabbed my book and went off to go the the ugly beach. As I was passing the lobby to go outside, I saw Donna, Tandy and Michelle coming back from Al Ain. I was so happy to see them and of course side tracked my adventure. I asked them all about Al Ain and for the most part they seemed a bit dissapointed.

I came back to the room and played on the internet and avoided going back to sleep to avoid continuing my vampire hours. Come 5:30, I thought it was safe to sleep and set an alarm because I could only have an hour and a half nap before dinner. At 7:30 I got a call from Donna asking me where I was. I was so deep in my slumber that I was wondering why Donna was calling me at 7:30am only to realize that it was the same day and she was calling for dinner. That was quite embarassing, haha. I left downstairs to the lobby in a haze, as usual. I pulled up my Abu Dhabi top ten book and found the address for the Lebanese Flower and off we went in two taxis (because the limit in a taxi is four and they stick to it).

The address in my book said Hamdan Street and 4th near the Chom-something supermarket. Donna's taxi was nowhere to be seen. Tandy and I got off where the restaurant was supposed to be and it was nowhere in sight. Luckily, Donna and I have phones so she called me to ask me where we were. We waited for a good five minutes and they were still nowhere in sight. They said they were near rock gym and I spotted it in the distance and told them to stay put. Poor Tandy was hurting because she had injured her foot before she came to AD and didn't wear her brace. We entered a store that sold eyeglasses (the name escapes me now) and the girl told us that the Lebanese Flower was in Khalidya. I was perfectly content skipping out on the Lebanese Flower for the day and just eating at a random location in Downtown. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a place called Southern Fried Chicken which sounded really good. I wanted to see if they made Southern fired chicken how it's supposed to be or just some cheap imitation. Tandy looked sad though that after her leg abuse we weren't going to get to go to the restaurant so we hopped on our two taxis (that this time were folllowing one another) and I told the taxi driver Khalidya and prayed we made it there.

Khalidya ended up not being a street name but a whole neighborhood. I thought great, now how exactly are we going to find this place. As I was talking to Donna to tell her that we were pulling over because we didn't know where we were going, I spotted a sign on the block behind where we were that said Lebanese Flower Bakery. I crossed my fingers and led the troop in the direction where I had spotted the sign. I started thinking it might be a hallucination because I never should be trusted with directions! It took a good 5 minutes to get there but there it was, The Lebanese Flower. I wiped a fake tear from my eye. We also spotted a store that said Chocolatier. We were excited.

Outside of the Lebanese Flower I saw shwarma! I was thrilled and knew exactly what I wanted - chicken shwarma, my new favorite thing. At the restaurant the waiters kept brnging us things that we didn't even order, it was so nice. I got to try the most delicious falafel I had ever tasted. I followed suit with Michelle and made myself a falafel sandwish using pita, falafel(obviously) and some garlic Hummus. It was awesome and a great little appetizer. They also give us some salad. I picked at a random tomato that was very tasty and ignored everything else including olives. My first boyfriend would have had a field day. I wonder if I'll ever come around to liking it...hmm. Donna and I ordered the chicken shwarma sandwich, Michelle had shrimp (which came with the head attached, lol) and Carmela and Tandy had some other yummy looking chicken platters with french fries. Everyone was happy and at the end they even gave us complimentary pastries and tea. The total for my meal was 9 Dirhams which is $2.44. I gave 20 Dirhams to include a tip for the awesome service and the waiters walked away with a great overall tip because the meal was so cheap. I will definitely visit this place again, it gets my seal of approval. :o)

This guy approves too! :D

coffee yum yum

Oh, and a special note about one of the pastries. I ate it and it tasted like perfume. Michelle thought it was delicious and I thought it was rather gross because on top of attacking my mouth, it attacked my nose. We asked the waiter what it was and he said violets. No wonder it tasted like perfume! I decided to avoid such pastries in the future.

We walked into the Chocolatier store and it was really really fancy. They had chocolates arranged in the most spectacular gift baskets and had giant bags of coffee beans of all types that smelled delicious. This was definitely a high end shop and the prices reflected it.  The ladies gave us a candy and said "you can't leave the store without something sweet on Ramadan." It was so nice of her. I looked down and the sweet had rose petals. My stomach turned a little. I said thank you so much and shoved it in my purse sneakily. We of course lingered, and then were offered a chocolate. This chocolate had caramel inside and was simply divine. We chatted with the ladies and they told us that they were going to build a coffee bar inside in the next month. Sweeeeet. Donna picked up a mini chocolate arrangement for Mary for being such a wonderful guide and we all chipped in.

All the ladies except Michelle and I wanted to head back to the hotel. We parted ways and Michelle and I caught a taxi back to Hamdan Street to visit a store called Home Center. Home Center > Ikea. I'm glad we went in.

We came back to hotel, I skyped and finally enjoyed sleeping at night instead of all afternoon.