Day 4: Last and Final Day

Day 4 was kind of an add on to the conference. The morning was free until 2pm. In the morning I was able to visit the Gold Souk, several metro stops away. Basically it was a little section of town where there is more gold than anyone can imagine. They were selling it left and right. It was quite intense. A couple of us wandered through there a bit. I bought this really cool beaded shoes made from camel. Didn't quite have the means to by any gold jewelry. We made our way back to the hotel where we got on the buses for a tour of Abu Dhabi. The tour basically included visiting one of the biggest mosques in the world. They dressed us appropriately, we took off our shoes, and visited the male and female prayer rooms. It was quite interesting visiting the mosque, I have never been to one. We got a personal tour of it including some background information and what they are using it for today. Everyone comes twice a year to pray, it can hold 22,000 people. They also hold educational sessions for children. After that we made our way back to the Emirates Palace, we are quite the regulars haha. At the palace, there was a charity event going on called Small World. It featured 29 different countries in which everyone had their own booth with information on their country and traditional food. I can proudly say I visited each booth and tasted all 29 different countries foods. The US was represented with a lemonade stand and brownies and homemade chocolate chip cookies haha. The embassy asked people living in Abu Dhabi to come represent their country. It was quite interesting and awesome because the people were actually from their country. Some big names were invited and if it hadn't been for my exhaustion I would have had my game face on trying to network...however I had no clue who these people were. There was also a nice show with each country doing their specific dance. We only saw a few of them as we had to leave to go back to Dubai. The palace once again featured fireworks of gigantic proportions as well as an amazing light show. They really do go all out. The Sheikh was once again present. This wonderful world cultural event served as a nice and appropriate ending to a fantastic journey I have had in Dubai. It is not over however, today I shall be attending a desert safari. My last blog shall be about this adventure. Stay tuned.