My Three-Day Weekend: Eid Ul Fitr 2013

It was one of those holidays where you didn't have a good plan on how to use it.  Eid ul Fitr 2013 fell on a Thursday making it a three-day holiday for my husband.  We don't exactly have a plan for the said day.  Most of my friends were already booking hotels to stay over and to bask in the sun.

As I am totally scared of the heat, being baked under 45 deg Celsius is not my idea of fun.  What else can we do without getting sun burned during the summer in Abu Dhabi?  Of course!  Head to Dubai.

We were a bit wary of going to Dubai because for sure most of the Abu Dhabi residents will also be going there.  Luckily, we arrived around 12 noon and headed straight to Dubai Mall.  I just like it there.  I don't exactly know why, I just do.  As promised husband took me to my favorite restaurant for lunch - Le Pain Quotidien.  Perfect timing because its also my Nanay's birthday.  Something to celebrate.  I ordered one of my favorites chicken tartine and husband had duck fricasse.

It was a scrumptious lunch.  So we had to walk off those calories and began our 6 hour window shopping and sort-of-shopping.  I know!  6 hours.  I thought my legs are going to give up by the time we went home.  During those we found this exhibit at the Grand Atrium of the Dubai Mall.  It was titled The Genius and His Inventions.  I was so thrilled to see such works.

Albeit it being a replica, it was still beautiful and amazing.  Leonardo da Vinci is truly a genius.  Who would have thought those machines he drew and created with what is available back then would somehow aid the machines of today.  The exhibit is free and its only until the 13th of August 2013.

The remaining two days of the holiday was spent running around the city with tons of errands.  Oh!  I just discovered that if you are craving for some fresh buko.  You can go to Mina Fish Market, one store by the entrance sells them and they can open it for you.  You can enjoy fresh buko juice and get to have the flesh for buko salad.  But if you don't want to rough it out, you can always go to Green House along Airport road.  They have tons of Filipino stuff that you miss from our country.

Three Countries in One Day

So the long weekend for Eid al Fitr has finally passed, and we spent it glued to the tube.  Seriously, while everyone else we know frolicked under the sun, we jumped from one channel to another just because its free!  No, I will not be talking about the free cable channels. 

I was berating my husband for not making any plans for the long weekend - sad to say because we were both so wrapped up with the door thing.  We currently don't have a doorknob.  Don't ask, I might end up complaining about our real estate agent. hmp!

Anyway, since we didn't have any reservations for the first and second day of Eid, hubby woke me up early and promised to take me around the globe in one day.  I jumped into the shower and some coffee.  He took out our emergency bag and filled it out with chips and then we're off.  Road trip!

First stop. IKEA! Imagine my glee when I noticed the road we are heading.  So we had Swedish breakfast.  We had their breakfast meal plus waffles and refillable coffee.  We didn't linger inside the store because we need to take a longer trip from Abu Dhabi.

Second stop, yes, its in Dubai.  We decided to do some early Christmas shopping.  Make the most of what ever is on sale.  For lunch, we had an American meal.  Nope its not the big yellow M logo with it.  We opted to eat healthy and go for Subway.  Healthy subs plus cookies is the perfect lunch while shopping.

For our last stop we decided to try out the newly opened Filipino restaurant in Abu Dhabi. Max's Friedn Chicken.  The restaurant is located in Khalifa St. in Abu Dhabi.  It is at Corcniche Apartment building at "R" floor.  We were excited to try it since, it has been a while since we ate something Filipino.

Once you the elevator doors opened at level "R" we were warmly greeted by the hostess.  There is a queue for the table.  So she got our name and we sat at the waiting area.  The restaurant was buzzing.  Every Filipino was excited to try out Max's.  Good thing the waiting didn't take that long.  We were seated and our orders were taken.  After 15 minutes our order came and we dive in.  We had Max's platter and Max's basic and Chicken sisig.  I'm not a sisig eater but husband told me to try it, and amazingly it was good.  Everything was good.  It tastes like being back at home. *sigh*  downside though, the plates were oily.  It felt like it was not properly washed?  I'll let is pass, being it newly opened and too busy with customers.  Total wallet damage was AED 84.00 not bad.  Not bad at all.

All in all we had a taste of three countries in one day.  Maybe next holiday we'll do this again and maybe this time we will have a plan.