As Time Grows Shorter, The Bucket List Gets Longer

With not a lot of time left in the semester and a lot of things left on the bucket list, our weekends have been packed.

Last weekend we took a day trip to Abu Dhabi. The majority of the day was spent at the Sheikh Zayed Mosque. This place is incredible. It has 82 domes, thousands of columns, the world's largest rug, largest chandelier (which is actually made of Swarovski crystals) and incredible marble work. After some minor clothing shenanigans we were ready to tour the mosque in our very own abaiyas.

The beautiful work in the marble columns...this is amazing.

The most amazing dome I have ever seen. Look how incredible the carvings and calligraphy are in the dome.

More incredible work in the marble

Inside of the main prayer hall

The world's largest chandelier

Largest rug in the world

Mosque Selfie

This wall has all the 99 names of Allah within the floral patterns. It even has an empty one above Allah that is supposed to represent the unknown name. Fun Fact: apparently Prophet Mohammad knew the name and whispered it in the ear of a camel

Just two cripples chilling. Ironic that we both played volleyball and have ankle injuries

Toward the entrance of the mosque

After the mosque we went to an Iraqi restaurant and ate a traditional Iraqi dish that was some sort of large fish. It was so good and considering I have never really been a fan of seafood I was pleasantly surprised I ate so much of it. Yay for constant overeating!

We finished the day off at a museum and headed back to campus completely exhausted. That is another trend these days being exhausted...read on.

This weekend we went to Oman! YAY OMAN! I actually am obsessed with that country. It is so beautiful, calm and friendly. What is so interesting about the country is only 40 years ago it only had 10km of road and only one hospital for the entire country. It was completely behind the time. When the current Sultan took reign everything changed and for the better. He is a man of the people and under his reign the country has grown and developed into a really beautiful and peaceful place to live. So it is no surprise we were all so excited to go back (we made an appearance in Oman during our Eid trip).

Thursday night around 6pm we got on the bus to make the 6 hour trip to Muscat. A bus ride this long did not sound super exciting considering my gimp ankle but thankfully there was a place we could elevate our feet on the bus. Jamie (the kid who fell off the mountain and is still on crutches) hurt his right ankle and mine is my left so it worked perfectly. After hours of life chats, quick naps, border control stops and bathroom breaks we made it to the hotel around 1:30am. We are college students so going to bed late is normal but the problem was we went to sleep around 3am (somehow we got watching Grey's Anatomy which kept us up) and we had to be ready to leave at 7am. After 3 lovely hours of sleep we woke up ready (or not so ready) to take on the day. At breakfast we met our tour guide Chris. He is originally from Austria and is completely fabulous. On the 2 hour bus ride to Nizwa he told us all about Oman and his experiences since living there. This country is so amazing! Once getting to Nizwa we toured the fort which was essentially indestructible and has survived for hundreds of years (the dry weather really helps with this). It had some amazing traps too that were used to keep the enemy from getting up the tower. They would pour boiling date syrup down these holes that would then fall on people trying to go up the stairs and when they would step forward to get out of the syrup they would fall into a hole and into the dungeon. Pretty creative.

View from the top of the fort

The tower was surrounded by cannons to also defeat the enemies

 

Before leaving the area we went to the local souk to look around. The currency in Oman is incredibly strong (1 OMR=10AED= 2.72USD) so we did not buy anything but it was nice to walk around. plus, the people were so friendly!!

Then we went to an Oasis near by (Oman is known for having many Oases) where we went to a historic mud house. It was so great. They had a Majlas (a seating area) where we had coffee, tea and dates (the dates were incredible! The best actually). Then we went to the kitchen area and watched Omani women make coffee, bread, grind grain and grind down sandalwood to make this really interesting orange paste. We were not really sure what it was but the women put it on our foreheads. It was so incredibly how much it cooled us down and the cooling effect lasted for half an hour or so. Before leaving the oasis we wandered through the streets and got some great pictures.

Overlook of the oasis

Decided to take a nice one

Inside the historic house

In the Majlas

Cute little Omani woman putting the cooling Sandalwood paste on my forehead

I loved these streets so much

I am not sure how this picture happened but I think it is hilarious

Boy band picture in the ally

Good Ol' Bus selfie

After lunch we stopped for on this hill which had a spectacular overview of the oasis. It was breathtaking! Then on our way back to Muscat we stopped in another oasis (literally oases on oases in this country) to have coffee and dates (again) with this really adorable little old Omani man who farms that land. The rest of the night consisted of sleeping (it was needed), eating, playing cards and homework. But we prioritized getting to sleep because the next day we were at it again.

The next morning (shocker we did not get much sleep again so we were slow moving) we went to the Grand Mosque in Muscat. Having been at the Sheikh Zayed Mosque just a week before we thought we had seen the most spectacular mosque but wow, this place. The details and carving work was so unreal. Also the gardens leading up to the prayer hall was so beautiful and perfectly tied into the buildings. Funny part about this mosque is that it has the second largest chandelier in the world and the second largest rug (next to Sheikh Zayed Mosque). Words cannot explain it properly so hopefully the pictures help.

Look how spectacular the wood work is! UNREAL

This is part of one of the doors

Loved these, they were all along the walk ways

Too many colors in one foto

seriously, the details!

Inside the main prayer hall

This was so beautiful, the colors, the patterns and it was so 3D

Prayer Niche

Before saying bye to the amazing country Oman we went to the souk by the port and stopped by the Sultan's palace. We even saw the Sultan's yacht which happens to be the second largest in the world...no worries he is building another one that will be the largest. haha

View of the old city, this area traces back to the 16th century

The palace..has a lot of influence from India

If you look closely you can see the tower from the fort that was built by the Portugese in the 16th century

The port

His yaht

I am sorry that was so much but I hope the pictures gave you a little bit of an idea of how amazing Oman is. Good news is we are going back this weekend! We are spending a day in Musadam where we get to swim and snorkel and just relax on the water all day. So even though I am sad to be missing the monstrous amounts of snow that the US is getting right now I am totally ok with spending the weekend before Christmas on the beach :)