a weekend in lebanon.

holidays seem to be a lot fewer and far between here in the middle east than when i was living in italy.

part of it is because the holidays aren't planned in advance most of the time.

since many holidays in muslim countries are based on the moon (islam uses a lunar calendar) the holidays aren't announced until the moon has been sighted within a certain window of time.

but, thanksgiving was a planned weekend, so lindsay, lynn and i planned to go to beirut, lebanon for that weekend.

warning- photo overload coming. a lot of the pictures look so nice, i just can't decide which ones to share!

after a late night, in the rain struggle to find our airbnb, this was what we found in the morning.

blue skies!

scattered street art.

the wiring was completely reminiscent of southeast asia.

we decided to spend our first day wandering about...with a few sights in mind, figuring we'd just let the day play out and see what happened.

the mohammad al-amin mosque, a sunni muslim mosque located in downtown beirut.

cool things to see if you look left and right!

ruins next to the mosque.

it was funny because we happened at this spot just as a very large and somewhat ominous appearing protest headed this way. we took some pictures and quickly got out of the way before we became the next americans on the nightly news.

seems every city has their own photo op just waiting for ya!

the nearby harbor.

if you look closely, you'll notice that some apartments in the building appear occupied.

and others don't even have windows and appear destroyed.

i was quite curious about it.

there's a looooooong boardwalk along the harbor.

the raouche rocks, beirut's iconic rock formations.

the second day we hired a driver to take us outside of the city to some other notable sights. he was so helpful and basically planned the whole day for us and accommodated any of our requests.

we went to the jeita grotto, but no photos are allowed, so you'll have to click the link to see it! it was cool, and worth the time to make a stop there.

we took the cable car up to our lady of lebanon.

that ride was something else.

but the views were definitely worth it.

views from the byblos citadel.

byblos is believed to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.

the clouds and storms in the distance made for some incredible photos.

we had a great meal at local lebanese restaurant, feniqia, which was just a little walk up from the harbor.

my travel buddies for the weekend, lynn and lindsay!

we ate here, twice, so we definitely recommend it!

we also had a great driver for our day trip out of beirut. you can reach salah at +961 79 101 909 via what's app and he'll happily help you plan whatever you need and give you a fair price.

national day 2018.

national day in the uae falls on december 2 and is similar to the united states' celebration of the 4th of july. 

national day is the day the seven emirates joined together to form the uae in 1971.

a couple of us got together and booked a quick overnight to abu dhabi.

we went to the mosque, as not everyone had been since we had arrived in august.

caitlin and i came during our dubai trip a couple years back, but seriously the place is so stunning who wouldn't want to go more than once?

we went to a nearby restaurant for lunch. the views were clearly terrible.

and the food awful. #lies

then we headed over to the intercontinental abu dhabi for the night.

the sunset was awesome and much of the afternoon was spent watching the fighter jets dance around the sky in honor of the holiday.

and then there were some fireworks, which we could see from our hotel.

the building was all lit up like the uae flag.

the next morning we got up and went to the beach club that's also part of the intercontinental's property.

what a nice weekend! always looking forward to more relaxing poolside days!

sporting events in dubai.

one thing i'm enjoying most about dubai is the big city draw it has for sporting events.

in the few short months i've been living here, there's been major golf, tennis and rugby tournaments.

back in november, the dp world championship showed up in dubai, bringing the european tour to town along with several of the world's best golfers, including rory mcelroy and sergio garcia.

then it was time for rugby 7s.

which, mind you, i know nothing about rugby, except that everyone seemed to be going, so i agreed to go as well.

it's like a zillion miles outside of dubai it seems, but nonetheless lots of people dress up in costumes and make it a big party.

it was a fun time and i look forward to going again next year!

and just recently an atp tour stop happened to be in dubai.

i've been a big tennis fan for awhile, and watch a lot of tennis every summer while in the us.

mom and i have even been to a couple tournaments, like atlanta and wimbledon.

but i was yet to see the #goat roger federer in person and he played both an early round match we saw during the week and then made it to the final.

i also was able to see up and coming greek superstar stefanos tsitsipas in action. he cracked the top ten that week, becoming the first greek to do so.

it's awesome to live around the world and get to experience all the different events and such that happen. looking forward to hitting these events again next year and a few more as well! maybe a formula 1 or camel race? hmmmmm....

my shipment arrives and updated apartment pics.

many of my new colleagues showed up in dubai with a bag or two.

pretty casual, i thought...for the amount of things you're willing to move around the world with.

i showed up with two bags.

and then 37 boxes arrived about a month later.

insert cringe face.

now, to be fair, i once lived in a three bedroom, 2.5 bath condo and i've pared down quite a bit over the last eight years.

but leaving milan i was given a shipment, so sending all my worldly possessions didn't cost me a thing! and while i sold quite a bit to my coworkers in milan, i still had a lot of stuff.

and having lived in tiny italian apartments for the last 7 years, i thought for sure that my apartment in dubai would be bigger.

but i was wrong. my apartment here is the exact same square footage as my last italian apartment- about 55 sq. meters, which is just under 600 sq. ft. for all you fans of customary measurements out there. in other words, it's small.

my shipment arrived mid-september and i was terrified of how all the boxes, let alone all the actual things would fit in my apartment. this apartment does not have the built in storage my last place did.

i anxiously awaited the arrival of the shipment and i caught a glimpse of the truck as it was arriving.

of course, the very nice men wanted to unpack for me.

i nearly had a panic attack.

as there would be absolutely no space to sit everything while you figure out where to put it. and they were just randomly putting it anywhere.

i had to sign my life away that nothing was damaged and that they did everything i wanted.

there were boxes everywhere.

boxes upon boxes. upon boxes.

after i convinced the workers to leave i was able to start tackling the boxes one by one. doing this allowed me to try and find space for each thing and determine what other storage i would need to find.

and while it took several weeks, and a large ikea order, i've sorted everything in a place and now my little place feels enough like home to enjoy it.

here are a few updated pictures of my living room and kitchen area.

i've arranged all the art i've bought from my travels.

there's pictures on the wall from my very first trip from milan to the south of france, trips to amsterdam, rome, barcelona, iceland, london, venice, denmark, siena, warsaw, budapest and a parting gift from caitlin of the duomo in milan.

i bought a rug and ottoman from a local furniture store and combined with my "tiny" tv on the ikea stand, the living room was nearly finished.

i ended up taking apart the coffee table that was put in the apartment and hiding it under the couch. i moved the kitchen table along the wall and only kept two chairs with it. you can see the other two chairs hiding in corners.

and i had a big january clean out here to reduce even more of what i wouldn't need in this apartment or in dubai. with that, i had space to get these two fun bar stools.

i bought a bookcase of sorts to line the hallway and hold some of my travel knickknacks.

now i'm ready for visitors! i don't have a ton of space, but i'll make room for you!

who's coming first?