On my way back from the old town, I stopped by the Dubai Museum, which starts as an outdoorsy space, and later takes you underground, telling you about the story of how the city came to be, and its development up until today.
I stayed for about an hour, learning about the Bedouin lifestyle and the type of things that the local population used to do, back in the day. And later, I took Nimit’s recommendation and walked around numerous local markets. At this point, I was close to the river that reaches around the city, and got on an Abra — the local “water taxi”, to cross over to the northern bank. From there, I reached the Spice Souq and later the Gold Souq, moving from a place selling spices to another where local street vendors were selling jewellery and watches.
After a late stop to pick up a quick lunch, I took the boat back to the south bank and stayed at a cafe for about an hour and a half. Having spent most of the day outside, walking between a blazing hot sun and the shadows of the old town, it felt great to take some quiet time to resource over an iced coffee and a freshly squeezed fruit juice.
While taking some time to recharge, Nimit suggested that I check out the recently opened Etihad Museum, so I headed towards the area to discover a building that had such a beautiful architecture and interior design. The Etihad Museum is dedicated to the contemporary history of the country. The collection of things on display is rather small, however the place gives a good idea of the creation of the country in 1971.
Back then, the 9 Emirates were independent, however when Britain left in 1968, they decided to unite and form a country. But at the last minute, Qatar and Bahrein decided to remain independent. Hence the current state of the country, which unites 7 different Emirates. It was absolutely fascinating to hear about it — I personally had no idea that the country was so “recent”.