Our camino so far

We're not in Paris anymore, but the 36 hrs we spent in Paris were the most familiar and reassuring that we've had in the trip so far. 

We travelled for 14 hours on our first flight, between Sydney and Dubai, and they were 14 very long uncomfortable hours. Partly because the plane was so hot and the water service was very in attentive, however in all other facets, Emirates airlines excelled. When we deplaned in Dubai, we stepped into 40 degree heat, a long way from the 5 degrees it had been on leaving Hobart the day before. It was part of the reason it felt very foreign, the other part was the sheer decadence of everything in the Emirates terminal and all of the burkahs. 

On the plane we were shown a movie of smiling men with beards and wearing white dresses guiding us seemlessly through passport control, and they were right, they were all smiling, cool in their whites while we were still in thermals.

We had a few moments of hesitation about whether to bother checking into the hotel for 8 hrs before heading back to the airport, but in the end we made the decision and it was a good one. A lukewarm pool, halal room service and an air conditioned hotel room across the road from the mall were all in our favour.

Upon returning to the airport at 1am to check in, instead of a sleepy dark departures lounge, our taxi pulled up to a lights show outside the Emirates terminal. Hundreds of people were in departures, and again the terminal was full of smiling white dressed men. Passport control was spooky as we watched a girl in a burkah have to wait for a female attendant so that she could show her face to verify her id, but we were then whisked away to the departures terminal proper, via a train ride, huge lift with water feature and then the night club atmosphere that was departures. 

With planes leaving every few minutes, the lounge was wall to wall duty free, including a $250k car, more cigarettes than you can smoke in a lifetime, and my favourites - the shiny shop, which sold shiny camels and hookahs and tea sets.

We walked around through the dozen restaurants and bars, trying to pick a place to settle for a drink at 2:30am. It felt like a normal night out instead of in an airport in the wee hours.

Even thought Dubai treated us well, it was abit full on and we were glad to get to Paris and it's familiar ways.