Our Little European Odyssey: Seefeld, Munich and Dubai. All in a days work ...

It's over. My Odyssey has concluded, save a couple of days in Dubai. I'm writing this sitting in Dubai airport waiting for my flight to Melbourne. So the couple of days has been and well and truly gone.

I stayed in Bur Dubai which isn't the most salubrious areas of Dubai or as you'd expect Dubai to be. The hotel was fine. In fact it was really comfortable. Probably the best sleep I've had for 6 weeks. Waking to the Call to Prayers was a bit of a culture shock one day one though. When I looked out the window the entire city was shrouded in thick fog so that added to the mysteriousness of the Calling from the plethora of mosques.

I went walking in the afternoon and thought there were so many mosques. Like, they're everywhere. Then I had to pinch myself a bit. I am in a Muslim country and, when you think about, we have a church on every corner!! The afternoon Call to Prayers came when I was out and it is so much louder than I had expected but I likened it to the church bells ringing through all those European valleys. I followed a group of men to see where they were going. Not too conspicuously, well a white bloke in the middle of old Dubai does stand out regardless. I turned a corner and watched as the streets were lined with prayer mats and shop doorways and any spare space really accommodated worshippers doin' their thing.

I then went down an alleyway. The type you wouldn't go down if it were dark. And came out in an open space where a building must have once been. A big sandy square about the size of 2 tennis courts and there were about 20 blokes playing cricket. One outfielder said "hello, mate where are from" in almost an Oxford accent. When I said "Australia" he laughed and said "your team hasn't been playing too well" to which I replied "they're not my team". Well, he laughed and laughed and asked me to play for a while. I thought, why not? It's not as if I've got anything to lose. They were a bunch of Pakistani blokes and they wanted me to bat. This is a sandy block about as level as fallow paddock with a large piece of rubber matting as the batting wicket. No running just bowling, batting and fielding. Needless to say I was dispatched after a few balls. Caught on the rebound of the block of apartments at deep cover.

I took my leave after shaking the hands of all 20. I'll remember this day. I don't think this would have happened in the new Dubai area where it's all swank, concrete and skyscrapers. I went back to the hotel and had a nap and woke at 8:00pm. Knackered!!!