Abu Dhabi: My favourite of the seven emirates

A desert oasis meets cosmopolitan coastal city in the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

Just over an hour’s drive down the E11 highway will take you from the hustle, bustle and glamour of Dubai, to its sometimes overlooked, more humble capital city – Abu Dhabi. It’s here that you’ll get a blend of authentic Arabic culture and ultra-modern extravagance.

Once a quiet desert location with a small population in the Persian Gulf relying on pearl diving and fishing for trade, oil money has since transformed Abu Dhabi into the largest of the seven emirates making up the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

With almost year-round sunshine and warm desert temperatures, Abu Dhabi has a total of 200 islands and consists of 700 kilometres of coastline. Want to jet-ski around the city? It can be done. Pack lunch and stop in the beautiful shallow waters of the mangroves and if you’re lucky, spot humpback dolphins along the way.

Most of Abu Dhabi city is situated on the island itself, but it has many more suburbs on the mainland and a plethora of man-made islands scattered around the sparkling azure coastline. Take in the sky scrapers on the Corniche and move on to visit modern architectural wonders like the Louvre Abu Dhabi on Saadiyat Island.

A visit to the picturesque Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque will give you an automatic injection of Islamic culture, while a trip out to Yas Island is a haven for adrenaline junkies, with the likes of Ferrari World, the UAE’s largest waterpark and the newly opened Warner Bros. World all built on the same spit of land.

Bonkers brews

I went to Alicante and discovered a gem of a coffee shop. Nothing particularly mad about it,  but it's definitely quirky,

This is what I had to say about it:

Searching for a quality cup of java and a bite to eat in the winding streets of Alicante? Get your caffeine fix in the capable hands of the coffee connoisseurs at Café Madness. These guys live and breathe coffee – they even roast their own beans on site. Choose from a Honduran, Brazilian, Guatemalan and even Burundian brew.

https://madnesscoffee.com 

"Oh Canada, our home and native land!"

Three things Canada does in a big way: land mass, food and sport. Given that I hadn't been to the second largest country in the world since I was a child, I thought I'd pay it another visit - this time, on the east side.

Toronto and Montréal would be my chosen destinations, and anywhere in between that warranted a stop-off en route.

I'd been to Calgary, Alberta and Vancouver, British Columbia as a kid, but always wondered what the other side was like. And nestled in amongst the Great Lakes Megalopolis in North America is Toronto, the provincial capital of Ontario.

First things first, I needed to assess the sports scene. Tickets were booked for the basketball almost instantly upon landing in Canada. I'd seen an NBA game in New York, Madison Square Garden, between the Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers a while back, but the excitement to get to the Scotiabank Arena in the Six was next level.

Toronto Raptors vs Phoenix Suns

Two big names in the NBA, and with Toronto flying high in the Eastern Conference, it wasn't going to be a dull affair. As I expected, plenty of over-the-top entertainment greeted us at the stadium, but that what a night out at the basketball is all about.

Plenty of Drake songs blasted out before, during and after the game - after all, it is his city. I was almost disappointed not to have seen him on his court-side seat, but you can't win 'em all.

One person that was in attendance, however, was Kyle Lowry, but his superstar teammate Kawhi Leonard was sidelined due to injury. The pair had been lighting up the NBA and the Raptor's progress was largely down to them. The Salah and Mané of the Raptors team, if you like.

After hearing Canada's national anthem blare out and passionately observed by the entire arena, the US anthem (for the Suns) was somewhat low key and The Star-Spangled Banner seemed over before it even started. I was told it's the same treatment for when Canadian teams cross the border and visit American teams, but nonetheless, I liked the idea of observing a national anthem before every game.

With a beer in hand and a Raptors clapper in the other (#freeswag), the game seemed to fly by. The fourth quarter went down to the wire, and Toronto found themselves level with seconds to go, relying on a Pascal Siakam buzzer beater to win them the game by a mere two points.

And in typical 'tourist at a sports game' fashion, here it is captured on my iPhone:

And this is how the TV cameras saw it: