This morning we woke up to a very early alarm clock. For once, we were actually up before the call to prayer. A little after 5am, we were out the door and in an Uber to the airport. We had to fill out a very lengthy form online with our address in Scotland. It had a lot of poorly worded questions such as “When are you departing?,” but also “When are you leaving?” Nicole and I had to keep conferring with each other to interpret what they actually meant. After at least ten minutes, our forms were completed, our tickets given, and we went through both passport control and security in a relatively short amount of time.
We had a long walk to our gate. Dubai’s airport is one of the largest in the world and our gate was the second furthest gate we could possibly walk to. The only shops that were open were Duty Free and we didn’t need another giant Toblerone. There are other things we could have done in Dubai, but we just ran out of time. While we initially thought that our nearly five days in one city was too much, it was quite the opposite. A gentleman in the Istanbul airport hotel’s restaurant said we’d probably tire of Dubai in an hour. This presumably stemmed from the city’s inherent lack of alcohol, but Dubai has a lot to offer for those who can avoid a drink for a spell. Sure it’s a bit lavish, showy, over-the-top, and an ode to human consumerism and excess, but it knows what it is. Every Uber is a luxury car. Every building has to be new. If it isn’t the biggest, the tallest, most luxurious, or the most expensive, it probably isn’t in Dubai.
So why not stay longer? Well if you recall, Americans are not welcome in many places in the world right now. From Dubai, we can go back to a place we’ve already been (like Cairo), or we can go to the United Kingdom. That’s pretty much it. I mean, we could also take a 17 hour flight to Los Angeles, but we can’t go home yet. Are you crazy? But as England is now in full lockdown, we always had our eyes on Scotland, which only has a couple flights a week from Dubai (though it is shocking they have any). When we initially began our trip a few weeks back, the quarantine rules were a bit different. They had a list of countries that would not require quarantine. Having been away from the United States for more than two weeks, a different set of rules would apply to us. However, with the rising case count, there is no longer an extensive approved country list. It is now basically a mandatory quarantine regardless of where one is coming from. “Quarantine” means different things in different regions. In the countryside, we are allowed to get food, go for walks etc. We just won’t be going to the local pub or taking in a museum.
We were fairly well versed in the quarantine rules, but the guy working border patrol was a bit dumbfounded by our presence. One thing that seems to be a constant around the world is that border agents need to be just miserable human beings. He was confused as to why we would come here in the middle of the pandemic and be okay with doing nothing. The lady working next to him basically told him to chill out and he eventually let us go. We rented a car which ended up being a Fiat 500 hybrid. It’s quite zippy, but not as zippy as the traffic riding my bumper on narrow country roads. And let’s not forget my old nemesis, the roundabout. We made a few wrong turns, but eventually found our way to the Air BnB, an entire country cottage to ourselves.
The rules state that we are allowed to go to a grocery store, though delivery is preferred when possible. We attempted to get delivery from about four different supermarkets, but we either couldn’t register with an international phone number, or the next delivery date was in three days. Off to the grocery store we went!
After getting enough food to last us for probably much longer than our time here, we arrived back at the cottage to see our hosts, Fiona and Norman, welcoming us. The first questions they had for us were naturally about the election. After some electoral college small talk, they showed us how to run the wood burning stove, gave us a couple pairs of rubber boots, and pointed out some hiking trails through the country where we won’t encounter anyone else.
With an early setting sun and a time zone change, it seemed much later than it was. We were nearly ready to go to bed at 6pm. We made a steak pie in the oven for our dinner. We may not be able to go to the pub, but that doesn’t mean we can’t bring some of the local flavors to us.
While our time in Scotland has been limited, the countryside looks quite nice and I’m anxious to do some strutting around in my rubber boots tomorrow. There is a rumor that there might even be some sun. Wowzers.
passports & pepto bismol 