Sharjah

Summer is over, the weather is good and tourists are streaming into the UAE.  And not just into Dubai - last weekend the final race of the Formula 1 season was held in Abu Dhabi, which meant real traffic, hour-long queues for taxis, and strange sightings across the UAE.  In other words, a perfect time to leave town and explore Sharjah.

Sharjah is the emirate directly north of Dubai.  It has taken us anywhere from 15 minutes to two hours to travel between downtown Dubai and the city of Sharjah.  This time we left Abu Dhabi on Friday morning, guaranteeing a relatively traffic-free trip.

Sharjah is the most conservative emirate and is famous for its cultural center.  It has nearly half of all the museums in the UAE and a well-preserved fort.




The Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization had artifacts from the Berlin Museum of Islamic Art when we were there, but we enjoyed the permanent collection, which focuses especially on contributions to science, most of all.

We were most pleasantly surprised by Sharjah's corniche.  Sharjah is built along two bays, and there is a great running and bicycle path along both, as well as on a bridge which connects the two.  We were very, very slightly reminded of the amazing bicycle paths in Stockholm.

The Blue Souq is a pair of beautiful buildings right on the water.  We were eager to be charmed by the inside, but unfortunately it is more mall-y than souq-y.

We enjoyed getting to know one of the other emirates, and may be back for its most famous event, the Festival of Lights.

Art Galleries Abu Dhabi

It rained this year for the annual Art Fair, and the tents that the emirate had planned to use for the art displays proved too leaky. We weren't planning to go anyway - the whole thing sounded so small, especially in a city where both the Louvre and the Guggenheim (below) are growing closer to opening every day.


But as we look at the slow-moving construction sites on Saadiyat Island, we realize that an art fair might have been a nice thing to write into our calendars, leaky tents or no. We have seen precious few representations here not featuring falcons, Emirati leaders, horses, or combinations of the three. (Our apartment excluded, of course, where Kazhia Kolb reigns supreme.)

So we were glad to discover Art Hub, a gallery/cafe/studio space where the art on display is various and interesting. And for sale....at pretty exorbitant prices. They can afford to be -- they are pretty much the only show in town.



Art Hub is in Mussafeh Industrial Area, where Margaret has been lost twice....alone, and traumatically. Expat circles speak of finding places in Mussafeh in hushed tones, and advise that anyone venturing there bring a buddy - not because it's dangerous, but because street signs are inscrutable, roads end suddenly, and pedestrians hop in and out of the highways with reckless abandon, sometimes wielding bicycles. So we were glad to find Art Hub after being lost only once.


We saw shadow puppets....

....many rooms full of big oils.....



...and some curiously appealing paintings of sky scrapers, despite (or perhaps because of?) their eerie colors.