Plans for my time out here, or planning my timing out of here

I've been in the United Arab Emirates for going on a month now.  All of that time has been spent in either Dubai or Abu Dhabi.  I need to get out of here to other parts of the world while I'm here...  Both to experience new things, but also to just get out of here for awhile.

I had a dream last night that I was back in Southern California hanging out.  I was sitting there with a group of friends planning a road trip from San Diego up the coast to Seattle.  I almost never dream about being back in the States.  I think this was probably brought on by the fact that because of the weather, Ramadan, and the culture here I'm feeling a bit stuck.  West Coast of the States is probably where I feel I have the most freedom to be who I am, do what I want, and go where I want because of familiarity, family, friends etc..  I think my mind was dealing with how I am currently feeling about the UAE by putting me in my comfort zone.  So it is this message to me more than anything at this point that is saying that I need to find my way out of here, even if it's just for a weekend.

And the weekend it is.  Unfortunately I haven't planned anything and to be honest I have work to do that will likely preclude me from a last minute trip anywhere.  Plus there are events planned for the weekend locally that makes it that much easier to not do the hard work to try to get out of here just for the day (essentially).

At least I do have some travel plans coming up soon.  There is a decent likelihood (probably around 60% right now) that I will be travelling to Nice, France a week from Sunday.  It will be a business trip, but a trip nonetheless.  I'm now really hoping that this does occur just so that I can get out of here sooner rather than later.  If I don't end up on the business trip to Nice, I will likely still try to go somewhere next weekend as it is Eid Al Fitr here, which means a long weekend.

The weekend following that is also a long weekend for me as it is a holiday trip I have had planned for awhile now.  I'm flying to Budapest on Friday, September 25th and meeting a group of around 10 friends there.  We'll be staying in Budapest for the weekend and then taking the train first class to Munich for Oktoberfest.  We're in Munich from Monday through Wednesday.  Since the weekend is Friday/Saturday here in the UAE, that means when I fly back on Wednesday I'll have one day of work and then the weekend again.  Not bad :).

I believe that my friend Sam will be back in the country by then.  He has mentioned to me that we should rent a car and drive down to Muscat in Oman, which is purported to be amazing.  If we could fit that into the first weekend of October, and if I make it to Nice, then that would be three weekends in a row (two of which would be long weekends) that I'd be out seeing new parts of the world.  I think that sounds like just what my body is telling me I need right about now.