When we arrived in Dubai, I remember feeling incredibly small.

Everything there seemed built to impress. The buildings rose high above our heads, almost touching the sky, and the roads were wide, at least eight lanes stretching out in every direction.

One of the first things I noticed was the lack of green spaces. Everything looked clean, organised and shiny, but there was no sense of natural calm.

What surprised me the most, though, was how impossible it was to walk anywhere. On Google Maps, places looked only five or eight minutes away on foot and we thought, Perfect, let’s walk. But the reality was completely different. Between us and our destination, there was always a highway. Every attempt ended with us giving up and ordering a taxi. It felt strange, as if walking wasn’t something the city had planned for at all.

Despite that, there was something fascinating about Dubai. The scale, the ambition, the energy–it felt like stepping into the future, where everything is designed to be bigger, better, and faster.

That trip reminded me how important it is for me to be in places where walking is possible. Where I can connect with a city step by step, not just through windows. It also made me realise how much I value the small, human details of a place.