Happy 84th Birthday Saudi Arabia! Time to Celebrate!

September 23rd 2014 marks the 84th year of the Unification of Saudi Arabia by King Abdul Aziz Al Saud. To check out the year’s 2015 National Day festivities, go to this post: Saudi National Day and Eid Al Adha 2015. Saudi Arabia is gearing up for the festivities and KSA’s biggest citiesRead more

Saudi Life Series Volume 1

Something new and exciting on Blue Abaya.. I decided to start a series of posts, kind of like a photo challenge of day to day life in Riyadh after some readers have been asking me to share more family photos and to show what the everyday life is like in Saudi Arabia.. . Many of you have beenRead more

Why Am I Here?

I wanted to share something very powerful that touched me deeply today, a song called “We Are Here” by Alicia Keys, one of my favorite artists of all time. Please listen to it. If you don’t listen to music for religious reasons, then read the lyrics. Dear Alicia, Thank you forRead more

Takalamy. A Conversation with Young Saudi Females

While a part of the Saudi society is sometimes seen as moving backwards in time, there is another part, less known, which is going in the opposite direction. The western media will rarely show us this side. I recently learned about the Takalamy initiative. I would describe the Takalamy initiativeRead more

Guide to Riyadh’s National Museum

The National Museum, which is part of the King Abdul Aziz Historical center in Riyadh, is one of the largest in the Middle East and undoubtedly the most famous and most visited museum in Saudi Arabia. An impressive collection of artifacts, scriptures and antiquities are inside this two storyRead more

Ten Things to do in Al-Balad Historical District, Jeddah

Al-Balad, which literally translates to “The City”, is the historical area of Saudi-Arabia’s second largest city Jeddah. Founded in the 7th century, Balad historically served as the city center of Jeddah until the big oil boom when most families started moving out the area. AlRead more

Gone Fishing in Finland

Blue Abaya has been MIA while enjoying a nice relaxing break midst the Finnish summer. Every year we visit my home country Finland, where my family speeds most of the time at a so called ‘summerhouse’, typical for Finns to retreat to during the very short-lived Finnish summer. NormallyRead more

Ramadan and Eid al Fitr in Saudi Arabia

Learn all about the Holy Month of Ramadan and Eid al Fitr holidays in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from the following Blue Abaya posts. The first post on Ramadan is back from 2010 when the blog began and it’s called ‘Magic Month in the Kingdom‘. A good read for those not familiarRead more

Never Forget Who You Are

My dearest daughter and son, While you’re both fast asleep in your beds napping, I’m thinking about the two of you, here in a hospital bed waiting for spinal surgery. All kinds of thoughts are running through my head. You both are always my first concern and I can’t help thinkingRead more

The Saudi-Finnish Temperature Extremes Chart

It was a sweltering + 44C  last day of May in Riyadh Saudi-Arabia today. Meanwhile back in my home country Finland, they’re experiencing temperatures around+ 10C, which is actually quite normal for this time of year even though it might sound freezing cold to Saudis. Despite it being only 10Read more

Images of Saudi is back!

Some of the Blue Abaya readers probably remember “Images of Saudi” which is a photo journal-type photography blog I kept for a few years from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Images of Saudi is actually still online, but for a year now it’s been set for private invite-only viewing.Read more

Top Ten Restaurants in the Eastern Province (Dammam, Al Khobar, Jubail)

What are the best and most popular restaurants in the Eastern Province? Blue Abaya in collaboration with Suzanne Greenfield, the founder of the Foodies groups, recently conducted a poll among members of the ‘EP Foodies’ Facebook group, to find the most popular restaurants in Dammam, AlRead more