The Dubai Diaries
My life as a flight attendant in the Middle East!

Exploring Belém

After our fantastic day out to Sintra, it was time to explore a little more of Lisbon. When doing research about Portugal before our holiday, I’d read so much about the famous egg tarts, and there was one place in particular that kept popping up – Pastéis de Belém.

The delicious custardy tarts were originally created by 18th century monks at the Jerónimos Monstery (which we also visited), as at the time large quantities of egg-whites were used for starching the clothes in the monastery. This led to a lot of leftover egg yolks, which were then made into cakes and pastries. The monks started to sell the “pastéis de nata” to secure a small income, and when the monastery was later closed, the recipe was sold to the nearby sugar refinery, whose owners opened the Fábrica de Pastéis de Belém in 1837.

So it was decided – a trip to Belém was in order. Luckily the Pastéis de Belém shop is not the only attraction there, we also set out to visit the incredible Jerónimos Monastery, as well as the Torre de Belém.

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After a quick ride on the tram, we (along with seemingly every other tourist in Lisbon) arrived in Belém. Our first stop was to visit the monastery, which with all of the incredible turrets and architecture, is very easy to spot.

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June Roster

So before I put up my last post with the final pictures of my holiday to Portugal, I thought I’d share my June roster with you.

It’s my “top bid”, which means I’m highest in the seniority rotation and should get at least a couple of things that I ask for. I’m pretty happy with my roster for next month, as I have no turnarounds and some nice flights, including two trips to a new destination that I haven’t visited before.

I’ll be heading to:

  • PER (Perth, Australia)
  • BLQ (Bologna, Italy – a new one for me!)
  • MRU (Mauritus)
  • BLQ
  • MRU
  • Leave!

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As you can see I got a couple of repeat destinations, but I’m very happy with that! Bologna is a relatively new destination for Emirates, I think we only started flying there a few months ago, and it should be beautiful and warm by mid-June.

Obviously I’ve been to Mauritus before (it’s also where my boyfriend is from and where we spent Christmas this year, which you may have seen if you’re following me on Instagram), but a trip or two to a tropical island can never hurt, right?!

Perhaps I’ll see if I can swap one of the BLQ or MRU flights for a different destination just to mix things up a bit, but either way I’m excited to visit them.

For my leave we’ll be heading home to the UK for around a week, for my mum’s birthday party & family get-together. Hopefully by the end of June the weather in England will have turned into summer and sunshine, fingers crossed!

UPDATE: Since publishing this, I got sent a swap for NBO – Nairobi, Kenya! Since it’s a destination I’ve never visited before, I happily swapped my Perth flight, which means that next week I’ll be heading off to Nairobi for the first time!

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P.s. Follow me on Instagram & Twitter for more day-to-day updates of where I am in the world! 🙂

May Roster

I feel like the months are rolling round quicker than ever, and just as spring has hit, it seems summer is only just around the corner!

I’m already imagining sitting outside in the beautiful May sunshine sipping on an aperol spritz and reading a good book…just perhaps not in Dubai where the temperatures are already in the 30’s at the end of April! So let’s see where I’ll be heading next month, of course this could always change last minute as I send or accept swaps for any of these flights.

  • MNL
  • BOM
  • FRA
  • BRU
  • MEL – AKL
  • LHR

Now let me dissect that a little bit – first up is a 30 hour layover in Manila, in the Philippines. I’m not sure if I’ll keep this flight as the area we stay is quite far from the airport and the city, which means it can take hours to get anywhere as the traffic is insane. I’ve been once before but I didn’t get up to too much!

Then is a quick daytime turnaround to Bombay, India, which is luckily my only turnaround flight in May. After that I have 24 hours in Frankfurt, which I’ve visited a few times. As a German speaker I usually get at least one German destination a month, and these flights are quite hard to swap when you’re the “official” language speaker.

After my Frankfurt and before my next flight I have a lovely string of days where my boyfriend and I are hoping to get away on a little holiday somewhere. We’re thinking of perhaps heading to Lisbon, unless you guys have any other suggestions? Then I’m off to Brussels, which is a first with Emirates, although I visited a few years ago when I went interrailing with my best friend Lucy. Perhaps I can squeeze in a visit to Bruges, as I’ve heard it’s a much nicer city than Brussels itself!

Next up is a 6 day trip to Melbourne and Auckland. If you’re a regular reader of my blog you’ll know I’m not a huge fan of these long multi-sector trips, as they’re exhausting and you tend to be completely jet lagged by the end! So fingers crossed I can swap that trip for something a little bit shorter.

Last but not least, how could a month go by without a trip to London Heathrow! Recently LHR has been appearing regularly on my roster, so it was no surprise to see it again.

There you have it, another month has flown by and tonight I’m off to Singapore, where I’m looking forward to eating some delicious Asian food and hopefully lapping up some sunshine by the pool (that’s if the thunderstorms stay away!). I’ve got a new book to take with me which I’ve just started, called “The Girl On The Train” which is already gripping and I’m only a couple of chapters in.

Hope you enjoyed seeing my roster for May, and as always feel free to leave any questions or comments down below!

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P.s. Follow me on Instagram & Twitter for more day-to-day updates of where I am in the world!  🙂

30 Hours in New York

My last trip was a flight to the Big Apple…there’s something magical about New York, no matter how many times you visit. I was especially looking forward to this flight as it was a 30 hour layover. Last time I was in New York was just a 24 hour layover, and those few extra hours really make all the difference.

After an early start from Dubai we were on our way. The flight was full, and since it was daytime everybody was awake, which certainly kept us on our feet! On long “ULR” (ultra long range) flights, we get a break in our bunk beds (CRC – Crew Rest Compartment), so while we take it in turns to rest we each have a lot more passengers to serve.

14 hours later we finally touched down in JFK, and after a long rush hour bus journey made it to our hotel.

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If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you may remember that I have some friends in New York, Stephen and Colin, who I met whilst interrailing around Europe before I joined Emirates. I’d messaged them before coming to see if they were free, and we arranged to meet for dinner.

Luckily they also got stuck in the terrible traffic, which gave me a bit of time to shower and  freshen up after the long flight.

They’d reserved a table in a restaurant called “The Smith”, which was located just a short drive from my hotel. We could have walked but we already running a little late for the reservation, so decided to hop in a taxi instead.

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April Roster

It’s that time of the month again…. my roster for April has been published!

For the first time in a while I’ve got 2 new destinations that I haven’t flown to before, which I’m quite happy about. I also managed to get quite a few turnarounds thrown in there (although with swaps I’ve managed to reduce that number from 3 to 2!)

Turnarounds are short-ish flights to places within about 4 hours, where we come straight back to Dubai instead of staying in that city.

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