DXB – HKG – LAX – ABQ – ORD – VIE – KLU

Call me crazy, but those are all the airports I’ve visited in the past 10 days…a fair old bit of flying!
So I originally had 5 days of leave allocated at the beginning of April, but somehow I managed to get 4 days off before and 2 days after, leaving me with 11 days of leave! Joey and I had originally planned on going away for a few days but unfortunately he’s got a lot of work at the moment and couldn’t take any extra time off. So I decided to do what any sane person would do and fly halfway around the world to Albuquerque, New Mexico! Ok, there was a reason behind this…my sister has just moved there, so I thought I’d go and visit her and her boyfriend. 
However once I’d decided where to go, I just needed to work out how to actually get there. Flying on standby is always a bit of a gamble, and all the direct flights to America from Dubai are pretty much fully booked every single day. So with a little help from my dad (who is a pilot with a different airline, so can also get staff travel), I flew Dubai – Hong Kong, and then Hong Kong – Los Angeles. From LA it was just a short hop over to Albuquerque. 

Once I arrived at the airport Lizzie and Jarett came to pick me up and we headed on over to their apartment. Our first evening was spent catching up, eating and I soon fell asleep very quickly after around 30 hours of travelling!

ImageImageThe views over LAX and Albuquerque

ImageI brought Lizzie and Jarett some chocolates from my trip to Osaka!

During the week Jarett had to go to work and uni, so we could only meet up with him at lunchtimes when he had a little bit of time to spare. Lizzie and I spent the days exploring Albuquerque, doing lots of eating and generally having a lovely time! One evening we bumped into one of Jarett’s friends and decided to go to dinner at a Mexican place called (I think) Zacotecas.

ImageSkulls on the wall at the restaurant

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One morning Lizzie and I cycled down to the Rio Grand. It was such a windy day, we honesty thought we were going to get blown off our bikes!ImageImageImageThe (not so) beautiful Rio Grand.

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We stopped of at the Old Town and had a wander around.ImageImageImageImageThe most amazing chocolate and sweet shop ever! We couldn’t leave without getting some fudge.Image

The next evening we met up with Jarett’s sister and her partner and daughter and went to an Irish pub/restaurant for dinner. They did the most amazing fish and chips, almost as good as in England! Afterwards Lizzie, Jarett and I headed over to a rooftop bar (thankfully they had an indoor section as well, as it was pretty chilly outside!) for a drink.

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On my last day, Lizzie and I took the train to Santa Fe, which is about an hour and a half from Albuquerque. The landscape is beautiful, lots of desert, mountains and quite a few horses along the way! 

ImageImageImageImageImageStopping off for a salted caramel chocolate. So good!

ImageImageThe main square area of Santa Fe was pretty similar to the Old Town in Albuquerque, with lots of quirky shops and art galleries.

ImageImageWe spent the day wandering around, having some more Mexican food for lunch, and then hopped back on the train to Albuquerque. That evening the 3 of us cooked dinner (actually Lizzie and Jarett cooked, they refused to let me help) and had dinner with Jarett’s sister and her family. Before we knew it it was time to pack my suitcase again. A lovely 5am start the next morning and I was once again off to the airport.

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Thankfully the standby gods were on my side, and I made all of my flights; I actually got the last seats on two of them!

Mum, Dad and Harry were waiting at the airport in Austria when I arrived and we headed home for a nice catch up. I was only home for 2 days but I managed to squeeze in some time with my friends as well.

ImageDelicious coffee and cakes with my friends Iris and Claudio who were in Klagenfurt for the weekend.

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We also had a stroll around the Easter Market and cuddled some of the fluffiest bunnies EVER! They were so soft! 

The next day I met up with my lovely friend Simone who I hadn’t seen for a while and we sat outside in the sunshine catching up. Somehow I even managed to squeeze in a haircut! After my last experience I don’t trust the hairdressers in Dubai!

All too soon it was time to head back to reality and tomorrow I’ll be back to work again. It was a lovely break and it was so great that I managed to see all of my family even though we’re all in different parts of the world!

And now for some other exciting news….next week I’m moving apartments!!! FINALLY after nearly a year and a half of living out in the desert, practically in Sharjah, I’m moving in with my friend Kirsty onto Sheik Zayed Road! I’m super excited, as I finally feel like I’ll actually be living in Dubai now! I’d probably better start packing soon, as I have a feeling I’m going to have accumulated quite a bit of stuff….!

 

P.s. If you want more regular day to day updates of what is happening in my life, follow me on Twitter and Instagram @rachelwwilson!

 

 

Family time in Vienna!

Last week I had the flight which I had been looking forward to most all month…Vienna! All of my family live in Austria (spread out in different cities, but still in the same country!) so they had all arranged to come and meet me on my layover.

The flight was really quick and easy, only just over 5 hours and we landed early afternoon which was great. Once all the family arrived at my hotel, we decided to go out and have a walk around the city. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, lovely and sunny and warm, not boiling like Dubai!

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We walked all through the city centre, past the cathedral and lots of beautiful, typical European buildings, and found an outside cafe/ice-cream parlour to sit at. We all ordered a big ice cream sundae and sat outside enjoying the sunshine.

All feeling rather full, we wandered down to the “Museumsquartier”, a beautiful part of Vienna where a lot of the museums and parks are located. 

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Being back in Austria made me realise that however much I love Dubai and all the perks of my job, I still miss Europe. Being able to go for long walks through the city and parks and sitting outside in a cafe people-watching just isn’t really do-able in Dubai (except maybe for a few months in winter).

Pretty soon it was time to have dinner, and we decided upon Vapiano on Mariahilfer-Straße, one of the main shopping streets in Vienna. It’s really quick and cheap, but such yummy food. After dinner we walked back to the hotel, even passing a group of people who had set up a little area to dance in on the street!

In the evening my friend Maria came to meet me at the hotel and we had a drink there, and then headed out for a couple of hours of dancing! I hadn’t seen her since she came to visit in April so it was great catching up 🙂

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The next morning, after not quite enough sleep, the rest of the family came back to the hotel to meet for breakfast. (Harry and Lizzie both live in Vienna so they stayed at their apartments).

We decided just to walk around the city and see what we could find, and ended up at a cute little cafe just opposite the cathedral on the main square. 

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It was lovely seeing the whole family again, since the last time we were all together was a year ago! To finish off – one final picture of all the children together! 🙂

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