A Stroll Through Madrid

First of all, apologies that it’s been a bit quiet over here on The Dubai Diaries… I’ve been busing flying, out enjoying my layovers, and having a lovely time on holiday in Valencia!

A few weeks ago I jetted off to Madrid, and as my sister Lizzie lives in Valencia, she decided to come and stay for the layover.

Sadly our crew hotel has changed and is no longer in the city, so after a bit of a bus ride we arrived in the city, ready to explore.

It had been a while since I’d visited Madrid, so the two of us decided to just have a wander round the city and explore whatever we liked the look of.

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May Roster

Once again roster day has come round so quickly, I can’t quite believe we’re over halfway through April already! Summer is slowly starting to arrive in Dubai and it’s heating up, so I’ll be glad to get out of the country once it gets even hotter.

Next month I’ll be heading off to:

  • NBO – Nairobi, Kenya
  • ORD – Chicago, USA
  • ALG – Algiers, Algeria
  • SEZ – Mahé, Seychelles
  • KRT – Khartoum, Sudan
  • MAD – Madrid, Spain
  • DFW – Dallas, USA

As you can see – quite a varied roster next month!

First up is a trip to Nairobi, which I’m hoping to swap as I have a family event in the UK that I would love to attend, so stay updated for that one.

After that is Chicago (which I first thought was Orlando, despite having just been there and knowing that the airport code is MCO – oops!) and it’s been a few years since I last visited. We used to stay right in the city but I think the hotel has changed to an airport one now, so I’m not sure what I’ll get up to on my layover there.

Next is a flight to Algiers, which is right at the beginning of Ramadan. I’m not sure how strict they are there, but if it’s similar to Dubai I might try and swap that as I’m guessing there won’t be too much to do if everything is closed for Ramadan.

Then I have another trip to the Seychelles – after bidding for this flight for years it’s finally taken me 5,5 years to get it in April, and now they’ve rostered me a second one in May! No complaints here, as I’m sure it will be beautiful.

My only turnaround (unless I can swap my Nairobi) in May is to Khartoum, a flight I haven’t done before. It’s long – around 4 hours each way, so hopefully I won’t be too tired afterwards!

After that is a layover in Madrid. It’s been a while since I’ve visited, and hopefully my sister Lizzie, who lives in Valencia, will be able to come and stay so we can go out and explore.

Lastly is a trip to Dallas, a new destination for me. I’ll have to do some research about what there is to do there – maybe a Texan rodeo?!

Stay tuned on here as always to see what I get up to next month on all of my trips.

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

Frankfurt, Madrid and next month’s roster!

First of all my apologies for the long break since my last post. I didn’t even realise it’s been over two weeks since I updated on here! At the moment I’m actually on leave, however I decided to stay in Dubai and just enjoy a bit of time relaxing and not flying anywhere for once! My last post was about my amazing trip to Seattle, and after that I had two back to back Frankfurt flights and a trip to Madrid. 

Both of the Frankfurts were very uneventful! I get German flights pretty much every month, and I kind of see them as my chance to go to a nice supermarket and stock up on fresh foods, as well as getting some quality sleeping/ TV watching in! These two trips were no different. The weather was not very nice – cold, rainy and pretty miserable, so I just did my supermarket shops and had a couple of drinks in the hotel bar with the crew.

My last trip before my leave was Madrid. I was actually very excited when I saw this on my roster, as even though I lived in Spain for 3 months I was working 6 days a week so didn’t really have the chance to see many other cities. The flight out was nice and easy, only half full and a chance to practice my Spanish, which is getting a little rusty! 😉 We arrived around lunchtime and it was 5 degrees and pouring with rain. Definitely not what my weather app had predicted! Nonetheless, a group of us decided to venture out, have a little walk around the hotel and find somewhere to have a bite to eat. We ended up in a place called “Museo del Jamon” and all ordered plenty of plates of ham, salami, chorizo and cheese to share. Very unlike me I didn’t actually take any pictures, believe it or not!
After our late lunch we hopped on the metro to the city centre. By the time we got there it was getting dark and the rain was not stopping at all. So of course we spent way too much time in the shops! 😉 I was a little disappointed as I actually wanted to do some sightseeing and walk around the city, but the weather was not really on my side. Also, none of the other crew were interested in doing anything but shopping, so I’ll have to save it for the next trip.

Once I got back from Madrid I was officially on leave! I’ve been spending lots of time with Joey, going on walks around Dubai (now that the weather is finally cool enough to actually walk around) finishing season 2 of Homeland (so good!!), catching up on lots more TV whilst Joey has been at work…you get the point! 😉  

Yesterday the most exciting part of my month happened….roster day!!! Who wants to take a guess at where I’ll be going next month. . . 

  • Toronto! And not just your average 24hr layover, I’ll be staying there for 77hrs! 3 days! 😀
  • Bangkok! Haven’t been to Bangkok since June so that should be good, I’m hoping I’ll have time to go to the Tiger Temple.
  • Sydney! A trip to Aus means I can hopefully pop down to Canberra and visit my grandparents and auntie, uncle and cousin 🙂
  • Last but not least….leave at Christmas!

So that’s it – just 3 flights next month! I’ll be going home over Christmas which is very exciting, as Joey will also be coming with me 🙂 And then the 1st of January the dreaded SEP recurrent exams :O Which will mean lots of studying over Christmas!

So there you go, a little update on my rather boring life recently! I’d also just like to say a big thanks to everyone that reads, follows, comments on my blog, etc. Cheesy as it may sound it really does make my day when I see a comment on my blog 🙂

 
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!

Next month I’ll be going to…

My November roster came out yesterday. Roster day is always highly anticipated, and I was pleasantly surprised for November! I didn’t bid, and there are lots of mixed opinions on bidding. Some people do it without fail each month, some people never bid and swear they always have the best rosters. I didn’t bid in October either and only got 1 turnaround, and as I’m always hoping they’ll give me new destinations anyway, I decided to see what luck gave me! 

And luck was on my side! I’ll be going to: 

  • Seattle (so excited, my first layover in the States, and its 50 hours!)
  • Frankfurt
  • Frankfurt again (have to say these 2 aren’t my favourite, but never mind!)
  • Madrid (even though I lived in Spain for 3 months, I’ve never been to Madrid! Exciting!)
  • Jakarta

I also have 5 days leave as well as lots of days off! So far I don’t have any plans to go anywhere during my leave, but you never know something might just pop up! 

So there you go, just a quick post of where I’l be heading next month!

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Also thought I’d add in a little picture of my ever expanding magnet collection! I shall be adding to it later today when I fly to Hamburg! 🙂

 

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!