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

Eating my way through Bologna

My second trip to Bologna this month was equally as lovely as the first. My initial thought had been to visit Florence, as it’s only just over 35 minutes on the high-speed train, however I decided not to venture there on my own and instead made it my mission to have spaghetti bolognese in Bologna!

The rest of the crew was eager to explore, since none of them had visited the city before, so we decided to head up the two towers again.

But first – pizza!

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I’d barely eaten anything on the flight in anticipation of all the delicious food I’d be having in Italy, so before we climbed up the almost 500 steps I grabbed a slice of pizza to fuel me up!

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July Roster

After an absolutely delightfully easy roster this month, it’s back to regular flying in July. I’m at the bottom of the seniority rotation, and should have been on reserve, but somehow managed to get a pretty normal roster.

On an exciting note, I’ve been put on the inaugural A380 flight to Vienna on the 1st of July! If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you may remember that I used to live in Austria before moving to Dubai (for 6 years, although not in Vienna) so I am excited to be heading back! I get rostered plenty of flights to Germany and Switzerland being a German Speaker, but very rarely to Vienna!

Other than that I’ll be heading off to:

  • VIE (Vienna, Austria, the inaugural A380 flight, I’m hoping for a water canon salute when we land!)
  • SIN (Singapore)
  • DEL (Dehli, India, a shortish turnaround)
  • ZRH (Zurich, Switzerland)
  • DOH (Doha, Qatar, one of the shortest turnaround flights we have – about 45 minutes each way!)
  • ZRH (Zurich, Switzerland)
  • BHX (Birmingham, UK)
  • JFK (New York, USA)

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Only 2 turnarounds this month, and relatively short ones which is not too bad. I even have one new destination, Birmingham, which I was rostered to fly to a while back but never ended up going (I can’t remember why, I think I swapped it or must have been off sick!). Any suggestions for what to do there are most welcome, as I’m fairly sure most of the crew just go shopping!

My JFK flight is one of the tougher ones, as it’s around a 13-14 hour flight each way, and only a 24 hour layover! I’ll still try and get out and do as much as I can, especially as it should hopefully be nice and warm there.

I’m looking forward to another month of flying, and of course I’ll keep you updated in case of any swaps!

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

Sunshine & Aperol in Bologna, Italy

It was an early start for my flight to Bologna, and we left Dubai on time at 9am. The cabin was less than half full in business class, which made for a nice and easy flight, and we landed into sunny Bologna in the early afternoon, ready to explore!

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It was the first time for all of us, since it’s a relatively new destination for Emirates, so a big group of us set out to see what the city has to offer.

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On Safari in Nairobi National Park

Sometimes I have to pinch myself and remember just how lucky I am to have not only a job I love, but also get paid to travel the world at the same time. When I got my roster last month and got sent a swap for Nairobi, there was little doubt in my mind about accepting it.

Africa is a continent that I’ve explored so little of, and it’s been a dream of mine for a long time now to be able to go on a safari. I was really hoping that there would a be a few more crew on the flight who were also up for it, as I was a little apprehensive about potentially exploring Nairobi alone.

Luckily for me, I wasn’t the only one who wanted to see some animals!

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After a nice flight that was just under 5 hours, we arrived in the capital of Kenya. A few of us arranged with the concierge what time our safari driver would pick us up in the morning, and headed up to the bar for a drink before calling it a night.

The next morning we were up at sunrise. The drive to Nairobi National Park was a short one, as it’s only located around 7km from the city centre. The park itself covers an area of 117km2, which is actually relatively small in comparison to most of Africa’s national parks.

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A stroll through Notting Hill

I’m not a London girl, but I don’t complain (much) when I get a flight to Heathrow as it usually means a trip home to see my parents. This time around however, they were on holiday, so I decided to make the most of the spring weather and head into London town.

Myself and one of the other girls from the flight, Kamila, jumped on the tube and since she used to live in London, I let her do the navigating!

We got out at Bayswater, which is just one stop along the tube line from Notting Hill Gate, and had a lovely stroll through the streets, enjoying the beautiful sunny weather and fresh air.

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