thedubaidiaries | The Dubai Diaries

thedubaidiaries July 14, 2013

Beautiful Nice

One of my recent trips was to Nice, in the south of France. I was very excited for this trip, as I had bid for it and they gave me 2! Unfortunately, crew rostering took me off the first one and put me on Munich instead, which I wasn’t so excited about. When it finally got round to time to go, I was ready to explore! The flight over was super easy, just under 6 hours. We did have a fair bit of turbulence, but nothing I can’t handle now!

We landed in Nice around 2pm and got taken to our hotel, which was only a few minutes from the airport, and right opposite the beach. As in literally, cross the road and you’re there! We decided to go out straight away and not waste any time. Two of the guys and one other girl and I decided to walk into the centre. We were told it was about a 40 minute walk but as it was all along the promenade next to the sea we didn’t mind at all. However the boys soon changed their minds and decided they didn’t fancy walking so just the other girl, Hannah, and I made our way into town.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous, hot and sunny and we were both ready for an ice cream! As soon as we got into the centre we found somewhere to cool off a bit and decided on a smoothie instead. We didn’t have anywhere in particular that we wanted to go, so just walked all around. The cobbled streets were so pretty and we even bumped into some of the other crew who had taken the bus into town!

We strolled past a little market selling lots of trinkets and things that nobody really needs, and I got a cheesy fridge magnet to add to my (growing) collection! After a good few hours of walking we decided to head back to the hotel to meet up with some of the others for dinner. We had arranged to meet in the lobby and we got there with 5 minutes to spare! The walk back was lovely as well, along the promenade which was busy with joggers, cyclists and people just enjoying a nice stroll.

We got a taxi to the old town and went to a steak restaurant …where of course I ended up having a burger My excuse was that the menu was in French and that was the only thing I understood

As the sun started to set we headed back to the hotel, and the town looked so pretty all lit up. Once we got back we popped up to the pool/rooftop bar to have a look at the view – it was so gorgeous!

The next morning Hannah and I met up for breakfast in the hotel – fresh croissants in the sun, what more could you want!

I decided to walk to the supermarket which wasn’t far from the hotel and get a few bottles of wine, and some nice ham and bacon! Ended up spending a bit more than I had intended, but never mind!

All too soon my mini holiday was over and it was time to go back to work and back to Dubai. I can’t really remember the flight home so I guess that must mean it was pretty uneventful!
Nice was such a beautiful place, I can’t wait to get the flight again!

thedubaidiaries July 6, 2013

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!

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.

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 🙂

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.

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! 🙂

thedubaidiaries June 20, 2013

Graduation Day!

Yesterday was a pretty special day for me. After 6 months in Dubai I have finally graduated!

My job has taken me to so many different countries, I’ve served hundreds of meals and drinks to passengers from all over the world, I’ve tried food I never even imagined eating and made some of the best friends I could ask for.

Bright and early we got up to go back to training college, where we had spent so much time learning, writing exams, and practising for life in the sky. We all had our batch “photoshoot” on stage and then spent the morning going over what we had learnt, chatting with some of the SFS’s and pursers who were also graduating and taking lots of pictures.

After a quick lunch break it was time for the most important part, the actual graduation! After a few speeches we all went on stage one by one to collect our certificates from our managers and once our batch was all up we were told to take a bow (making sure our hats didn’t fall off!) After all the ab-initio batches had gone up the seniors went to collect their certificates and say a few words which was lovely to watch. We finished off the afternoon with a few more speeches and a video and photo compilation from training college. I spotted myself in a couple of the pictures!

Even though I’ve been flying since February it was still pretty exciting to finally graduate and be able to officially say I’m a part of the World’s Best Airline (which happened to be announced the night before!). Once the ceremony was over we headed upstairs for some cake! Joey was enlisted as photographer and took lots of pictures of us!

That evening a whole big group of us went to the Shangri La for dinner and then us girls headed over to Mahiki! These 6 months in Dubai have gone so quickly and I have had such a good time, let’s hope the next 6 months and more are just as good!

thedubaidiaries June 3, 2013

SIN – MEL – SIN

Sorry I haven’t been writing on here very much, I’ve been so busy lately that I just haven’t had the time to write a nice long post with lots of pictures!

After I got back from leave I had 2 short days off and then I left for a 5 day trip to Singapore and Melbourne! Once we arrived in Singapore, 4 of us girls (me, Kirsty from England, Kat from Ireland and Aneliya from Bulgaria) went out to get some delicious street food for dinner and decided to go to a place called Sentosa Island the next day. After dinner 2 of the girls went into Chimes bar, right next to our hotel, and I went straight up to bed!

The next morning us girls and Peter, a guy the girls had met the night before (who was also doing the same trip, but on his way home) squeezed into a taxi and drove to Sentosa. We picked up a map of the island and wandered down to the beachy area, stopping every few meters to take pictures!

There were palm trees everywhere and it really felt like we were on holiday on a tropical island!

As we were walking along the beach we saw another very small island which had a couple of little lookout towers on. We walked over (not without a quick stop at the 7/11 that was well placed for some cold drinks!) and found it was the southernmost point of continental Asia. We crossed a wobbly wooden bridge and climbed up to the top of one of the lookout towers. Luckily there were some chairs up there so we stayed enjoying the breeze and chatting for about an hour or so!

Once we had decided it was probably time to start making a move back to the hotel, we walked back down to the beach and just as we were about to cross back over the bridge to the main island, spotted a horizontal palm tree perfect for climbing on and taking pictures!

It was a little less stable than it looked and actually quite scary once you were dangling over the water!

We then headed back to the hotel (did have to run to catch the free shuttle bus!) for a little nap before the night flight to Melbourne.

We arrived in Melbourne early morning and after checking in I headed straight to bed for a good few hours sleep. And then….. my cousin Sarah came to meet me! I packed my bag and we got the tram to her place where Aunty Mary (her mum) and Granny were waiting for us! They had driven all the way down from Canberra (8 hours!) just for the night, which was very lovely.

We sat and had a cup of tea and some biscuits and chatted until it was time for dinner. We went to a lovely Italian restaurant and I had pasta – surprise, surprise!

After dinner Granny and Aunty Mary went back to their hotel and Sarah and I started getting ready for a night out in Melbourne! One of her friends from uni was having a little party so once we were ready we went over there. Later on we ordered a taxi and drove over to a club that was having a 90’s night (YES!) and danced until we were too tired to stand! (Very glad I decided not to wear heels!)

Back at Sarah’s we went to bed for a few hours sleep before meeting Aunty Mary and Granny for breakfast in their hotel. Real bacon!! 😀

We said goodbye to them as they got ready for the long drive back to Canberra and decided to do a bit of shopping in Melbourne Central. We then walked over to Victoria Market which is an absolutely amazing market which has everything you could possibly need, including hundreds of fresh food stalls. We bought some ham (real pork, not turkey or beef ham!) tomatoes, mozzarella and bread for lunch and I got some fresh fruit to take on the plane. Sarah also did most of her grocery shopping and we walked back to hers with our hands full.

After lunch I packed up my stuff and we hopped on the tram back to my hotel. Soon enough it was time to say goodbye and fly back to Singapore. We arrived pretty late and had made up our minds to go for a Singapore Sling (which originated in the Raffles Hotel, just opposite where we stay) but unfortunately it was shut! 🙁 The next morning Kirsty, Kat and I walked over to Bugis Street, a huge undercover kind of street market mostly selling clothes. We all bought a couple of things hoping they would fit as you can’t try anything on there! We then decided it was time for some lunch so we crossed the road to the “food court” and got some fried noodles and sat with the locals. Just as we were finishing we noticed that it had started to rain, and not just a bit of a drizzle, a huge downpour! We waited a while for it to stop a bit and ran over the road back under the cover of the market.

We saw a couple of food stands and decided on some dessert – I got a crepe (which was sliiiiiiightly larger than expected!!) and Kat tried some fried mars bars!

As the Long Bar at the Raffles hotel had been shut the night before we had to try one of their famous cocktails before flying back that night. (we were probably only just legal within the flying time to drink, but shh!)

Of course we all tried the Singapore Sling 🙂

Kirsty and Kat decided to walk over to the Marina Bay Sands hotel but as I had been there on my last trip I just popped over to the supermarket and picked up some really fresh sushi for the flight home and went to get a few hours sleep.

By the time the flight came round we were all ready to get home, it had been a great trip but everyone always looks forward to getting back to Dubai!

thedubaidiaries May 16, 2013

Surprise….I’m home!

So this week I surprised mum and came home on leave! I didn’t write it on my blog as I had told her that all the flights were full and I couldn’t come…of course everyone else was in on the surprise though! Friday morning I made my way to the airport, dropped my suitcase off and boarded the flight. Once I arrived in Vienna, Harry and Lizzie were there to meet me which was a nice surprise! We made our way to the train station and got ready for the 4 hour train journey to Klagenfurt. Once we were home, Harry and Lizzie went in while I snuck round the back through the garden and surprised mum!
On Saturday I met up with my friends Iris and Claudio. We went out for lunch and then did a bit of shopping, and of course we had to finish off with a big ice cream!

On Sunday it was Mother’s Day in Austria. We all drove up to a very pretty mountain area and went for a long walk through the woods! It was great weather, really sunny and nice and warm.

Back home mum cooked a delicious roast dinner in the evening, haven’t had that for a long time! 🙂

On Monday mum and I drove to Ljublijana Airport in Slovenia to pick up Matthew and his girlfriend and her mum. They had been on a weekend trip to Istanbul! He had to go back to boarding school in Salzburg almost as soon as we got back though, but he’s coming home tomorrow evening so I’ll see him again before I go back to Dubai. Lizzie also had to go back to Vienna for uni in the morning, so in the evening the 4 of us (Mum, Dad, Harry and I) drove up to our house in the mountains. We stayed the night there and drove back down to Klagenfurt in time for lunch on Tuesday.

In the afternoon I went to my hairdressers (I hadn’t had my hair cut in almost 6 months!) and got a trim. It turned out to be slightly more than a trim and I had about an inch and a half chopped off! She gave me a nice blow dry though and I am really happy with how it turned out, even if it does feel quite a bit shorter now!

In the evening I arranged to meet my friends Maria and Simone (the ones who came to visit me in April). We drove to a lovely restaurant/cafe called Jilly Beach in Pörtschach. It’s right on the water and the weather was beautiful, so sunny and warm! I was driving so I only had ginger ale, but it would have been the perfect place to sit and relax with a glass of wine.

Today I met up with Maria for a bit of shopping in Klagenfurt. I even managed to come away without any new clothes, not quite sure how I managed that! 😀
Tomorrow Matt’s coming home from boarding school for the weekend, and on Saturday I’m flying to Vienna. I’ll stay the night with Lizzie and then on Sunday fly back to Dubai. I can’t wait to get back!

Just thought I would add in a quick hello to Granny and Grandpa, who I’ve been told quite a few times this week like reading my blog! 🙂

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