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

Come fly with me: What I pack!

Thought I’d do something a little bit different today and show you guys what I would typically take with me on a layover!

Whilst I was packing for a recent layover to Dhaka (where I incidentally didn’t end up doing a whole lot other than relaxing and eating!) I took a few pictures.

We’re given a relatively large suitcase to take with us on layovers, and I can usually manage to fit everything in with a bit of space to spare (unless I’ve gone a bit crazy shopping in New York 😉 !)

The side pockets don’t have much in – a couple of reusable carrier bags for when I go grocery shopping and a few bits and bobs such as spare tights for work.

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August Roster

I know I do these posts every month now, but I hope you guys still find them interesting to read!

Next month I’ve got a not so busy month, although as always I’ll probably end up swapping one or two of these flights!

I’ll be heading off to:

  • DAC (Dhaka, Bangladesh….and this time I’ll be staying over instead of just doing the turnaround!)
  • Leave – I’ll be heading over to England for my lovely ex-flatmate Kirsty’s wedding, very exciting! I’ll also be catching up with my best friend Lucy, fingers crossed the flights are nice and empty and the stand-by gods are good to me!
  • JFK (24 hour layover)
  • LHE (a quick turnaround to Pakistan)
  • ZRH
  • JFK (30 hour layover)

I’m already on swap shop trying to get rid of at least one of my JFK’s – I can’t handle 2 long haul flights in a month anymore, especially as the first one is only a 24 hour layover!

I’ll also try and swap my Zurich, as I’ve just been there this month. Who know’s where I’ll end up!

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

Roaming around Rome

My next flight after my trip to LGW and Brighton was a flight to Rome. It’d been almost exactly a year since the last time I flew to Rome, so I was very much looking forward to going back to the Italian capital!

After arriving and checking in to our hotel, we caught the hotel’s shuttle bus into the city.

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The bus drops you off just a couple of minutes walk from the Altare della Patria, which is also known as the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II. It’s a monument built in honour of Victor Emmanuel, the first king of a united Italy, and is a very impressive building!

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Beautiful Brighton

After my trip to Frankfurt, I was originally rostered a flight to Munich. However, when I was sent a swap for London Gatwick, I decided to go for it and accept the swap. Going back to the UK always feels a little bit like going home, even if I haven’t lived there for 9 years!

My plan for the trip was to head down to Brighton, which is only around 40 minutes on the train. Much more convenient than getting there from London Heathrow. I just kept my fingers crossed that the weather would stay nice!

After the flight and a quick change, myself and some of the crew jumped on the train, and just over half an hour later we were in sunny Brighton. As far as I can remember I don’t think I’ve ever actually been to Brighton, so I was ready to do some exploring!

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We walked around the town, stopping for coffee and cake (if only we’d gone a few metres down the road we would have found scones and tea!) before heading towards the Lanes.

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The Lanes are a collection of narrow lanes, famous for their small shops and boutiques and narrow alleyways.

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Discovering Frankfurt

Frankfurt is a city that I never really thought twice about. I’ve actually flown there a couple of times, but since we used to stay in a hotel away from the city, most of the crew would just meet for drinks in the hotel and have a relaxing layover. However, since our new crew hotel is now only a 20 minute walk from the city centre, I decided to give it a visit!

If you saw my July roster post you would have seen that I was meant to be flying to Guangzhou. Well, I checked my roster a couple of days before and it had suddenly changed to Frankfurt! No complaints on my side; although Guangzhou would have been a new city to tick off the list, it’s not somewhere I’m particularly fussed about visiting.

The flight over to Frankfurt was nice and short, around 6 hours, although it was a 3am departure which meant lots of coffee was needed! Once we arrived I had a good nap, then got myself ready to do some exploring.

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Getting into bed as the sun is rising – that’s cabin crew life for you!

After a scorching walk into the city (35 degrees no less, I almost felt like I was back in Dubai but without the air-con!) it was time to hit the shops.

The central street in Frankfurt is called the Zeil, and has everything you could ever need! I was on a mission to find shoes to go with my dress for Kirsty’s wedding next month (my ex-flatmate who has now moved to Hong Kong) but it was mission unsuccessful this time.

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