Austria, Australia and too many hours of flying to count!

Well hello there! First of all I’d like to apologise for being away from the blog for so long! I don’t even have a good excuse, I’ve just been so busy flying, going away on my days off, etc, that I haven’t had time to sit down and write!
Right now I’m on leave for just over a week, and I’m in England staying with Joey and his family. He’s out playing tennis at the moment, so I thought I’d sit down and write a quick post and update on the past couple of weeks!

I had a layover to Singapore, which was good (seems like so long ago now that I can barely remember what I did, even though it was only 2 weeks ago!) and then after that I came home, packed my bags and headed straight back to the airport. I had planned to fly home for about 4 days and my best bet at the time looked like flying to Munich and then getting the train from there. However, I got to the airport, went to check in and was told that all the seats were full! Quick look on the laptop to see where I could fly to and a change of terminals….and I was off to Prague! From there it was two very short flights to Vienna and Klagenfurt and I was home even earlier than planned! Matt was there waiting to pick me up at the airport, and a 10 minute drive later I was home! 🙂

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I didn’t really have much planned apart from catching up with my family and friends, as I was only home for a couple of days. I had a pretty early night the first evening, as I had barely slept since Singapore! The next day I just relaxed at home; the weather was fantastic, in fact almost as hot as in Dubai! In the evening our neighbours invited us over for dinner. They have a lovely little setup in their garden and it looked so pretty!

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They cooked us an absolutely delicious dinner, however I did have to leave before dessert as I had arranged to go for a few drinks with my friends Simone, Natascha and Maria. Unfortunately Maria was ill so she ended up not being able to come, but Simone, Nati and I had a great time catching up on each others lives whilst sitting outside enjoying a nice drink. Nati has just spent the past year and a half working as an au pair in America, so she had a lot of stories to tell!

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The next day I had to pick up a few things in town, and in the afternoon my friends Iris and Claudio came to pick me up (along with his brother and his brother’s girlfriend!) and we headed down to the lake for a few hours of sun and swimming! It was still beautiful weather, so hot and sunny, so we made the most of it and spent the time relaxing, sunbathing and swimming in the lake.

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Afterwards we all went to dinner at a lovely little Mexican restaurant. (The restaurant was nice, the food however was definitely nothing special!)

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Before I knew it it was time to pack up again and the next morning I was back at the airport ready to fly back to Dubai. As I said, it was a short but sweet trip! 🙂

Once I was back in Dubai I barely had any time before I was off on my next layover, to Perth! That’s one of the places in Australia that I’d never been to before, so I was looking forward to exploring a new city. It’s quite a long flight, 10 hours going and almost 11 coming back. Unlike other Australia flights though we don’t get to have a break in the CRC (crew rest compartment) – we only get an hour or so on some blocked off seats. As anyone who has ever travelled in economy will know, they aren’t the easiest to sleep in, so it’s pretty difficult getting any rest! Once we got to the hotel in Perth we all headed straight up to bed!

The next morning a couple of us met for breakfast and headed out so see a bit of the city. I wanted to go to a koala sanctuary which was around 40 minutes from the city but nobody was up for going with me 🙁 Unfortunately the guys were pretty boring and only wanted to go shopping…so once they went back to the hotel after an hour or so I decided to stay out and have a walk around. 

I walked down towards the river and came across the bell tower, which was a pretty interestingly shaped building.

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I decided to pay the entrance fee and walk up to the top, which was definitely worth it because I saw dolphins! (I stupidly forgot to put my camera on charge and the battery died just as I got to the top, so please excuse the poor quality of the pictures!) Also, you can’t actually see the dolphins in the pictures I took but they were definitely there, splashing around and jumping out of the water!

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When there’s nobody around to take your picture….the “switch camera” option on your iPhone comes in really handy!

I decided to get the ferry across the river to the other side of Perth. It cost me a whole 2 dollars! I had a little walk along the river bank with a nice park beside me, and found a little cafe to pick up a sandwich for lunch.

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The other side was actually not very interesting and there wasn’t all that much to do by myself, so soon enough I headed back towards the ferry and hopped on. All to soon it was time to get back to the hotel for a quick nap before my flight home!

I had my leave right after the flight and to make the most of it along with my days off I had planned to catch a flight to England straight away. All the flights to London were completely overbooked with absolutely no seats to spare….so I decided to go via Newcastle instead! This was probably not the best choice, as it left at 7:20 and I was supposed to land at 5:25. I even joked with the pilots to get them to take a shortcut somewhere so we could land early 😀 Imagine my relief when we touched down 15 minutes early….I couldn’t wait for everyone to get off the plane so I could go straight back to the airport!

I had planned to get changed at headquarters but realised I didn’t even have time for that….so I headed straight back to the airport in my uniform and managed to check in with about 30 seconds to spare, ridiculously sweaty from running carrying 2 suitcases and wearing heels! From then it was still a mad rush through security to the gate (I’m certain the gate was the farthest one away possible!) and then a looooong bus ride to the plane. I honestly couldn’t believe I’d made the flight, and even managed to get an exit row seat with extra leg room! I attempted to get a few hours sleep but even with ear plugs and an eye mask it just wasn’t happening.

Once in Newcastle I’d listed myself for a British Airways flight to London, and it was a couple of nerve-wracking hours waiting to see if I was on or not. Luckily I managed to get the very last seat on the plane. (Otherwise I would have been forking out over 100 pounds for a train ticket!) 

Once I finally reached Heathrow, Joey and his mum were waiting for me 🙂 They had very kindly driven down to meet me and once we’d loaded my suitcases into the car we made our way to his parents house. I’ve decided I’ll write another post all about this holiday as otherwise this one is going to be way too long! 🙂

So for now I’ll leave you with a picture of something I’ve missed….English countryside!

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Добро пожаловать в Москву!

What this post title says (if Google translate got it right!) is…. Welcome to Moscow!

One of my most recent layovers was to Russia, a country which I had never been to before. I was very glad to be going there for the first time in summer, not during -20 degrees in winter! It’s only a short flight from Dubai, around 4 and a half hours. However the bus journey from the airport to the hotel is a long one, so once we arrived it was late and we all went straight to bed. A few of us arranged to meet for breakfast in the hotel, and then decided to go out as a lot of us were here for the first time.

In the end 12 of us (that must be a record!) took the hotel’s free shuttle bus to the Red Square.

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It was incredibly beautiful and we were all very impressed. We took lots of touristy pictures and even managed to get a couple of group shots with everyone in!

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We walked all the way around stopping to admire all the different colours and shapes on the building. We stopped off in the souvenir shop to pick up a few postcards, and I also got a set of Russian dolls which are now on display in my room!

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One of the girls had just done the same trip a few days before, so she knew her way around a bit and suggested we go to a lovely park just nearby. A few of the others split off to do their own thing, and the rest of us hopped on the metro (hoping we were going the right way, as all the signs were in Russian only!) and rode a couple of stops to the park. 

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We had a lovely long walk through the park, feeling more like we were in a the south of France or Spain, it was so pretty! As it had been quite a while since breakfast, we decided to get some lunch and there was a gorgeous little cafe/restaurant hidden away between the trees. In fact the trees were still growing in between lots of the tables inside!

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After an absolutely delicious lunch we wandered back through the park, stopping by the fountain to enjoy a bit of sunshine! We would have liked to stay longer just relaxing in the park, especially as there were benches and bean bags everywhere, but we had to get back to the hotel for the flight home.

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Once back at the hotel I had a short nap and all too soon it was time to fly back home to Dubai. We thought it was going to be a nice easy flight, half full like the day before. However, the 777 flight which was meant to be departing that day got cancelled, so we got all of their passengers, which meant that we were completely full! Luckily it was over before we even knew it and I was back in sunny Dubai!

My next trip is to Singapore, which I am incredibly excited about as I absolutely love it there. I have also heard that it’s their national day and there will be a big parade and fireworks etc, so hopefully some of the crew will be up for going out to watch it!

After that I’m going to fly home to Austria to stay with my family for a couple of days (crew scheduling gave me 5 days off in a row – nice!) then I have one more flight to Perth, and then leave! August is going to be a great month, I can tell already! 

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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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!

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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! 🙂

 

Last weekend at home!

With only 3 days to go now (actually only 2 full days as I will be leaving early Friday morning) I definitely needed to make the most of my last weekend at home. A couple of weeks ago I decided to organise a little leaving party, and told my best friend Lucy about it. She lives in England, so she checked Ryanair flights and believe it or not booked them a few minutes later, for less than 40 Euros return! So this Saturday I drove to the airport (one thing I’m not going to miss – driving on snowy and icy roads!) and picked her up. In the evening a group of friends came round and we cooked Mexican food, and then all went out into town, where a whole load of other friends came and met us.
We had such a good night out and it was definitely a great way to say bye to all of my friends!

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The next day (surprisingly we weren’t as hungover as we were expecting to be!!) my mum drove us up to a place called Magdalensberg for a late lunch. There is an amazing restaurant/guesthouse on the top of this hill, which serves traditional Austrian food and is all family run. It was the perfect day to go up, as although it was pretty chilly the sun was out and there was a beautiful clear sky. 
As we were having our meal the sun was setting, we even went out between courses to take pictures of the sunset! 

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On Monday we decided to do some shopping! We wondered round the Christmas Market in my town, but it was too cold to stay outside for long. Both of us managed not to buy too much in the shops, I have been having to restrain myself from buying winter clothes by thinking about Dubai every time I see something I want!

In the evening one of my good friends from work arranged to go for drinks, and when we got there a whole group of others from work had come, which was a lovely surprise! They also got me a book called “1000 Places to see before you die” – I’m hoping my new job will help me do that!

Yesterday evening and this morning Lucy helped me sort out my clothes – 1 pile to take with me, 1 pile to give to charity and 1 pile to keep but not take with me. Somehow I have a feeling I’ll never wear the “keep but don’t take with me” pile again, but I can’t justify getting rid of over half of my wardrobe! I don’t even want to know how many pairs of shoes were thrown away!

This evening after taking Lucy back to the airport, I started on the packing. I honestly have no idea how I am going to fit everything in! I’m allowed 50kg, plus hand luggage. One of my suitcases is already over half full and pretty much all it has in is shoes and underwear! 
Here’s a picture of me squeezing into one of my suitcases!
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Well, this was quite a long post! The next time I write anything will probably be from Dubai! Only 2 full days left, when did this even happen! I’m so nervous and excited at the same time – it’s crazy!