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

August Roster

Once again the roster is out and it’s time for another busy month.

It’s a jam-packed one this time and I’ve already managed to do a couple of swaps, and hopefully one more if I can! 

August will be a real mix of destinations, with almost every continent covered! I’ll be heading off to:

  • BSR – Basra, Iraq (turnaround)
  • AMM – Amman, Jordan (turnaround)
  • MLE – Male, Maldives (turnaround)
  • EWR – Newark, USA
  • BLQ – Bologna, Italy
  • ABV – Abuja, Nigeria
  • BCN – Barcelona, Spain
  • GLA – Glasgow, UK

Starting off with three back-to-back turnarounds (i.e. no days off and minimum rest in-between) to Basra, Amman and Male. I’m seriously hoping I can somehow make a miracle happen and swap these for a layover, but let’s see!

My first layover of the month is to Newark – while I’ve visited New York plenty of times, it’ll be my first time flying into Newark. Sadly it’s just a 24 hour layover but I’m sure I’ll manage to stay busy! I originally had San Fransisco rostered but decided to swap as this will give me an extra day off.

Up next is the trip I’m most looking forward to – Bologna, Italy. I’ve been here a couple of times and can’t wait to go back and eat my bodyweight in tagliatelle bolognese and gelato 😀

Following on from that is a 48 hour layover in Abuja. A new destination for me and I’ll be honest and say it’s not one that I would have bid for, but I’ll try to make the most of the layover and get out and explore some of the city. Any tips are more than welcome!

Then I have a layover in Barcelona, Spain, which I can’t wait for! I was actually rostered Moscow, but someone sent me a swap which I immediately accepted. Funnily enough I had actually bid for Barcelona but didn’t get the flight, so it’s great that I managed to swap.

My last trip of the month is to Glasgow, which again is another swap – originally I had a flight to Entebbe, Uganda. I’m not sure yet what I’ll do there, so stay tuned!

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

An Afternoon in Florence


When I saw that I had two days off that coincided perfectly with my boyfriend’s flight to Bologna, I knew I had to escape the heat of Dubai and come with him on the flight. I booked my ticket less than 2 hours before departure, packed a few things and headed off to the airport. Talk about last minute decisions!

The flight is around 6 hours, and I was well taken care of by the crew, so arrived into Bologna ready to do some exploring.

Since Joe was working the flight, we went to the crew hotel which was a short drive from the airport. From there it was a quick bus journey to the main train station where we purchased our tickets (which I have to say were fairly pricey!) to Florence. It’s a quick 34 minute train ride, if you take the express train with no stops.

Before we knew it, we were stepping out into the beautiful sunny streets of Firenze!

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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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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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