Pink Lake, Dakar, Senegal

Continuing on from my previous post, my multi-sector African trip took me on to Dakar, Senegal. Now I’ll be the first to admit I really didn’t have a clue about what to see or do in either Guinea or Senegal, but luckily we managed to squeeze some sightseeing into our short 24 hour layover.

The first evening after arriving was spent at a gorgeous sea-front restaurant, just a few minutes walk from our hotel.

Out at the front of the restaurant was a really interesting wall which was full of African murals, as well as some awesome sculptures. We had a quick look before heading in for dinner, and amazingly almost every single one of the crew made it!

View Post

April Roster

It’s that time of the month again…roster day! It seems to roll around quicker every month, and we’re already over halfway through March, 2017 is definitely flying by!

Next month I’ll be starting with 10 days leave, and I won’t mention yet where we will be heading, but I will say there are some beaches involved! 🙂

After that my flights will be to:

  • BOM – Bombay, India (turnaround)
  • ZRH – Zurich, Switzerland
  • MEL – Melbourne, Australia
  • JED – Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (turnaround)
  • ZRH – Zurich, Switzerland
  • MXP – Milan, Italy

I hope you guys are still enjoying my month roster posts, and if there is anything else you’d like to see here on The Dubai Diaries, please feel free to let me know in the comments below!

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

48 Hours in Athens

I was very happy when I saw Athens on my roster last month – it is usually a turnaround flight (and a fairly long one at that, around 4 hours each way), and I was rostered it as a 48 hour layover!

The flight left Dubai around 7am, so an early start, as we have to be in briefing 2 hours before departure. The flight was actually 2 sectors, first to Larnaca, and then on to Athens. We only had 1 passenger in first class on the way there, and he closed the doors to his suite and instructed us to let him sleep as much as possible – a very easy first sector!

After landing in Larnaca, most passengers got off, and after a quick job by the cleaners we were ready to board the next set of passengers. Only 38 in total – on the whole plane! As you can imagine that sector went by in a flash, and it’s only just over an hour to Athens.

We are usually 15 crew on the 777, and usually a pretty good mix of nationalities. However on this flight the Greeks were out in full force, and there were only 4 of us who didn’t speak Greek! Once we arrived into Athens, it was a fairly long drive to the hotel, but on the plus side we were staying in the city rather than by the airport.

After a quick nap a few of us (non-Greeks!) met up for some dinner. One of the crew had given us a huge list of all sorts of restaurants and bars to try out during the layover. We headed to one of them for some delicious dinner, and called it a night ready for some sightseeing the next day.

View Post

Freezing in Oslo

My roster this month took me back to the beautiful city of Oslo, Norway. I visited last year in April, and you can read about that trip here. I’m not entirely sure why I decided to bid for Oslo in January, possibly the coldest month of the year, and as well as that the sun sets at around 3:30 – 4pm!

The flight there was just over 6,5 hours, and at the last minute changed to a 2-class aircraft, which meant no first class! Myself and the other first class crew had to work in economy, which certainly made for an interesting change from first class!

We spotted some beautiful snowy scenes out of the window, which got me excited to land in Norway.

View Post

48 Hours in Lyon

My first flight of the year was a 48 hour layover in Lyon, France. The last time I visited was in summer, so the weather was a bit different this time around!

We arrived into Lyon in the evening, so on the first night there was just time for a light dinner and some drinks with the crew, while plans were discussed for the next day. Although I’ve visited before I was happy to head into the city and do some exploring.

Nine of us managed to meet in the morning and jump on the bus, just a few stops into town to start our day out.

We strolled through the streets, and although it was a quiet morning it was nice to enjoy the pretty architecture and atmosphere of the city.

View Post