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

Marvellous Mauritius

I was lucky enough to finally be rostered another flight to Mauritius! It had been over a year since I last visited and I was so happy to get the chance to re-visit the beautiful island I fell in love with last time.

The flight was nice and easy, busy but not too long. After around 6 hours we arrived in MRU just as the sun was setting. It was already dark by the time we arrived at the hotel but I could still see the pool and ocean glistening from the lobby!

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The hotel does a great dinner buffet, so we sat down to some delicious Mauritian food and had a relaxing evening.

The hotel is actually more of a resort and some of the rooms are spread out pretty far, you can even get a lift on a golf buggy if the walk is too much for you!

My room had a beautiful view of the ocean and all the lovely palm trees. It was the best feeling waking up on the first day of my birthday month and being greeted by the sound of waves crashing and the breeze blowing through the trees!

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Rostering Around – October

My roster for October has just been published, and although it’s my 2nd top bid I didn’t really get anything I asked for! I think that’s because as well as having 5 days leave I’m also scheduled for my visa renewal. I can’t believe how quickly that’s come around, sometimes it feels like I’ve only just joined!

I’ll be starting the month off with my Mauritius flight, which technically was from my September roster.

Then comes my birthday, and as of yet I still have no plans! Next up is:

  • KHI (Karachi turnaround)
  • KWI (Kuwait turnaround)
  • MAN (Manchester layover)
  • Leave (5 days, plus a couple of days off either side)
  • DME (Moscow layover)
  • IKA (Tehran turnaround)
  • DAC (Dhaka layover)
  • Visa Renewal
  • Can-Use (this is basically stand-by, if my visa renewal takes longer I’ll be in Dubai, if not I’ll most likely get rostered a flight).

Now, funny story for those last 3 flights. I was actually rostered a San Fransisco flight, but I’m not a massive fan of US flights so I put it up on swap shop to see if anybody had any good offers.

However, during my flight to Singapore one of the guys was asking around if anybody had any days off (which I did, 5 in a row right after my leave) and was desperate to take them. I wouldn’t normally give away my days off (understandably) but he was offering 2500 DHS (which is equivalent to just over 600 Euros!!) if I took his flights. 😀 Turns out he has a rich boyfriend who is willing to pay for him to get rid of his flights…and who can resist that kind of money just to swap a couple of flights?! I think that’ll pay for my next holiday on my upcoming leave, haha!

So there you go, that’s my schedule for next month! I would love to get rid of my turnarounds at the beginning of the month and maybe see if I can swap that Manchester, so stay tuned to see where in the wold I end up!

P.s. Follow me on Instagram & Twitter for day-to-day updates of my travels! 🙂

A Dutch Day Out!

A recent trip of mine took me all the way to sunny Amsterdam. Ever since I saw AMS on my roster, I knew I wanted to do something a little bit different. I’ve visited the gorgeous city quite a few times, including staying a few nights there when I backpacked around Europe with my best friend Lucy.

This time, the windmills were calling! I’d wanted to visit the quaint village of Zaanse Schans the previous time I’d gone to Amsterdam but never got round to it, so was determined to make the most of it this time.

After an early start and a busy flight, we arrived in Holland. Myself and 2 other girls from business class inquired with the concierge how best to get there, and decided on a train leaving in an hour. After a quick shower and a few whatsapp messages, we were on our way. Since our hotel is next to the airport, we had to take a train for around 20 minutes or so outside the city, then a few stops on a bus.

Before we knew it, we’d arrived in Zaanse Schans (along with bus-loads of Chinese tourists, haha!).

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The beautifully quaint little village, in Western Europe’s oldest industrial area, used to have more than 600 windmills running at the same time. Now 10 windmills continue to work, and are used for sawing wood and grinding oil, flour, spices and dyes.

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I’d piled on the layers as my weather app had told me it was to be around 15 degrees, however it was a beautiful warm and sunny day and I wished I hadn’t bothered with my jacket! As you can probably tell from my hair, it was more than a little bit windy! Perfect for all of those windmills though 😉

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New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of…

… There’s nothin’ you can’t do,
Now you’re in New York,
These streets will make you feel brand new,
Big lights will inspire you,
Let’s hear it for New York, New York, New York!

I think you guys can guess where one of my most recent layovers was spent!

I didn’t manage to swap my 24 hour layover in the Big Apple, so after a couple of hours sleep I was up at 1am ready to serve a full cabin of hungry passengers for the next 14 hours.

Luckily, they were hungry but even more than that, they were sleepy! I guess the one good thing about a departure at 3 o’clock in the morning is that everybody wants one thing – sleep!

The flight flew by with great crew, and so many laughs in the galley whilst everybody slept.

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We’re lucky enough to fly over some beautiful places on our way around the world, and I always take time to appreciate the beautiful views out of the window. I even popped up to the cockpit to admire a bit more of Greenland and the gorgeous snowy peaks visible for a while.

Just as the passengers were starting to wake up, it was time for my break! We have a little crew rest compartment (located in the cabin on the A380 behind a locked door!) which sleeps 9, plus a separate area for the flight deck with 2 bunk beds. They are a bit of a squeeze and I’m pretty sure some of the tall guys barely even manage to fit in the bunk beds, but once you’re in it’s hard not to fall into a deep sleep!

After a short but sweet slumber, it was time to serve some breakfast, and then….land into the concrete jungle!

Being Saturday morning, the city was so busy and it took us forever to get to the hotel. Half of the roads were closed due to some market or other so we drove around for what felt like hours before we finally reached the hotel. By this time it was already lunchtime, and although I’d already eaten on the plane, I was suddenly absolute starving!

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July Roster

It feels like I’ve only just posted my June roster, so my apologies for slacking this month!

I’ve been so busy with leave, flying, lots of turnarounds and just life in general! I’ll try my hardest to blog a bit more this month, although I’m not making any promises 😉 I’ve also got a blog post about my trip to the beautiful city of Venice lined up, so stay tuned!

Next month (providing I don’t swap any flights, as always) I’ll be heading to:

  • CAN (Guangzhou, China)
  • MUC
  • HAM (trying to swap this one for a Rome to fly with a friend though!)
  • KHI (Karachi turnaround)
  • ZRH
  • KHI (Karachi turnaround)
  • VIE (finally, a Vienna flight! My second ever in over 2,5 years, and I didn’t even bid for it!)
  • MUC
  • AMM (Amman turnaround)

As you can see, it’s going to be a busy month! Fingers crossed I manage to swap a few flights, although we only have 3 swaps per month. I wonder how many months in a row now I’ve been given Munich?! I really shouldn’t complain, but it would be nice to get some new destinations in there!

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