My first time visiting Washington, and I was ready to explore! After a 14 hour night flight from Dubai we touched down and made our way to the hotel.
By this time it was already 11am, so I wanted to get out and have as much of the day as possible, as the wake up call was early the next morning.
Our hotel is by the airport, so it was around a 30 minute drive into the city, where we split up to explore. One of the guys and I from the flight decided to check out the main monuments of Washington D.C.
I was finally rostered 2 trips back to one of my favourite cities in the world – Hong Kong! My friend Kirsty has just given birth to her second baby, a beautiful daughter named Imogen, and I was so excited to meet her and catch up with Kirsty.
On my first trip out we were still staying in Causeway Bay, so I got the ferry over to Discovery Bay for some drinks and nibbles at her flat, before dinner in a nice restaurant and a good catch up there.
The second time around, our hotel had sadly closed down which meant a new location…the airport. I am so disappointed by this as we really had the most amazing location right in the heart of Hong Kong, but I guess it just means I’ll have to explore new areas!
I met Kirsty around lunchtime at the airport, as she was dropping her parents off to fly back to England after they’d been out to visit for a while. We got straight into a taxi to take us to Mui Wo, where we would start our hike.
It’s time for another roster post, and next month I actually have a new destination! That’s two months in a row with new places to explore, one of the main reasons I chose this job.
After nearly 6 and a half years here, it feels like I get some of the same destinations quite frequently, but there are still new routes launching all the time for me to tick off the list.
Next month I’ll be heading off to:
MAA – Chennai, India (Turnaround)
Annual Leave
KBL – Kabul, Afghanistan (Turnaround)
GVA – Geneva, Switzerland
MUC – Munich, Germany
IAD – Washington D.C., USA
BRU – Brussels, Belgium
Starting off the month with a turnaround to Chennai and back, which is quite a long one (blocked at 4 hours each way), just before my leave starts.
I then have a week off, and I think I’ll fly home and see my family this time. I haven’t had a Stansted layover in a while (the last one was on my birthday in October!) so it’ll be nice to spend some time at home in spring.
After my leave is another turnaround, this time to Kabul and back. I’m hoping that somehow I might be able to swap this for a day off to extend my leave but I’m also realistic that this doesn’t happen often!
Up next is a trip to Geneva – I was originally rostered Moscow and when someone sent me the swap I jumped at the chance to visit Geneva again (and more importantly, eat some cheese fondue!). Last time I went was in the middle of winter so I’m hoping it’ll be much warmer now.
Then a flight to Munich, which is a nice easy layover.
Following on from that is my new destination of the month – Washington! It’s the only one of our US destinations that I haven’t visited, and although it’s just a short 24 hour layover I’m hoping to make the most of it and do some exploring.
My final trip of the month is a 42 hour layover in Brussels. I’ve been here before in summer and I really enjoyed it, and due to the runway closure in Dubai we have some extended layovers, so I’ll try and get to Bruges this time, which I’ve heard is just beautiful.
I’m looking forward to ticking off a new destination, as well as re-visiting some old favourites.
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It’s been many years since I’ve visited Scotland. Although Emirates has been flying to Glasgow since before I joined, I have never been rostered the flight, so the last time I went must have been as a child on a family holiday!
So you can imagine how pleased I was when I managed to swap my London Heathrow flight for a trip to Edinburgh! It was also a slightly longer layover than usual which was great.
Unfortunately the weather forecast for our arrival was not looking great, and we were greeted with dark, cloudy skies and pouring rain.
Nevertheless, since it was my first time here, I wanted to make the most of my layover and see as much of the city as I could.
A couple of weeks I flew off to sunny Munich, and since my brother no longer lives there and his girlfriend was also out of town, I decided it would be the perfect opportunity to head into the city.
It’s actually been a while since I’ve been into Munich city centre, so one of the girls and I jumped on the underground and were there in no time, ready for a nice walk around.
