Souk wandering in Casablanca, Morocco

Whilst still on reserve I was pulled out for a trip to Casablanca, Morocco. I’ve been in the past and visited the incredible Hassan II Mosque, the largest mosque in Morocco, as well as the corniche by the ocean, and Rick’s Café, famous from the movie “Casablanca”. This time I decided to take it easy and just head for a stroll through the souk.

From my hotel room I had an incredible view over the city, including the Hassan II Mosque which is unmissable.

If you’re heading to Casablanca for the first time, I’d definitely recommend a trip there. The architecture is stunning, with lots of detailed tiling and doorways.

Myself and one of the other girls met after a quick power nap (I’d be on home standby waiting for the phone to ring all night, and then had an almost 8 hour flight, so was feeling rather tired!) to stroll down to the nearby souk.

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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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Pizza, Pasta & Shopping in Rainy Milan

If you saw my roster post from last month, you would know that I was rostered a trip to Milan. It’s been a while since I’ve been to Milan, and you can read about my trip there and to Lake Como by clicking here.

This time, I wanted to head back to the city, and since we arrived in the evening, my plan was to get up early before the rest of the tourists.

First things first though, dinner! After arriving at our hotel and a quick freshen up, most of the crew met down in the lobby to head to dinner. The hotel has an arrangement with a gorgeous family-run restaurant called Osteria Della Pista, so they came and picked us up in a mini van, and after a short drive we arrived at the restaurant.

Italian food is definitely one of my favourites – just ask my mum! Whenever I go home, the only meal I always request is spaghetti bolognese 😉 And when in Italy there’s no point in denying yourself from trying all of the yummy pizza, pasta and gelato.

So of course this time it was no different, and I had the most delicious prosciutto and rocket pizza, served with an aperol spritz, and followed by homemade tiramisu, of course!

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Seaplanes in Seattle

I was super excited when I saw Seattle on my roster, it was my first ever flight to the States with Emirates and a city that I absolutely fell in love with. It has a certain charm that just draws you in and I hadn’t visited in over 3 years, so was excited to head back for the 2nd time.

Flight time from Dubai was around 14,5 hours, a little bit shorter than my previous flight to Houston but still very long! Luckily despite a full cabin in First Class we weren’t kept too busy (and having an extra crew member in first on ultra long haul flights is always a bonus) and had a good few hours rest in the CRC.

Around halfway through the flight, we were greeted by some stunning views of beautiful white snowy peaks. Somewhere over Greenland, where most of the passengers were fast asleep oblivious to the natural beauty outside, I sat with my head as close to the window as possible and just thought to myself how lucky I really am, to be able to witness these incredible sights.

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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.

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