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

Time for an update!

It’s been way too long since I managed to post anything on here, but I have a very good excuse…my friends Maria, Simone and Georg from home came to visit! They stayed for a week and we had an awesome time!

I went to pick them up from the airport on the Wednesday evening and then took them to the hotel which was just across the road opposite my apartment. A few hours later I had to go to work, so I left them with lots of information about where to go and what to do in the 2 days that I would be away. I flew to Kuala Lumpur (seems like I am there this whole month!) and then on Friday evening I was back.

They had been to Al Mamzar beach on both days as it is only a few minutes drive from where I live, and they all managed to get slightly (very) sunburnt! We started off the Saturday by going to the Dubai Mall for a look around, and the girls had big plans to shop as well!

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We had lunch at a nice Italian restaurant overlooking the water, however we didn’t realise that the fountain show doesn’t start til 6pm! After watching the Burj Khalifa’s windows being cleaned by about 50 men dangling from long ropes, we headed back inside to do some hardcore shopping. In the evening after we had all spent too much money (thanks 20% discount at Sephora!) we went outside to watch the fountain show, which was lovely as always! (However, it is very difficult to take a good picture!)

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After we had finished we all got a taxi back to the mine to drop things off. As we were driving home a huge sandstorm started up! I’ve never seen anything like it, I think it has only rained once since I moved here. The automatic doors to my apartment building wouldn’t even open! We had to cross the road to get to the hotel and just as we walked outside it started pouring with rain and then thunder and lightening started as well! Luckily we didn’t have far to go, but our plans to go out that evening were very much cancelled!

The next day we decided to go to the spice and gold souks. We were going to get a water taxi across the creek which I have heard only costs 1 Dirham, but the weather turned against us and it started to pour with rain again! So we got the taxi driver to drop us off just outside the spice souk, and luckily the rain had just stopped. We had a wander round and the girls bought a few different spices to take home. I bought some vanilla pods for baking as they were so cheap! 
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We had a look around the gold souks imagining what we would buy if we were rich Arab women, haha.

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We then headed over to the Pyramids at Wafi for some lunch at a delicious Italian (where I happen to get 40% off – thanks Face Card!) before our plans for the afternoon/evening – a desert safari!

The driver came and picked us up outside the hotel in the afternoon, and we drove about 50 minutes through Sharjah to the desert somewhere – I did ask him where it was but I can’t remember now! We stopped at a little place outside the desert to let some air out of the tyres, ready to go dune bashing.

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Driving over the sand dunes at a ridiculous speed is probably one of the scariest things ever, and at one point even the driver was making fun of our screams! He stopped just before sunset (which coincidentally was probably the first time there wasn’t an amazing red and pink sky because of all the rain) for us to do some sand-boarding!

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After all falling over numerous times, we carried on the drive through the dunes and made a stop at a camel farm! We couldn’t get very close but managed to get a few pictures.

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 Our next stop was to the dinner area, which was a load of tents and buildings (well, more like little shacks really) in the middle of the desert. We got to ride camels, very exciting!

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The last part of the evening was inside the tent area. We got to try on the traditional Arab dress (not sure it suits me!) and then had dinner and watched some dancing.

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Once we got back home, we stayed up until midnight, because it was Maria’s birthday the next day! We would have had some champagne, but unfortunately it’s not very easy to buy alcohol in Dubai, and I forgot to bring any back from Duty Free. The next morning we decided to get up early and go to the Burj Al Arab.

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We had a lovely walk along the beach and took lots of the obligatory tourist pictures. If only we had been able to just go into the Burj for a few drinks!
We then decided to go and have a look around the Marina. It was my first time going to the Walk as well, and it was really beautiful! Lots of boats and cafes along the waterfront. As we were walking along we spotted one with a breakfast board outside, and decided to have some brunch! Us girls all ordered some pancakes (so good!) and Georg got eggs with all the side dishes. After devouring our food and getting baked in the sun, we walked along the Marina Walk admiring the view. 

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The plan for the rest of the day was to sunbathe and get as brown as possible, until it was time to get ready for Maria’s birthday dinner! We went to an amazing steak restaurant on The Palm called West 14th. Amazing views out on to the Marina and the food was incredible! After we headed to the Crowne Plaza for a few more birthday drinks, where we met up with my friend Bruno and had a great evening! 

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The next day Georg and Simone got up early to sunbathe, whilst Maria and I slept the morning away. I had a flight at 2 am the next morning, so I had to get a few hours rest in the afternoon. Their flight was leaving at 1am as well, so they decided to go back to the Dubai Mall for a couple more hours of shopping. 

All in all we had an amazing week, thank you so much Maria, Simone and Georg for coming to visit me!

Dublin!

My most recent flight was to Dublin and back. The fight itself was so so busy, we literally had about 5 minutes to eat on the way there! Let’s just say the Irish like to drink… 😉
I had a really great crew, so we had a lovely time and 6 of us went out to explore the city (it might have had something to do with the fact that I forced everyone to come to Primark/Penny’s!) – the weather was nice, very very cold but lovely and sunny!

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We got back to the hotel in the evening and I climbed straight into bed and slept until the wake-up call the next morning!

Milan…Brunch…Munich!

Last week I flew to Milan. The flight itself was fine, pretty uneventful, and the hotel was nice. The only thing was that it was located literally at the airport, which meant it would have taken quite a bit of time and money to get to the city centre. So in the evening after arriving a group of about 8 of us decided to go to dinner. The hotel organised a shuttle bus to take us to a lovely family run restaurant, where we all shared some different meats and cheeses to start, and then I had a delicious pizza!
The next day I went down to have the hotel breakfast which was really good, and then I just pretty much stayed in the hotel crew lounge using the wifi all day! I managed to have a couple of hours sleep before the flight home which was good!

Once back home I had a couple of days off, so Michelle, Bianca and I went for dinner to a nice place called Warehouse. We get 40% off there which is very nice! 😀 They also serve alcohol there as it is part of a hotel, so we all shared a bottle of white wine.

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The next day I went for my very first brunch! I went to a place called Double Decker with a couple of girls from my Singapore Melbourne trip and some of their friends. There were lots of British people there as well which was lovely. It was really good and I even had roast pork with roast potatoes and gravy…and quite a few drinks! 😀 Brunch is a kind of Friday tradition in Dubai, so it was good to see what it’s like and I will definitely be going again on my next Friday off!! 😀

On Saturday I spent the day relaxing at the Meridien hotel pool with my friend Rebecca, which was great. It’s getting so much hotter now in Dubai, we had to stay in the pool to cool off most of the time!

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Sunday was back to work….I was flying to Munich! The flight itself was fine, I’m guessing 99% of the passengers were Germans so I went back to speaking German! They all drank so much but it was a good flight. When I got to the hotel in Munich guess who was in the lobby waiting for me….my parents and sister! 🙂

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They had come from Austria to visit and stayed the night as well. We went for drinks in the hotel bar in the evening and then headed to bed. In the morning we all went for the hotel breakfast and ate as much as possible without actually exploding, and then took the underground into the city. It wasn’t a very nice day, rainy and cold, but we had a nice walk around and I bought lots of cheap strawberries, blueberries and raspberries to take back to Dubai where they cost a fortune! We went and had a coffee in Starbucks to warm up and then did a bit more shopping, mum and dad bought me lots of things to take back to Dubai 🙂

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In the afternoon we walked to the train station so mum and dad could get their train home and Lizzie could get the train back to Vienna. Lizzie and I made a stop at Müller and I stocked up on tights for work and a few bits of make up that you can’t get in Dubai. After they had left I got the underground back to the hotel and had a little sleep before the flight home. I wasn’t feeling too great (woke up with a headache and cold!) and unfortunately the sleep didn’t get rid of it, so flying back was not that great. We were also over an hour late taking off so I didn’t get to bed until 9am the next morning! Not ideal when you are feeling ill! I woke up feeling worse and today it hasn’t got any better, so I’m trying to drink lots and rest. I will not be happy if I have to call in sick for my 2 day Shanghai layover! I’ve been looking forward to it all month! 😀

My first flights!

I’ve just got back from an amazing layover in Hong Kong! But before I get started on that, I’ll tell you about my very first flight….to Kuwait and back! 

So originally my roster had said that I was doing a turnaround to Amman, Jordan, however the day before it changed to Kuwait! Luckily I was going with two lovely girls who had started at the same time as me so I wasn’t the only new person on board! It was an early morning flight, which meant getting up at 4am (yay!). Once we got to the airport we were briefed on what the flight would be like and what kind of service we would be doing etc. For take-off and landing I got to sit in the cockpit, which was amazing!

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The flight is only an hour and 15 minutes, so we did a very quick breakfast service. It was nothing like training college! I wasn’t really sure what to expect but the sector going there was not busy at all which helped, and all the crew were so lovely! We did have one passenger sitting in first class who got out a cigarette and just lit it up and started smoking during the flight! 
We had a while on ground in Kuwait to have some food, but didn’t actually get off the plane there. Once we got back to Dubai it was only around lunch time, so I still had the afternoon off to get ready for my next flight!

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The next morning I was off to HONG KONG! As soon as I saw that on my roster I was so excited! I have been quite a few times with my family before, so I was really looking forward to going back.

I got to the airport in the morning only to find that the flight was delayed almost 2 hours because of the fog! Luckily I was flying with one of my batchmates, Ibrahim, so we went and sat on the terrace and had a coffee until it was time for the briefing. 
We were flying there on the A380, which meant there was a bigger crew than the flight to Kuwait. We got to sit in the cockpit again for take-off and landing, and before we left we did a walk around of the plane – you don’t realise just how enormous it is until you actually see it from close up on the ground! As we were walking past another A380 was taxiing close by, and we got blasted by the engines and almost blown away! 😀
The flight itself was great – economy was not even 1/3 full, so we had very little to do and Ibrahim and I were also shown around the whole aircraft. Upstairs in business and first there was a total of about 10 passengers! Most of them were asleep as well so it was a pretty easy flight for the crew there. 
Flying into Hong Kong at night is amazing, especially because the airport is very close to the water, so it almost feels like you are going to land on the water! As the flight had been delayed, we didn’t get til the airport til almost 1am. We got our rooms and then most of us went to the supermarket just around the corner to get some things for breakfast etc.

The next morning I managed a 30 minute run at the gym, before meeting some of the other crew down in the lobby. We had planned to go to the peak and see the Big Buddha, but it was a little bit far from the hotel so we decided to go to the ladies market and have a wander around!

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One of the guys, Bruno, told us about a restaurant which specialised in Dim Sum, so he had asked the concierge where it was and we set out to try and find it. Once we got to the area it was supposed to be in we couldn’t find anything that even looked like a restaurant! So we asked a local girl and she directed us to the right place (it had moved!) …but once we got there it was shut for Chinese New Year! Very disappointing. By this time we were all starving, so we decided to go back to the area of the Ladies Market and try and find something else. We ended up going into a place which was absolutely huge and filled with locals! Bruno ordered for us as he had a bit of an idea what to get, and we ended up with at least 20 different dishes of dumplings, fried rice, more dumplings, and lots of different things to try! It was all so delicious, and we payed the equivalent of about 15 euros each, if that!
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After lunch, all feeling very full, we walked to the ladies market and had a browse! I didn’t buy anything there, as I had bought some Asian beauty products (face masks, make-up, etc) from a very cute pink shop before lunch! One of the girls, Jesica from Argentina, bought a very cute bag and managed to get a good deal! 
There was one thing that I wanted to buy in Hong Kong…an iPad! So we made our way to an area full of electronics shops, not before stopping to get some delicious bubble tea!
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I managed to get a nice deal on an iPad, and then we set off back to the hotel to get a sleep in before our night flight home. Of course I couldn’t resist having a little play with my new baby, but did manage to get a nice few hours sleep before getting ready to go back to Dubai! Whilst getting ready I had an amazing view from my hotel room! 🙂Image

The flight back was a little bit busier, in fact it was almost full, but as it was a night flight we did the service shortly after take off and then most passengers went to sleep straight away. All of us were feeling pretty tired, and on the way back the flight was almost 2,5 hrs longer because of the direction of the wind. We were happy to start the breakfast service in the morning as it meant we didn’t have long left to land! 
We got to sit in the cockpit again for landing, and flying into Dubai just before sunrise was amazing – the amount of lights and skyscrapers is incredible! You can see the Burj Khalifa from so far away as well….it made me realise how much I love my job already!
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All in all my first flights were pretty amazing! I’ve just checked my roster now and it looks like I’ve got another turnaround to Kuwait tomorrow evening! After that I’m going to Malaysia, India and Switzerland… I can’t wait!

3 weeks left of training…

Today is Friday – which means that it is the weekend! This week has been long but it was all worth it in the end; I got 98% on my GMT exam! So now I am all prepared for anything to go wrong on board – baby delivery, heart attacks, anaphylactic shock, epilepsy… you name it, I’ve probably learnt how to deal with it this week!

I have decided I actually preferred SEP to GMT. We did have to study and revise so much more for SEP (the nights before my final A380 and B777 exams I got about 3 or 4 hours sleep!) but I found it a lot more interesting to learn about the aircraft and all that type of thing as opposed to medical stuff. Luckily I’m not a doctor! Maybe one day I’ll change it up from being a stewardess and work in the left seat of the cockpit instead… 😉

Today I had a lovely day with my friend Sally at Deira City Centre. We got the crew bus (which goes from literally right outside our front door!) to Headquarters and then the metro from there, which is about 3 stops. We both ended up buying way more than anticipated – I got 2 dresses, some heels and some underwear! I also got a pack of earrings (pearls and “diamond” studs), but they are for work, so they don’t count! 😉 Sally also got a couple of dresses and some heels, so we are all ready for the next few nights out that we have!

Tonight I’m going out with my group of friends (this seems to be a regular occurrence on Friday nights!) and we will probably go back to Crystal as we had such a good night last weekend!
Tomorrow I think I’m going to have a nice day up by the pool, it’s been horrible weather all week, cloudy and chilly, but today was lovely and hot and I think the same is forecast for tomorrow. I also did a big food shop the other day and even treated myself to a nice steak, which I’m going to have tomorrow! 

This week we also got our passports back with our visas – I am now officially a resident of Dubai! One other small thing I forgot to mention….. UNIFORM!! On Tuesday we went and picked up our big suitcases with all our uniform in, which was very exciting! Of course my flatmate and I had to try everything on in the evening!

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