Where I'm Flying: July 2016

I think I'm still being punished for calling in sick for a Pakistan flight in May, because my roster next month is probably the worst I've had.

I have two of the worst turnarounds possible: Jeddah and Cairo.

Because of my Cairo flight, I don't get to come home three days earlier. The rostering team loves to give a turnaround right before we have leave so we get as little time home as possible. They really love to ruin things.



On the plus side, I'll be in Washington DC for the 4th of July! You can look for me on your TVs in front of the White House when the fireworks start.

I'm also going to Paris, which I usually wouldn't be excited for, but I'll hopefully get to meet my aunt and uncle there for the day.

The only destination that I asked for that I actually got is Glasgow, Scotland. I'm finally going back to my motherland and fellow redheads, and I might never leave.

Last but not least, I finally get to come home again! Even though it's not for long, I can't wait to see everyone, especially my dog and my new baby niece (not necessarily in that order).

I have a million days off before my next flight so maybe I'll actually catch up on this blog, but I've said that before...

Where I'm Flying: June 2016

June Roster

Two new countries, Bangkok again, and finally an LA flight! Moscow, Oslo, and LA are supposed to be kind of hard flights and really busy, but Bangkok and Germany are nice and easy. And only two turnarounds, one to Jeddah and one to Bahrain. I knew I couldn't escape Jeddah for long. Other than that, it's going to be a good month! 

Bangkok post coming soon...

Johannesburg, South Africa

Finally, a new place! I've been doing repeat flights the last couple of months so when I saw Johannesburg, South Africa on my roster I couldn't wait to go. With other crew, it is kind of a tradition for you to go to the Lion Park on your first visit. So that's what I did, and I took a million pictures while doing it.



First we did a driving tour in a big caged truck. The park is really big and spread out. It's not like a zoo; the animals have their own big space to run around and be in their natural habitat, but the lions are separate from things like zebras, antelope, and other things they'd normally eat. The zebras, ostriches, antelope (or something like it), and little wild turkeys were the first things we saw. Our driver/guide would stop the truck so we could take pictures while he told us jokes and facts about the animals.

When we came to the first lion area, there were signs warning us not to open the doors or to stick any limbs out of the cage. A lady was killed at the park last year when she opened the door to get a better picture, and a lioness snuck up on her. Our guide told us he was there when the lady died, and that the same lioness that killed her was in the next area. On that high note, we continued the tour.



There were a few different lion prides in the park that were all kept separate. Some were regular Mufasa/Simba looking lions and some were white lions. All of them were incredibly lazy and were sleeping together in lion piles. For the most part they just ignored us and kept sleeping, but a few would look at us and pose for some pictures before they went back to their nap. We got to hear a roaring contest between two of the boys, and it was such a scary sound! I didn't imagine it being so loud and I could feel it vibrating in my chest. If I was out in the African wild, ran into a lion, and it roared at me like that, I'd just lay down and give up right there.

After the driving tour, we did the most exciting part of petting lion cubs, giraffes, and a cheetah named Cindy. The cubs were all sleeping just like the big lions. There were only 3 months old and almost too big for us to be able to be that close to them anymore. The giraffes were my favorite part. We took lots of selfies while we were feeding them and their purple tongues. The cheetah was just like a giant house cat. They are really easy to tame so people can actually have them as pets. I think I'll get one, actually. She loved the attention and all the petting she was getting. You could tell all the cats thought they were the best thing to happen to this world, just like every house cat I've ever met.

Everything is so cheap in Johannesburg so I bought lots of souvenirs I didn't need, and then we went back to the hotel. I'll be back again next weekend to do lots and lots of shopping!

Where I'm Flying: May 2016

Now that I've passed the probation period, I can bid for flights and destinations that I want to go to. This month I bid for LA, Tokyo, Bangkok, Rome, and Johannesburg. I didn't get Tokyo, but I'm not surprised since it's a hard flight to get. But I didn't get LA :( So I can't go home to see my sister and my new baby niece that is due this month. My only consolation is that I'm going to Rome twice! I haven't been back to Rome since I lived there four years ago and I've missed it a lot! And I'm going on a safari in Johannesburg and get to pet baby lions, but baby niece > baby lions. Hopefully June gives me some LA flights! Six layovers and two turnarounds this month, not too shabby.

May Roster

Any suggestions for places to bid for June? I'd love to hear your ideas! 

The Great Chase

I had one mission in London: Go to the Royal Academy of Art and see my great great (lots of greats) uncle's paintings. Sir Joshua Reynolds, check him out. He founded the Academy back in 1768 and painted portraits of the royal family and other rich people. There's a giant statue of him inside the Academy courtyard and he even looks like my mom's side of the family! I was getting really excited to go in and see his paintings but when I asked a museum guide where I could see them, he told me they were doing renovations and had put everything in storage. There was nothing to see. I wasn't too disappointed because I knew I'd be in Paris the following week and the Louvre would definitely have some of his work.

I've been to Paris once before on a school trip, and it was cold and rainy. That was about seven years ago, and I actually tried to see Reynold's paintings at the Louvre that time but got lost and ran out of time. This time, it wasn't raining in Paris but it was freezing! Too cold to enjoy walking around, and the flight timing made it hard to make any big plans. I took the hour train ride from the hotel into the city, braved walking a few frozen miles to the Louvre, and walked another thousand miles inside the museum to the British painting collection. That "collection" was a joke of less than twenty paintings, and not one was by my dear old uncle. I was so disappointed. Even seeing the Mona Lisa again didn't matter. I looked at her smug face for two seconds and decided to give up on art for the trip.

I wasn't surprised to see London on my roster for the next month. I've been there at least once a month since I started flying. Once again, I decided I'd try to see these paintings. This time, I'd go to the National Gallery because I specifically looked at their website and Reynolds paintings, and they were supposed to be there. With my luck, I wasn't getting my hopes up. Either the museum would be closed that day, or there would be a metro strike, or the museum would have been destroyed by a meteor just hours before I got there. I made it to Trafalgar Square a few minutes before the museum opened and got in line with the other early birds. Surprisingly (to me at least), there was no last minute decision to keep the gallery closed that day, the doors opened on time, and I was on my way inside.

I skipped past who knows how many masterpieces to find my uncle's paintings. I made it to the 1700s salon and started skimming over the paintings in search of something familiar. Then I saw it. Surrounded by a gaudy gold frame taller than me and right in the center of the gallery was a portrait of Colonel Tarleton painted by none other than Joshua Reynolds.

I found four other paintings of his in the galleries and even learned some random facts about him by reading the painting's captions, like that he had a pet parrot (see painting below). You would have thought I painted them all if you could feel how proud I felt looking at them and knowing that someone in my family made them.



It only took seven years since my first failed mission but I can finally cross seeing his paintings in person off my bucket list!

New York, New York

I don't know how I've lived for 23 years without ever going to NYC. I love it! There is so much to do, so many unique places to see, and most importantly, so much amazing food! I didn't take a lot of pictures here... I was too busy eating :)

The night we got there, I met my friend Wesley who had just moved there two weeks earlier. He had the whole night planned out and a list of places to go the next day. My hotel was in Times Square, so we started there. It's a lot smaller than it looks in the movies but it was still cool to be there.

My pizza experience in Milan hadn't been that impressive, so we decided to go out for pizza at a place called Keste that supposedly has some of the best pizza in the city. It was better than any pizza I'd had in Italy, except for a place in Naples that can't be beat. They also had a homemade burrata cheese appetizer that I still dream about. We ate so much that we swore we'd never eat again, then made our way to the next place for drinks.

When came to a Five Guys Burgers and Wesley said he wanted a milkshake. I was surprised since he had just said he was too full for anything, but I wanted to get out of the cold so I went along with it. We got up to the counter and he pulled out his ID to show to the big guy standing there. Since when do you need your ID to order a milkshake? I was so confused. Then he headed up some stairs behind the guy while I'm still looking around, lost as ever. It all came together when I saw the lights and heard the music from the bar upstairs. Wesley made fun of me for the rest of the night for how long it took me to figure it out.

After bar hopping around, trying lots of fancy drinks, almost freezing to death outside, and me falling asleep in the taxi, we called it a night.

The next morning, we started the day with breakfast at Pick a Bagel. One of my favorite foods besides pizza, gelato, and chocolate, are bagels. It was delicious. We walked around the city the rest of the day, through Central Park where we watched and waited for the ice-skaters to fall (we're usually good people, I promise), Washington Square Park, all the way to the Brooklyn Bridge, and back through Little Italy. We stopped at Ladurée for their famous macaroons and at Cafe Habana for their renowned Mexican corn. We always eat so much when we're together! That's probably why we're friends, because we don't judge the other one for being a pig. 

A big thank you to Wesley for being my tour guide for the day! I can't wait to be back again!

 

They obviously named this place after my dog. 

Land of Pizza

It's been waaaayyy too long since I've posted anything, partly because I keep getting sent to the same places (London and Jeddah, I'm talking about you) and partly because I finally got to go home for the first time since October and had no time to be writing bloggy stuff. But before all of that excitement, I had to survive London again, Paris, Milan, and New York City.



Once again, I was lucky with my roster and scored one of the best multi-sector trips. Dubai to Milan for TWO days, then off to NYC for only 24 hours which isn't nearly enough, back to Milan for another day, and back to Dubai.

I hadn't been back to Italy since I lived in Rome four-ish years ago, and I hadn't been back to the States since I left to Dubai four-ish months ago. You could say I was a little excited.

Milan

The first day in Milan, I just walked around and soaked up the Italian-ness that I had missed so much. I had a huge pizza all to myself and even found peanut butter gelato. I was in heaven. In Piazza del Duomo, I was attacked by pigeons when a guy who sells bird popcorn to tourists forced me to take a handful while he put a pile of it on my head. He grabbed my camera and started a photoshoot, then wanted me to pay him for the pigeon attack. I didn't pay him, but he did get some fun pictures of the whole thing.



I was surprised by how much of my Italian speaking skills came back to me and how much I could understand. I had no problem ordering food, asking for directions, and having little conversations in Italian. Time to start studying Italian again :)

The second day, I decided to take a train to Lake Como and Bellagio. The train took an hour to get to Lake Como, then I had to take a bus to get to Bellagio an hour away from there. It was one of the most beautiful drives I've ever been on! Bellagio was a little dead since freezing weather in February doesn't make a good tourist season, but it was a great little place to walk around. Obviously, I had another whole pizza to myself. And more gelato, and possibly a bottle of wine. Calories don't count when you're in Italy.

The third day in Milan, after leaving New York, I slept for SIXTEEN hours straight! I think this is my personal record. Obviously, I ordered a pizza and didn't leave the hotel room until we left for the airport the next day. I couldn't wait to get back because I was leaving Dubai the next day to finally go home!



New York deserves its own post, coming very soon! :)