The city of beer!

Here I am again! Being sick for a week, missing one of my layovers, on the other hand being excited for the next one - St.Petersburg! But no, Evita said I'm going to Munich instead.

Preparing yourself for Russia and ending up in Germany - that's the life of a cabin crew - you go where Evita wants you to go. (at least it's still Europe :) )

For all of you normal people, Evita, our best (girl)friend, is a crew information system, literally a machine that informs you about your roster changes...so she informed me well! Must confess I was pretty disappointed but what can you do except take the best of it...

So, Munich.

Germany's third-largest city, lies on the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps.

GMT +2 hours

Flying time - 5:20 hours

Layover - 24 hours

Weather - European summer :)

On our way there passengers were soooo polite and not demanding it's been a pleasure to work in such an environment. On one of my previous flights there was a girl who told me that she needs at least one flight to Europe a month to stay sane, and now I know what she meant, but I'll leave you with your own conclusions :)

Stepping outside the airport I could smell...Europe! Mmmm...20something°C, smell of rain in the air and refreshing breeze... Maybe it sounds stupid but it really felt like I'm so close to home and it felt gooooood :))

By the time we reached our hotel and made plans for the day we realized it's Sunday and everything is closed! :O 

Of course that didn't stopped us from going to the city, walk around, eat some proper food (read PORK!) finally, and carpe the rest of that diem! ;)

Funny group of Mexican, Irish, Egyptian, Japanese, Greek, Spanish and Croatian people took the metro to the Marienplatz, the centre of Munich, a real tourist place that offers a lot of history and beauty of architecture. Famous neo-gothic City hall with its big clock with moving figures dominates the square. 

 

A museum of toys and St.Peter's church that provides an amazing view of the city that we didn't see :))

Famous and oldest Frauenkirche (or how they call it in english the Cathedral of Our Lady) from 15th century. A legend says there is a devil's footprint you can see at the entrence, well, if you want to believe it... One more fact - all Dukes of Bavaria (such as a princess Therese - the woman/reason we have Oktoberfest for the last 200 years) were burried inside.

 Lovely crew :)

Hungry and wishing for some pork we had a late lunch, sausages, schnitzels, pretzels and beer. Too bad I don't really like beer but others enjoyed having one in a city of beer, city of Oktoberfest (I'm sure I don't have to explain what Oktoberfest is?!)

(I even found Juliet, she must be lost in Germany, but what the hell, I'll grab her boob for luck, can't hurt right?) :))

After a day like that we all fall asleep around 9pm! Dead tired we slept for almost 12 hours before we met for a delicious breakfast after which 4 of us went for a walk through English garden. Very nice, peaceful, lively and green place (here in Dubai you forget how green looks like or what it means to walk in the nature!).

This garden, a huge park, is something like Jarun lake and Maximir park mixed together - for all of you who don't know those are places you should go to when you visit Zagreb :)

 Our dear crazy Mexican pilot :)

One more stop before the airport - a supermarket - buying sausages and alcohol :)) - when you live in a place where you can't buy a proper piece of meat or a can of beer without an alcohol licence you take the opportunity wherever you can! :D (Duty free suddenly stops being that cool and interesting :P )

Cabin crew take your seats, we are going home!

p.s. Next place to visit - Bangkok - if Evita doesn't change her mind again! :) 

Anyway...till the next post :*

The lions sleep tonight...

Waking up early in the morning, packing a suitcase for my first layover...

Destination - South Africa, Johannesburg.

Flying hours - 7:40

Temperature - 10-13°C

Time zone - GMT + 2

Red lipstick and I'm ready to go!

Flight was really nice, we had so much work to do but passengers were polite and most importantly - patient :)

The crew and the purser was also great, very helpfull to a newie like me so everything was smooth and easy... 

Well, the pilot and the first officer do get some credit too, I must confess that :p

It was around 6 pm local time when we checked in to a hotel and the question was - what's next?

What are we gonna do now, where are we going and who is going? :) 

Dinner? Always! Juicy, medium-well steak in a green pepper sauce with a glass of wine at the Meat Co? Sold! Let's go :)

We were so hungry and the food was OMG, so amazingly delicious... Just perfect. After dinner everyone was tired except the captian and me cause we wanted a dessert (of course, do I have to repeat it every time that I need sweets after a meal? :) ) so we sat in the Milkshake bar in the hotel and had a sugar overdose before sleep with some cake and milkshakes :D

It was a nice day but the next one was a special one... Waking up early again, but this time not for work but for visiting the Lion Park!

 

What's so special about it? Well...you can cuddle lion cubs!!! Do I have to say more? :)

Oh yes, sorry, and feeding the giraffes! :D

It's been so funny, such a strange, unexpected feeling when daddy Giraffe licked my whole hand with his big slobbery tongue! I started to laugh so much I think he was embarrassed for me :)) But mommy Giraffe was such a lady while taking the food out of my hand, so carefully and gently...

 

We couldn't feed the baby cause she is still too young and small, and it was very cold outside for her, but the cubs didn't have a problem with it.

They were playing around us, jumping on us all the time, just like puppies but with bigger and sharper teeth and claws (scratch marks on my hands can prove that) :))

Everyone is asking me 'how was it?!' But how can I describe a feeling sitting there surrounded with six (big) baby lions, cuddling with them, having their paws in my hands...? I can only say that it was...surreal... 

It's just like, one of those things that you think about and you just go 'wow, I actually had Simba sitting in my lap?' Yes, I did! :D

Beautiful animals, speacially when you see what they will grow up to... They are not called the kings of the jungle for nothing :)

That 24 hours passed so quickly and it was time to go back to the sand :)

Pack again.

Red lipstick again.

7:40 hours again.

All that again with one small difference - special memories and fingers crossed for another day in Jo'burg!

Cabin crew...prepare for landing in Dubai...

NIGHTY NIGHT EVERYONE :*

Jump and slide baby!

After 6 long weeks training college is finally over and i have enough time to write a few words about it after such a long period of time.

Where should I even begin?

I would like to share this amazing experience with all of you but as we all say here – you can't describe it to others, others just have to come and 'taste' this life J It's not even enough to say how this is amazing, exciting, crazy or wonderful…it's so much more than that! So many people to meet, so many things to do, to see, to feel, to try…to live!

But let's get back to the last few weeks… First two were all about safety and emergency procedures, so called SEP – the hardest, the most tiring but the most fun part of training! We weren't sleeping, we were studying every night, drinking red bull  24/7 but we also had a great time! It was worth it ;) 

SEP basically teaches you the most important things you have to know about the aircraft like differencies between them, location of every single piece of an equipment and of course how to use it, pre flight check, securing the cabin, galleys and lavatories (yes, we don't call it kitchen or toilet any more :)), door operation, how to deal with a smoke or fire 40000feet int he sky, all kinds of safety procedures and emergency situations such as turbulence, ditching, decompression, emergency landing…what, when, who, how, why… :)

Passing the exams takes you to the next stage – GMT or Group Medical Training. 

We are now literally suitable to deliver a baby on board :D or let's just say –save someone's life… and yes, you can call me Doctor T! :) 

Another week of that and I'd be able to perform a heart or brain surgery :)) All the medication problems on board, procedures, signs and symptoms, medications and how and when to use them…Dr.House can hide :))

And now we are fit for flying! :)

 

But before that, let's not get too excited yet, we still need to learn how to recognise deifferent kinds of weapons if we ever see one up there! They also teach you how to deal with a bomb on bord or even, god forbid, hijackers! So that was pretty interesting… 

At the end of week 4 I was thinking about getting a part time job as a bodyguard because now I also know how to restrain a person and defend myself. So if anyone needs me, I know I don't look tough and scary but I sure know where your pressure points are! That means I don't have to say ''don't piss me off cause I can take you donw with my two fingers!'' hehehehe, it was very funny practicing it :D

Somewhere along the way we got our uniforms and by the 5th week we were finally looking like an actual cabin crew :)

Last two weeks were about service – serving meals and drinks in a proper manners, learning about our onboard entertainment system, duty free, earning miles, handling the galley, serving alcohol (lots of rules about that one), service routines, assisting passengers with disabilities, using proper words and phrases, learning airport codes, and all those other little thing that you don't notice or take for granted while traveling as a passenger. Things you think are easy and normal but the truth is – behind that there is a loto f practice, studying, experience…

Enough about that! Don't get me wrong, it was hard but it doesn't mean we weren't going out every weekend for well deserved party time, beach, dinner or shopping :)

Time passed so quickly, so so fast…well,even that isn't a word strong enough to describe it!

The strangest thing of all is how you become great friends with the people you're literally forced to spend 11hours of every day (sometimes even more) just because someone put you all int he same 'study' group! But sadly, next time we'll all be together again in one place at the same time will be at the graduation in 6 months! We'll all fly around the World on different schedules…

 

Speaking of which, our rosters came a few days ago and yesterday we received our licences so we are now finally ready to fly!!!

My first operational flight is a turnaround to India, but before that I have to do 2 supy flights (observer ones)… This month I'm gonna fly to India, Russia, Bangladesh, Germany, Qatar, Pakistan and South Africa!

Aaaaaand…My first supy is today, to Iran! OMG! Fingers crossed!!! :D

Till next time…

Love, T…