The Flying Camba

-- Happy Christmas! --

2011-12-23T19:30:00.003+03:00

Well it's been a while since I last wrote something around here. The thing is that with so many things changing over the past weeks, I have barely had time to think or even put my thoughts in order to create a decent post.
Christmas Eve tomorrow! My second one in Ireland and away from my family again. I know that many of my readers would know the feeling by now or have experienced it at some point of their lives.

2011 was a very intense year , and a very diverse one too. I worked with some amazing people and some others who taught me valuable lessons. Been in touch with the laws (trying to get paid from the failed tourism company whose owner ran away to New York), have had flings, dates, break ups, long days, short days, rainy, sunny... (rainy more than other years) , etc.

Seven weeks ago I started applying for airlines again, i went through every single stage again, I managed to get picked amongst the 5 per cent minority again but something bigger than me went against the plans and I was unsuccessful again. Flying has been put on hold as for now, not because I am afraid of trying but because sometimes we need to take a look around and start establishing bases for our lives, anchors to hold on to. My anchor now is Europe. I am going to stick around for longer with the people I have learned to love and the country that received me with arms wide opened and gave me enough opportunities to make it happen and be successful.

So airline or not, hostel, designer studio, tourist agency or whatever, I am more than pleased of what has been developing through these months and big changes are expected for 2012.
Last year when I was buried in snow and struggling with salaries and money, I remember saying the same thing , this year it started happening and progress is more important than anything else in life.

I am also three weeks away from my big adventure. I am flying from Dublin to New York, where I'll be spending four beautiful (and cold) days wandering around the Big Apple on my own, rediscovering the charm of the squeezed streets in this massive streets contrasted with neon lights and fast-food, then will be flying out to Costa Rica, my first time in Central America. Will try to visit the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean in a single day and will climb volcanoes and try to do some rafting.
Then will be flying to Lima for a few hours to connect with my flight to Bolivia... where the heart is, where my family is! After two years of waiting, will see them again.

Many things have changed in two years, I hope these changes are worth the wait and the tight hugs at the Arrivals drown the bitter memory of that hug in January 2010 at the Departures when a weak "I'll see you around" was whispered without having a clue of what was going to happen or when was the next time I'd see them.
Will try to tag-on a trip to Uruguay , Brazil or the Uyuni Salt Flats too...depending on how tempting New York is to my credit card!.

To my loyal readers, I want to thank you for yet another year of sharing adventures with me and for inspiring me into writing.

Happy Christmas from Dublin!

-- Autumn Update --

2011-10-31T19:01:00.002+03:00

After being washed out by crazy rain showers in Dublin and seeing how the city collapsed under its own horrible weather and strong winds, I am here writing a little update, admitting that I have been a bit lazy about updating the blog even though I have given the website a bit of a upgrade.

Things around here have been alright I reckon, I am starting my own Adventure Trips business which is due to start operations as soon as we are cleared from horrible cold days and probably the so-waited winter snow that shouldn't take more than a few weeks to arrive and give us joy for a couple of days and then turn the most simple tasks into a nightmare, but that's part of it.

The hostel has given me some interesting memories now too, customers from different backgrounds that teach me basic things about each place , so without generalizing (because there are lots of exceptions) here it goes what I've learnt so far:

- Americans get excited about everything! Dublin what? Are we in Ireland?
- French bargain, Five Euros for an adapter??? We are just going to be in Ireland for a month and we need an adapter?
- Italians well... Reservation...What? Io non parlo inglesi! -- Silence.
- Germans are extremely efficient and make sandwiches for their trips to...the airport!
- Spanish say "Thank You" and smile automatically a lot.
- Australians and Kiwis tend to know where they are but have no clue on what to do.

Anyway, these differences make working with tourists something very special and I couldn't ask for anything better to be honest.

Short post this is as more news are due to come for the next months, including the mega holidays to the Americas which I have already booked and will be writing about. Sailing date is in January and will be heading to very interesting places to finally see my family after two years!. Bet that's going to be interesting too.

Talk soon mates!

-- Three-day holiday --

2011-09-03T07:28:00.003+03:00

Long nights working at the hostel while I was learning all the happenings of night shifts and trying to get my body used to be awake at that odd time of the day, I remembered a lot about the long nights flying over Asia or Europe and the feeling of tiredness at a level where no cup of coffee would make any effect on you any more and something to lean onto (on the plane would be the toilet) would be just priceless.

So, after ten shifts in a row (including my induction/training) my body and mind were craving for some rest. Luckily I had booked some cheap flights to the West of Ireland some weeks ago and had enough days off to actually make it to them and some more.

After my last shift which thank God was quite uneventful and very easy, I went straight back home to have a quick shower, packed my backpack and ran to catch the bus to the airport for my first ever Ryanair flight! Because you can't live in Europe and never fly them.

I almost didn't make it to the closing time but after running a bit through both terminals, got through all the checks and was the last passenger to board that Boeing 737 which had only about 30 passengers in total.

We took off on-time and the flight was very quick. I remembered about my dreadful intra-Gulf double sectors and I imagined how hard it can be for this airline's crew members as they have to sell so many things and perform so many tasks in just about a 30 minutes flight, no wonder why you almost never see them smiling, not to mention the very nice (and tacky) detail once your flight touches down at any airstrip on time when a victory horn is played and a weird automated voice with a strong scottish accent points out that you got there on-time.

Kerry airport was absolutely tiny but kind of cozy really, had to wait about an hour for a bus to Killarney and then checked into the same hostel I went to last year, amazingly the staff recognized me and welcomed me back.

Day was overcast so just went for a quick walk to the beautiful Ross Castle in the middle of the lakes, took some quick snaps of the beautiful scenery overlooking the mountains and finished it with a dose of fat burgers and chips before heading back to the hostel and collapse on my bed at a time as early as 8:00pm, in the end, it had been about 30 hours without any sleep at all.

Day one had been hectic but I knew the second one wouldn't be any quieter as I decided to visit my friend Zanet in the stunning Dingle peninsula. In order to make it there, had to catch the early morning bus to Dingle via Tralee which took me fairly three hours.
Time was short and was due to leave the next morning ,so I met my friend and we went to a true old-fashioned tea house to have some exotic mumbo-jumbo teas with flowers, fruits, etc. and a nice piece of blueberry and white chocolate cake.

She lend me her bike again so while she went for her diving lesson, I faced the 21 kilometres scenic road that separate Dingle from one of my favourite spots on Earth, Dunquin Beach. Second time here and never disappointed, the beach looked as beautiful as ever with turquoise powerful waves breaking on white sand surrounded by Emerald green cliffs and a clear view of the Blasket Islands.
I couldn't go to the beach without getting into the freezing water which by this time helped me recover from the long and sweaty cycle and then it was just time to chill by the beach while kids were playing around the water like it was the Caribbean and others playing with hurls and beach balls, a perfectly believable scene of a tropical country if you don't take into consideration that it was actually 15 degrees Celsius and the North Atlantic ocean was freezing cold.

Then it was time to face the cycle back to Dingle which is always easier as everything is a bit downhill and then straight to my friend's house to play with the newly born kittens and some nice talks around a cup of green tea until my eyes were practically shutting as my friend was addressing to me (I really hope she never thinks I was being rude).

Seven in the morning again and I was waiting for the bus back to Tralee which filled up quickly with students going to school carrying heavy backpacks and looking Irish at their utmost.
Stop was short and then had to take another bus to the airport where I waited for about an hour and a half to board my flight to Dublin which this time had only about 12 passengers.
Then again, Ryanair's cabin crew performed yet another smiley and friendly flight (read sarcasm there, even though then again , I can't blame them) with paninis, scratch cards sale and the victory horn when landing again.

Holiday was not over there, so I met my friend Ivana for a quick lunch in town and two hours later I was on the train to Sligo where I got three hours later to connect to the quiet village of Strandhill where I was gonna have a meeting with the people running a local hostel.

It was very cold but Strandhill is probably one of the best spots I know to watch a sunset and this time was not the exception. My pictures looked like amazing phothoshoped postcards (and I took them with an iPhone) and as the day finished, I went back to the hostel to have some rest.
The next morning the day was beautiful but cold and the sea was completely flat, which meant NO SURFING!. Quite disappointed really, just had a very productive meeting where I discussed ways of bringing people to this lovely village and then back to the bus and then train to Dublin.

No, it wasn't over there as I had received an e-mail saying my roster had changed and what was supposed to be a night off became yet another shift. Can't complaint though, money is all I want right now after the bitter Experience Media fiasco.

So here I am right now at the hostel, I managed to stay awake for 26 hours before I got some sleep yesterday and then had a quiet day of late-late breakfast, walk into town and a quick nap before coming back to the hostel.
This shift is almost over and I've decided to update the blog, maybe due to a huge cup of coffee and a glass of Coca-Cola.

Next weeks are supposed to be very intense but hopefully very productive with interesting developments in all levels. Talk to you later folks.

-- Checkin' - In --

2011-08-26T08:11:00.003+03:00

Scheduled for yet another Bundoran trip, I left the house early in the morning with the doubts of whether the coach was gonna show up or not. Not because there was a mix up, but because the inefficiency of my company's management was starting to show up.

I would still work my way around like I always did but this time, I was at the pick up point and no bus was there. Called my boss and she said she would handle it. Met three of my tourists, two from Dublin and one from France (but living in Ireland) and after waiting for a few minutes, we decided to walk to Busaras and meet the rest of the group.

Everyone was already there and must say that it was one of the most fun groups I've had. A group of three girls who went to college together, four lads that had their days of footy glory, a couple from Dublin and how could I forget, my dear Trudy who was sixty-something and really got me impressed.

Four-hour delay behind thanks to what it was stated before, and met my driver and now friend Rob and off we drove non-stop to Bundoran to make it in time for the surfing lesson.
We even set a new record and we got there in about two hours and forty five minutes!.

The sea was beautiful this time, very clear and clean, consistent and smooth waves and I was handed out a practically brand new board.
There is something about surfing that makes you completely addicted to it and even when your muscles are tired, you refuse to leave the water. Maybe the fact that you struggle against the current for long minutes just for a few seconds of glory when riding a wave. I don't know really.

Then it was time to relax and I was completely tired so went to bed quite early.

The next day we went for the hike and it was pouring rain, so for the first time we had to turnaround in the middle, going all the way up at this point was completely pointless as you couldn't see a single thing on the valley.
I decided it was better to postpone the high ropes for the day after as everything was gonna be wet and tricky and everyone had time off.

Some stayed at the hostel watching movies...I went surfing again! Probably the best surfing session I've had. Beautiful solid three hours of catching waves.

Back in the hostel and I cooked the barbeque which we all enjoyed. The group really bonded at this point and the day was closed with a visit to the local pub to have absurd amounts of cider and beer while watching sports and dancing (well, they did).

The next morning we had to wake up early and do the high ropes circuit. Now, most people did everything and I was used to it, but who really impressed me was our sixty-something Trudy who had said before the trip that she was just going to watch. No she didn't! She did every single exercise, jumped off the trapezes, crossed the balance beam, everything! I want to be like that when I am that age!

After that, it took us three hours to cross the island and Belfast welcomed us with that gray and sordid air. The city was still bubbling with Sunday shoppers and we had a lovely accommodation booked at Queens University.
I just went for a walk with the french/tunisian guy and we had coffee in Starbucks while trying to figure out the free wi-fi that never really worked on our iPhones.

We couldn't leave Belfast without having a last round of drinks, so we headed straight to The Crown Pub and fitted twelve people on a lounge for six. Perfect way of warming up before heading to the Botanical Gardens area for some clubbing and to see what Belfast had to offer at night time (wasn't that bad really) and I even think some new couples were created within my group.

The next morning, just had a light breakfast with sausages (still don't know who cooked it) and we left Queens behind and went to see the Titanic Quarter again and the murals on both sides.
It was rather sunny and my last memory of Belfast was actually a good one , thanks to the people I was traveling with.

Some three hours later and we were stopping at College Green in Dublin. The end of yet another successful trip.

Now, the nasty part:

The company hadn't paid my salary yet and they wouldn't even lodge 100 euro so I could survive during the trip. That was probably the last thing I wanted to know about them and two days later I found out, not because they told me but because I had access to our clients e-mails and got surprised when saw people replying to a message titled "Cancellation", that indeed the tours had been cancelled.

My boss, responsible for Experience Media/Lost in Ireland sent me a text (yes, a text) saying that the company had gone bust and someone would contact us about payments.
Some minutes later and got a waterfall of e-mails from providers that never got paid asking me if I could tell them something about the vague texts and e-mails they had received.

Ok, I was in trouble now and the first thing was damage control. So sent tons of CV's online and got called for interviews within hours.

I am still dealing with the big Experience Media/Lost in Ireland scam, and so are the providers, but I am also glad to see that my skills and what I like to call "professionalism" is still intact and my name is completely clear.

I am now working as a night porter on a hostel in Central Dublin and loving it. Night shifts remind me of long overnight flights a la Doha-Osaka and give me enough time to think and organize my next move as I am due to leave the Emerald Isle in November.

New stories will come up from this experience I am sure, and will keep you all posted about them.
The next months are also transition months and many things could happen. I still haven't a clue of where I'm going or what I am going to do.

Next week I am flying to Kerry for a short break and then off to London in September. November New York, Costa Rica and Brazil will see me (you gotta love frequent flyer miles) before I get to see my family for the first time in two years.

So, any ideas of what to do next? Even volunteering is crossing my mind.

Later my readers! That's my update from cold Dublin, where we had the shittiest summer in years now.

-- Strandhill Dunes --

2011-08-10T18:56:00.004+03:00

Can't believe how busy the last weeks have been, I am starting to lose sense of time regarding my tours lately and mixing up beaches and hikes and people participating on them. Summer is still here but nearly over as it's getting rainier and uglier again reminding me that I actually live in Ireland.

Anyway, last week's adventure was in Strandhill, Co. Sligo, a beautiful surf spot designed to cater for the holiday seekers at the foot of a splendid green hill and a nice long sand strand with very strong winds and lovely sand dunes that frame the whole scenery.

It was a perfect spot for a relaxed trip, I was going as a passenger as we were going to work with some new people to lighten things up a bit on our side. Never happened.

I met the driverguide and my tourists at Busaras and College Green (then again everyone was on time and ready) and we hit the road again.
Four waterpolo players from North Dublin traveling together, a couple that was living in the UK, two former Soviet girls (one Latvian and one Ukranian) and two friends from Naas, Co. Kildare that used to work together.

Some hours ahead was our first stop: Carrick-on-Shannon, where we wandered around for a bit and took some snaps of the beautiful River Shannon and it's many yatchs.

A few minutes later we had arrived into Strandhill and the weather was just brilliant. Since the hostels were fully booked, we decided that for the first night we were going to camp. What an experience as the last time I camped was probably about seven or eight years ago and by now the memories of doing were all blurry. Imagine trying to set some tents then!
Then with all of that extra exercise, the four lads and me decided to hit the Ocean for some swimming, I couldn't believe that I didn't feel cold at all.

Few minutes later and the weather got miserable again: cold and rainy so the surf was also canceled.
So we decided it was going to be an afternoon of just have some time-off. Some of the tourists went for pints, some to go for a mountain bike cycle, some decided to get all dressed up and go to the Sligo Races and I decided to stay in town , wander a bit and relax.
A nice walk over the dunes and some beautiful snaps of an extremely dramatic sunset and we were all ready to have some dinner and then a nice bonfire to heat up the spirit in order to have the energies ready for the next day.
I reckon I went to my tent quite early as I was just tired and really needed to rest.

The next morning we woke up and it was time to tear down the camp site, have breakfast and put on the wetsuits: TIME FOR SOME SURFING!
Waves were perfect and very smooth, they were excellent for beginners and most of the people on my group were able to ride some waves and enjoy themselves, then again two hours just flew by and as the tide was raising and hitting the rocks heavily, that was our sign for leaving the water.

Some issues arise on the tour with our driver and after a little "I said-She said" situation, he left the tour and I was left in charge again.
Nothing against it, at some point I think I even like it as I reckon that working under pressure suits me better.

Trying to forget all of that, our rooms at the hostel were ready and we went for a little hike up the sand dunes, took several pictures and even rolled down the hill (it's on video) maybe trying to bring back some feelings from our childhood.

Barbeque followed and now was pouring rain, but after a little siesta (well, I didn't have it, they did), the moods were good enough for a nice piece of grilled meat and I wander, who wouldn't? that's a combo you can't beat unless you are a vegetarian.
We had food and drinks while looking at the dancing portable disco and then went to bed after a day of heavy physical activity.

Did I mention that we had planned surfing at 7 am the next day? And so did we! Must say that putting on a wetsuits at 7 in the morning when it's 7 degrees Celsius is a new feeling but completely worth it.
Surfing in the morning was peaceful, almost perfect, with just six or seven people in the water. Got to catch great waves and wake up from a five-hour sleep.

A few minutes after the surf session it was time to leave and our bus was ready for departure to take us to Galway via Cong.
It was a smooth drive that took us down to County Mayo until our first top, the little village of Cong in the heart of the Connemara Region.

The place was stunning with cristal clear water streams and rivers, the different tones of green, giant sequoias waving and a beautiful well-groomed castle.
Then we drove through Connemara and reached Galway a couple of hours later. All I know is that at some points of the drive, I just felt like hopping off the bus and walking around the area with my backpack. It's absolutely beautiful and can't wait to go back on my own with time to walk and possibly camp.

Galway welcomed us again and it was time to chill out again at the accommodation. Trip was almost over and I just bought loads of junk food while the girls went for a boat trip and the lads were watching the Gaelic Football match.

Town was bubbling with tourists again and a lovely warm evening couldn't just go by without heading into town and have a pint of Bulmers before bed.
Next morning it was time to take the bus and travel non-stop to Dublin. Moods and bodies were already craving for some rest at home.

-- The Burren & Races --

2011-08-03T18:52:00.006+03:00

Been quite hectic for the past weeks as I am now running one trip a week , which leaves me with only three days-off to do all the laundry, organize my life in Dublin in general ,pay bills, drink insane amounts of coffee and be boring.

Again at 8am of another rainy and dull Dublin day I was meeting my passengers and (again) my good ol' driver Rob for an adventure trip to Lahinch and Galway. That had been my first trip when I started working for the company some weeks ago and I was looking forward to go back again as the towns themselves are very friendly and we don't really have to leave the Republic and face currency conversion, mobile roaming charges, etc.

So the first ones I met were an Irish woman and her daughter, they were traveling together looking for a weekend of fun and bonding. And nobody else had showed up at College Green, so we decided to go to Busaras where, for the first time, everyone was ready and waiting for the pick-up.

Backpacks in and little introductions: a couple consisting on an Irish girl and an Australian boy who had met down under in sunny and hot Darwin, six girls from Leixlip, Co. Kildare who were traveling together and had been friends since before the Euros were known in this island and two guys from Dublin looking for some outdoor activities and to see the Cliffs of Moher for the first time.

Naas Road behind and we took the motorway for our first stop: Moneygall, Co. Offaly, a town in the middle of nowhere that practically hit the jackpot when Obama took the power of Consumismland. Time for some snaps "a la Obama" with cardboard cuts of him and everything and then hitting the road again straight to Lahinch for some rock climbing.

When we did the rock climbing on The Burren last time, it was pouring rain which made the climb extremely hard and cold so the sunny and dry weather this time really made a difference as the climb was brilliant.
We tried three different climbs with a twist of difficulty on each wall and must say I loved it.
The fresh air, the way you have to use your brain to think where is the safest spot to grab onto or to step onto and nature in general.
I think we all enjoyed and even some of the girls who had assured to me that they were afraid of heights terribly, were seeing climbing the rocks without hassle and enjoying the view of the Atlantic Ocean below us at that time of the afternoon.

Outdoor activities always make you hungry and tired so we headed back to Lahinch and we had some time off for walking around the beach, which was packed with tourists and wander around.
The boys went for a walk to the Spanish Point which proved to be extremely far and I went for a walk on the beach with an add-on of SURFING! (Thanks to the staff of Ben's Surf Clinic) who kindly borrowed me a wetsuit and a board and I rode waves until my body was craving for a decent meal and a bed.

Of course not everything happened as when I got back to the hostel, I got engaged into a conversation with a guy from Nenagh and a Spanish girl who was working in Lahinch for the summer (bit of a free spirit) and guess what...they cook me dinner!
Well, off for some pints at the local pub later where we enjoyed a nice session of Folk music and some Irish cider and then off to bed for day two...

... Early morning surf session! Waves were small but consistent so it was perfect for my group to have the lesson and then off to the water (which felt incredibly warm by the way) to catch some good waves for a few hours.
I even got some advices on how to improve my "surfing" so it was truly enjoyable. Then again, I think everyone really enjoys it because after having it, all I can here is "I'm gonna buy my own surfboard", kind of like when you are a kid and see someone singing, hence you want to be a singer too.

Sunburnt face, lunch and the bus broke down when we were trying to go for the hike around the Cliffs of Moher, so we decided to have some time off to rest the arms and legs after being battered by waves for hours and have the barbeque in the afternoon.
I just went for a walk on the beack with my new Spanish friend with the funny accent and comments and the Aussie guy for some beers and dipping into the cold water which was not feeling as warm as in the morning now (maybe because we were not wearing the bloody wetsuits) and then just chillin' out with beers until the barbeque was set.

Oh the amount of food we had, but the weather was brilliant and the atmosphere very relaxed as the hostel was filling out with people staying for the weekend. So we just were around the tables eating and chatting until late night and then went for some pints at "the local bar" again and off to bed as everything was closing quite early.

Next morning was time to say good-bye to Lahinch and head to the Cliffs of Moher for the walkaround. Must say I had never seen the area so quiet in all of my times there. No wind whatsoever! No waves, nothing!, perfect for walking with my group and getting stunning pictures of the area while they were seeing the other side of the beautiful 400 metre fall.
Crowned the Queen of Surf for the trip there, sat at the edge and just admired the landscape as we walked towards the Visitor Centre for some hot chocolate and had to wait for the bus to work again to pick us up.

Then a drive to Galway while North Clare was left behind and town was booming with people due to the Races being hold over the weekend.
People wearing suits and fancy dresses all around town while drinking pints of beer or cider on the street, people cheering horses and making bets. It was a nice enviroment and after leaving our luggage at the accomodation, we plunged straight into it for some lunch (read pizza) and cider to wind up a bit as the trip was practically over.

I can't say I went out that night, I was dead tired so I walked back to the accommodation and had a nice of chillin' out and Skype. I know for a fact that my passengers went out and enjoyed themselves as it was reflected on their faces the next morning when the bus was packed and ready for the trip back to Dublin.

Not a word. Quiet journey back as most of people were just reading or sleeping. Quick stop in Kinnegad to leave the Aussie & Irish combo and we were back in the good old Fair City.

I had my days-off and did nothing, so today I had to do my laundry, clean the apartment, get things sorted out, meet some friends who arrived from London last night and write posts as tomorrow, Strandhill awaits me!
Until the next post lads!

-- Trapezes & Surf --

2011-08-02T01:19:00.004+03:00

Another trip to Bundoran and I was again taking the bus into town (couldn't cycle because of the rain) to meet my driver Rob, which had previously been on my previous trip to the North.

One of my tourists was already waiting inside the bus, she was Hungarian and had been in Ireland for a bit, kind of an adrenaline junkie to be honest.
Nobody else had appeared in College Green and we went to Busaras to meet the rest of the group, mostly people traveling in pairs: an Irish girl and a french girl who used to have a friend in common and are not friends with anymore, two lovely middle-aged women from Dublin and a couple from Blanch who came across very friendly...nobody had ever surfed or rock climbed in their lives before.

Some curious fact about this trip is that most of them were into photography and had very expensive and professional equipment to face the beautiful landscapes of the North.

And after having some troubles locating all of them under the rain ,we drove off Dublin and hit the road for our first stop, the Monastic Site of Kells.
It was my first time there and the place had another group of tourists. It reminded me a lot of Kilkenny to be honest, many ancient headstones and old Celtic crosses. This was the place where the famous Book of Kells was originated so I guess the historical weight was also very important , even though it wasn't really my turf.

After some snaps under the drizzle, we continued our trip to the North with stops in Cavan for a quick snack, Enniskilleen for views of the lake and Ballyshannon for lunch.
Since surf was not good and things in Bundoran were not ready yet, we went straight to the Benbulben for some heavy hiking.
It was very warm and the changing Irish weather looked a bit indulgent to us as when we reached the top of the mountain, the view was absolutely clear and the ocean was showing some amazing shades of silver and blue while we were taking all the pics we could as nobody was around the antennas and we had a beatiful 360 degrees view of the region.

Hiking down was also very nice, even though my knees were already asking for a break and we headed back to the hostel for some well deserved time off and rest.
Most of us were very tired and just went for something quick for dinner, saw the sunset and went straight to bed in preparation for the famously hectic second day.

And as we woke up very early and after a light breakfast, we were bussed to the beach for SURFING!!! All I know is that it was a lovely sunny day and the waves were calling my name.
The group had the basic lesson and then off to the water. I could see how they were trying to catch the waves and what a great time they were having while doing it. The weather was just perfect for it.

Two and a half hours of getting battered by powerful waves later, we had our lunch and walked into the Adventure Centre for the...high ropes!
The instructor this time was very funny and made sure we had a great time in there. The rockclimbing wall is always a good laugh and see people struggling with their stamina and fears to get to the top is very fun.
The girls had no problems with getting up really, nor the couple and even our driver tried it and reached the top.
Arms a bit tired and we did the abseiling which I really enjoy but still can't get used to after a gap of weeks without trying it, although I must admit that now I am very comfortable with it.

And of course the reason of many laughs: the trapezes. Now, I had tried that one before and struggled to actually pull off that shaky telephone pole and grab the trapezes but must admit that this time was easier and very enjoyable. Even had it taped and now available on my YouTube channel.
Most people on our group jumped. The french girl gathered courage after seeing us jumping and finally made it in the end, but the jump that made our day was from our friend Bernie who, after climbing the pole and standing on it, took about ten minutes to jump off after all the cheering from the group forty feet down the ropes and after about twenty false attempts of jumping.

Then it was time for the classic afternoon barbeque, a perfect opportunity to bond and to mingle with other people staying in the hostel, including a French guy who was working there for the summer and a group of Brazilian tourists who had brought half a cow to grill and made it all very enjoyable.
Since most people on the group were very into photography, we decided to go all together to watch the famous sunset while the camera shutters wouldn't stop clicking until the sun said its good-bye and it was time for us to go to bed after a hectic and long day.

Next morning we drove up north to the border and Strabane welcomed us to Northern Ireland. An hour later and we were at the Giant's Causeway with yet another day of beautiful sunny weather, perfect to enjoy the magnificent scenery of the site.
The sea was very calm and the air so clean that you could even see Scotland from there while the sea bottom was showing different tones of blue and emerald green.
Then we drove to the Rope Bridge where I relaxed on the "beach" for a while as I refuse to pay ten pounds Sterling to see a bridge.

Belfast was our next stop and after locating our hostel, we had time off to go for some shopping in Victoria Square, enjoy an outdoor movie at the City Hall or just relax around the city which by that time was bursting with people.
Then we decided to go for a pint at the famous The Crown pub in front of the infamous Hotel Europa (target of many bombing attacks) to close the day.

After that I just went back to the hostel and relaxed for the night, as the next morning we left the hostel early for a tour of the Titanic Quarter, birthplace of the Titanic, where I admit I felt like a kid in a candy shop when watching the gigantic pool where the steel floating fortress was built and then to see the not so cheering murals (both sides) where my tourists enjoyed themselves by taking many pictures and learning about them thanks to a very interesting history lesson featured by our driver Rob.

Two and a half hours later, Port Tunnel was welcoming us into Dublin. Promises of get together reunions were made as well as some of getting wetsuits and try surfing themselves. I am happy to know they enjoyed it. Next post: Lahinch/Galway! Haven't done one of those in quite a while.

-- Northern Wandering --

2011-07-18T14:40:00.005+03:00

Another trip to Bundoran was on my schedule and again I had no laundry done. So a few hours before the trip I gathered all of my regular t-shirts and shorts and did my best to have them clean and ready for the next morning.

So wet clothes on the backpack, I had to walk into town as my bike's front wheel had been stolen some couple of days earlier from outside my house and every journey in Dublin would take me three times longer than normal.
It was drizzling and the weather was not very promising but the energy was good enough as when I got into town it started raining even harder when I met my "new friends for four days".

A woman from West Cork into mystical stuff who for the first time was going to experiment the perks of traveling on a budget and staying on a hostel, A girl from China who had been studying Business for the past years and later became the official photographer of the trip, an Irish girl who had travelled the world many times, three Irish girls who had booked the trip together and were your typical Irish party girls, bubbly and fun all the time , even at that time of the day and my friend from Uruguay who was gonna be my Spanish speaker for the trip.
I was going to pick up two more passengers at the bus station ( a couple) but...where was the bus?. After a few calls we were told that the bus had broke and another one had been booked so to make the waiting a little nicer, we went across the street for a refreshing cup of Starbucks coffee while meeting the people who I was gonna share four days with.

An hour later our bus was there, the driver was not nice at all and he was a little rude to be honest, but off we went to pick up the couple from Busaras who were looking quite upset for the delay and then a smooth ride through the countryside, passing through towns such as Mullingar, Carrick-on-Shannon and Sligo. The weather was incredibly unstable as we would have patches of heavy rain and some two miles later it was completely bright...no wonder why the fields were so green, if you can get both kinds of weather in a few minutes!.

And the green Benbulben mountains were welcoming to the beautiful West Coast and after a few minutes from Sligo, we were arriving at Bundoran again. It was a bit cold but sunnier than Dublin and after solving some issues in general and getting the room keys, we wore the cold wetsuits again and off to the beach to face the Atlantic Ocean again!

This time we went to a different beach, the waves were actually more unstable and less smooth which definitely increased the difficulty of catching a good wave to surf and challenged my taste buds with gallons of salt walter being swallowed as some waves would smash my body and surfboard at times.
Still the experience is always wonderful and you completely forget about the cold water. I still find it so amazing how two and a half hours of facing waves pass so quickly.
The people in my group loved it ,most of them hadn't surfed in their whole life so it was a first experience for them and still I saw them catching a good amounts of waves with the soft boards and most importantly, enjoying themselves at the utmost.

Back in the hostel and completely knackered, we had our dinner (my friend from Uruguay helped me with that one) and it was time to chill for the night as the day had been very long and the next one promised to be very hectic as usual.

Early morning and after a quick breakfast, we were driven to our usual spot at the foot of the "wave-shaped mountain" and started our hike aiming to reach the antenna which at that time was covered in clouds.
The weather was an important role on this adventure because the higher we would go , the windier and rainier it would get. At some point we got completely soaked and at the top of the hill, the visibility was almost zero due to the heavy clouds and strong winds we experienced.
Everyone reached the top without complaining and after trying to spot the antenna, we turned around and started our descent immediately before our muscles getting cold.

Back downhill, we were bussed back to Bundoran and had a very quick lunch before walking down the road for yet another session of High Ropes!. I reckon this time for me it was easier and it was great fun to see my group pulling themselves up the climbing wall (right side of it is easier) and even the ones scared of heights would try it and achieve the top.
What an exercise for the arms and legs!, our next activity was the abseiling which we all did very quickly, all jumpy and smiley as we had been already in the heights and the last one...no, this time it wasn't the horrible 40-feet high balance beam , it was the trapezes.
Now, it was not enough to climb that 40-feet shaking pole but you actually had to jump off it and try to catch a trapezes nearby and swing, talk about being in control of heights, it took me a bit to gather enough courage, combined with the pressure of my group staring at me trying to jump and move my frozen muscles until I finally jumped!
Of course that after jumping it feels nice and life is pretty and wonderful again. Some of them tried it afterwards, including the woman from West Cork who had said earlier that wasn't comfortable with heights while some others said it was already too thrilling to see people doing it.

Some time-off to rest the muscles afterwards and it was time to organize the barbeque (nothing like a good piece of grilled meat to recover the body and energies) and winded up a bit until dusk while eating grilled burgers, pork chops, vegetables and prawns.
The couple was extremely tired so they went straight to bed while some of us decided it was a better idea to hit the pub for a pint and relax a bit.
Great idea as we even managed to watch some of the "Copa America" (football cup) matches and just relaxed until the cider and beers would make our eyes heavy enough to just go back to the hostel and straight to bed with strange noises and contained laughs in the dorm.

Driving time with a new driver who was very chatty, friendly and was into performing different accents, next morning we headed to the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland as Belfast was having some troubles at that moment so the route was changed.
And through Donegal and Derry, some two and half hours later, the visitor's centre was welcoming us to the stunning Northern Ireland's coast.
The Giant's Causeway itself is very small, like a little square and some people would call it disappointing, but the whole scenery and the very green and steep hills besides it make up for it and the weather couldn't be more perfect to explore it a bit before driving further for the Rope Bridge, a classic Irish postcard where we also got to take stunning Caribbean-like pictures of the sea (and pretend it was warm) with my Uruguayan friend and then back to Portrush to get some food and relax.

The town of Portrush is beautiful with a beach that has nothing to envy to some other European beaches in Portugal or Spain and we decided to explore it a bit while the sun was setting, rolling on the sand dunes and writing messages on the sand for our beloved ones far away (some messages even in Chinese).
Some fish & chips later and after relaxing on the lovely sitting room, we all agreed it had been a very long day and went to sleep. It was a very quiet night indeed but the minds needed to process all of the beautiful landscapes and sensations we had felt on that day and just rest.

Belfast was our stop for the next day where we visited the Republican murals and the Wall of Peace as visiting the Loyalist side at this time of the year was asking for trouble. The driver was brilliant and knew many facts about the history of Belfast so the experience was actually complete before taking the motorway straight back to Dublin while learning a bit about body energy balance and control.

Back in town, it was a dull weather day. I just wanted to have a rest and recover my "mojo" prior to a week of office work and running behind banks. See you later lads!

- Waves, Murals and Bogs -

2011-06-20T15:46:00.008+03:00

And after two weeks of office job , organizing clippings, talking to hostels and walking around Dublin ,I had another tour booked to the beautiful Irish northwest region.

Now, I had never been around the area, so guiding a group of people through a place I didn't know was looking very challenging. Despite this, I woke up early that morning (or I didn't really sleep at all as my body clock was always wary of the time and not used to wake up that early anymore) and packed my little backpack for yet another road trip.

The van was already waiting besides College Green and our London driver was set to go. One of my tourists, named Peter, was also on the van ready to go and since I didn't have the exact number of bookings with me, we were waiting for a few minutes.
Then we headed to Busaras where the rest of the group met us. Pierce and Grace (who were not a couple, or were they?), Anne-Marie and Sam, both from Dublin and the Danish-filipino mixed Maria Elena.

Off the road, Dublin was left behind while we headed towards Kells, the stop that almost was and a quick pit stop in Cavan for some coffee, electronic cigarettes, and cereal bars.
As we were driving through Northern Ireland, a smoother road, a heavy rain and some beautiful scenery splashed with green mountains and lakes were welcoming our way to Donegal and our stop for the next two days, the surfers paradise named Bundoran.

As soon as we got our room keys and got introduced to the brilliant staff at the Bundoran Surf and Company, we grabbed a quick nibble before jumping on our wet and cold wetsuits and off for a ten-minute ride to a nearby beach.
The weather was great: slight wind and some showers approaching, so our introductory lesson was very quick, just the basics of how to hold a surfboard properly and the mighty one-step pop (because I just couldn't get the two-step one).

And the cold and brave North Atlantic was saying hello again while some freezing drops of water would slide through the wetsuit straight to my spine and two hours of intense current struggling and beautiful surfing started.
Waves were easily caught as the currents were strong enough to take our boards like pieces of paper and then, on one pop you would be ready to balance on it and just enjoy a ride all the way to the shore, otherwise, ask Anne-Marie who crashed her board with mine and we even got a chance to chat while we were dragged for hundreds of meters over the smooth waves.
Oh surfing under the rain is probably one of the best feelings ever, and as everyone was enjoying the struggle, a couple of hours flew by and we said our good-byes to the Ocean, promising that we would return very soon.

Back to the hostel, we decided it was time to chill a little bit and we decided to go for dinner (cheeseburgers against proper meals) and then some pints at the local pub while the sun refused to leave and kept shining until about midnight, creating one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen in my life, completed by some beers and life talking with Pierce and Grace.

The next morning we woke up early and the hostel staff drove us to the Benbulben area for a hike. Even the mountains had a surf theme as the biggest one actually does resemble a big green wave.
And uphill we went, crossing sheep-sparkled fields and heading our way into the valley until we reached a private road which we were very keen to follow for about another hour to the top of the mountain.
The peace of the mountain was priceless, at least for some minutes until the noise of machinery and a very friendly German guy interrupted it, making us realize about the big antennas being re-built at the top.
Downhill was easier and faster and without even noticing, we were catching the bus back into town. Even the girls who I thought were gonna whine, enjoyed it and didn't complaint at all.

Back in town, we had a little lunch (yes, I made noodles) and we went for the high ropes circuit at the adventure Centre.
Now this was something new for everyone and we started it by wearing our helmets and harnesses and abseiling we went.
Abseiling from a 40 feet tower was on my job description I think, but my body was refusing to understand it and after a few minutes of trying to lean all of my weight on a rope, I managed to descend enjoying it.
Then it was the turn of everyone on the group, very proud of the ones that even though were scared of heights did it.
Then rock climbing wall it was, which I thought it was very easy and enjoyable, with a bit of abseiling in the end and probably one of the activities that cracked the most laughs in the group.

It wasn't over there though as we had a final challenge, all harnessed it was time to balance on logs hanging at 40 feet high and I was the first victim.
How to do an activity when everyone is watching you and all you feel like is throwing up? Well, I don't know how to do it but I did it, even though every second felt eternal whilst on the pole gathering courage to make it through. My dear people dared to do it afterwards and Sam even did it twice!

Jokes and shivering aside, it was time to go to the hotel as everyone was dead tired and the aura was quite low. A great idea by the hostel staff to organize a little barbeque, we just bought some basic stuff, meat, burgers, sausages and a few hours later we were enjoying a very nice evening filled with laughs, beers, ultimate Fresbees, meat, sausages, candy and even vegetarian sausages!
Don't even get me started about the dance performances and the flower pot. Those are things that will remain in Bundoran.
After that lovely evening ,we went for some pints at the local pubs which proved to be a perfect ending to a very hectic day.
The next morning, a sunny weather was cracking, perfect for a last session of surf with short boards and loads of waves being caught, whilst part of the group was scoring points by playing mini-golf back in town.

Time to say good-bye to Bundoran...because the driver was ready to sail and a three hour drive was waiting for us.
Belfast was our next destination and we got there just when everything was closed. The hostel was good fun, but I must admit the staff was a little rude. I had been to Belfast before but there is a 'special' vibe on the city every time I go.

Some walking and we decided to have our 'last supper' at a lovely Italian restaurant near the City Hall where we shared experiences and we made plans for new meetings on our boring normal Dublin life (did I say boring?).
After dinner some of the guys went for pints and a gig in town which according to their words, seemed lovely and a great fun.

Next morning and it was time for the last leg of the race, Belfast to Castleblaney, Co. Monaghan for what I still think it was something completely surreal...Bog snorkeling.
On the way there we stopped by the different murals in the city, the Loyalists ones filled with pro-United Kingdom messages and a very negative housing state, then the Wall of Peace which divides the city in two and then on the otherside for a touch of Irish on the Republican side. The vibe is just terrible, something you would feel in places where you know something bad happened and the air is still thick.

So, back to the Bog-thigie. Had never heard of it and doing it looked like yet another challenge and after getting a bit 'location challenged' on those winding Monaghan roads we got into the place where a cold bog was waiting for us.
For those who don't know what a bog is, I'd say it's just a nice way to say 'smelly swamp shaped like a swimming lane'.
Cold wetsuits again, flippers and snorkels and there we were, swimming on the swamp trying to break World records (because apparently, they have them).
The courageous Maria Elena tried it and felt a little panicky halfway through but the main thing is definitely trying it, even though you need about one car wash-style bath and three full showers to take off the smell.

A couple of hours later we were heading our way into Dublin and I was actually very happy to be home. It was a very hectic weekend for all of us, but the combination of activities and a very vivid group created an excellent environment for great memories to be created and lots of Facebook comments for the next days.

I am off to bed now, my house smells like chocolate brownies that I didn't cook and I have just been told I am doing another tour to the West this week. Oh well...more posts to come then!. Have a nice week my readers.

-- Chinese version --

2011-05-31T17:01:00.005+03:00

So my contract at the dark chocolate-like pints factory was up and not renewed and I saw myself job hunting again, luckily I like to believe I have a good CV and got called for a few interviews before even being finished at the Storehouse.

Some two successful interviews later, I was starting as a tour guide and nothing better than a four-day trip fully in charge to do it.

Next day, it was half six in the early Dublin morning when I woke up after a night of some drinks in town the night before and packed some clothes into my small carry on ( wishing I had done laundry some days ago, but that's a different story), had a energetic cup of black coffee and headed into town on my bike while the light rain kept giving me a heads up on the weather conditions for the next days.

And in College Green the city was waking up and I met the driver for the trip, good old school Denis. He came across very friendly and eager to meet our tourists which by the list I had been given the night before, looked like a completely different culture.
So, driver: check, snacks for the road: check, tour guide: check, tourist? Where were my tourists? Was just waiting by the Tourist Office while I would feel like asking to every Chinese person walking around if they were booked for a tour. At some point I even tried it and all I got was a very hostile "No, what do you want" from a Chinese man and his son.

After a phone call, I found out that all of them were waiting for me at Busaras (Bus Station) and some five minutes later I got to meet them all. Mo and Kelly, a Chinese couple that had been living in Dublin for ten years and Phoebe from southern China who was in Ireland on a business trip and had been booked an adventure trip before starting her work tour.

The Liffey was left behind as we took the motorway straight down south west for the first stop of the route: Moneygall, County Offaly. Now, this is a town with a funny story as a few months ago, this little quiet 300-and-something village in the Midlands was completely unknown after the "most powerful person in the world" position was taken by Mr. Barack Obama who happened to have some Irish background inside that genetic salad he has.
So his grand-grand-grandfather emigrated from this little village some centuries ago straight to Ellis Island and now, after Obama's official visit and extensive flattering to Ireland, the town was boosting with tacky American flags hanging off every pole and a new plate was revealed in front of the house where his grand-grand-etc used to make shoes.
Now, trying to explain that under the rain and wind was a challenge, so after a few snaps of the bar where he had a pint of Guinness and the house itself, we got into the bus and went to our next stop down the motorway, Bunratty Castle and Folk Park which we decided to give a go as in the end, we were all foreigners.

As we were all students (sic), we got a special price and there we were looking at the good old Irish costumes and the little cottages which made me think on how short people were back then (or they just wanted to exercise their hips all the time as the doors were tiny) and all the old furniture and machinery which we had fun playing and taking pictures with for a while.
Then it was time to explore the Castle which was home of the Lord of Ireland as far as I remember and the wealthy O' Briens (which are not related with the sandwiches as Mo had asked before) and after dodging all the Irish speaking kids we got to the top and a nice view of the Shannon was waiting for our camera lenses.

We left the flat Shannon area and the landscape suddenly changed as we were getting closer to our destination for the day, Lahinch on County Clare.
I had been to Lahinch once when I first got lost in this area with my German friends and the feeling of coming back was great, specially because back then when I saw the beach I thought it would be a great experience to surf in there and this time I was going to do it.

Weather was not helping this day and the wind was transforming the North Atlantic into a trap for rookie surfers so our surf lesson was postponed for the next day and we decided to go for lunch and then for a hike around the Cliffs of Moher area.
My calculations were not exactly right kilometers wise and we started our long walk up the road, with nice views of the Lahinch Bay and going uphill through villages like Liscannor where we had a pit stop to rest the legs a bit and then left the main road and walked through beautiful green fields, dodging the curious cattle who would get so close you'd think they would bite you and getting shocked by electric fences…the Irish way like most people would say.
And some hours later we were facing the south side of the Cliffs, where tourists don't get a chance to go to. It was a great feeling to know that we were the only tourists around and at some point we were just lost from the outside world (as my phone had died too) and we were just enjoying the landscape and the late evening sun who decided to appear adding some golden tones to the green pictures we were taking.
Turning around time and Mo, Kelly and Phoebe were showing clear signs of tiredness but their spirits were high enough when answering to the basic question: "Are you OK?".

We reached Liscannor again and we had some fresh fish and chips while waiting for a taxi to pick us up, kindly called by the friendly South African owner of this chipper in the middle of nowhere.
NIght had already reached the little surfing village and after a hectic day (and a five hour walk), pints were postponed for the next night and we went straight to our comfy beds.

Next morning we were up and after a light breakfast we were ready to face the drizzly conditions of a cold morning and the 13ºC strong North Atlantic for our surf lessons. Now I had surfed before so just needed a little mind refreshing and off I was on the water, wearing a thick neoprene layer and trying to catch some waves while Mo, Kelly and Phoebe were doing the same and taking some pictures in between while trying to stand on the board and conquer the many good waves on the Bay.
It was the first time I had ever been in such cold water for such long time and the wet suit was extremely helpful except for the times when for some reason a little stream of freezing water would get into the suit and would feel like a stab on the spine for a second before it would get warm…so, would I do it again? Can't hardly wait!

Then our lesson was finished, we had a quick lunch at the hostel (no I didn't cook, i had a sandwich instead) and our friendly driver Denis took us down the many roads through the countryside to The Burren area where we going to have our rock climbing lesson.
This was the first time all of us ever tried rock climbing so it was going to be definitely interesting and refreshing but wait, did I mentioned it was pouring rain and we had a very strong wind blowing from the sea? Now rock climbing shouldn't really be that hard if you have the right equipment and professionals supervising everything but the rain multiplied the difficulty factor b a few points.

I was always chosen as the first victim so after putting on all of the harnesses I was facing the wall and trying to fit my flat shoes into the different fends and using the strength on my legs to lever myself up to the top of the rock and thinking on how funny it was when you were on the safe ground and the rock wouldn't look tall and when you were up there hanging up and trying to remain glued to the rock it looked like you were hundreds of meters away from the ground.
Then it was time for Mo who climbed the rock very quickly and without difficulty, then Kelly who panicked a little bit when being up but still tried it and learnt how to properly climb rocks and then Phoebe who showed a fighter spirit and kept climbing, even though she was soaked and shivering.
It was a great experience and after climbing two more ropes it was time to go back to our warm transport and the guys collapsed tired until we got back to Lahinch for some rest on the hostel, as the weather conditions outside just got worse and any outdoor activity was officially canceled.

After a well-deserved mid afternoon "siesta", we were up and ready for some pints at the local pub where Phoebe had her first ever pint of Guinness ( she didn't like it) and we were just laughing about the experiences and things we felt during the day over some pints of beer and Irish cider. I even got to learn some basic swearing in Mandarin , important information for my next time in China.

Next morning we woke up a little late (because we earned it), and our transport was waiting for us outside the hostel for a long drive to Galway where we would spend our last night, but we would have stops along the way such as The Cliffs of Moher and Doolin.
When we reached the Cliffs , the weather was finally picking up and I guided my tourists through a different route, northside of the Visitors Centre where again, after dodging some cattle and crossing electrified fences we reached the beautiful edge with a view of the five rocks that give Moher its name, a view that not all the tourists enjoy and most importantly , the feeling of freedom as you would step by the edge with nobody annoying you or appearing on your pictures, situation that was inviting for a long photo shoot and a longer stop.
Then we went down the road to the little village of Doolin, important port of call for all Aran Island ferry services which was bubbling with tourists heading to the islands and a very rough sea hitting the docks and the sponge-like rocks where we sat for some minutes just to enjoy the view. To complete the experience, a friendly dolphin made his appearance which made the day of many camera holders hanging around.

Some two hours later we were in Galway City and must admit it felt refreshing to get back to civilization, stores and supermarkets for a bit. Just gave them some time-off so they could enjoy and shop (Phoebe got this idea very well) and the we would meet up later our last pints.
We were booked different rooms on the hostel so we could mingle with more people as well and I got the one sharing with nine more people which was great fun as I met an Aussie and two German girls who happened to be very fun and went for a walk along the Bay with.

Night time again and I met the Chinese for our last pints, hard thing to do when a very popular football match (Barcelona and Man U) was on and most people were watching it on practically every pub in town. Time to exchange Facebook addresses, e-mails and pictures as it was the last opportunity to chill out (and learn more swearing in different languages) before finally heading to the hostel for a night of not so tight sleep, if you don't believe me , ask me for the American girl who couldn't stop coughing for about four hours or the guys that were on Mo and Kelly's room that wouldn't stop snoring and farting. Oh well, that's hostel life for you.

Next morning and after a good bowl of cereal and toast with jam, we were on the M6 straight back to Dublin with a stop in Kinnegad to stretch the legs and have some water.
Back in Dublin a few minutes later, we said our good-byes with promises of meeting again at some point, whether it's gonna be in here , China or anywhere in the world.

Now off to some heavy laundry and house keeping like every good traveler does when he gets home and off to a new adventure very soon. I will keep you guys updated as usual.

-- Hitchhiking --

2011-05-22T02:31:00.004+03:00

Tired of a very busy week at the Storehouse and with the hand a little numb of drawing shamrocks on the pints of Guinness that amazed Americans (and tourists in general sometimes) would drink in awe, I saw myself very tired and with only one day-off to spend on a Sunday.

My Uruguayan friend who was craving to leave Dublin for at least one day and explore the country-island a bit further, convinced me through Facebook chat into going to Galway, a place I had been to at least three times since I'm settled in Ireland.
Thought it was a good idea, since the weather promised to be a little sunny and warm, signs of a pseudo-summer coming soon and needed to stay away from the murky Liffey.

And with a ticket price of only ONE euro on the early morning bus, we decided it was worth the hassle of waking up extremely early in the cold morning and head our way to Heuston Station to catch the bus.

Waking up was a hard one, but I admit that doing so when you are about to travel is quite refreshing. Put on my clothes, brushed my teeth and off I was to her house a few blocks away from mine and then hitting the road (or avenue) to the Station, some 3 miles away.
Once we dodged some drunk people and junkies, we caught the bus on time and fell asleep until after a couple of hours of smooth motorway, our bus was making its way into Galway Bay.

Weather was sunny but very windy and chilly so we went for a quick breakfast at...Mc Donald's (the only thing opened) and we wandered around town deciding what to do next.

I had been to the Cliffs of Moher once, the visit is even registered on this blog some two years ago but she hadn't.
When we found out about the bus fare to go there (about 20 Euros return trip), we knew it was time to get a little adventurous and go for the second best option in West Ireland...hitchhiking.

Grabbed a piece of cardboard from a local shop and with the best Industrial Designer abilities I could remember, I crafted a sign stating where we wanted to go...Doolin, base town for the Cliffs of Moher.
And we started our long 6 miles walk to the outskirts of Galway where we would start using our beloved sign and a thumb up trying to get a lucky lift.

At the beginning it looked hopeless, nobody would stop while we were walking down the road getting amused by curious cows and their biological show.
Half an hour later, a Dublin soul stopped and gave us a lift up the road to Kinvarra, where the main road ends and the main road to Doolin begins.
While we were heading that way , the guy told me about his childhood around the area and how things have changed. He was on a nostalgic driving around the area before heading back to his boring life in Dublin while remembering younger times when he used to hitchhike around the island or when he went backpacking to Peru some decades ago.

After being dropped on our first stop and some couple of minutes on the road, an Australian couple stopped and asked us if we had left our knives back in Dublin.
"G'day mate" started the whole thing as they were heading to the Cliffs of Moher, turning our hitchhike into an Express Service to where we wanted to go in the first place.
More and more talking as my Uruguayan friend was taking pictures and glancing the beautiful view of the Burren Region, the friendly retired Aussies were telling me about their adventure through Europe so far, the cheap Italian cottages, the cruise liners to avoid in the Mediterranean Sea and the little villages in France.

As we approached Moher, lots of memories came back to my mind. Mainly of a more innocent time and probably more hopeful.

And some two and a half hours later and no saliva left on my palate, there we were contemplating the magnificent Cliffs with the brave Atlantic Ocean roaring under us.
Nothing conventional about my trips of course, we crossed the fence where all the lazy tourists would stop and started to walk through the narrow trail (no vertigo allowed) while appreciating the beautiful views of a region that would never let you down if looking for inspiration.

Seagulls flying high and fighting the wind, the Arann Islands receiving tourist on the background and some scattered showers that would quickly dissipate revealing rainbows and light effects...the knee pain was worth the walk through it for sure.

Heading back to Doolin for our return journey, a donkey wouldn't let us go through a field and we had to go around it. It became my Uruguayan friend's best friend and laugh of the trip.

On the way back and with the sign turned around to a clumsy and tired "Galway", we got our first lift with a Israeli couple who gave us a small push to a crossroads where we would have more opportunities of getting longer lifts.
It wouldn't take five minutes and a self-proclaimed hippie gave us another short lift to Lisdoonvarna while giving us out some pointers on how to hitchhike successfully in these green lands.

Starving and thirsty already, we got our third and last lift after a few minutes from a nice young lad from Doolin who was studying in Galway and returning for his last exams.
He used to work on a bar back home, so the conversation was mostly around it while he would demonstrate on how highly skilled in the art of drinking Irish people are. (He wasn't drinking and driving , but a few minutes passed by very fast while he was explaining to me about his and his friend's drinking habits).
And we were back in Galway again, very tired and dodging the rainy patches. So we headed back straight to the bus station and caught the first bus back to Dublin.

Very busy day indeed, must admit that at the beginning I didn't really think we would make it all the way and at some point at the end of the day, it really felt like if we were traveling for days and not just for a few hours.

Anyway, back home and off to work first thing the next morning. Things are changing very fast nowadays and hopefully new adventures will happen in the near future. Maybe some flying in between?
I'll keep you people updated.

-- Guinness flavoured spring sleet --

2011-04-03T21:13:00.003+03:00

Oh well, after a hard day of drawing shamrocks on my pints of Guinness while looking at the city underneath me getting punished with a quick spring sleet shower, I came back home, via my favourite coffee shop in town where I indulged myself with a nice cup of tea and a 'croque monsieur' (just a fancy way to say croissant with ham and cheese).

So nice to sit here on the living room of my new apartment while the sun tries to set and the clock just refuses to say it's early to do so. Just keeps me wandering about the summer time that's about to come in a few weeks and all the good memories I had from the last one.

I have already been wearing shorts pretty much everyday. We haven't really reached more than fourteen degrees over the past weeks, but the temperature combined with a nice sunshine really kept me digging on that forgotten and dusty drawer for my dear and comfortable outfits.

A friend of mine who I knew through Couchsurfing came all the way from Uruguay for a year to learn English and the important-for-business Irish language and maybe become a leprechaun and brought me some Havaianas flip-flops to complete my summer look and some Dulce de Leche tu indulge myself on my fatty moments. In return I am showing her the city and helping her settle in every way I can because I reckon how difficult can be sometimes when you get to a new place and the difference a friendly face can make.

Been working with my Uncle Arthur (Guinness) for over a month now and must say that each day is something really special and different. Some days are extremely slow and it seems like the clock just doesn't want to let me go home and some other days it's just non-stop and don't even have time to go for a quick 'wee' on the 'loo'.

We have tourist from all over the world. One of the perks of working there is that most people consider it one of the city's icons, so while in Sydney you have the Harbour Bridge, in Paris the Eiffel Tower, in London the Big Ben and so forth, in Dublin we have the...brewery!. Now that tells you a lot about the country's culture.
Now, jokes aside, we get tourist from all over like I said and specially, many Spanish, Italians and Britons coming to the part of Europe that almost didn't make the cut. I am there ready to entertain them with my weird Spanish and my even weirder combination of English and Italian words.
Can't complaint though as, the busier the day, the better I feel.

That does not apply to St. Patrick's Day though when a tsunami of drunk people hit our big Storehouse after the Big Parade bringing tons of work to do.
It wasn't about the amount of people, which on that and the day after exceeded the 6500 mark per day, but for the...let's say state they were when they had bought their ticket.
Now remember, if someone tells you that you are entitled to "A" complementary drink with your ticket, it means you can only have ONE.
Then again, I blame the alcohol for any awkward situation or any rude customers who would blame all the disgrace of the world on your pour-your-own-pint class while you were trying to teach them how to be one of us for a day with an extremely loud Irish Dance demo behind you.

So big examples of this nice environment would be when I am mostly on the bar (because some days we get to work on tills, dealing with those colourful Euro bills and just smiling when a credit card is declined).
Anyway, the bar is indeed a great place to work, it gives you the best (and probably the only one) view of the city. Customers actually release a small gasp when they are on the lift and the doors open.
Most tourists from that big stripey and starry country in America (Americans) always say that we probably work in one of the best bars in the world, "that's Awesome!!!". Will let them be the judges of that but as for me, I am happy with the views and the environment in general.

So far while serving my pints of Guinness, or a soft drink for the 'softies', I reckon I probably already am tagged in hundreds of Facebook albums with titles such as "Holiday in Ireland", "Leprechauns", "The land of pubs", "The Emerald Isle, "Eire", "Slainte"...and so on.
Don't get me wrong, some spotlight and attention never hurt anyone so again, I just keep smiling and being friendly, not because I am being paid for it, but also because the daily recommended dose of Berocca might be too much for my already fast metabolism and I need to release the energy in some way.
In addition, a group of Aussie girls asked me for some autographs one day, how fancy!. I had to improvise and sign some coasters "with love from Dublin". Oh well, someone in Sydney right now is probably holding her glass of Fosters with my exclusively autographed coaster underneath it, or I want to think it happens anyway.

Last week I also had a meeting with my two favourite fatties down the countryside and got myself another nice stamp on my passport -never thought I'd be concerned about my passport running out of stamp-free pages- and I'm due to be dancing the leprechaun music and speaking Irish fluently (yeah, roight) for some months to come.
For this reasons I also got myself new wheels and I am proudly own now a fixed-gear bike which gets me to work and the swimming pool in a record time and , aside of being very light, it looks very good.
Fixed-gear will also be my new partner on my summer adventures, while the terrier bitches about pretty much everything (just because he wants to), drink tea, cook odd barbeques and we sail to a new adventure across the Irish Sea, sponsored by Ryan Air or that airline that operates from Terminal 2, Aer Lingus?

As for me ,I have work tomorrow and for the next week. So see you then!

-- The Flying Pencil --

2011-03-13T23:19:00.003+03:00

This is something I wrote some time ago for a magazine here in Dublin, it hasn't been published yet but I thought it'd be nice to share it with my Dear readers first.

It's titled "The Flying Pencil" and it's a short narrative about someone wandering for some minutes what it would be like to have a different job and be someone else. Hope you like it.

"Open your seat belts, come this way, jump and slide", a statement constantly wandering around my mind while I nervously climb up the stairs while looking at the big engines being started and rolling for a journey into the air.

It is forty-six degrees Celsius outside and some drops of sweat slide through my forehead, yet I rapidly wipe it with my sleeve as a bus full of passengers arrive at the door step.
They all look tired and smothered, specially after knowing that their plane has been a little delayed due to severe heat. I still try to put on the best smile they could possible get for their ticket price and try to forget about the long flight from the Land Down Under the night before as my body claims for some rest and some catching up with any time zone.

So after playing with my mind thinking about my family, telling myself a joke or thinking about the sightseeing session I will be performing when I arrive into my destination, I smile and greet my passengers.

Shy "Good Evenings" jump off my mouth as my cheeks feel sore of all the smiling, yet my beloved passengers are tired and can not be bothered on replying as they find their seats and over take them as fast as a tsunami over take and floods an Indian Ocean island , now I know how trees must feel some times.

"Oh Sorry Sir, I think that bag must be bigger than what it is allowed" triggers a dangerous bomb inside the passengers mind but in the end I must remind them that I did not designed the plane (even though I would love to) but I will let the Airbus Industrie know about it when I write a complaint letter full of very 'pintoresque' words in different languages.

As I close my door and I say Good-bye to the Middle East summer, things change inside this metal tube: A middle-aged woman grabs me by the arm and ask me if I could tell the pilot to fly lower so she would not feel scared of the altitude. An egyptian man with a very thick accent asks me for Panadol, a businessman from Bombai asks me for a glass of water while he wanders about what to eat for dinner and three Japanese girls smile and take pictures of everything around.

Engines work their full power leaving a big cloud of brown dust on the runway and we see the desert lights fading and being left behind while we reach our cruise altitude and a festival of call-bells awaits to be answered.

A curry smell invades the cabin, meals are ready and I roam through the aisle pretending I am a model and pushing a heavy cart while I distribute meal trays with one hand , prepare drinks with the other and clean the floor with my leg ( ok, the last bit is a lie, cleaning is done after serving the meals).

A dark-skinned passenger stares at me while I hand him his tray, at first I think it is just awkward but then he starts staring non-stop to this delicious and full bottle of whisky decorating the top of my cart. He does not speak English nor can not read and he shows himself very shy , as if it was a sin to ask for booze on-board. His tired facial features make me believe that he is probably one of the thousands laborers involved into the "Modern Age Slavery Scheme" performed in the Middle East, I can imagine his reality , working every day for the past three-years, supporting temperatures of over fifty degrees Celsius and earning enough to survive and send the rest to his family back home. So there I fill his glass with the best booze an Economy Class ticket can buy.

Meals distributed and my empty cart reminds me that I have not eaten in hours ,so I improvise a seat on the galley and eat an apple while a tempting tray of Chicken Tikka winks at me , "Must remain fit" I tell to myself as I finish my apple , drink a glass of water and finish my fest with a tasteless cereal bar.

Captain has announced Final Descent into our destination and I tell my passengers to fasten their seat belts (and why not, their own belts) as I run through the cabin looking important and glimpsing some green land out of the windows.

As the plane just floats, guided by the air running under the wing and engines practically dead, I think about how little things are always taken for granted, so something insignificant as a bed becomes a priority at this time of the day, even though I am sure that my traveling spirit would tell me to arrive into the hotel , change into my 'civilian' outfit and go sightseeing. In the end ,not every person in the world has the chance of seeing three continents on the same week.

Green fields get closer and closer and suddenly I see my hand-guided pencil landing into my wooden desk. My laptop is showing some pictures of my sons as screensaver and my "Best Dad Ever" mug is now full of cold and tasteless coffee. I have a long and heavy day ahead as two major projects have landed and piled up on my desk and I need to finish them so I can have a "well done" slap on my back from my boss and leave this small cubicle.

I take a deep breath and start working, in the end, I have never been on a plane and I despise traveling.

On the other hand, I'm working at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, I'm having great fun in there and have tons of stories to share, specially because our customers are tourist and everyone comes from a different background, country, culture and have many stories to share. I'm gathering some stories to share with my readers again.
It will also be St. Patrick's Day in Ireland this week (or Beer and Drunk Day as I call it) and of course, I'll be working!. That will definitely pull some interesting things to talk about on my next post.

Airlines are coming to recruit to the Emerald Isle too so might be time to try to get some wings again...we'll see.

Eventful days we've had around the world recently with the whole Arab World rebelling to their leaders and earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan. To all my readers living there, my heart and prayers are with you, I felt very close to these events, specially the one in Japan where I have family living (they are all safe luckily).

Anyway, that's it for this week. Have a good one!

-- What to feel now? --

2011-02-18T11:31:00.003+03:00

So it's February and as part of my 2011 scheme I went through several interviews for different jobs across Dublin, as I worked a little with events.

Sold cameras for a day again (or tried to), waited tables for the countryside people and handed out chocolates and roses wearing a tux to complete strangers on Valentine's Day, while in between I would have high shots of coffee injected into my blood stream thanks to my favourite barista Blanka who has now become a good friend of mine.

Love had been an important part of my life ever since last year when without knowing I had fallen for this special person. Love works in mysterious ways they say and we can't really control what we feel.
I know for a fact that this was definitely the case and the times I shared and had over the past months were amazing.
This feeling kept me going for the past months, through rough times and a very raw winter. This person who I would wake up in the morning with and just be thankful to God for another day next to her. My warm blanket in the cold winter, my motivation when all I wanted was crying and my reason to stay when all I wanted was to leave.

What to feel now? In a city where every single corner reminds you of that someone special? How do you bear with it?

I still have no answers of what just happened and I might never do. One thing I'm sure: my feelings are strong and I am sure of what I feel. And my wasted heart will still miss her every night and day because what we had, is not something you can have every day, a lifetime best friend.

My mind is confused and so many things have happened in the past 48 hours. I'm still a little dizzy since I read that dreadful e-mail and even though all I wanted to do was crying on a corner, I gathered enough courage to go to a final interview for a job position I had applied to and pretended my whole life was just perfect (Oh the cabin crew training worked so well on this one).

So for 15 minutes, all I did was talking about my life, about my experiences with passengers and my compulsive obsession with smiling at them and smiled a lot (again). Pressure was huge but the recruiters were extremely nice.
All I know is that at the end of the interview and as I walked on the streets back home I cried like a baby without caring about the people watching around...I just needed to vent.

When I got home and as I was just staring at the empty space laying on my back I got a call from them...they had liked me and I was hired.
I start next Friday the 25th as a proud staff member of the Guinness Storehouse, one of the main attractions -if not the main one- in the city, home of the world famous Guinness black-brownish draught beer, so if you ever happen to be in Dublin my dear Readers, feel free to come visit me (I'll sign some autographs for you *sic*) and we'll have a laugh.

Big question right now is, what should I feel like? I had waited for this moment ever since I arrived into Dublin and now that happened, I couldn't feel a thing.
When I hang up the phone I was petrified and for several minutes I just kept staring at the space, maybe waiting for a hug or a good slap on the back that would never come.

Someone wise once said : "Happiness is only real when shared".Just guess this applies to me right now in the perfect way because in the end, what's success if when you finally get the call you waited for for months, nobody is around to hug you and cry of happiness with you?

See you around people and thanks for reading about all my whining.

-- 2011 Game Plan --

2010-12-31T22:29:00.003+03:00

Wow it's been a long time since I last posted on my blog, and it wasn't because I forgot that I had one (in fact, I would check very often my visitors and reply to queries some visitors might have).

Last months have been very intense for me with very little traveling. Just a short failed trip to Cork where I had the chance to catch the last mild summer temperatures before preparing for the cold winter that hit us later, saw Cobh, the last place the Titanic saw before sinking on its maiden trip and wandered around Blarney Castle where, after kissing the famous stone, found 35 Euros on the footpath.

Anyway, the past months have been more of an emotional roller coaster. Have had terrific days of enjoyment and terrible days of sorrow with 'wifey' as a daily and important company.

We were hit with sub-zero temperatures for several days in a row on the coldest December ever recorded in the Republic of Ireland while I was struggling to get through inches and inches of fresh snow and some other inches of thick bureaucracy files (because immigrating was never easy), having a little pit stop on my birthday and then off to work with some events as I tried to do my best by selling Fujifilm digital cameras to the desperate crowds of people filling the malls with their rushy mood and Christmas shopping bags.

I had very chilled B-day and X-mas celebrations with a kind of awkward feeling of being very far from my family but the great company of some very special people in my life who made me forget about it and made me feel home.

I am now standing in front my my laptop on this mildly cold New Year's Eve Friday, coughing like a dog, smelling like Vick rub and thinking about what happened through 2010 and making mental notes of all the pro's and con's of such a diverse time.

Once again at the beginning of 2010, I crossed the Atlantic in search of new adventures and a different lifestyle and indeed I think all the things I was looking for were found. Had a constant struggle with unemployment, moments of false hope, frustration and even an accident.
On the other hand I met the best people ever, I fell in love with things, I rediscovered friends and most importantly, I learned that sometimes steps back are needed to go for a big jump.

I haven't had the big jump yet but I can finally see it coming and tonight things are changing as 2011 is starting with a different position and with all the lessons learned in 2010 well stuck on my head.

I do feel like I have changed as a person and my approach for next year and all the years after that will definitely change as well...I am a new man, with new elbows, new haircut, new laptop, new fixed-gear bike, new important people in my life and a new head.

So here is to 2010, to a terrible yet needed year, and to all the people who made all of this possible.

Another thing. I am planning some big trips for 2011, so hopefully this blog won't look as abandoned as it did in 2010.

And I'll learn french too...

See ya and best wishes!

-- FlyingCamba tries CouchSurfing part 2 --

2010-09-26T23:39:00.003+03:00

So i was woken up by a very strong sunlight, very atypical for the region of West Ireland which most of the time features very unstable and rainy weather.

Enough said, I had a cup of tea with a toasted piece of bread, grabbed my backpack and packed it with a bottle of apple juice, cookies, a jumper and my camera and then took the bike straight to the unknown.

As I was cycling towards 'the unknown',a very strong scattered shower caught me by surprise and had me waiting for around ten minutes under the weak protection of a skinny tree (the only one I could find). Again ,pretending my wrists were not sore I kept cycling passing through beautiful fields of blackberries, nice cottages and a very dull and flat road which led me to the little town of Ventry, where you could spot a very dirty and depressing bay, full of tourists taking pictures.

My host told me this was the beach I should go to when cycling...was that it?. The question echoed within my head while a mild stream of deception was going through my spine.
Instead of conforming with it, I decided to cycle further and forget about beaches as for today... it was going to be a Cliffs Day! (as there were not enough cliffs in Ireland).

So cycling on the same road towards Slea Head at the very West of the peninsula, bumped into some other tourists that were having the same idea of cycling and even some that were on the same bus I was the day before while heading to Dingle.

The landscape dramatically changed as the road joins the Cliff and you get amazing views of the fierce Atlantic Ocean roaring down and the little cottages practically hanging of the mountain like they were gonna fall apart at any time.
Great time for stopping, drinking a sip of juice, having ONE cookie ,taking a picture and continuing the trip.

After some forty minutes I reached a cross and a spotting point, this was Slea Head!. Again beautiful views of the Blasket Islands, the Ocean and the whole scenery.
Road was still going somewhere and I previously had seen on my map about a town called Dunquin so decided to at least reach this little town and turnaround to Dingle.

Some curves later,the mountain revealed a mirage: Blue clear water, white sand, cliffs...was that a beach? and what a beach! definitely more than what I had expected for that day. My heart starting pumping faster and a huge smile was drawn on my face as I stopped the bike to take tons of pictures and decided I would spend the rest of my day down there.

Went down the road while lots of tourist kept taking pictures of the scenery and some would even get change to get into the freezing water, which I also did, considering that what kind of person goes to the beach and don't even go for a quick dip? Even if it is the North Atlantic.
Set my little spot by the rocks, put on my swimming trunks and there I was running like a crazy kid trying not to think about the water temperature. Some German girls joined me so I was not the only one freezing.

Then just taking more and more pictures (and the ones wet so I would prove that I was actually swimming in the North Atlantic, drawn some messages on the sand for my beloved people and relaxed while having the rest of my cookies, sitting on the sand, taking some sun and thinking about the heavy week I would have to deal with later.

Then when the sun started to get weaker and the winds were increasing, packed everything and it was time to go back to Dingle with a short stop at the Slea Head itself to take a look at the beautiful Blasket Islands and head back on a non-stop leg towards town.

It took me around forty minutes to reach Dingle as everything was downhill, I was quite tired and I had 'tailwind' (you get that on the bike).

I got to the house and my host arrived some minutes later, we had a couple of tea while I was telling her about the beautiful beach I had spent the day one and then she went for a nap. I just had a shower and went for some town sightseeing and snapshots as I knew that the next day I wouldn't have time for all of this.
Had a little sandwich with crisps and went back to the house where the Israeli guy was ready to go around for a walk and my Czech host was thinking about going out at night.

We decided we would and some hour later, the German couple joined us and we went for some pints at a local pub while laughing, telling jokes and talking about trips until it was closing time, raining and topped up the night with a disgusting meal of 'Fried Chicken and Chips' served by one of the most dodgiest Indian people I had ever seen.

Next morning and the weather was again back to normal: gray clouds, some drizzle and a depressing sight. Time to get up, get the backpack ready and meet 'the gang' for a good-bye coffee. Fast and not painful, thanking my host for such a brilliant experience and my new friends for those amazing and brief moments we had.

I went to the bus stop and I was amongst the last persons to board the coach to Tralee, so I got the terrible seat at the very back of it...crowded! but at least would be a short one-hour hop. Departed Dingle at 12:00 (midday).

Tralee was depressing and rainy so just stayed at the bus terminal waiting for my connecting coach to Limerick while writing some stuff about the trip on my Moleskine and some other personal stuff.
The bus to Limerick departed full and as always, amongst every skinny or petite girl that was on the bus ,the extreme fat one had to seat by my side which limited my movements to practically none during the three-hour journey to Limerick through this rural bumpy road.

God, I got off the bus in Limerick (known as Stab City) and decided to walk around just to get completely convinced about the reputation the city has. Everything looking extremely dodgy, empty streets and litter everywhere.
Had some fish and chips on this dodgy diner (the worst fish and chips I have ever had) and sat at the train station reading LIDL (supermarket) catalogs and listen to my iPod while waiting to board the train.

The final leg of the trip, the train, was very comfortable. We departed on-time and it was very smooth, the problem was that I had been traveling for the entire day so I just wanted to get to Dublin as soon as possible.
We passed through some little towns like Thurles, Portlaoise, Kildare until Heuston Station welcomed me at 21:00 pm with some rain and wind.

Again, nobody to welcome me. Time to be quick, leave the building ,catch the LUAS for two or three stations and then walk home.

So there...that was my CouchSurfing experience which was completely unexpected but very rewarding. I can now say that I have exploited every way of lodging, going from five-star hotels to middle-range ones, to hostels, to stay with friends, to this.

See you soon my Dear Readers! I will be moving out of Dublin very soon, so new adventures and trips will definitely be posted in here.

-- FlyingCamba tries Couchsurfing Part 1--

2010-09-13T18:56:00.003+03:00

So there I was, having an emotional meltdown in Dublin after a row of accidents with the bike and a fight with very important people so it seemed like a proper time to leave the city and try to think things through.

Talked to one of my friends here who suggested that it would be the best for me at the moment as I was practically crashing (and with a extremely sore back) so after browsing the internet for a bit I decided I'd give West Ireland a last try, as a way to say good-bye of the Emerald Isle.

So "The Wonders of Dingle Peninsula" would be. I decided that my first night would be spent on a hostel as I haven't stepped into one in quite a bit and then, as my budget was very tight, I decided to recover my CouchSurfing password and browse through some profiles and see if I could find a nice and willing host for two nights in the countryside.
This particular girl from the Czech Republic caught my attention as she described herself as very friendly, outgoing and very outdoorsy so I immediately messaged her requesting for a spot on her house and she replied straight away saying that no problem, but I would have to sleep on the couch as she was also hosting another person and the bed was 'booked'.

It was written on the cold Irish sky, so I packed my trusting Eastpak backpack, witness of my trips around the world and still in perfect conditions and scheduled my journey in the best way possible.

Next morning I woke up very early and took the bus to Busaras, where I arrived extremely early and had to kill some time by watching homeless people being thrown out the terminal and watching Sky News until Limerick departure was announced and got into the bus for some challenging hours of travel.

Oh I had been warned about the buses in Ireland but I didn't realize until now how bad the services were. The buses were fine and quite comfortable for short trips but the space between seats (pitch) was absolutely ridiculous and I'm not even that tall. That added to the fact that the bus would stop at every single town, dodging motorways and taking narrow, curvy and slow roads to get to the point, so a journey of 120 kms took around three and a half hours to be completed.
Nothing interesting to say about the journey from Dublin to Limerick ,the landscape was plain and I was still feeling very sad, specially after passing through some towns that would bring back so many memories and would drive me crazy.

Connecting time in Limerick, that looked like my worst Northside Dublin nightmare, was short and then I boarded the bus full of tourist straight to Killarney where I arrived two hours later through a road full of green , low hills and some nice views as we were getting to our destination.

I was tired of my six hours journey, but since I would have just some hours in Killarney I went straight to the hostel (where luckily there were some free beds) and went to town to rent a bike.
Despite the suggestions of the Polish/Italian guy that rented me the bike and said I shouldn't go far because I would only have four hours to go and my weak wrists, I headed south with the idea of reaching a random point in two hours and then coming back.

Entered Killarney National Park and the landscapes wouldn't disappoint me as the Lakes were looking beautiful ,even with the rain that started to fall at the moment and mixed with my sweat and made my jumper feel like it was weighing ten kilos.
Uphill I went to a place called Ladies View, dodging cars and tourist coaches from all over Europe.

The view was amazing and you could easily spot all three lakes, the mountains and Killarney some 17 kms at the back.
I was with an empty stomach as my anxiety wouldn't let me eat anything until then, but after feeling sore on my heart (for real) and a extremely big craving for water, I entered the little shop at the Point and bought a bottle of water and a juice who went down the hatch in less than ten seconds.

Looking at my map I noticed that I was far indeed but I still had some three hours to keep on cycling and after spotting a hiking trail that would connect me to the famous Gap of Dunloe, I decided to give it a go.
So downhill for a bit and took the little dirt road which looked fine and sheltered from the rain until when I was taking a little steep part of it my gears broke and I was stuck in the middle of nowhere completely soaked and with a broken bike...Whyyy!!!

Don't panic, even with nobody around, I decided to give my best and try to sort the problem by myself and after doing 'i-dont-know-what' I fixed it and me and my greasy and wet wrists continued the journey now trying to put on less pressure on the gears which was a challenge when I would go uphill.
Bumped into this beautiful open space where every part of the Lakes could be spot and I realized that I WAS ALONE. Alone in Killarney, alone in Ireland I thought and started sobbing while the rain wouldn't have mercy on my soaked everything and I would keep cycling so I'd make it back into town on time.

Finally reached the cottage I was looking for when noticed that the little road I had seen on my map was not as short as it was drawn and it was exclusively for local traffic.
Rain, rain and more rain while I kept cycling until I bumped into this Gardai on his bike who told me that indeed the fastest way to go back into town from that point was through the Gap, so no turning back.

Now the things got interesting as the road suddenly dissapeared into a sharp turn and a zig-zag climb for some four kilometeres continuously...second Whyyy!!!
My legs were numb already and I was shivering from the cold mountain wind and my wet clothes but I faced the mountain with a very heavy breath and some outbreaks of deep sobbing, mixed with some 'a la Rambo' self-encouraging words.

Reached the Head of the Gap and when I finally saw that everything else would be downhill I let out a big freedom shouting and started my descent hitting the brakes constantly as I knew there was nobody around, my wrists were still weak, the road was absolutely slippery and I had two accidents lately.
At some points I would take my camera and shot some quick snaps because I wouldn't have enough time or energy to actually stop and contemplate it, even the scenery being as beautiful as it was with the Glacier Lakes practically hanging out the mountains and making the way through the mountains on something that would resemble a massive terraced fountain.

When I reached the bottom of the Gap , some 15 kilometers later I spotted some tourists finishing their walk and when I thought I was close according to the map, a beautiful sign indicating that Killarney was 'only' 12 kilometers away completely took all my energy out and that was probably the longest half an hour ever.

Got into town ,returned the bike without even saying a word to the guy that rented it to me and straight to the hostel for a long and warm shower, dry clothes, internet and e-mail checking (wrote some very important stuff there) and some groceries shopping.
Had a disgusting instant soup, because I wouldn't be able to cook it properly and went straight to bed as it was a very long day.

Next morning I woke up, brushed my teeth quickly and went downstairs to the busy Hostel kitchen where everyone was running around gathering stuff for their own breakfasts.
I only glanced some toasts with jam and butter and a cup of tea and off I went to explore town and part of the National Park again.
Walked through this beautiful green trail to Ross Castle where a rainbow over the lakes was shot by me and the 'free' parts of the castle were explored.

Got tempted to follow the Mining Trail until I met face-to-face with the amazing Lake and the mountains and was time for a pause, a sip of water and some snaps before the rain would come back and screw my walk again (it didn't , luckily).

Back into town went for a quick shopping at Tesco and then to the Hostel to have lunch ,check my e-mails and to the Bus Station to catch the bus to the next leg of the race: Dingle.

Journey was smooth and before I noticed we were entering Tralee where we would connect for our bus to Dingle which was packed with tourists again, all eager to see and explore the most westerly Peninsula in Ireland.
Dingle Bay received me after some one-hour trip between green mountains and I went straight to my host's house who had everything ready to receive me and the other Couchsurfer who arrived ten minutes after and was from Israel but with a very strong british accent.

After the three of us met, set my couch to sleep and had a cup of tea, we went for a walk to the Bay when it started raining and everything got soaked again.
Dingle has a natural bay that shelters it from the brave Atlantic Ocean, so you have to go around and follow a trail along the coast until you reach the beach where an old dolphin is the main attraction (Funghi is his name) and then to the lighthouse which by this time of the day with the mist resembled a classic Scottish moment.

As we were heading back into town, rain stopped and sun shined for some hours but as we were all tired already, just went to the supermarket and decided to buy ingredients for Spanish Tortillas and some cheap Chilean wine.

Cooking was fun as we were all trying to make our best but in the end had just some 'scrambled eggs with mushrooms, onions and tomato' and the wine.

Then some more friends from Germany and Czech arrived and we wandered around town for a bit to meet some of my host's local friends at this house uphill where the view of the Bay was amazing and had some more liquor while talking about trips and places to go and then off to bed after another long day, thinking about the amazing weather and the possibilities for the next day.

Stay tuned for Part 2...

-- When lifting a cup of tea is a big thing --

2010-08-25T22:53:00.003+03:00

June and July were indeed completely uneventful and boring months but August has proved that many things are changing and my life is starting to become more interesting.

My last update was about me being sad. I guess we all pass through those really tough days when we only feel like rubbish and like nobody really cares about us (even when clearly people do). Still, venting emotions sometimes is good and I had a good feedback from friends and family which made me feel supported again.

After a PERFECT Sunday which included a nice BBQ on the freezing yet sunny Portmarnock Beach in greater Dublin sharing space with lovely girls wearing track suits, speaking out loud and drinking beer the way only Irish girls can do it sometimes and going for a dip into the Irish Sea to refresh my burnt skin (ya, rite!), my week went on without any news, only dealing with some bureaucratic rubbish prior to any big change of plans.

I was getting ready for a tour to Kilkenny on Saturday and to Belfast on Monday when on Friday night, after wandering around the southern Dublin suburbs, I was cycling as fast as the wind (the way I like it) and suddenly things changed when my bike lock got caught up onto the front wheel, creating this memorable bump noise and a complete full stop in one second.

Where was I? Just flew above the bike in slow motion while on my head an "Oh my God" was wondering as my wrists and chin were hitting the street and the people on the sidewalk couldn't stop staring at the embarrassing yet memorable fall.

A ginger guy was the first one in running and asking me if I was OK and could talk and breathe, a doctor that was walking by went for support and a woman stopped her car when she saw the whole thing and took care of me like a mother would do.
As they were asking if it was sore (course it was) I just couldn't stop laughing, still in shock of what had just happened and expecting to be fine and just a little bruised.

As I stood up, things started to become more clear and my arms were extremely sore, the doctor said I should go to the hospital if it was still sore and the woman kindly locked my bike onto a pole on the now dark Dartry Road and drove me home.

Night was not over as I was home and suddenly felt my arms completely stiff and locked, couldn't even move them anymore and they were looking swollen and with a very funny colour.
So my sidekick came to my house and helped me get into a taxi (at this point I couldn't even open a door by myself anymore) and we got into the Emergencies Room waiting for the best.

Who said it was easy? Emergency Unit on a Friday night is never easy! as I was wearing a t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops and it was freezing cold...yet we had to wait for the nurse to "assess" my situation and see if my condition was pathetic enough to see a doctor, got an X-ray with the Radiology bitch who couldn't understand that when you say "I can't move it" it means I definitely can't, and waited for five hours playing World Capitals as the drugs and pain killers wouldn't kick in and "counting how many drug addicts would take a smoke" or "how many cuts on that drug addict are there" ...Oh Ireland's best I'd say (specially when they asked for a "le-hr"...lighter in Knackerville).

Five hours later and feeling completely frustrated my name was called to see a doctor who after touching my arm and seeing the x-rays said I had broken my two elbows and my left wrist (and I'm left-handed) so I would need slings and keep away from any activity for at least four weeks.
Oh well, I had waited for five hours with two broken elbows wearing flip-flops with a drug addict who smelled like vomit sitting besides me, didn't think nothing could beat that.

Anyway, back home for some sleep and my arms were very sore. Luckily I have amazing friends who helped me through the whole thing, except bathroom-related issues (that would explain why I didn't use the "crapper" as they call it for at least 3 days).

I am getting my mobility back very slowly, I can now scratch my head and nose, reach my feet and of course, handle my own private things but things like drinking a cup of tea or opening a door are still a huge achievement as I am completely out of strength on both arms.

At least today I am able to type without any pain, so there goes my update.

-- Friday 13th? Hell Yeah! --

2010-08-13T22:31:00.003+03:00

Today has not been a good day, I'm not superstitious and it is hard for me to believe in things like that but at some level I think it's so strange that so many things can go wrong in one day... I don't know, I guess the fact of being away from home multiplies every single feeling by a hundred (whether its good or bad) and sometimes, something that might seem simple and easy to deal with for some people could practically make us feel like crying on a corner for hours.

You wake up thinking that every day will be different and really not knowing what's gonna happen next, you expect to receive good news and end it up will a nice smile. I haven't been feeling like that lately, I am struggling with some complicated 'shit' at the moment and at some point I feel like losing it and just quitting.

'What's the point of all of this?' I ask to myself?

Many things have happened with my life over the past years and I tend to forget that I am 23 years-old and I still have a lot of growing up to do, just wish it wouldn't be the hard way practically all the time.

I bet lots of 'expats' would feel the same and can identify themselves with all I am saying and the enormous feeling of just saying 'I quit' , pack the bags and take the plane straight home, but what if 'home' is not home anymore? what if you've become only a visitor on your own turf?

Guess I'll have to keep on doing all of this and as always: cry, wipe and move forward.

I'm aware that this post is not very fun or interesting, well, I think that shows that I can also feel and I get terribly sad sometimes and my life is not an 'artist life' as my friends like to call it every time i chat with them on Facebook.

I got assigned this special job tomorrow though, I'm carrying 50 human beings to a GAY FESTIVAL on the countryside, twice! so it would be comparable to an Indian turnaround I guess. Betting that many stories will come out of that experience which of course I'll be sharing with you.

And to end with my whining, I keep checking my visitors counter and I get happy every time I see it raising in numbers and flags, but would also love to hear your feedback (in case I am being too annoying).

Thanks for reading and see you soon.

-- Summer is gone, I'm a textbook and New Layout! --

2010-08-07T04:20:00.006+03:00

It looks unfair to say that summer is gone even if we are just starting August and parts of Europe are still suffering of heat waves, but my first summer in this tiny and green island (which is Ireland, again) is seriously making me think about whether I want to remain here or just leave for warmer fields next year.

So I have been doing a lot of thinking and have narrowed my options to three magical places, each one with its pros and cons. Again ,as I was raised by old-fashioned parents, I've decided to keep it as a secret so I don't jinx it, there is always a right time for everything and you'll know about it.

I've had quite an uneventful July to be honest, specially because the weather hasn't been helping much on my outdoor adventures and I am way too lazy to go out at night for a heavy pint of Guinness.
So you have me here writing about improvised barbeques with disposable 'barbequers' and burnt sausages while 'wifey' takes care of the shopping and the cleaning like every good girl should do (kidding, keep reading my blog please! lol), frustrated days-out which start with some encouraging "Looks nice today, let's go for a ride" phrases and end up with a terrible "Should have brought a jumper because I am feeling sick" kind of talk.

Also , my iPhone died on a ridiculously wet bike trip to the airport to watch the planes landing and to get a envelope with some important documents sent from mommy. If you can, avoid DHL please. The whole thing cost 50 euros for my mom and an iPhone for me, just because the delivery guy couldn't bother on looking at my humble middle class cul-de-sac in South Dublin and just registered the delivery as 'noone at home'.

A week later my old laptop (the one I bought in Doha as an emergency when I was in training and practically saw the world) died as well so, depressed because all my gadgets were starting to say their good-byes, I gathered enough courage to walk into that dreadful Macshop near Grafton Street and face all that friendly staff to buy a new Macbook which of course I am more than pleased to have.

Last week I got a call from my manager who asked me if I could work on a sport event the day after, so I dressed smartly and went to this bar to hand out some tickets while having a pint of cider and some chicken wings and then we took the bus to the shiny brand-new Aviva Stadium in Dublin where the mighty Manchester United players crushed some Irish combo-mumbo-jambo (Airtricity) on something that reminded me of one of the North Korea games on the World Cup...same score too: 7 x 1, but I'm sure that communist won't be pissed because of this one.
I got distracted by a 10 euros hot-dog and the non-stop mexican waves organized by a bored crowd that just looked very nice on my rusty camera while I was filming it.

Next morning I was taking my bus full of elderly people to beautiful Mullingar in the Irish Midlands, a place they love to send me to.
Again, "presentation-candy" sequence and off we went with the mute driver from 'Turtles', so bad when you have an hour-and-something journey and your colleague don't want to say a word.

Anyway, we went straight to the Belvedere Gardens where we had some 'compelling' tea and scones and then a guided tour performed by an EXPERIENCED guide in-loco.
Couldn't really see much as some of my passengers couldn't walk much so they split all over the gardens making me run through the whole place up and down locating them and taking them to the bus in the end of the trip.

Back to Mullingar town for some sightseeing and shopping spree!...Not for me though, I saw everything the little village had to offer in about 10 minutes, then I had two dreadful cheeseburgers prepared by this fat girl (I think she spit on our meals as she was so moody) and then I just laid on the grass of this small and plain park for an hour and a half thinking about life and listening to some music on my old iPod.

Dinner time at the hotel where the staff were very helpful and the food was extremely generous and then some entertainment time with dancing and singing. Self-steem Boaster as all the ladies wanted to dance with me and take several pictures while doing so, this special lady wearing a blue dress reminded me a lot of my grandma, my eyes filled with these so-called 'tears' when she hugged me and told me to hug her while her personal nurse from Cebu (Phils) was taking our picture.

Time to leave beautiful Mullingar with some rain behind, about four words spoken in total with the driver and back into Dublin in time for some cycling back home and some lazying around before going to bed.

Today I went to the barber shop and my Ukranian barber did a terrible job (still couldn't complaint as I only paid 5 euros for it), so I look like I'm gonna come up with a knife and take your belongings on the street, not a good look at all so will see how that goes but hey!, "Hair grows back , right?", like Homer Simpson's arms.

That's my update my dear readers, many things coming ahead in my life this month so stay in touch for more details!

I am also upgrading my blog (layout) a little bit to make it more, let's say interesting.

Did I tell you that I am a textbook and that...I am in love? =D

-- Mornin', I'm gonna be your tour guide for today! --

2010-07-01T20:31:00.004+03:00

And after months and months of practically nothing happening in my life (other than just eating , sleeping and maybe swimming a bit) I have many things to write about with even a big need of purchasing some Moleskine notebooks so I keep my thoughts in order and don't forget many things.

First of all my plans for 2011 are starting to take a new shape, so my surprise destination or should I say hometown for next year will be? ...remains as a secret.

On the other hand, I've been having quite busy days lately, specially because of some friends of mine that just can't stop stalking me , it's like I have no breaks anymore and I have been hardly ever online lately. My mom is definitely not pleased as I now spend a good amount of days without talking to her through the internet.

This week started with beautiful and warm mornings so it was just perfect to wander around the city (ditching college), have a nice breakfast with tea and scones, go to the park to lie on the grass and light up illegal barbeques (I don't care, the park ranger told us to shut it down when we were finished, satisfied and with our clothes smelling like burnt rubber), non-scheduled and free Irish dancing shows at the theatre and of course, yesterday was my first official tour in Ireland.

Again, lots of things resembled my cabin crew thingie from last year so they gave me a nice 'Athlone - River Shannon Cruise' which I could compare with a Dhaka or a Casablanca flight , not as bad as an Indian turnaround but definitely not a very good trip as well.
I got to the pick up point very early in the morning because my bike had a little technical problem the night before so I just took a bus there and since I didn't want to get lost or anything, left the house way ahead of time.
Noone was there so I even started wandering if I was in the right place, but after some five minutes all my beloved customers started to arrive and another tour guide who would be taking care of the second coach.

So there we were , 83 passengers distributed into two coaches heading to the Midlands. Shouldn't be a problem and the weather was just beautiful.
I remembered about my first flight last year (which was Stockholm) and would try to do anything but would be too scared of doing it or even talking about it.
My first minutes as a Tourist Guide were like that as I just tested the microphone for over ten minutes until I gathered enough courage to catch a little air and transform it into a "Good Morning Ladies and Gentlement, I'm gonna be your tour guide for today, I hope we spend a very good time together".

So head count done and noone missing, we departed South Dublin and hit the road non-stop to Athlone.
On the way there I unsucessfully tried to explain some interesting facts about the city and the region, thanks to my friend Wikipedia, but all I could hear in my head was yabbin', I do think that at some point it made sense to them (hopefully).

While getting to Athlone, some hour and a half away from Dublin, our driver performed a little bit by cracking some very nice jokes and singing. Of course that our customers loved it as most of them (all of them) were elderly women having a day-off.

On arrival ,we headed to our very nice hotel for some nice tea and scones combination (even had two scones today) and then back into town for some sightseeing while the whole group was split into two for the River Shannon cruise.

I got the second group so we had to wait some fifty minutes before we got into the boat. In the meantime and as we couldn't really go far, I had a good chance to bond a bit with my customers. All of them from Dublin, they just started asking all sort of questions about my background, my family, my travels, my tan?...anyway , it was very nice to chat with some of them as the sleazier ones would ask to take their picture with me so they could brag about it with their grand-children or would ask for simple hugs.

So we jumped into the boat and cruised around the River Shannon, first through Athlone where we had to dodge some floating devices installed for a big European Triathlon Competition starting the next day and, after crossing the M6 bridge, a strong mild wind welcomed us to Lough Ree, the second largest lake in Ireland (not a big thing to accomplish as the island is tiny) where there were loads of people windsurfing or just having a nice yatch-day.

Back in town we had around three hours to wander around and shop, I didn't really feel like shopping so I just took some pictures with my camera, went to the park until it started to rain and watched all triathletes training for the big day.

End of the afternoon and time to get back to the hotel for some nice 3-course meal consisting in homemade soup with vegetables and croutons, beef with vegetables and mashed potatoes and apple pie with cream for dessert. Some nice Earl Grey tea to wrap it up and back to the bus for our journey back to Dublin.

I admit that at this point I was extremely tired but at the same time we were trying to make the best of it ,so 10 sing-a-longs and some 30 jokes later we were safe and sound on our pick-up point.
Guess all the being nice and taking photos combined with a fitted shirt paid off in the end as our tip was extremely (and I mean it) generous, even though I had to refuse some "can I take you home" proposals.

It was a day full of enjoyment to be honest and I'm sure that there will be plenty more to come as like I always say: you have to enjoy what you do to make it right.

3-meal courses are lovely but on my way home I still stopped by Eddie Rockets for some super vessel-clogger combination of Homestack burger, the one full of bacon and sauce and some lovely cheese & bacon fries to finish the day (felt stuffed until today evening).

Next adventure: Don't know yet, let's see what rostering has prepared for me.

-- My Irish Life so far --

2010-06-25T14:14:00.003+03:00

OK, so here's the thing: after looking for a job for months, getting rejection letters kindly sent to my mailbox and being called 'overqualified' for some other basic jobs, I finally got one as something that many people would say it's my face and character.

No, I'm not flying yet and won't be doing so in the next months but until then , let me introduce to all of you to the new Irish Tourist Guide!. That's right, I'm just wandering around Ireland with bunch of tourists on coaches , talking and talking over my lovely microphone about geography and history of a country that is also very new to me.

I still don't know how I do it , I just know I do and love it!. Already had a training trip (or should I say 'suppy'or 'observer' so it looks more 'cabin crewly') and it was very enjoyable. We started by introducing ourselves to our customers which were mostly elderly people wanting to get out of their houses for the day.
Our trip continued heading South where we had a pit stop at a little town called Bray which resembled a lot like Brighton in the UK (but with more drugs) and we had a killer combination of tea with scones that was enough to keep us all alert for our trip through the Wicklow Mountains while explaining some interesting facts about the trip and the route.

I wasn't really explaining, I was in the process of learning. Instead, some sleazy elderly ladies would be asking me about my marital status, my height and would make interesting observations about my tan and my charm. Could really say it was an excellent self-steem boaster trip.
Still , it was nice to see my life through someone else's eyes as they just couldn't stop being interested in hearing about my trips and the gipsy-like lifestyle I have been carrying for quite a few time now.

After a long trip of odd flirting, nothing better than a fancy four-course dinner at the hotel with a lovely apple crumble pie with cream and fruit for dessert to end a nice and enjoyable day.

In addition, I've had my first exams at college (which were extremely easy and I did not need to study at all) and now I'm gonna be more free for more adventures for quite a while.
I'm making great friends as the days pass by and learning more fake facts about Ireland (because I do know that Napoleon was not born on Blarney Castle for example) and getting that interesting accent they have around here, so from now on you will not hear me saying 'not' or 'but', I'll just say 'nothhh' and 'buthh' since a lazy accent like Irish matches my...let's say laid back way to be.
Also developing a huge addiction to the, once again, killer combo of tea and scones neutralized by tons of walking through the city in flip-flops, cycling, swimming at the gym and some lovely and warm (read sacarsm there) competitions on the Irish Sea.

Lots of days which are full of contrasts: from simple things like having tea on a fancy and traditional tea house to crowded first-row Green Day concerts for free in a 6-hour span of time, life is finally starting to take a new shape and I like it!

That's it from this tiny and green island where the temperature does not overcome the 21 degrees Celsius mark and it's always overcast in the morning and sunny in the afternoon.

Next week I'm starting the tours on my own and will definitely have some interesting stories to tell. Flying Camba is grounded but has not stopped living.

-- Small Update --

2010-03-30T18:56:00.004+03:00

Since today it's snowing and raining at the same time and I didn't go to college, I thought I'd share something else with you my Dear Readers.

I've created a channel on Youtube where I uploaded some short videos recorded on my layovers. I'm more of a picture guy , however videos were necessary sometimes.

http://www.youtube.com/user/FlyingCamba

When I know about a nice program to edit video with pictures, I'll be sharing more of the adventures related in this blog.

Enjoy!

-- Some tips and questions answered --

2010-02-20T22:06:00.004+03:00

Well , since Dublin is being quite dull at the moment , I really don't have many things to share with you.

I am now on my third week here, walking around five kilometers a day handing CV's all over the place thinking on how funny it is when you are actually unemployed and it looks like you will never get a job again and when you finally got something , job opportunities just rain like a typical winter day in Ireland.

Freezing cold here as most of the European Union even though is not snowing. Today I was walking around the streets very early in the morning after some self-indulgence night (a.k.a dining and drinking a bit at some friend's house) and all the things around were frozen, still I had the courage to grab a bike and feel that very nice winter wind cutting my face skin like a knife.

A friend of mine currently working for Qatar Airways left me a message today asking how things were and how did I manage to do so many stuff on my layovers because for him, it looked like there wasn't enough time to do many stuff.
I thought it was funny to be asked for advice as I do remember some of my readers saying how impressed they were with my energy to walk around the places even after a 10-hour flight.
Well, I could classify myself as a traveler (and so I've been told), I've backpacked a lot before even joining the airline and also had the chance to travel around many places for swimming competitions.

Now, most cabin crew know the answers to this question so I thought this would be a nice reading for the FA Wannabes and also it could be something fun to read for someone already serving meals and 'looking for outside conditions' up in the skies around the world.

So the advices were:

- Sleep properly before the flight if you can. I know sometimes it looks impossible to be sleeping at 16:00 when the sun is shining through the curtains, however if you really can't, just lay on the bed and listen to some music on your iPod. If you can't sleep ,at least you are gonna be more relaxed.

- Eat before jumping on the pick-up bus. Otherwise your stomach will be grumbling on the briefing room and that's not very funny (at least not for yourself as other crew will probably laugh about your grumbly stomach). And remember: from the moment you board the plane, you will probably have a bite after two or three hours time.

- "Fly safe, God bless".

- Plane landed and after 10 hours you are extremely tired but you are definitely looking forward to see the place or at least you should be, just remember how many people feel they are lucky just to travel once every ten years to a neighbour city, now imagine yourself that get to be to many countries on the same week.
Even if you got a flight you didn't want (and I know Dhaka, Casablanca or Lagos are not your preferred destinations when bidding) remember that not many people are lucky enough to experience these places and at least when you grow old you can say: "See? Grampa was here too".

- Got your hotel room key and all you can think of is about that big king-size bed waiting for you but if you stick around there, you won't really see anything! what to do now?
Get yourself together , unpack, open the windows/curtains, turn on the TV on a local channel even if it is in Hindi, take your shoes off and lay on the bed for at least half an hour, in addition go to the toilet and do everything you have to...I mean it.

- Might sound a little dirty , but taking a shower right away never looked like a good idea, it will make you feel sleepy and if you fall sleep at this point...that was the end of your trip.

- Even though you probably landed at 14:00 pm in Beijing or at 06:00 am in Rome, the best way to adjust your body to the different times zones is to cheat your mind a little. Go walking! go around the neighborhood , wander around the swimming pool or if you are really into sightseeing , gather some people around and go see the city.
The important thing is to be back to bed when it's night time on the city you are at the moment, that way you'll rest properly (even if you've been awake for 36 hours straight) and you will feel well-rested and sound on the next day, ready for more sightseeing or your fly bound to base.

-Rent some friends. Happened a lot to me for those 'non-favourite' destinations.I would just go walking by myself and find some other tourists looking at their maps also trying to figure themselves around or saying words like "Apfelstrudel".
Also in some countries you can rent a taxi for a very cheap fare and that way you'll get the ride and also a free guided tour performed by a local who has been pretty much everywhere in his own city.

-Eat local food when possible. What's the point of going to Germany and eating pizza or going to Nepal and eating KFC?.

- And last but not least, enjoy like it was the first and last time you'll ever set a foot on the place. Because you really don't know when are you going back. Bidding systems are so tricky sometimes.

Those were my basic tips for him. Still haven't got a reply but I thought it'd be nice to share it, specially because I know how FA wannabes are always trying to gather as much information as they can and because some current FA will also identify themselves with some of these so called rituals.

As for me , I'm now under three covers and a good bowl of chicken soup and noodles.
Have a good one!

-- FlyingCamba is in Dublin...indeed! --

2010-01-29T19:28:00.004+03:00

And so the previous post became a reality.

Last week I left home after having around 7 different 'farewell parties' and flew straight to São Paulo , Brazil.
Like usual , it was a short hop within South America ( around 2 and a half hours ) and then me and two ex-colleagues from work back when I was an Industrial designer went to a little city called Piracicaba.

It was really nice because first of all ,it was incredibly hot and second, the host family there was amazing.
Starting with the huge lunch they had prepared for us upon our arrival including lasagna, barbeque and chicken ALL AT ONCE!

Then it was time for some sightseeing around the city where the main venue is the powerful Piracicaba river which at this time of the year is full of water and sometimes even flooding the adjacent streets ( yes, we also saw that).
These towns outside Sao Paulo grew with the sugar cane and cotton industry so you have plenty of old "fazendas" ( farms ) and a lot of history too.

More food for dinner under a hot and heavy summer rain and then went out to a 'barzinho' which is, of course like a bar when people sit to drink and talk , NOT TO DANCE.
The next morning I woke up a little sick, so really couldn't eat that much and we left town early.

The rest of the time in Sao Paulo was really enjoyable , I met a lot of old friends and colleagues and exercised a lot too!.
Had to hand some documents and do some paperwork at college,which in fact was the main purpose of the stop in Brazil.

Yesterday I prepared myself for another long trip across the pond so I left Sao Paulo at midday on a skinny TAM Airlines A320 bound to Rio de Janeiro where I had to wait for four hours to catch my connecting flight with Air France to Paris and Dublin.

And yes! I finally managed to travel on a classic Boeing 747-400 in a 11-hour flight to Paris.
Plane was quite old and there was no IFE but I was tired enough to not even bother about it. In addition, the seat next to me was empty , so I had more room to enjoy myself.
On the aisle seat ( as I had the window seat and there was nobody in the middle ) sat a guy with this thick accent...it was actually the first time I've ever met anyone from Azerbaijan!.

We had a one-hour delay because of a passenger that started to feel sick when we were on pushback , so we had to go back to the terminal and have her removed from the plane along with her baggage.

Arrived into Paris-Charles de Gaulle 2 at early morning with a lot of rain and a freezing temperature of 2 degrees. Had to take the connection bus to another terminal where I finally embarked on a little Bae-146 straight to Dublin.

Weather in Dublin was pretty nice when I arrived, it was freezing yet very sunny but as long as I got home it got cloudy again and right now it's quite dark.

Anyway , just a small update about what's going on here...
Au revoir ! Merci! Air France! Parreeeee!

-- 2009 is gone, what about 2010? --

2010-01-12T22:07:00.004+03:00

And so it is...2009 is gone!
For many people it was a good year, for some it was a terrible. We say many news around the globe, many natural disasters and Global Warming not looking like a bad joke anymore, Swine flu and even saw a movie showing how the end of the world would be in a short time (2012).

For me 2009 was a year of contrasts.
I started on New Year's Eve with the feeling of losing everything that was making me happy until then and feeling like there was no place to go , no choices and no recovering from that situation.
Cried a lot in my effort to think about options...but my friends and family wouldn't let me give up that easily.

I learned that friends who you might think that don't care about you, sometimes come to your rescue and cheer you up in every possible way. Anyway , I had amazing experiences and trips with them before my mother (the anchor of my family) told me that it was time to pursue what I wanted : TO LIVE MY OWN LIFE.

Packed my bags and left my city hoping for the best and landed into this cold and rainy place called Ireland.
Tried my lucks again without even really wanting it after a 20-hours flight and got my wings one month later.

The rest is all written in this blog : the amazing trips to places I barely knew that existed , the unforgivable experiences of lousy turnarounds or great layovers, the tireness product of not being able to sleep for about 38 hours and the amazing people I met during all these trips.
Traveled to over 30 countries and lived in three different world regions along 2009.
Somehow I also felt like I was bonding with some people through this blog and even felt a little useful to those cabin crew wannabes who were looking for reference or just amusing themselves with every story.

2010 is here now and I'm back to scratch. After spending my New Year at the woods with my dad, I had a lot of thinking and just know that I'm gonna make the best of it. Still not quite sure of what I'm gonna do next (even though I've got plane tickets bound back to Ireland with a one-week stop in São Paulo).

I will keep updating this blog about all the crazy stuff that involves traveling and maybe will be getting new wings soon? I don't really know...

I do know that I will try to just live my life, because I know God have always better plans for all of us and like we say around here: " The load will settle down along the road".

-- Merry X-mas! --

2009-12-24T17:05:00.004+03:00

Just a quick Merry Christmas wish from me to all my readers, hoping that all your wishes come true.

Let it be Jesus, God, Santa or any kind of elf with a magic wand you want to believe in, what I've learnt so far is that we only need to believe in something in order to get what we want.

Some people already got their wish this year and I just wish you to keep on enjoying it. Some people will get it soon as their struggle will continue until they achieve success.

As for me , gonna have a typical Christmas dinner with my whole family at home (with turkey and pork, even though I don't like pork).Cousins are bringing brazilian 'brigadeiros' for desert too!
Tomorrow my whole family is spreading around this beautiful continent, which will leave me alone in the house until the 28th when I'll be grabbing my backpack for the NYE Adventure which of course will be posting later.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FOR Y'ALL FULL OF TURKEY, PORK, BRIGADEIROS, FEIJÃO, ARABIC COFFEE, DISH-DASHES, PINTS OF GUINNESS, SHEPARD PIES OR WHATEVER YOU ARE USED TO CELEBRATE WITH AT HOME.

-- Birthday Bloggin' --

2009-12-14T20:48:00.005+03:00

Hey people! Today is Monday and I had a really hectic weekend.

First of all, celebrating the day I was born ,23 years ago in a hot and steamy summer day (or should I say night? I was born at almost midnight and it was because I was chubby enough to crawl out my mother's womb who did not wanted to carry me inside anymore).

It all started with a midnight celebration with some friends from Germany (the same ones who visited me when I was living in Ireland) who happened to be in here for some months. We met in a really typical burger shop in the city which has these huge burgers with a sauce kind of sweet and salty that I haven't found anywhere else in the world. And at midnight I had a birthday...chocolate? with a beatiful match on top of it.
Went back home and straight to bed but I couldn't sleep very well so just kept Facebooking and browsing through some of my old photos of this year until I finally got to sleep at almost 3 in the morning.

My mobile started to ring at 8 am with people calling me to wish me a "Happy Birthday" as usual and then went to the supermarket to buy some cake to share with my swimming pals.
Celebration was simple yet very cool. When I got back here two months ago I hardly knew anyone currently swimming at the pool I used to, as most people from my generation already quit or are doing something else.
But right now, after swimming every day I can say I know them already and it's always good to make new friends.

They get all excited when I tell stories about our old swimming trips around South America or when I tell any kind of jokes about it with my old coach who remembers everything like I do.

Anyway,I was there for a while and then went home for some family celebration.
My brother was already there preparing the barbeque and my cousins started to arrive some minutes after me.
Then came the rest of the people : aunts, uncles , my mom with the cake and my niece and nephew, God they are huge and beautiful!

It was so cool again , just kind of updating everything that happened to us through the whole year as we don't really get much chances to see each other and a nice conversation along with some very nice cooked barbeque and a strawberry cake (this time with a candle).
Then was time to celebrate with my father, it's his birthday as well (my mom's intention was for me to be his present...not quite sure about it) so we met him on a cafe and just ate MORE and chatted.

Day was not over there, one of my best friends invited me to a party at his house so went there for some ARAB FOOD !!! (as his family is from Lebanon) and was just nice to hang around there eating until I had to say 'NO'. Yes, I had to show the pictures from my trips I've got on my iPhone all over again.

Got home at around one in the morning and had to wake up at six because I was gonna go with me cousin and my sister-in-law to a town nearby here named Cotoca.
Typical South American tradition, there's a Virgin people in the region adore (like a Saint)named "Virgencita de Cotoca" and people make promises to her and go there walking to thank for it when the wish finally comes true.

Of course they did as well, so we woke up and headed to the road for some nice and 'tiring-under-the-sun-at-32-degrees-Celsius' walk of 23 kilometers to this place.
It was nice though , I hardly felt it as we were just chatting about lots of nonsense and drinking lots of water. There were thousands of people walking too , so it was quite interesting , we were even competing with some groups of people to make it more amusing.
My aunt who lives in Spain and happens to be here visiting as well was waiting for us there and we lit some candles , ate some typical 'arepas' and headed straight back to Santa Cruz.

How cool is to see all of these traditions? Traveling definitely makes you realize about the little things , even the ones that were always near you but couldn't be bothered to notice before.

Then some nice typical lunch with my family and back home for some rest but when I was about to fall asleep my friends (the ones I was talking about from the swimming club) called me to go to this resort about 50 kilometers away from here as they had free admissions. So grabbed my car keys and went straight there.
Anyway , we couldn't get it as we got there quite late and went to this other town nearby to eat homemade ice-cream and just chill around the square.

Well...quite a busy weekend and now X-mas is almost here! gonna spend it with my family but as my mom is traveling on the 25th early morning I'm doing so as well.
Still cordinating some stuff as airfares are not really that expensive to go to the US again but I am quite keen on backpacking through South America for around 10 days again.

Will let you all know about it and write big posts about those trip details.

By the way, Discovery Channel is taking participants for one of the best realities "The Amazing Race" and I'm really thinking about submitting my application!
Should I?

-- And December has come --

2009-12-08T19:50:00.004+03:00

And I have had really intense days.

As I'm practically on holidays, my life here has been reduced to sleep until late morning , have lunch , sleep a little more, heading to the city centre to run everyone else's errands and then to the swimming pool for training.

I must admit that I love training and I'm having a great time swimming again , might even participate in a National Competition over the next days, if they confirm the championship.

Also been having some good news related to flying and good times are coming soon.

My birthday is this week also, will turn 23 and planning on making the best of it. Soon will also be Christmas time ( my favourite time of the year ) and New Year's which I'll be spending backpacking through South America...Oh I hate traveling!

Anyway , Talk soon people!

-- Reporting --

2009-11-05T21:19:00.003+03:00

Hello my dear readers!

I have not forgotten about you. I am putting all things together in my life and soon will be blogging like I used to.

As for me, I am still on ground but will be taking-off sometime again (hopefully).

Cheers!

-- Live from South America, this is an update --

2009-10-15T20:56:00.005+03:00

When I was coming back home many thoughts came to my mind, considering that I had around 31 hours of traveling, one of these thoughts was wether I should or shouldn't close this blog.

This blog started as a way to let my family and friends to know what I was doing , where and how and also as reminders for me in the future, specially because on a cabin crew life , everything is really hectic and you tend to forget many things or details.

Still, since I got here my feedback has been great, readers feeling sorry and encouraging me to keep on moving or just saying nice words.
The experiences I had in fact changed my life and the way I look at it now, but this blog and the feeling that I was doing something right by sharing experiences with my readers and all the feedback, really changed the way I look at myself now so this space became like an adiction for me ( Yes, I do check like three times a day how many and where my visitors are from ).
Also I think I have become more positive now and I'll go after my new wings anytime soon.
My life here is quite good, I was really needing to see my family and share moments with them , my niece and nephew are huge and can say "uncle" now.
My family was really supportive with all of this and they say that they feel proud of me for the things I've achieved so far ( which I truly don't know what exactly that stands for).
I do admit that my life got more interesting now and many of my friends agree with that, it's funny how the same questions keep repeating everytime I meet with any of them:
- Which one was the best city you've ever been to? Why?
- Do you like your job?
- What's your favourite country?
- Which ones are the worst passengers?

People also tend to think that our job is just serving trays and wander around five-star hotels with our trolley bags and I just think it's funny to explain that it goes way beyond that,with a shy smile and a final statement saying : " Remember to be a good passenger next time you fly".
Anyway, I am really enjoying my time right now just sharing experiences the way I have been doing it in this blog.I will be also traveling soon , don't want to tell where or why now because not even I do where am I heading , need to clear my mind and sort some things out.
Will let you know as soon as I get back.
Weather here is getting hotter by the day as I've been skipping from summer to summer and again summer, can't really complaint about that ( well, maybe when it was 49 degrees Celsius in Doha ).

Talk soon! Enjoy!

-- Yes , I've seen Greenland! Have you? --

2009-10-09T14:57:00.005+03:00

So the trip back home promised to be really long , I didn't want to believe it as I thought I was used to fly for many hours and still feel happy.
Anyway the trip was indeed extremely long and got home incredibly tired.

Took off from beautiful Doha early in the morning on a brand new B777-300ER which was not that full ( even though it looked like a Bombai flight as most of the passengers were coming from that place we all know about ), so I got the chance of getting three free seats in a row for me to stretch / sleep / rest. In the end it was a 14-hour flight to Washington.
So there I was...the two first hours were OK as the crew were doing service. I had fun seeing how things are done from the passenger view and it was so entertaining to think about the service or the way they are doing it or how would you do it if that was you, etc.

Still had 12 hours to kill though, so tried my best to sleep (and I was unsucessful) even though I hadn't sleep the night before due to my farewell gatherings/parties and instead just sat there and watched around four movies and 8 episodes of The Simpsons and Friends.

On the hour number nine ,airshow screen was showing that we were flying over Greenland? No way! grabbed my camera, quickly went to the R5 door and the view was just incredible: icebergs, glaciers, high mountains, everything covered with snow.
Still couldn't believe that I was so lucky to see a place that not many people get to see so , even though I never sat a foot there, at least I can say that I've seen Greenland.

Back to my journey, after 14 hours we landed safely into Washington Dulles Airport where I had to clear immigration, pick-up all my luggage and send it again through the United Airlines counters.
From Washington to Miami they gave me the chance to fly United Express, I did know what the 'Express' was meaning and when I saw the plane my eyes were glowing: I was gonna fly a beautiful and small EMB-170.

Made a mistake though , I was feeling hungry, so prior to departure I purchased a huge foot-long sandwich at Subway (which was next to my boarding gate ) and ate it too fast, so I was feeling miserable on the plane to Miami.
Plane was still very comfortable despite the fact that legroom was miserable but still, Embraers are nice and quiet.

Arrived into Miami with some beautiful cumulonimbus formations and some crying babies on the plane and discovered that I had to go from Terminal G to Terminal C and only had 15 minutes before the check-in closing time.
So practically I had to run with my luggage again through the terminals to the American Airlines check-in area.

The girl from the counter told me that indeed it was closing , so gave me a boarding pass without any seat number as they would assign me a seat number once on the gate.
Indeed on the gate they were announcing that the flight was overbooked and they were needing two volunteers to stay in Miami as AA would pay for the expenses and hotel.

As I was feeling quite sick and tired I was the first one to volunteer, so with all my charm and a half-way smile I went and said : 'I want to volunteer, I'm extremely tired...been flying so much today'. The woman told me that since I had no seat assigned she couldn't do it. Bummer!

Five minutes later they called my name. The lady told me that she was so sorry that I couldn't stay but since I looked like a nice guy and I was tired , she was gonna give me a surprise: read on my boarding pass BUSINESS CLASS PASSENGER.

So there I was enjoying Business class treatment all the way from Miami, although I didn't get to know much about it as when they served dinner I just collapsed of tiredness only waking up when the light but fair breakfast was being served.
Eight hours later I was on top-of-descent for Santa Cruz starting to get anxious, remembering the glow on the eyes of my Dhaka passengers when they were arriving home after years of living abroad.
Landed safely , cleared immigration , picked up my luggage and there they were...the reason of my happyness...

I was so tired that I couldn't even get emotional! but I was so happy to see my mom and family, the feeling is just priceless.

Got home and since I was used to arrive from a flight, get dressed and go for a walk, it happened the same way here as I tried to sleep and I couldn't, so started to unpack and put all things together in my 'new' room.
Now I'm here at the other side of the world, figuring out what's gonna be my next step knowing that I won't be long since I leave this place again.

As for the blog...of course this is not the end (otherwise I wouldn't be writing right now) so I'll see you all around.

-- Not good-bye, it's a see you later --

2009-10-04T16:56:00.008+03:00

I got into lots of troubles the past days and I was just dealing with all of that, therefore my roster got cancelled and after dealing with all the paperwork , I'm sad to say that I am going home.

I feel really sad about all of this as these months were amazing.

Went to places that I never thought I would ever set a foot on (went to 23 new countries since I started flying) saw amazing landscapes, experienced amazing foods, enjoyed beautiful beaches and discovered something new in me: I JUST LOVE FLYING, and that's the only job in my life that I actually felt work-a-holic for.

And there's a thing that actually kills my mind in this moment : I made the best friends I could have ever asked for in my life, those friends that would call you and support you whenever you were sad, the ones that would share adventures and tales all the time , the ones you would be proud to show to the world , they were my second family , AND WHAT A FAMILY!...I just can't believe I am now leaving them.

So these months I went from recruitment to training , to flying and to finally going home. I hope that all of you had enjoyed my crazy writings around the world, I'm pretty sure that this is not the end and somehow God has better plans for me and I'll be having new wings sometime soon.
Flying brought to light the best part of me and made me realize how nice is to work with people and how interesting the world can be, I know that I will never be the same person after this experience and also know that it won't be the last as I'll still pursuit my 'flying dream'.

All I have left to say now is THANK YOU , thank you my readers, because your support and comments kept me writing about my crazy thoughts along the trips, because when I was somewhere around I would think: ' my readers would like to know about this', because I really enjoyed taking my time to write as detailed as possible so you could see through my eyes the world I was seeing, and thank you for sharing your time reading.
And specially thanks to all my friends who put up with me for the past six months, I will always have you all in my mind.

I am leaving now, though I know that it won't be that long until I'll be seeing you again in the skies/layovers/hotels/buses of the world.

As for my readers, I will still update my blog with some Latin America crazy stuff because it is quite an interesting continent to describe as well.

So UK, Equador, Brazil, Chile, Romenia, Australia, South Africa, Philippines, New Zealand, Spain and Bolivia...you made my day, EVERY SINGLE DAY!. Good Luck and Fly Safe!

-- DOH-DAC-DOH-TIP-CMN-TIP-DOH-DXB-DOH...OMG --

2009-09-26T23:50:00.008+03:00

Just landed from my monthly-basis Dubai turnaround and I'm glad that finally got two days-off to rest from the Flying Marathon I had the past days. It's also the main reason why I haven't been updating the blog.

It all started with my unsucessful Stand-by session which I didn't get pulled out of, so I was forced to stay in Doha for almost six days in a row ( new record since I started flying ). Because of this I was kind of looking forward to operate my next flights , just for the fact of flying and leaving the city.

So I was wearing my huge smile on the briefing room for my rostered flight: Doha-Dhaka-Doha-Tripoli-Casablanca-Tripoli-Doha-Dubai-Doha, all of these sectors with the same crew.
It's like rostering gives you a package of seven days to bond with some crew members and try to work things out in diferent flights and days.

Luckily for me, the crew were very nice and we really worked together pretty much well in all sectors ( we were 'Suffering Buddies' ) and the enviroment inside the aircraft was very positive, even in the harder sectors which I'll be explaining step by step.

Most of the crew are a little scared about Dhaka flight , considering that Bangladesh is a really poor country and most of our passengers bound there are labourers working in Qatar or the UAE with no basic sanitary conditions such as proper toilets, so you can imagine how messy the flight can be, but even though one passenger vomited on the corridor while we were serving meals, the flight went without any troubles and the passengers were quiet and peaceful.
On landing into Dhaka, my crew seat was facing my bengali passengers and I just got impressed with the glow in their eyes on touchdown as they knew they were finally home. I can identify myself with the feeling of getting out of the aircraft as quick as possible and just hug your beloved ones when arriving home(I can't wait to go home).

Dhaka Zia International Airport is quite modern and neat, the hotel is near the airport and has all the amenities of a decent terminal and the hotel was brilliant and very comfortable. But is it worth to spend the whole time at the hotel when you have new world to discover?
I slept for one hour , had a huge buffet brunch and took a taxi to downtown Dhaka and explored a little.
My luck was that they were celebrating Eid festivities in Bangladesh so traffic on the streets was very light and had time enough to see all Dhaka main sightseeing spots.
The city is really messy and you see beggers eveywhere , yet the contact they have with their own culture shown in the way they dress and the way they live their life in general still impresses me big time. ( maybe the whole experience was completed with a little help from my taxi driver who kindly made me listen a Hindi music CD on the car radio,changed at the end of the day for a mixed 'Female Pop International Collection' one ).
Went to the former Royal Palace, a beautiful pink building surrounded by well-groomed gardens and lots of guards and then to Dhaka University with a typical Indian/British architecture.
The taxi driver also took me to the Parliament , a huge building with the architecture completely based on geometrical forms ( triangles, squares, cylinders ),then to a Hindi Temple named Dakeshwhari and in the end of the day, straight to Gurjan zone to buy DVD's.
The taxi driver was crazy for me to try some typical Bengali food but I just wouldn't like to go back to Doha as a dead-heading passenger all sick and full of virus running through my digestive tract.
Got to hotel just in time for dinner with some six of the crew members and we just ate a lot ( the food was brilliant ) , talked about many things, laughed and had a great time dining.
The next day it was rainy and cloudy the whole day , so I decided to make it a 'relaxation and lazy day' which meant: waking up , look through the window, sleeping more , waking up again, order room service, sleep more, watch half of a movie , internet , gym , some pool when the sun was out for like an hour , some more internet and then prepare for the flight back home.

The flight back was not really full and I got my galley again ( seriously, now I'm Mr. Galley ) and we were just enjoying the flight laughing so the five and a half hours just flew by very fast.

Got into Doha at almost midnight and went to bed as I would have only 24 hrs before the next 'leg of the race'. Didn't really have much time, so I just did some laundry , went for a quick lunch with my friends at Chilli's and went to the Mall to buy some things and groceries in Carrefour.
I didn't even unpack my suitcase, just took out the dirty clothes and put some new ones on it , the rest remained the same.

So again I was on the aircraft with the same crew going on what was going to be a really long flight starting with boarding when most of our passengers wouldn't speak English and none of the crew members would speak Arabic, now imagine how to tell a passenger that refuses to hear that he has to take his/her seat as the plane is full and can't simply swap because they want to chit-chat during the flight.
How come ground staff don't figure out that? How come didn't they passengers say that to them?. There was a time that all of the crew doing boarding looked at each other and started to laugh , it was just useless to even think about a solution.
Felt like playing 'Passenger Tetris' after a while , as we were already delayed and just asked to the passengers to seat in the nearest available seats and try to arrange them in a way that they would feel a little satisfied ( maybe? ).

Flight departed and we were doing just fine, the service went quite well and the passengers were quite happy with the service and the meals...Dejej? Samac? Cafe? Chai?.
After five hours in the early morning we arrived into Tripoli and around twenty passengers disembarked here, so we still had pretty much a full flight to Casablanca. Transit was peaceful but I was feeling really tired already.

Last part of the flight and we had another service, again the passengers were pleased and I was impressed by the new use of the air sickness bags: you can stow some of the useful things that come with the tray and even some hot meals ( for later ).
Anyway , landed into Casablanca and the weather was just beautiful. The queue in the airport was massive , even for the Crew fast track lane, so we got to the hotel only two hours after our arrival.
I didn't notice much , as soon as I boarded the bus , just fell asleep heavily and woke up at the hotel door near Casablanca City Centre.

Had a quick one-hour nap and headed straight to the train station to take the train to Marrakech, where a lot of people told me that was beautiful.
Anyway, the Concierge at the hotel gave me the wrong schedule so by the time I got there, the train was already gone and it was not worth to catch the next one as I was gonna get into Marrakech too late and would have to come back too soon to Casablanca.

Went back to the hotel, had some water and decided to walk around the city.
My first stop was Ancienne Medina , an old market full of streets with old-fashioned and creepy hotels, stores where you could find anything you could imagine and seafood restaurants.

Then following my 'cheater map' ( call it like that because on the map everything looked so close, which of course it wasn't ) I got to the Grand Mosque , which some people told me it was the biggest mosque in the world...not sure about it , but it was quite big and impressive.

Every details in the walls , fountains , ceilings and corridors was prefectly thought and the place is peaceful and beautiful.
The way they managed the lights, the shadows, it could be really hot outside but inside it's always pleasant and well lit.
Took several pictures and met a lot of tourists , most of them were Spanish and Portuguese coming on several cruise lines that arrive to Casablanca and then continue by bus to Marrakech or Fes.

The mosque is by the ocean so the Atlantic breeze was perfect for the mild weather and clear skies we were having.
Decided to go further and went walking to the Lighthouse ( a bad choice as the place was very dodgy and dangerous) and then found a Mc Donalds when I had a quick pit stop and then just took a taxi back to the hotel.

Already tired, decided to quickly check my e-mails, ordered some room service and had a nice sleep until the next morning.
Next morning I was feeling lazy and knew that I had to be well-rested to cope with the return sector , so just stayed at the hotel , went to the gym, ordered a huge breakfast, watched TV, slept more and did a final photo shot round on the Ancienne Medina before preparing for the flight back.

Flight back was very challenging , from Casablanca to Tripoli was quite empty so it was really easy, the worst part was that most of our passenger embarked in Tripoli and then it became really heavy as they wouldn't speak any English as well ( nor we'd speak Arabic ), most of them were very rude and we even had some unruly passengers on board.

Just got home this morning incredibly tired and went straight to bed as I had minimum rest and then woke up and got ready for the Dubai turnaround.
I like this flight, it's usually peaceful and hectic so you can't even notice about timings as when you finish the service , you are landing already.

Anyway , I finally got back and have two well-deserved days-off. Next month is gonna be really hectic as well and even though I feel tired, I kind of like it!
Also bought a ticket to Cairo for my days-off , so next month I'm gonna see the Pyramids and some other things I've been wanting to in a long time.

-- Eid Mubarak = Early Roster --

2009-09-17T22:53:00.005+03:00

I'm not trying to be disrespectful with any Muslims , I respect a lot their religion and somehow I find it interesting ( maybe not when the mosque besides my building wakes me up at four in the morning with the prayings in the loudspeaker ).
With the end of Ramadan comes Eid which is the biggest celebration of all the fasting period, therefore everything came earlier this month : payments, administrative issues and my October roster.

September was not very attractive to me as I got a nice round of Stand-by which I didn't get pulled out of and one trip to the airport for an useless Airport Stand-by session ( I was about to be pulled out for Tunisia, but then the crew member showed up so I didn't ).

Anyway, I scored my record of block hours for October ( around 120 ), no Stand-by's and only two easy turnarounds.
My month starts in Cebu, which I decided not to swap as I do believe that the beaches and the experience in beautiful Philippines is worth the 10-hour flight.

On the even brighter side, I will be going to London not once or twice, but FIVE times, so will practically be moving to the UK. Still I do believe that as London is one of the world's capitals, you'll never run out of things to do there and I like the shopping as well.

What else? Oh yeah , they got me two Trivandrum's ( India ) which I didn't request for , but still beats other Indian destinations as it is a 24 hours layover and not an overnight extremely tiring turnaround.

Seychelles what? Twice? Heading to the tropical and beautiful Seychelles islands paradise two times this month with crew that I actually know, so the fun is guaranteed.

Have one lovely row of days-off also so I'll might be heading out to those places I've been wanting to go like Cairo , Abu Dhabi or Petra (Jordan).

These days haven't been flying , as I said, after Cebu I had three days-off and then a row of unsucessful Stand-bys. Yet it was a good oportunity to think about a lot of stuff, do some shopping, as I was really needing some things and what I like to call as ' friends rediscovering' ( even managed to watch The OC with one of my friends, the whole first season in one afternoon! )
As for me , tomorrow I've got the last Stand-by which I don't think I'll be pulled out of and then gonna be heading to lovely Dhaka for some ISC experiences , pampering at the hotel and some DVD shopping.

Eid Mubarak for y'all!

-- Philippines, Sirrrrr --

2009-09-13T11:39:00.006+03:00

Who would have ever thought that a twenty-minutes Bahrain turnaround would complicate things so bad afterwards?. I had this lovely and easy turnaround in the early morning ( had to wake up at 5 am) and then I went home for some minimum rest in preparation for my Cebu flight.
Just the basic things: met friends, went to the gym , had some dinner , went online and then got ready for a long night of flying.

This flight is particularly easy: not many passengers and filipinos are really easy going, most of the crew were also filipino as they bid for the flight to see their family and friends. Everything was looking so easy but sometimes you just cheat yourself.
Flying time: 10 hours and 10 minutes, now I remembered why I hate such long flights without any rest. My Bahrain experience in the morning really kicked out after five hours of flying when I started to feel crushed and sick.
I got my mid galley (you can call me Mr. Galley now ) and everything went just fine for the first half of the flight until we passed over the Bengali sea when our calm flight became a rollercoaster: turbulence, dive up and down and I got one of my lovely stomach acidity attacks so the feeling was not good at all, we even had to put ahead our top of descent for one hour and just sit and secure everything as weather was not helping at all.

Arriving into Cebu the weather was not nice , but it was not rainy and it was really hot and humid. I just wanted to know about two things: eat something nice and sleep.
The hotel was really nice, right besides a Mall so it was also very convenient. Cebu also reminded me a lot about Latin America , sometimes felt like I was staying in Colombia or Equador, surrounded by a crowd of people and 'jeepneys' (Cebu official public transport) trying to make their way through the streets.
We just got dressed and lots of the crew gathered at the lobby for dinner so we went to this really nice restaurant that served filipino dishes like Sizzling fish and Grilled Squid, and everything so cheap and neat.
You can really see how filipinos love shopping (as our filipino purser said), the city is not really big sized but they have like four major shopping centres with every store you can think of, even Mark and Spencers!

After a good night of sleep my phone rang at 7:30 with a singaporean crew calling to wake me up for a sightseeing day , we took a taxi to the port and jumped into the first ferry to Tagbilaran on Bohol Island.
It takes one hour and forty minutes to get there and the place is just beautiful. Rented a van for the whole day that took us through the island to see the Tarsier: the smallest monkey in the world which is also an endangered animal and looks odd: big eyes , bat ears, rat tail and monkey body. Then straight to the Chocolate Hills which are a natural phenomenon created when the whole region was under water so the massive waves shaped the terrain with perfectly simetrical hills that resemble chocolate drops on the ground (although it looks like it was man-made).
Again came the ' What am I doing here?' feeling and just enjoyed the view for a short time as then we headed to what I was looking for in my Cebu trip: the beach.
Some major highlights about this van ride was the fact that the road is really narrow in the mountains and still the driver was trying to overpass the cars when taking curves (almost pissed in my pants a little bit) and the best part was when I was falling asleep and I got woken up by a cellphone ringtone, one minute later I found out that our driver was TEXT MESSAGING whilst driving , how cool is that!. Talk about crazy driving huh!

The driver took us to Panglao Beach and we were there for the rest of the day. The beach was just beautiful: white sand , blue water, coconut trees and the best part: no people around! (ok, maybe ten maximum ).
Just lazing around in the hammocks, bathing in the warm water, playing with the starfish (now I know how starfish turn themselves up to the right position) and we even rented a kayak to wander around the water for sometime.
Even though I really didn't want to leave the place , we had to, so time to take the ferry back to Cebu and then just sleep like a baby for several hours.

Last day in Cebu was a 'lazy day' just went out to the Mall for some filipino grocery shopping: that purple marble bread loaf, otap , polvoron and of course my new addiction: dried mangos!.
Then just resting at the hotel ( as I learnt my lesson from the flight to Cebu) and got ready for the flight back.

Flight back was full but nice , we had some really heavy bumps along the way but nothing compared to the previous flight. The crew was just lovely helping each other, smiling , making jokes, some of the girls even brought filipino food for us to have a taste...anyway I didn't feel the ten-hour flight back to Doha.

Now I am here, having three days-off before my next ' beautiful roster' assignment: Airport Stand-By.
Enjoy and Salamat!

-- Eurotrip Part 2 ( and fasting pax ) --

2009-09-05T11:01:00.006+03:00

My willing to work was tested to its limit as I was even looking forward to operate my Beirut turnaround so , with the major happiness I wore my uniform and went to the airport to operate this 'lovely' turnaround.
The crew was nice and the outbound flight was really empty but most of my passengers were fasting ( Ramadan ) and they were really moody.
As the sunset came, they started to really get impatient and anxious and when the fasting time was over we were already descending, now tell me: Try to explain them that we couldn't give them anything to eat as we were preparing to land. They almost ate us alive so we had to improvise some things to give them and keep them happy, air sickness bags are so handy sometimes!.
Beirut seemed lovely , I will definitely go there on my days-off (considering that from next month I'm gonna have my rebate tickets ).
Way back was full, but most of them were nice and the service was easy.

Some minimum rest after I was back on the airport to operate a Munich flight. This was my first time in Germany and a swapped flight (bye-bye short Saigon) so I was looking forward to it.
Both sectors were full and I got the 'privilege' of having the galley on the way there. Must say that loading six carts twice , plus do all the paperwork really killed my back as I am still having some back pain.
That was a tough flight physically speaking and catering was not helpful with me. Luckily I had my korean assistant who really helped me a lot.

Arriving into Munich we had a short layover so I tried to make the best of it.
The weather was just beautiful and me and the three romenian girls decided to go for a walk and have some dinner. Since it was Monday ( I think ) the only restaurant opened nearby was an Italian restaurant , so we ate Italian food in Germany!!!

Had some nice sleep as the next morning woke up really early and went by myself for some sightseeing. The hotel was in the City Centre so I just walked across the beautiful English Gardens and went to more gardens? and then Alexanderplatz and Marienplatz.
Even had the chance to see the little fake people in the Marienplatz clock tower moving as it was the o'clock hour.
Then went to buy some German goodies a.k.a. Haribo and Nutella, and then just wandered around the river until I got to the hotel again through the English Gardens where at this part of the day were full of naked people taking a sunbath.
Couple of hours of sleep and then got ready for the way back.

Flight was good as well, my passengers were polite and asked me lots of questions about this Cabin Crew life even when we were landing.
Not much time to rest and some hours later I was there again bound to London Gatwick.
Most of my crew was changed and pulled out from Stand-by to operate this flight so they were not enjoying it as much. I realized that it really changes the entire mood in the aircraft, I can't say they were bad, but I really didn't have fun on both sectors.

Again got a galley and had a really physical job, I just couldn't bear my back anymore and some lovely passenger that was coming back from Bangkok and apparently got food poisoned, vomited all over my galley later on making it the highlight of the flight.

Anyway , thought it was time to rest? half an hour after I got my key and me and one paraguayan crew went out to London (town?) to meet a friend of mine who was gonna show us around , so Victoria Station was our meeting point.
So nice to see friends ' on the other side' as we say , specially when we haven't seen them in many years and we can also notice how moving really changes people, how they grow up , how they sometimes become colder or warmer or even more humble.

First stop: Buckingham Palace, snapshot here, snapshot there, Lords here, Statue there and time to continue the 'Japanese Tour' , walking through Hide Park we got to Picadilly Circus when I had the classical picture with the bunch of signs 'à la Time Square' and then some rest to have something to eat.
As we were on the City Centre, I decided to do some quick shopping and went to Covent Garden area to find what I'd say it was my favourite candy shop ever: sweets from all over the world and of course: My beloved Whams!

Then some blocks away while eating my Whams and we got to Trafalgar Square where we took pics of the National Gallery and took some shots inside the lions mouths, very American!. From there we could already see the Big Ben and walked straight there.
That's a classical London moment , to go and take several pictures at Westminster Bridge where you have a clear view of the city's skyline , the London Eye , Aquarium and of course, Westminster and the Big Ben.

After half an hour of a cheap photo shoot session , decided that it was time to take the Tube (and mind the gap) to Tower Bridge, another famous landmark.
A perfect place to experience the city's weather as it started to rain and get really windy until our umbrellas got inside out.
From there we went into the tube again and headed to Greenwich village where we had a really nice picnic in the gardens and then some funny moments at the Greenwich Line ( like when I went to Equator ): one leg on each side of the world.

Day was getting cold and dark but the place was lovely , you could see all of London from the hill and also all planes approaching into Heathrow , we even saw our beloved A340-600 doing the final turn , inbound from Doha.

As I was 36 hours without having any sleep , my body was crying for some rest so, bus here, tube there, station here, transfer there, train here, walking there, we said our good-byes to my friend and headed to the hotel.
Got online for like one hour and when I realized I was mixing portuguese with spanish and english when chatting with my brother, I knew it was time to sleep.
Flight back was next early morning and passengers were fine, service was also quite easy even though still the crew was not in a really good 'aura'.

Back in Doha now for four lovely days...hope I don't run out of ideas on what to do around here, the good news is that is not that hot anymore and nights are becoming more pleasant to go for a walk or some light snacks at the Souq.

-- Get me out of here! ( and September Roster ) --

2009-08-28T22:26:00.008+03:00

I must say that I am not a 'work-a-holic' and I normally enjoy resting and sleeping , but having four days-off in a row when I didn't ask for it ( and believe me , there are crew that practically fight to have them ) was just too much for me.

Got to a point that I had to call rostering and tell them that I was (gasp! ) WILLING TO WORK ON MY DAYS-OFF! How bizarre, never thought in my whole life that I'd do that!
Even felt a little nerdy by doing it but it's ok , they didn't call me anyway and I got to spend those days enjoying our beautiful Qatari summer weather.
The good thing is that I got to sort a lot of things out , some visa stuff for my annual leave , which I'm getting really desperate to get as I'm dying to see my family and also got to spend some more time toasting at the beautiful swimming pool that today wouldn't make me feel better as the water was also hot, so there was no relief whatsoever to the fourty-ish degrees Celsius temperatures here.

"Ramadan Kareem" for you people! We can't drink or eat in public , so standing by the pool under the Arabian sun without having any water is also a big issue.
By the time I got home , I was tired, sunburnt and dizzy...but I'm not complaining, had great company so it was definitely worth it.

So , I got my roster when I was in Rome and this is what I got:

- My month starts in Munich ( remember that I swapped that one for my Saigon?) where I'll have a short but nice layover good enough to go buy some scale planes at Herpa, some original and thick german Nutella and some Haribo cola gummies.

- Coming back and with minimum rest I'll go to London Gatwick. The original intention of that flight was to go with a friend who would show me around South London , but I got the flight and he didn't, so I have to go to London and do some japanese tourist sightseeing by myself ( and also buy some Wham candies ).

- Some days-off and one lovely Bahrain-basketball turnaround later, I am going to 'P'iliphines, to some city named Cebu. I requested this one because they told me it was cheap and there were some lovely beaches around the islands.

- Now things get hard as I got a nice round of Stand-by's together even though I've always been lucky with those , let's see if this month my love story with rostering still continues.

- Then things are even harder as Mr. Roster is always trying hard to send me to Dhaka, so as the first month , I got a beautiful Doha-Dhaka-Doha-Tripoli-Casablanca-Tripoli-Doha, being a total of six days in the roster with the same crew.
If you thought that was enough , arriving from Morocco I got minimum rest and got my monthly basis Dubai turnaround.

-Cairo follows ( this time on a A330 ) and then I'm off to some beaches again to beautiful Cebu!

That's basically it , I can't really say that my roster is gonna remain the same as it's always changing, normally for good.

Once again , Ramadan Kareem for you people, I am not fasting but still trying to lose some pounds in the new rowing machine.

-- Eurotrip? --

2009-08-25T14:03:00.007+03:00

My lip healed and I was cleared to operate my Paris flight which I was really looking forward to as my roster this month kept changing and changing like an Indian airport departures board.

I flew there with two of my batchmates, as it was our first operative A340-600 flight and we were rostered together.
At first I thought we were going to Bombai as most of our passengers were Indians ( bound from different cities around the subcontinent ) going to Paris and yes , all of them carrying European passports and speaking french. Still, the flight was really quiet but since we had two services, it was really hectic and we had the chance to rest for only half and hour.
Time to land in Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport with a beautiful weather , different from our departure city (Doha ) which these days resembled of a steam oven,and we are the rice being cooked.

No time for resting , twenty minutes after getting our hotel keys , we took the commuter to Paris Notre Dame Station.
Outside the station , just walked a little and there it was the beautiful Sena river and of course Notre Dame church bursting with people as some light summer rain started to fall when we arrived.
Getting into the church was really hard considering the amount of people but it was worth it, inside there were beautiful religious pieces and a really colossal architecture.

We didn't have too much time , so after taking some pictures we started our long walk along the Sena to the Louvre Museum and Square, beautiful place but really overcrowded so I decided that I would actually go inside on my next Paris, the weather was just way too beautiful to waste it by seeing paintings.
From Louvre we just followed the Gardens to Concorde Square and then walked feeling the 'chicness' of the Champs Elisees towards the Arc do Triomph.

Lots of stores, bistros and people just walking around taking pictures and enjoying the view.
We were starving so we had...Mc Donalds? but looking at the bright side: we had Mc Donalds at the Champs Elisees!
Arc do Triomph is bigger than I imagined , and it's actually inside a roundabout , so you have to go through a tunnel to get there.
The place is really nice , full of details talking about the French history and revolution, including the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Eiffel Tower was calling me since we landed so after a quick walk we got to this beautiful architectural masterpiece...you know when you have goosebumps just because you saw something you never thought you would? (at least not so soon). I felt like an idiot just looking at it trying to believe that it was actually me staying there. Camera coming out of my pocket and time for plenty of pictures to prove myself that I was actually there and also for some cheap Facebook showing off.
Then walked under the tower to take a closer look at the engineering and then to the Champs de Mars to have a coffee in an original french 'bistrô' and finally laying down on the grass to see the Tower transforming with the beautiful night lights.

Tired of walking and jet-lagged we decided to go back to the hotel which was a really hard task at the time as lots of the subway lines were on maintenance by night so there were a lot of detours which of course we didn't know about until we reached the stations. There was a dutch family equally lost so they were our partners in finding the right way to our final destination.

Second day in Paris and I wanted a day for myself, so I just took the train and went to the city alone. First Stop: Sacre Coeur , a beautiful church at the top of a hill. Has any of you watched that movie Amelie Poulain? that's the place with lots of steps where she tries to find her 'unknown date'...I even took a picture of the carrousel that appeared on the movie! climbed to the top and the view of a beautiful and classic Paris appeared to my eyes. It's incredible how a city so hectic could still preserve its classic architecture and have that old and vintage air.
From there a couple of subway stations away there's the famous Moulin Rouge. I just took a quick snap from the outside, maybe someday I will go inside...who knows, I'm not a theatre/cult boy.
Time to get into the subway as I gathered enough courage to have a quick trip to Versailles (considering that I would have to be fit to fly in some hours).

Versailles was the palace built by Louis XVI outside of Paris, the place is huge and just beautiful, the queue was big but moving fast so decided to give it a chance and have a point of no return: 3:30 must be on the train back no matter what.
Time enough to see everything around , took the tour and saw all the main chambers in the palace , including the stunning Chamber of Mirrors, The King's bedroom and Maria Antoinette's bedroom as well. Somehow you can easily imagine a moment in their life, I always imagine them at late afternoon just minutes before the evening starts, getting ready for a huge dinner and then having all set up for sleeping early with several people assisting them.
Back to reality and just wandered around the huge Gardens ( as my classic japanese-style tour) and then back to the station to go on the train back.
Just had a nice rest at the hotel and then time to go back to Doha. Again flight was really smooth, specially because most of our passengers were sleeping.

Time in Doha was minimum, as I uploaded the pictures ( or should I say report to my family ) and just slept for the rest of the day.
It's Ramadan in the Middle East so you can't basically do anything in public spaces: no eating , drinking , smoking, smiling?. Getting food on daytime is really hard so I rode my bike in some lovely 43 degrees Celsius and went to the supermarket which was open and full of people buying groceries.
Night time and some light sleep before unpacking-packing the suitcase and get ready for Rome.

Flight was even smoother, the crew was really nice and happy about going to Rome as everybody had bid for it. I had such a great time on the flight , the services were smooth and fast and I could barely feel the flying time.
Arriving into Rome again , no time for resting. Twenty minutes later me and other two crews were taking the subway to our first stop: The Colosseo.

Goosebumps ahead, getting out of the subway station you encounter this enormous and beautiful structure (again took some moments to actually believe that I was there) and then time for snapshots and queue to get inside.
Thought it was good from the outside? from the inside it is speechless! the place is enormous and just smells like history , it's amazing how a structure like that has remained in such good conditions for more than 2000 years!.
After wandering around the place for some minutes we headed to the neighbour Foro Romano , which was an important part of Ancient Rome.

Coming out of the place (really hot by the way) went through Piazza Venezia and found our heat relief on Fontana di Trevi , a beautiful fountain with cristal clear water where some people were even drinking out of it.
Some blocks away was Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Steps) where we had our lunch with some pasta, bread and pizza.
Piazza San Pietro was waiting for us. Place was stunning , an incredibly big and beautiful open space, really famous because of the Pope's events held there everytime.

Short queue and time to get inside and climb the Cupula to have a beautiful sight of Piazza San Pietro, Vatican and of course Rome.
We were already knackered , so after this place we took the subway and headed straight to the hotel for some resting. I was supposed to go to the gym afterwards but I fell asleep and woke up the day after! ( that makes fourteen straight hours sleeping).

Nobody would want to go out with me the next day , as they were really tired of walking and climbing steps , so I took the subway and went by myself to the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel.
I'm not a really big fan of museums , but I really wanted to see the Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Chapel.
In order to see it , you have to go through the whole Vatican Museum , click here-click there, paintings here-paintings there, time to get besides the tour guide from some random group to hear the explanations and finally, the Michelangelo!

Clock was ticking so I just took the subway back to the hotel and wandered around the pool with that beautiful mediterranean sun shining ( burning ) over my skin. Then some sleep and check my new ROSTER! Fresh from the oven, which I'll be explaining later.

Time to get ready and flew back to beautiful and chilly Doha! flight was just perfect, got a lot of compliments from my passengers, flight was light load, service was easy , had a great assessment and the crew were nice again.
Now I'm here, tomorrow's a busy day but I think it will be worth it. Also managed to swap my Ho Chi Minh for Munich ( fair change ) so I'll be going back to Europe this week.

That's it for me! See ya around.

-- Doha Days --

2009-08-19T12:45:00.006+03:00

A reader once asked me about how my days in Doha are when I am not flying. The past days have been 'Doha Days' for me as after my lovely double-sector, I got my basic monthly Dubai turnaround with roughly fifty passengers and then I had days-off before some training on A340 aircraft and then more days-off!

Suddenly I got pulled out from Stand By to operate a Sanaa turnaround ( that's Yemen...yes, that's a country ) and when I was running to get ready I cut my lip shaving, result: No Sanaa flight for me!
So yes, it has been almost a week without flying which was good to solve many things on my apartment and get rid of some unnecessary things that a person like me like to collect on the trips thinking that IT MIGHT be useful someday.

My social life is also back, as I've been quite busy with this difficult cabin crew life on days-off. I still wonder if I ever gonna get tired of wandering around the swimming pool, I know my skin is as yesterday the thermometers reached forty degrees with ninety per cent humidity, it was like walking into a huge oven.
All I know is that my skin is really red now and last night I felt like dying.

Tomorrow's gonna be a good day , I'm off to Paris and it's gonna be my first time there. It was something like a 'must go' in my life ( and got this one by accident ) so I am really looking forward to it.
Arriving from Paris I got a lovely minimum rest and then I'm off to beautiful Rome , so it's gonna be a pretty busy week.

That's the update from the oven...I mean Doha!

-- Is this a movie? No , I am in Vietnam --

2009-08-12T15:49:00.007+03:00

How to describe a place where you never thought you would set a foot on? When I was joining QR I didn't know they had flights to Vietnam , so when it was time for bidding on my roster, Saigon looked like an interesting place , and all the crew were telling me that it was a nice layover so I went for it.
After another one of my 'catch-the-refreshment' double-sectors, I was preparing myself for the unknown ,specially because all I had heard about Vietnam were things about the war and that was it.
Crew was really excited as well as most of them had bid for that flight so they were looking forward to explore the place.

Flight was quite long but enjoyable , most of our passengers were european people and vietnamese-europeans ( they went to Europe and got the passport) so the flight was not demanding and it was quite fun. Most of them speaking a little french , so everytime they had to tell me something they would think that I was a french speaker as well...ehem...Bonjour? Merci? that's it!
As it is monsoon season in southeast Asia , we had a really bumpy flight and had to sit for nearly three hours before we could do our second service and prepare for landing.
Anyway after flying over Bangkok we were landing into Ho Chi Minh City.

Beautiful airport must say and the weather was really pleasant and hot. Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon is a really humid place and like Singapore or Bangkok, they never have winter or seasons , it's hot and humid the whole year round.
Headed to the hotel between what it looked like a bee race , full of motorcycles that would go across every vehicle respecting no traffic law whatsoever.
The city is massive and dense populated ,nearly five million people live in this city full of motorcycles and neon signs, they speak vietnamese that sounds a lot like Thai but they also use some Chinese characters to write.

Just loved the people , they were always smiling and welcoming and the most important thing about Vietnam: It's just incredibly cheap!
Anyway, after a long day flight , nothing better than have a really nice typical dinner, so most of the crew went to the 'backpackers district' to book a tour for the next day and have some nice Vietnamese dishes.

I had the yellow noodles with some sea food , small portion but fair enough. The whole meal including beverages and desserts was around six US dolars!
As it was already midnight , headed to the hotel for some rest, after all , we would have to wake up very early in the morning for the tour.

7:15 in the morning and we were taking the bus for the tour along the Mekong River Delta. The trip was quite funny , our guide was vietnamese and was telling us about Ho Chi Minh City's peculiarities and about the role the city had in the Vietnam War ( don't ask me about it , I was so sleepy that I understood half of it , and the other half just forgot on the way back).
After three hours on the road we got into this little port where the boats were waiting for us.

Have you ever been to a place that you never thought you would even set a foot on? This was the place for me!. As I was just looking at the Mekong River and was about to ride the boats just thought to myself : 'So I am in Vietnam? How come? '.

We jumped into the boat and the first stop was the Floating Market where you could see plenty of boats where the people also live, selling pretty much everything you could imagine : potatoes, coal , lichias, fruits , even pigs!
Second stop was the rice paper factory where I had the chance of trying to make a sheet of rice paper.

It was something like making a really fine crepe, almost transparent and then setting it off a table and waiting for it to dry , they use it for packing things and also for making the world famous Spring Rolls.

Then was time to cross the immense Mekong River and go to the man-made islands on the delta.
Islands were made by taking dirt out of the river's bottom and set it into some wood cages who would act as walls for the new islands that would be populated.

We sailed between the channels , going under bridges and sharing the space with fruit boats and some tourist boats as well.

Had a great lunch and then got some bikes for sightseeing around the islands roads. It was a really nice ride as it started to rain, cooling a little the steamy weather and pulling that fresh wet rain smell out of the woods ( felt like home ).
We also had the opportunity of playing with a piton they had at the restaurant as a pet, it was cool but it was drooling too much.

Time to go back with a nice surprise: we would be taken out on the typical boats as they used to do centuries ago , so we had to wear those cone-shaped hats and get into this little boats , rowed by the most fitted elderly women I have ever seen in my life.
One hour later met the big boat and headed back to the port for some lichia shopping and taking the bus back to Saigon. I would say that the trip back to the city was one of the longest ones of my life, we took four hours to travel 120 Kms , the delay was basically because of the intense traffic near the metro area and before reaching Saigon we had to take a really bumpy and dusty detour in order to try to get there a little earlier.

I arrived at the hotel completely tired but still as I promised myself to lose some weight and get fit again , went to the gym for some treadmill therapy and some crunchies.

Next morning woke up early and went with a south african crew to the market nearby and bought some souvenirs, then headed to the Reunification Palace where I could see a little of the Saigon history and how this place worked as a Presidential House during the Vietnam War.
Outside the building there are original tanks and combat planes from those turbulent times also.

To complete the Vietnamese Experience, we took a 'bike rickshaw' and wander around the City Centre dodging cars , motorcicles and just everything that came in front of us in that coordinated mess they have. Traffic sign? Why, someone will stop anyway!
We couldn't leave the city without a really cheap one-hour massage ( no happy endings ok? ) with some fresh watermelon juice.

The day practically was finished there as we walked to the hotel and had some rest for the return sector. Flight couldn't be nicer, passengers were really easygoing and since the crew bonded quite well , we had a lot of fun inside the plane.

Somehow I got a little lost on the internet , I've been flying a lot these days and everytime just coming home extremely tired, but since today I am on an another beautiful stand-by ( after a double sector and one quick turnaround ) I am updating my dear readers around the world.

-- Messing around messy Kathmandu and a quick turnaround --

2009-08-03T16:01:00.005+03:00

I've been in Kathmandu before, so this was gonna be my second time in beautiful and exotic Nepal. I had requested for this destination back in June so I was feeling very keen on operating it again ,specially because some of the nepalese crew ( we do have some) had been telling me which places were really worth going.

Back into the plane for a four and a half hours flight, again with two big passenger profiles: the tourists and backpackers in search for some hiking experience through Nepal , Butan and China and the nepalese laboureres who have been living in the Gulf for many years earning almost nothing and finally flying back home for some well deserved holidays.
So it's an interesting mix of people because you have very well travelled passengers who know how to use the toilets, how to behave on the plane and when to press the call bells and the other side of the coin with the passengers who jumped into a plane maybe once in a lifetime , don't have a clue on how to use the IFE and press the call bell by accident many times.

Still I like the flight , as nepaleses are really friendly ( even when they don't speak english ) and understanding. They do want to drink a lot on the plane but somehow I feel sorry for them as we know their living conditions in the Gulf, so I would just give them the booze on the plane, not to the point of getting them drunk of course. It was the first time that I saw all our whisky running out and most of our beers as well.

-' Sir , would you like chicken or lamb?'
-'Chicken'
-'And to drink Sir?'
-'Yes' ( look at my landscape face here)
-'Yes Sir, but what?'
-'Hard drink'
-'Sorry , what?'
-'Red Label' ( imagine this part with a really shy smile).

Arrived into Kathmandu with some scattered showers again and a really hot weather. Again their living conditions are obvious. A nepalese crew told me that even though the country looks really poor, people there live happy and everyone has a house.
And I thought Latin America was messy! but I really like Nepal specially because of its culture, they are really in touch with it, they praise when they have to , they eat what they have to and it's just so different from my hometown, it really feels like I'm in the lost world.

The hotel is so nice and they have a free buffet breakfast so as soon as we got our hotel keys , I went to my room , changed in two seconds and went downstairs for some nice food ( I hate the plane food , I just can't eat those things anymore).
I was about to leave for my sightseeing when I turned on the TV and that indian movie 'Slumdog Millionaire' was beginning and as I had been wanting to watch it for a long time, I just laid on my bed and did.
Must say that the feeling of watching a movie like that in Nepal was really interesting , as they have the same culture. Again the ' I'm a cabin crew flying the world' feeling came and it just felt nice, a year ago I could have never imagined that I would be on that place.
The movie gives you a interesting picture of Indian capital cities ( in this case Mumbai) and how they have really rich people and extremely poor ones in the same space, living side to side.

After the movie the weather got even nicer and hired a taxi to take me to Nagarkot, a little village that was about 30 kms away from Kathmandu.
The village had nothing really interesting itself, but since it's at the top of the Kathmandu Valley , you can see the city in one side, the beautiful rice crops terraces rising through the montains and on the other side the beautiful Himalayas and specially the roof of the world: Mount Everest.

So there I was on my little taxi , picture here , picture there, car here, car there, tuk tuk here , tuk tuk there, COW! those are sacred, definitely in Kathmandu they don't have clues on what a traffic law is as everyone drives the way they want , sometimes it can really get you on your nerves as you get scared of being hit several times.
As we headed to the mountains we took this little and narrow road to climb up around a thousand meters to the village.
The view was just incredible as we were climbing passing though the rice fields and then as we were higher , thought the pine and eucaliptus woods. Every curve was a thrill as the road is wide enough for only one car and sometimes you could see the car in front of you on the curve having to break immediatly and give some room for the car to pass by.
Taxi driver was just laughing so much at at my reactions as I kept saying the whole time things like : 'Be careful', 'You can take as many time as you want , as long as I get there alive'.
As we arrived there, I got to this resort with a beautiful terrace...the view was just breathtaking, even though it was still a little cloudy, facing the top of the world (again Mt. Everest) is just priceless. I stood there like hypnotized by its size, breathing that pure and pine-scented mountain air, wandering how the hell did I get there.
The restaurant besides the terrace was playing some nepalese music , so the experience was very complete, might buy a CD next time.
Time for some pictures, then some scattered rain, them more pictures and then time to go back to the hotel as the trip back to KTM would take something like two hours.
I slept for a bit on the way back, I was just too tired to care about the curves and the lack of traffic laws.

Back in the hotel I slept for two more hours and since it was the first day of my new 'healthy life' I went to the gym and ran for sometime in the threadmill ( oh how I miss those days when I used to be so fit and athletic ). Then I had some really nice indian food at the Indian restaurant in the hotel, again cheap and just perfect , some time at the crew lounge to check my e-mails of course and then back to bed.
I was about to sleep when I turned on the TV and they were airing the finals of the Swimming World Championships in Rome...that was a must see.

Next morning woke up with the wake up call , got ready and took the plane back to Doha , flight was light loaded and it was a really easy flight again with the two types of passengers.
Again , take off and some minutes later the Himalayas on the right hand side of the plane...all passengers taking pictures through the windows as we were doing the service.
Arrived into Doha around midday , had some lunch with the friends that were not flying...INDIAN FOOD AGAIN (I discovered how much I love paratta) and then headed to the Souq for some coffee and to look for a present for a friend whose birthday is this week.
Went there with two friends so the three of us took our picture wearing arabic dish-dash's and got it framed for her. I think that will make a really nice present.

As we are feeling rich and powerful ( pay day was last week and having no social life got me a really nice paycheck) we got ourselves some mountain bikes, so now we can go everywhere in Doha without the hassle of looking for a cab or walking under the arabian summer sun and widespread dust.

Time for some rest and back to the airport again for my Abu Dhabi turnaround, the last flight of the week before my beautiful two days-off.
I got a galley which for this flight was easy as it was light load and the service is really basic ( flying time is 35 minutes). Since it was a nightstop I got the oportunity to explore Abu Dhabi's airport and duty free, nothing really interesting to see , the airport looks like 'The Snorkels' houses and duty free products are basic yet cheap.
Went back to the plane and few passengers boarded the flight back to Doha, arriving in the early morning and then sleeping.

Days-off are there! and I've got a new bikes and no debts whatsoever! ( also managed to pay all the money I was owing so freedom feels so nice now ).
Hope you have enjoyed, I will upload some pictures of this short but nice adventure.

-- Turnaround 'ing' --

2009-07-31T17:06:00.005+03:00

Two days-off after my unexpected Singaporean experience on which I had a good time with friends doing the usual stuff in Doha ( you know, eating, shopping, sleeping ) and with some beautiful mild temperatures now between 35 degrees Celsius in the early morning and 48 degrees Celsius in the afternoon combined with the summer Middle East winds that carry a nice widespread dust above our beautiful cities and add more colour to the already 'green' landscape.

I was expecting to get out of Doha for a bit in order to refresh my sight a little so even though I only had turnarounds , I was with the spirits high specially after Rostering transformed what it was going to be 'shitty July' in something a little better.

So Athens here we go! it was still kind of funny to get ready for this flight as I've doing only layovers so I didn't have to pack my case with some spare clothes or my camera, just the little trolley bag and lots of energy as this turnaround takes four hours each way, plus one hour on Athens Airport.
Flight was really quiet, we took our little A320 over Saudi and Lebanon, nothing interesting to say I admit , passengers were mostly greeks traveling from some interesting place ( like Bali or Maldives) to their hometown. It was quite full yet really easygoing and the service was done easily.
As we were heading into Greece and minutes before landing you could see the beautiful Greek Islands landscape, watching in the broadcast map when were flying over nice places like Crete or Mikonos couldn't stop thinking on how nice it would have been down there with that blue ocean and those beautiful white houses and there I was, working on a bloody turnaround, so none of that for me ( at least for now ).
Landed into Athens with a beautiful weather that really got me even more dissapointed when we opened the door for the cleaners and we felt that pleasant summer afternoon breeze of the Mediterranean blowing inside.

Anyway, back to my reality: checks here , checks there and passengers boarding again.
There we were again, taking off with the Mediterranean Sea left behind and getting into the dusty Arabian night.
This flight was even more quiet as passengers were sleeping, we had a couple of honeymooners which catering provided with a 'wedding cake' and it was the highlight of the flight as when we gave them the cake , they wanted to take pictures with it and the crew.

Flight was easy indeed but extremely tiring and long , just got home crushed and slept until the next day at midday when I started my preparation for my second turnaround Cairo.

Yesterday was amazingly hot and widespread dust was incredibly heavy , so the weather was not helping with my mood. Got to the airport and there again, another turnaround.
Passengers boarded and most of them were already pissed ( don't ask me why , I don't know) and trying to fit their bags everywhere they could.
Ground Staff didn't help for this one as most of them were carrying amazingly big hand luggage which of course wouldn't fit, sometimes felt like I was on a tetris game trying to think logically which way to crush all the toys, duty free, souvenirs and bags they had, some of the passengers were even mad at me like I was the one who designed the planes , felt like saying "Mr. Airbus 320 designer gonna hear some heavy words from me when I meet them at Tolouse tomorrow, ok?"

After what I would call the heaviest boarding so far (I was sweating like hell when I finally got to fit all that luggage in the overhead bins) we departed in a heavy wind and dust storm.
I wish I could say that flight went well after that, passengers were really demanding and they were wanting to eat me alive when I said " Sorry Sir, I have no more lamb, would you like some chicken instead?" Why catering , Why????
Before landing into Cairo I could see a little of the Suez Channel and the egyptian desert but we landed at night , so not even a small sight of the pyramids.

One hour in Cairo for catering and cleaning and passengers boarding again, this time was a little better, a lot of them going to Doha ( first time I see that) and some connecting.
We had a nigerian football team on board, they were so funny and they were cool even though they finished our whole stock of sweets , beers and wanted to eat two meals on a three hour flight.

Never felt so happy to be back home , crew was really nice and we called ourselves ' suffering pals'.
Well, like they say ' not only of layovers the crew lives, sometimes we get the crap'.
Back online today and packing for Kathmandu again, I like that place and tomorrow I'm gonna explore more ( last time I was there, I was so tired that just went to a couple of places and slept).

See ya!

-- Singapore and Indonesian Hop Around --

2009-07-26T18:21:00.005+03:00

My rostering surprise got me to beautiful Singapore which I was interested in visit sometime in my near future ( I was maybe gonna bid for it in like four months ) , so when they rang me pulling me out for that flight I got really happy.
Again the routine: took a shower, got dressed , packed my suitcase and took the bus.

What to expect on a Singapore flight? First of all it's always full , but since our flight continues to Jakarta, most of the passengers are indeed going to Indonesia rather than Singapore so most of them were Indonesian females currently working in the Gulf, specially in Saudi Arabia.
They all wear their typical dresses (covering their necks and hair) and they speak little or none english, still they are really nice, smiley and they are not messy.
It's funny how working for a big airline teaches you a lot about the world, so far I've noticed that filipinos migrated to countries like Qatar and UAE , while indonesians moved to countries like Saudi and Yemen.

Flight was really peaceful, taking pretty much eight hours. Most of the passengers were sleeping throughout the whole flight and services were easy to carry on ( if I take out some mild turbulence while flying over India now that it's monsoon season ).
Arrived into Singapore in the early afternoon and headed to the hotel which was in the City Centre, between the Financial Street and Orchard St. ( which is the Shopping Centres street ).

Singapore is a small island in the southern tip of the Malaysian/Thai peninsula, since it is located right above the Equator line , it's hot all the year round and also pretty humid and rainy which it made me feel like home since my hometown had the same weather.
The country is new yet really rich, so you can see their streets extremely neat and clean , all parks and gardens very well groomed and lots of big apartment and business buildings spreaded around the whole island.
Since I was on Stand By before taking this flight, somehow I was feeling really tired , so decided to just go for a walk to the nearest mall where I had lunch with some other crew and then headed back to the hotel to rest by the swimming pool until dusk.
A quick sandwich for dinner and then went to bed as I was feeling extremely tired, still had problems sleeping and woke up like four times along the night until I finally got some deep rest.

Next morning just slept until late morning , woke up, went to the crew lounge to get online and report myself to my beloved ones, chilled by the swimming pool and waited for the wake up call.
Again , time to prepare for a short but hectic flight to Jakarta.

Went to the beautiful Changi airport and again most of our passengers were heading to Indonesia so the flight was full. Departed around three o'clock in the afternoon and then we started to run because even though the flight lasts one hour and ten minutes we still have to do service which consists in meals with trays! so imagine serving 285 trays and collect them in something around thirty minutes, it's like shoving food down the passengers throat to complete the service before it gets too bumpy because of landing.

Still the flight was quiet and even got a nice compliment from a passenger that was moving to Indonesia, she said something like ' I've been watching you and you have a beautiful persona , and your smile is amazing' again , I just entirely blushed and gave a shy smile and a thanks.
(Have you noticed that I still can't get used to that kind of feedback? )

Landed into Jakarta with a beautiful tropical weather and even though the country is indeed poorer than its neighbour Singapore, their airport is amazing , the architecture is really typical with palm ceilings and bricks yet modern and comfortable. We just cleared customs and immigration for what I like to call as the 'shortest layover ever'.
Quickly headed to the hotel which is near the airport and had three hours of rest before going back to the airport and catch the plane back.
In order to tell my friends ' Yes, I have been in Jakarta' I took a quick ride to the neighbor locations and started to click pictures like never before. The hotel also was beautiful and it was screaming 'Indonesia' everywhere.

So as the night came , I went to the restaurant and had a full buffet dinner with everything included for seven US dolars...that's right , seven! ate so much seafood that I had to take an antiacid prior to departure , otherwise I'd get sick on the plane.
Had a quick nap in my room and watched two movies partially , the first one was 'P.S.I love You' which was filmed in Ireland , so it reminded me a lot about places I've been there...and also someone who watched that film with me...anyway...past chasing me away sometimes.
The second one was a comedy that I can't remember the name as I was watching it and got the wake up call, so I didn't actually finished it.

Took the bus back to the airport and headed back to Singapore with again a fully booked flight and a 30-minutes delay as it started to rain heavily while we were on stand, so it was pretty hectic. Reached Changi Airport sometime around one o'clock in the early morning and straight to the hotel for some well deserved rest.
Well deserved rest knowing that the new rosters were out? No way! Inmediatly went to the crew lounge and logged in to see what Mr. Jepessen Rosters prepared for me in August:

- My month starts with a short but nice layover in Kathmandu again, this time I will follow the advises of a nepalese crew and I'm heading to the mountains.
-Then got an Abu Dhabi night stop , which is a good oportunity to see if there's something really valuable in their Duty Free facilities.
-My resquested exotic destination Ho Chi Minh City ( Vietnam ) is next , and they gave me the long layover, so the Mekong river will be waiting for me to take a tour.
-Ho Chi Minh is surrounded by double sectors since the day before I have to play meal basketball with my passengers to Kuwait and Abu Dhabi and the day after I will play with my passengers going to Bahrain and...Abu Dhabi!.
-After those flights I've got some office duties in Doha which will take me something like a whole week and then I've got a long Athens turnaround.
-My roster gets good as they gave me Paris as my first A340-600 operating flight, followed by a beautiful and long Rome layover which I requested for.
-Got lots of days-off after the European cliche week, so I might ask to fly on those days or I might travel around here, maybe Dubai? or Cairo?
-Then a quick turnaround to Beirut and ending the month with Ho Chi Minh again , which I will try to swap for some other thing.

As I was happy with my roster, went to bed and woke up around ten in the morning for some Singaporean sightseeing, had to go by myself as my dear crew wanted to sleep.
Walked for around twenty minutes and got to Clarke Quay where you can find pretty much everything to eat and it's a gathering point for foreigners and singaporeans.
Took the quick boat ride to look around and had some quick snaps of the Financial Centre, the bridges and the Singapore Lion, which is the symbol of the country.
There were some malaysians girls on the boat , so they made me favor of taking the ' I was here' pictures.

Back to the hotel with some steamy 34 degrees Celsius, went to the pool and slept on the futon while listening music and trying to get some colour in my skin ( I couldn't but it doesnt matter).
Day got pretty lazy from that point, then went to bed and had more sleep, woke up and ate something , then to the crew lounge to check my beloved e-mails and then back to bed.
Wake up call!!! Time to prepare for the flight back home which again was full, mostly indonesian women.
Flight was really easy going as again most passengers were sleeping and I had some nice 'crew gossip' with the crew. Also got mid galley, so I had things to do in my spare time in order to pass the hours, my crew were also very nice and I had a lot of fun throughout the flight.

Still having a lot of rest before the flight , got into Doha extremely tired so I just slept the whole morning ( or tried to , as they were demolishing a building right next to mine and the noise was too loud, making me feel miserable sometimes as I really wanted to sleep but I just couldn't).

Now two beautiful days-off prior to my turnaround week : Athens and Cairo.
See ya!

-- Week Update and the Love Story back again --

2009-07-23T13:50:00.006+03:00

Needed some rest after that long Osaka flight, and the three days-off in a row that followed it were perfect to put the body on the right time zone again and to eat a little healthier. Also to see my friends as they were starting to say that I had no social life since the airline kept me flying non-stop last month ( again can't complaint: nice layovers and good money ).
So in the past three days-off I really enjoyed my time , as most of my friends were also resting in Doha , so I had plenty of activities to fill that time like lunches, eating at the souq, buying some groceries and organizing my bedroom. Also went to the pool and had a little 'diving incident' when I tried to dive into it and I didn`t notice that the swimming pool was very shallow, hitting my nose with the bottom of the pool and getting a little scratch in my forehead and nose. It didn't hurt, it was just incredibly shameful!

Then came the Airport Stand By, the first one since I'm a cabin crew: Whoever who came up with that, was a really unhappy rostering department staff member as all you have to do is shave, get dressed and go to the airport with nothing to do but waiting someone's sickness so they can bump you into a flight.
For me it was good, somehow all staff in QR was healthy that day and there were not any interesting flights to operate, then I just went home and prepared for the next three days of Stand By, this time at home.

My love story starts when yesterday, three hours before my Stand By I checked my roster and there were some changes made, rostering kindly had given me another Hyderabad turnaround on Thursday, so it was going to be Indian Turnarounds back to back. At that moment I just felt how my blood was boiling in dissapointment knowing that I oficially was going to have the worst roster ever. Still they didn't call me...maybe as I was still having Stand By last night they might change the roster again?

And so they did , at 21:15 received a call from them saying that I got pulled out of Stand By to operate Singapore and Jakarta ( five days in the roster ) meaning that they took away my two Hyderabads as well!

So as those old films when you see a person tearing up a daisy ( she loves me , she loves me not) , I went from ' I hate rostering' to ' I love rostering' in a couple of hours.
Right now I'm already in Singapore but I'm writing the details of the trip when I get back.

-- Feeling like a local --

2009-07-17T14:56:00.004+03:00

I'm half-japanese, so this trip to Japan really opened my eyes and also completed another item of my 'must do before I die' list.
Somehow I had a really small idea of what Japan could be (specially because I used to love watching those japanese cartoons about football), but looking to it with my own eyes was different and just loved it.

At some points I felt identified with the culture, with the way of living, with the caring of every single small detail, with the food. Also remembered a lot of my grandparents and the way I used to feel when I was a child and used to go to their place whenever my parents were travelling.

The trip started with an ultra-long haul flight, interesting highlights about it is that even though the flight takes around ten hours, the passengers won't press the call bell, I know I used to complain about China flights when they are always pressing the call bell by accident , but this was too much. So we had pretty much a lot of hours without doing anything , just staring at each other faces and test our criativity to its maximum, trying to talk about pretty much every single aspect of our life.
As we landed into Osaka Kansai International Airport, I remembered the documentaries that I once watched about this particular airport and how it was built. Something I'm finding really interesting about this job is that I'm actually having the oportunity of being to places I used to see only on the TV when I was younger, which is cool!
The airport is on a single island, so we took a long bridge to go to Kansai area and of course, Osaka.

The hotel was located near the Trade Center, which was near the port as well but not that close of the city centre. The hotel had a shuttle though , so after an hour of rest in my hotel room , decided to hit the town to have a quick look at the city and to buy some groceries.
Osaka is really modern, is interesting how the city has been planned (or not) because you see apartment buildings mixed with business buildings in the same areas, so people dont have to travel too much to go to work. Also interesting how small every building is which made me think on how small the apartments must be as well.
I still can't solve the mistery about the garbage, since every street is absolutely clean but when I tried to find a trash bin , I walked for half and hour to actually find one.

So I arrived into Umeda Station and took a quick walk , it was already night time so I just took some quick pictures, bought some sushi , noodles and japanese candy and got back to the hotel.

Next morning woke up late and took the subway with some of the crew to the supermarket two stations away from the hotel and had a Japanese Groceries shopping spree as I bought a lot of things that you can only find in Japan, specially the candy there is really special and elaborated.
Also went to the 100 yen store to buy some supplies and those things you didn't know you needed until you see them in the shelf all tidy and smiling at your wallet.
I found it amazing how everything is so organized, even the way the cashier put the things you bought into the bag is prefectly neat.

Then it was time for the turnaround to Seoul , South Korea. So we departed at around 15:00 from the hotel and went straight to the airport.
Flight was very light load but it was extremely bumpy, we even had to stop service and secure ourselves in the nearest seat, as the turbulence was sometimes unexpected and strong.
Arriving into Seoul Incheon Airport (which is the best airport in the world according to Skytrax) we had some time to walk around and buy some things (only bought a souvenir so I could say I've been to Korea). Passengers then boarded again and we flew back to Osaka.

Since we arrived at midnight , I just went online for a bit and then slept in preparation for the next and last day in Japan.

Kyoto was calling, was going to meet my cousins there so a crew member wanted to go with me and we hit Umeda Station early in the morning and practically ran around everywhere until we found the train to Kyoto , luckily it was the Express train , so we got there quite fast.
The city is beautiful , it doesn't really have tall skyscrapers, is really quiet and traditional. You can see tourist everywhere as you arrive into the Train station, some of them leaving , some arriving. We had to wait a little for my cousins since they were arriving on the train from Nagoya.

After we met, we bought an 'All Day Bus Pass' and hit the bus. First stop was Ginkakuji Temple or Silver Temple. It lays in a hill and the all scenery was really lovely. The well groomed gardens with 'bonsai' trees everywhere, the sand layout perfectly designed, the temple and houses in that simple and clean Japanese style, the place just inspired peace.
But no time for peace , as we only had some hours in Kyoto , so after some pictures we took the bus again to the Golden Temple.

Even though I 'm really good with maps, this time I messed up. We were taking the right bus line but the other way around , so I noticed we were coming back to the same place halfway down the road , so we lost a precious half an hour in going back and forward again.
Anyway we got to Kinkakuji Temple or Golden Temple and it was amazing. Again remembered when I saw that in a catalog and said ' I want to go there someday' and there I was.
The place is really nice , it was built in the 1200's as an Emperor's country house and the walls were wrapped in gold , so the place shines with the sun and the reflex in the lake that surrounds it is just amazing.

After wandering around the gardens, fountains and souvenir shops, we took the bus again and headed to the Station as it was about to rain and also we had no more time to spend there because we had to catch the train back and get some rest before our flight back to Doha.
At the Station there was an underground floor where there were plenty of stores and restaurants so we had a nice Japanese lunch with tempura, lamen and green tea. It was the perfect ending for a beautiful day.

Time to say good-bye and take the Shinkansen train back to Osaka. Of course as being an ultra-fast train , we got there really fast , took the shuttle to the hotel and had some rest.
Then again: Wake-up call , shave, dress, get the baggage ready (specially trying to fit five kg. of japanese candy in there) and time to hit the airport.

Flight was full but again was incredibly peaceful , the service was fast and even the used trays were not messy , so clearance was easier as well. Again time to use creativity and talk about every topic (even the spicy ones) for many hours until finally landed into Doha in the early morning.

Now I've got three days and a half off before having four days stand-by in a row , I hope they pull me out for some nice layover as my roster gets really shitty afterwards.
Arigatô!

-- The Vienna Week --

2009-07-10T20:50:00.004+03:00

My swapping experiment was about to begin, so after a mind-confusing double sector I was feeling ready for 'The Vienna Week' ahead.
I was wanting to go to Vienna a long time ago, specially because it's known as one of the most beautiful capitals in Europe but so far I wouldn't have bid for it before because I wanted to see different places, so this swapping really exceeded my expectations as I got two chances to go there.

So I'm sharing my two Vienna's with you:

On the first Vienna the flight was really nice , we had this Indonesian group that was going to participate in a singing competition in Austria and the flight was not that full. Everything went great, my passengers were really happy and again got compliments from some of them and another 'cabin crew famous moment' as the girls from the group asked to take pictures with me before landing , so there again you can imagine my deep red blushed face trying to smile in front of ten cameras.
Landing was a little hard as it was really windy in Vienna, their airport is small but pleasant and there's no traffic jams whatsoever.
We headed to the hotel which was in the Centre, with a nice park in front. All the architecture in Vienna is really classic and victorian style , there are some modern buildings but not as many as other big european cities. They have a lot of trolley lines and lots of museums!.

After a short nap, me and other three crew including the purser decided to take a walk and explore the city as it was our first time there.
Started by taking the subway and going to this place named Schonbrunn which was recommended by one of the crew's flatmate. The place didn't dissapoint us as it was this huge Imperial Palace with many well-groomed gardens around, in the backyard there was a laberint, the Imperial Zoo and a hill with the Gloriet on top which of course I wanted to go and see the wonderful view of the whole City Centre.

Going down the hill back to take the subway and we hopped off in the Museum Quarter which as the name says , is a block with four big museums on it ( I'm not a really big fan of museums , so I just took the pictures from the outside). Then as we didn't have anything to eat until then we stopped in this stand and had three typical Austrian dishes: Schnitzel, Currywurst and Apfelstrudel.

Time to walk through the former Royal Palace which now lodges the National Library and the beautiful garden full of young people having picnics or just playing football or throwing frisbees.
Final stop was Rathaus where we bumped into a Typical Food Fair where we had just a little taste of Austrian beer and then walked our way back to the hotel through interesting landmarks such as Ballhausplatz and Michaeleplatz.
Also on our way back we bought some souvenirs from Vienna. Thought it was very funny and interesting how the city's identity is related to classical music and famous composers such as Mozart as most of the souvenirs had something about him. Funny also some souvenirs saying things like ' No Kangaroos in Austria'...maybe some people still confuses their country with Australia?

Back to the hotel and went to bed really early as I was practically sleeping on my keyboard.
Wake up call in the morning and back in the plane for the return sector which was really low profile: light load and passengers sleeping.
Arrived into Doha and went straight to my apartment to try to get some rest because twelve hours later I was gonna be ready for another flight to...Vienna?

Woke up early, shaved, got dressed and ready for another Austrian adventure, this time the flight was fully loaded and the passengers really made me work as some of them were incredibly demanding, the good part is that I didn't feel like we flew for six hours, everything happened so fast.
Arrived to the hotel and went online for a bit laying down in my bed because my back was just killing me.
It was really freaking me out the fact that we were having such a beautiful and sunny day in Vienna and I was just inside my hotel room doing nothing so I decided to take a walk on my own.
There's something I really like about walk around on my own and it is the fact that I can do everything on my very own rythm, walk a lot , take pictures, read my map properly and just notice on the details. The bad part is that there is no one to talk to or comment somethings and of course, no one to take the 'I have been here pictures'.

Went to the Belvedere Gardens, then walked to the City Centre where I took a lot of pictures of the Museums Quarter, Maria Anthonien Platz and then headed to the Stephansdom which is kind of an icon of Vienna, then had another Currywurst and an Apfelstrudel.
Tired, decided to get some rest which was interrupted two hours later by my incredible hunger, so I had to go out again and look for something to eat ( and also some souvenir chocolates), luckily for me there was a Mc Donalds around.

Back to the hotel, ate everything and slept really heavy waking up just this morning for the 'wake up call' and the flight back to Doha.
Again a really low profile flight, even though it was full but most of my passengers were sleeping so it was really relaxed after we did all our onboard service.

It's good to get home knowing that I have two well deserved days-off, gonna try to make the best of it before going to my ancestor's land for the first time!

-- Welcome to Bahrain! or was it Doha? or was it Dubai? --

2009-07-06T21:43:00.003+03:00

After two days-off in a row, I was feeling recharged and ready for another week of continuous flying, specially because I knew that I wouldn't have to go to Japan twice in one week so the month was going to be somehow lighter.

As a part of the 'Vienna Deal' also had to get one thing that we call 'double sector', let me tell you how this works with a story:

Mr. A got to the airport and boarded the aircraft for a short flight to Bahrain. "Extremely short" he said, as the flight took only 25 minutes between take off and passengers disembark , the service was extremely fast as he was practically playing basketball with the little meals and the passengers traytables. Time to go back to Doha again playing basketball.
Arriving into Doha with some mild and pleasant forty-one degrees Celsius , Mr. A had to change of aircrafts and realized that had to take off again to Dubai.
Time for another basketball match with a full flight...some heavy turbulence before landing and "Welcome to Dubai" , passengers out and in again...take off again! last basketball match, this times the passengers were winning as Mr. A was just too tired but still smiling!

Landing into Doha again...or was it Dubai? or was it Bahrain? Oh no , this time was finally home.

Just know that I got home so hungry ( as I refuse to eat the plane food ) and extremely tired.
The good thing is that a crew from my flight wanted to do some interesting 'flight swapping' so my roster might get more interesting, will keep you updated.

As for me, tomorrow begins my 'Vienna Week', twice back to back.
Tchuss!

-- Near the top of the World in Nepal --

2009-07-03T13:32:00.008+03:00

So nice to finally be home after nine days flying with only one day-off in between , so my body was screaming for some rest wrapped in my own sheets and enclosed in my room even when here in Doha we are reaching temperatures around 50 degrees Celsius everyday.

My Nepal experience started with myself feeling really exhausted, I had just arrived the previous morning from a long Beijing-Doha flight so I had no enough rest to compensate. But there I was in my uniform boarding passengers again. Flight was full again ,mostly nepalese people going back home after working really hard for two or more years in the Gulf and also european passengers connecting from all over Europe for some backpacking experiences ( brought back some memories from earlier this year when I went carrying one of those huge backpacks going for a walk through the Andes on the Inca Trail in Peru ).

Flight was nice if I take out the phrase ' I want to sleep so bad' wandering around my mind every five seconds but as we were getting closer to Kathmandu everything started to improve.
First of all a view of the beautiful roof of the world: The Mount Everest made his appearance showing why it is the highest mountain in the world, it's just amazingly big!
Landed around some scattered rains and it was incredible hot in Kathmandu.
After you leave the airport you face the reality of the nepalese population: lot of poverty around, children asking for money , open sewages, garbage everywhere but still people are always welcoming and smiling.

Got to the hotel and had a huge ( really huge) brunch with everything I had the right to eat, even those things that we don't even know what they are but still will eat because it is free.
Followed by some sleeping time as I just couldn't even stand straight of exhaustation , so I slept for a long hour and then woke up for some sightseeing.

Hired a taxi for four hours (costing just 20 US dollars) and just wandered around the city.
Went to what I think it was the Main Square, called Durbar Square. The place is messy but really interesting. You can see how people in Nepal are really in touch with their culture and beliefs, everything in the Square has a meaning and a reason to be built , starting with the images of their Gods like Vishnu and Sheeva which are praised every minute by the locals.

The Royal Palace is amazing and it has a unique architecture. Every door frame has very elaborated and fine details explaining a history or an image perfectly carved in hard wood.
After exploring a little with a 'friend for hire' ( actually it was a tour guide who kindly offered himself for a really cheap price to show me around ), went for some souvenir shopping to Thamel Market , where you can also find everything about hiking and climbing and then to the Monkey Temple which has beautiful golden details and, as the name says, monkeys everywhere!
It lays on the top of a mountains so from there you can see the whole Kathmandu Valley and some of the Himalayas way in the back.

Time for resting , so went back to the hotel, slept for another three hours, woke up feeling all jet-lagged and went for a nice Indian Style dinner at the hotel's restaurant with another crew.

Flight back was really nice, got a compliment form from one of my passengers and something that made my day: two pretty russian passengers were chit-chatting and pointing at me when I was doing my meal service , until I got there and asked: ' What happened?' and one of them said in a shy way: ' We think you are a really handsome man'...never felt so blushed in my life!

Anyway, finally got home again and when I went to check my mail , saw a lovely swapping form from one japanese cabin crew who kindly offered to swap one of my Osaka-Seul journeys for two Vienna layovers...guess who is also going to Vienna next week!

Now gonna enjoy my days-off! See ya!

-- Going Chinese Vers. 2.0 --

2009-07-01T14:13:00.006+03:00

After my trip to Switzerland I had a short day-off with my friends,who by the way are starting to fly this week, and the next morning I had my 'first' turnaround to Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
First time I went to Saudi it was on my 'observation' flight and it was at night , so this time it was better and with a really light load so everything went just fine and the crew was really fun. I got home by midday feeling like new and ready for my Beijing flight at night.

Slept the whole afternoon ,ate properly and got set for my second China flight in one month. Night came and went to the airport. The purser was gonna be the same as my Dammam morning turnaround which was very nice because she was really funny and lovely.

Beijing flights are ALWAYS full, not even a single seat available and I think there was some overbooking going around there as many passengers were having troubles boarding.
As a consequence, the plane departed a little delayed and even though I tried to do my homework properly (eating , sleeping well) I just felt like the flight took forever. My passengers were not really demanding but still felt really tired.
Time for landing facing strong turbulence , so my recently fed passengers started to throw up everywhere. So the plane was kind of messy after disembark. Lots of flights were delayed so we met with Singapore Airlines and Emirates crew on the Customs and Immigration points.

Slept all the way from the airport to the hotel and we got on our rooms again. I just love the hotel in Beijing , every little detail has been well thought and the rooms are amazing.
No time for sleeping, twenty minutes later went downstairs to meet some crew at the lobby as we were going to the Silk Market.
Silk Market = Fake Market? You can find everything there! and most of the products are fake but with a really good quality, some of them you can't even say are fake without looking really into details.
Anyway I didn't buy anything, just went there for the experience as you see customers from all over the world bargaining and saleswoman pulling them by the arms shouting really loud prices and phrases like : " Hey beautiful lady ,come here" , " I've seen you here before" in a strong chinese accent.

Got really tired , so had a light dinner and went to the hotel to get some proper sleep for the next day which was gonna be really demanding.
Next morning woke up early and one crew from South Africa joined me for some chinese sightseeing.

Went to the Forbidden City first, again my first word is "amazing".
The place is incredible , it was built in the 15th century as a private city for the Emperors of China, it was the place where they used to deal with pretty much every business or matter of the Empire and also served as houses for their concubines and wives.
Took like three hours to explore everything. Amazing palaces, amazing gardens and squares where every single detail in the architeture has been carefully thought and preserved so that's definitely a 'must see' in China as you can really feel the scent of a culture through those buildings.
"Pop-star Moments" along the way as we would take our pictures and then the locals would want to take a picture with us (with their cameras) and thank very emotionally ( hugging and shaking hands ).
After exploring the Forbidden City , our eyes got caught on a hill with a temple on top and we decided to head there as we thought the view from there should be interesting and so we did. The place was the Jinsheng Park which lays opposite of Forbidden City's back entrance and has a beautiful Budda Temple on his highest point which also offers a great view of Beijing's City Centre and Financial Street.

Time for some chinese experiences as we decided to take the Subway to get to the Olympic Village. Been in lots of subway networks already and must say that this one really got me impressed because everything was so tidy , organized and modern even when handling with millions of passengers everyday.

The Olympic Village is amazing, the architecture is out of the basic pattern so sometimes you feel like you're looking at a mock-up or a toy when you look at the beautiful 'Bird's nest' stadium and of course the Water Cube.
As a former swimmer , my biggest interest in this place was to go inside the Cube and so I did. The walls look like they were made of plastic bubbles ( like the ones that come with electronic appliances and we love to burst) and the swimming pool is amazing. Some minutes of silence as I felt speechless and got some goosebumps in that place...and to think that a year ago some of my biggest idols and some friends were there sharing that exact same spot making history...

Falling down to earth again and with a hot sunny day in Beijing , decided to go back to the hotel ( again by subway), have some quick lunch and sleep for the overnight long flight back home.
Sleep? really? I tried everything, even went to the spa in the hotel , swam some laps at the pool , went to the ofuro and nothing, still like an owl in the middle of the night.
Night came along and after wake up call and pick up , I was at the airport again clearing customs and immigration for what I thought it was gonna be a long night...and so it was!

Estimated time of flying: 9 hours...almost felt like killing myself when we were told that on the briefing, and some turbulence along the way too, how nice!.
This flight's passengers were really nice, lots of them could speak basic english so it was easier to deal with them. The main problem was that I was really feeling tired as I've been flying straight for eight days ( with only one day-off) and I am still not used to it.
Three cups of coffee and two croissants later, we were landing in hot dusty Doha and for the first time felt like the Pope trying to kiss the floor after arrival. I was just so tired!

So that was it , must say that Beijing is a beautiful place, specially because it combines ancient cultures and buildings with very modern and cosmopolitan facilities, people are friendly and it's so cheap!
Next flight: Tonight to Kathmandu, Nepal...and then finally two well deserved days-off!

-- The Duracell Rabbit in Switzerland --

2009-06-27T00:07:00.007+03:00

Just landed from Zurich and must say that Switzerland is a lot like you see in the magazines when you are browsing through the destinations you'd like to go someday but you don't have enough money to go ( I know because I used to do that the whole time ).

You might be wandering about the title's meaning in this post, the reason lies in the particular moods that I've been through the past days and how much my stamina was tested during the past duties.

It all started with crazy Male where I had something like five hours of sleep before my flight back to Doha. Flight was really nice as I said before but after arriving ( maybe because of the heat ) I felt really tired and with a huge headache so I spent the whole afternoon sleeping ( and getting some massages ) and then put on my uniform again and went for my trip to Zurich.
The load for this flight: 26 passengers! this number is tricky because in one hand you know you can easily handle 26 , specially if it's an overnight flight and all of them are sleeping but you also know that those are gonna be the longest six hours of your life.

So I got my first galley and it was pretty cool because as the load was so light , I got to learn a lot of things step by step and find my way into procedures and the galley itself. Some explanations were hard to understand because sometimes I felt like was gonna pass out and my eyes were pretty much shutting themselves so I decided to have not one, but two cups of coffee to beat the feeling and so I did.
Landed safely into Zurich where the weather was lovely and even though my body wanted rest my mind didn't, so I decided to sleep for one hour and then head out to the city. Two crew from Thailand joined me so the three of us took the train from the hotel to Downtown Zurich.

The city is really nice , full of really victorian european architecture as you can't really see tall buildings. All streets are very organized and clean and even the advertising is very neat. The river's waters are cristaline clean with a light tone of blue which heads to one of the city's highlights: The Zurich lake which is surrounded by very mild and green hills with victorian white houses and some high mountains at the back.
We also took the tram sometimes ( as we had the one-day ticket for every transport ) and got to some interesting landmarks of the city.

Time for a quick lunch and we had some apple strudel ( I know that's austrian ), wurst mit brot and sweet mustard and some bretzels. In addition , no swiss food could be complete without some chocolates for dessert.

Zurich is nice but we explored all the 'touristic stuff ' through the morning so as the girls wanted to go to IKEA, I decided to explore by myself, saw on my map the name Luzern and asked how far was it...only 50 minutes by train? Must go there!
So there I was , running through the station to catch the train that was leaving in only 2 min.

When they say 'swiss watch precision' they mean it! had to run really fast to catch it but I did, as I headed away from Zurich, crossed some small swiss towns, green valleys with glacier rivers, three different lakes, pine and eucaliptus tree woods and then finally after 48 exact minutes the announcement : 'Wilkommen auf Luzern' on the speakers.
Luzern is really nice, the lake is beautiful and you can see the Alps everywhere, headed straight to one of Switzerland's icons: the Kapellbrucke built in the mid 1300's as part of the city's fortifications. After a long photo shoot featuring the bridge in all of its angles, went for some walking through the beatiful city centre and then to another bridge in the back of the city.

Quick break for a snack at Burger King ( was feeling like eating crap and cheap ) and then again to the hills for some walking to the city's walls.
Now started to feel really tired so time to go 'home' was being considered, luckily got to the Main Station and my train was just waiting for me so I boarded it and one hour later was arriving to the hotel, I was about to sleep on the train when two men boarded in one of the stations and started to speak 'loud and clear' german so you can imagine how quiet was the chat between the two of them, sleeping time? yeah right!

Did you think my day ended there? The weather was so nice and sunny so as the hotel had bikes for free I just took one and there I was , biking around the swiss woods, along the creeks and little towns around Zurich until , don't know how, got to the end of the Airport's runway.
Just sat there in the grass and watched the planes landing over and over and over again. Must say that the sound of the tires braking and the reverse throtles being activated is really nice from outside the aircraft.

My body was not like a common battery , the Duracell batteries last longer of course but this was the end for mines, felt really tired and went back to the hotel ( some like 7 kms ) and just bought some dinner and slept really early.
Woke up this morning with BBC News broadcasting the death of Michael Jackson , let him rest in peace as his work will always be good and will remain with us for many more generations.

Flight back home was full but I enjoyed myself as I got really nice passengers who kept chatting to me ( got three compliment letters ) and the hours just flew by.
Now I'm home and have one day-off before a turnaround to beautiful Dammam ( I think I didn't use that word properly ) ,then some minimum rest and going chinese again.

-- July Roster is out, and I saw it in the Maldives! --

2009-06-24T14:22:00.006+03:00

Like you might have heard a lot of times: " I've got two things to say , one good and one bad" I must say something that won't be precisely like that, it could be something like " something really funny and something not that funny".

Gonna start with the 'not that funny' thing, which is my JULY ROSTER! I was really looking forward to see what Mr. Roster prepared for me this month , as June was simply awesome and I knew the lighting could hit the same spot twice.
Now here I am , looking at that paper full of IATA airport codes and mixed hours so gonna do my best to explain it like I did with the 'first ever roster':

- July starts away from home ( both Doha and Latin America) since I'm off to Beijing again and be back only the first days of the month. This time will try to go to the Olympic Village and take some quick snaps there.

- Some minimum rest hours after my early morning arrival from China and I'm going to Kathmandu in beautiful and exotic Nepal where I'll have a quick layover.

- Always wanted to go to Japan ( as I'm half-japanese) so this month my prayers were heard and I've got not one , BUT TWO Osaka's, with the Seoul-Incheon leg as well, meaning that everytime I go there, I stay away from Doha for like 5 days!

- After my two back-to-back Japanese experiences, gonna have some Stand-by days on which I hope I get called for something nice ( remember Beijing and Milan?).

-Later my month starts to get...wouldn't say shitty, but starts to get hard because I only got turnarounds to Hyderabad, Athens and Cairo followed by another Kathmandu where I'll be finishing my month.

NOW THE REALLY FUNNY STUFF: Just arrived from my 'extra-short-but-lovely' Maldives experience. The flight was pretty short and the crew was very nice. Most of the passengers were honeymooners from Portugal, Spain and Russia so it was really cool the help them in languages I actually speak ( Portuguese and Spanish ).
As we were descending into Malé International we got to see the amazing colours that are created by the Indian Ocean waters and the coral and sandy reefs of the Maldivian atolones. They are spreaded all over the place making Maldives look kind of big in some maps.

Landing was amazing as you could only see that light emerald blue water around you , inviting to jump inside right from the plane in your cabin crew uniform.
Anyway, we got to the hotel and even though I was so tired because I haven't been sleeping properly,I decided that I would make the most of my time in the Maldives ( in the end , I was being payed to go there) so I headed to the hotel beach and pool and wandered around there for a bit.

Then I thought about exploring the Maldives a little and not just limit my experience to the Hotel Island so I took a boat ride to the capital city Malé.

Nothing really interesting to see there as a city but I was really curious about seeing the locals and try to figure out a little about their lifestyle as we don't get to know too many Maldivians in the world to compare with.
They look a lot like the Srilankans , dark skin colour with light features, they have their own writing ( which reminds something like a mix of arab and srilankan) and it's a Muslim country, so the main Mosque is right across the street from the Port.

Anyway , as it was pretty much the end of the afternoon , just took a lot of pictures of some of the beaches and landmarks and took the boat back to my island.
Later on , the crew decided to have dinner, so for the first time of my life (not that I have a long career as a cabin crew) I saw all of them including the pilots going out together ,which made the going out really pleasant as we were talking about everything not as crew members but as regular people.
Ate some maldivian dish which was made with noodles and seafood and some tropical mix juice, everything for only 12 USD!
By the end of the dinner I was pretty much sleeping in the table and when I turned my head around saw that most of the people there were in the same position so we decided to leave. The bad thing is that it was heavily raining at that point but tell me, what would be nicer than walking under the summer rain in the Maldives?

So there you see , around sixteen crazy foreigners running around Malé streets laughing and screaming to the Port where we took the boat.
Later in the hotel , saw my friends update on Facebook with their new rosters so I checked mine ( as you can see in the first part of this post ).

This morning I woke up, got dressed and took the flight back to Doha. Again really nice and quiet flight with no highlights as the passengers were sleeping. Now I'm here where I have my first ever 'minimum rest period' and back on the plane at midnight for some cheese and chocolates in beautiful Zurich.

-- Andiamo ! --

2009-06-20T07:24:00.006+03:00

My trip to Milan started way before the flight itself.
After a long ( and I mean really long) flight from Beijing , arrived into Doha really tired and thinking about how much time I would need to get my body clock into its right pace again but also looking forward for the 'next leg of the month'.

So after a quick siesta, a friend of mine wanted to go to the swimming pool and as the weather was incredible hot as usual , we headed there. As it was my first time trying the place , it was really good. Really nice to swim a little ( really miss swimming ) and the best part was a really inviting and warm jacuzzi with no queue and lots of bubbles! so hopped in until every part of my skin got wrinkled, finishing the day with a lovely 'whole grilled chicken and shishah' combination at Doha's Souq Wakif.

Next day woke up, delivered some things for laundry and got ready for Italy. Hot weather clothes, some comfy shoes and of course the uniform.
Pick-up was pretty funny this time because I had the entire crew bus just for me but my happiness got affected when the driver, inspired by something else ( or someone else ) played his mixed tape of songs of Vengaboys and Aqua! definitely one of the longest 10 minutes of my life.

Anyway, met the crew, boarded the aircraft that was not completely full loaded for a change, so I had more time to get my job done and learn, because I am still learning a lot of things. I even got a positive 'Tell Us' from a passenger who said : ' You are a nice gentleman, you smile a lot'.
After six hours we landed into Milan Malpensa International , really hot by that time. It was really nice to get back to Europe with all that architecture and the hot sunny summer weather.

The hotel had small bedrooms, although I must say that I might be getting a little spoiled by other hotels that I've been to, but it was pretty much near everything so, as we were really hungry , decided to grab something to eat.
Went to this street with a lot of restaurants where we sat and had pasta (of course) with seafood and lemon soda.

Next morning, after a good night of sleep, headed to the Stazione Centrale with another two crew members and took the Metropolitana ( subway) to Piaza dei Duomo.
Amazing place, the architecture is really interesting and the Duomo ,which is the main Milan's cathedral has an impressive size and carved details carefully crafted everywhere.
The Galleria Emanuele , right in front has also an amazing architecture and charm. Inside you can find lots of boutiques like Prada, a really traditional library and of course: Mc Donalds!

As the temperature was reaching 30 degrees, had a quick walk to Castello Sforzesco with its orange bricks and peculiar architecture and after going through it, at opposite door you will find the Parco Sempione which is the biggest park in Milan.

Now time to rest before the pick-up for the flight , but as I was not sleepy so decided to take another walk this time with my good old friend iPod and got to see the Porta de Venezia, San Babila church and Via Montenapoleone.
Actually I couldn't care less about fashion, but my mom is really into that (she's a fashion designer) so I had to go to that 'Montenapoleone thingie' to see what all the fuss was about.
All the famous, chic and expensive brands are there together ( e.g. Louis Vuitton, Dior, Bulgari, Armani , etc etc). Sometimes I felt like I was gonna be charged just to be walking there and wasting their street tiles with my humble flip-flops.

Anyway, went back to the hotel, then changed and then to the airport for the flight back home, when this time I was assigned a new position on the plane and since the loads were really light and most of the time sleeping, I had the oportunity to learn a lot.

So , welcome back to Doha where the local time is 7:55 and the temperature is 37 degrees. Next adventure: Male, Maldives.

-- Beijing, China and Loving Rostering Part 2 --

2009-06-17T08:50:00.008+03:00

Couldn't really update my blog from China, don't know why and don't really want to speculate anything , so I just thought I would do it as soon as I get home ( By the way , been flying for 9 and a half hours already, got home , uploaded the pics to Facebook and then updated my Blog ).

Beijing is amazing: incredibly big , lot of interesting buildings and architecture, a interesting blend of western and far east culture mixed in a contrast of tall skyscrapers and milenar temples and gardens in the same squares. You can even see people fishing in the rivers around the city.
Anyway, after arrival we headed to our Hotel in the centre and even though I was incredibly tired from the flight , I decided to fight the jet-lag and have a long walk.
Grabbed my map and explored the neighborhood, at first I was feeling really lost because it's still hard to get some 'decent' help in english from the people there.

After an one-hour walk I reached Tiananmen Square, the place is amazing and enormous where you can actually see how big the Chinese Government and Dinasties were. Picture time: in places like the Mao Tse Tzung Memorial, The Government House, The Forbidden City entrance, etc.

Long walk alone , got back to the hotel and got a really nice sleep, after all it was an 8 hour flight.
Next morning at 7:30 am, time for breakfast and then took a hired taxi to The Great Wall with two other crew members, one from Sri Lanka and one from the Philipines.
We headed to the countryside through an excelent highway and then across some little villages and rice farms to finally reach the cable car station that leads to the Wall itself.

Once up there, you lose your breath ,the place is awesome ,the Great Wall is really a wonder as where you look , it goes up and down like a dragon sliding through the Northern China mountains. Some parts are impossible to reach nowadays and the Great Wall's length is over 6000 kms.

Explored for some time and then went down the hill where we took the cable car and headed for the taxi who got us through a heavy rain safe in hour hotel in Beijing.

Lots of rest after a lot of rock climbing and hiking and then it was time to get all set for the night flight back to Doha. Again the excellent crew made things better, easier and comfortable. The flight was longer ( as we were flying west ) but easy as most passengers were sleeping so we had more time to sit. Also got two compliment letters which is very nice considering that it was my second flight.

Coming back to Doha remembered of the two days of Standby I was gonna face the next days (as I was pulled out of from both Dhaka and Casablanca) so I just checked out and came home as I was incredibly tired.
Turned on my mobile and received an SMS saying to check my roster...what do I have there?

Again those Rostering people: they pulled me out of standby and gave me a nice Milan-Malpensa ( Italy ) layover tomorrow! Could I be happier with my roster? Yeah Rostering rules!
Anyway , off to sleep now and relax the whole day for my morning flight to Europe again, Ciao!

-- Loving Rostering Department --

2009-06-16T08:34:00.002+03:00

So , my life has turned into a dramatic and hyper-dynamic twister of events and destinations.

It all started on Sunday night when I properly said good-bye to my friends in Doha after a light dinner, then went home , shaved, took a shower , packed my suitcase with a lot of hot weather clothes and specially lots of courage and willing to operate my Dhaka flight (read some sarcarsm and some true in between the lines ) and went to the airport.

The thing is that the whole roster for the same crew goes like : Doha-Dhaka-Doha-Tripoli-Casablanca-Doha which takes something like 5 days to be completed. Lots of cabin crew complain about this huge hollow space of insatisfaction in their montly rosters and many of them would just make fun of me when I showed them that I was the lucky one.

Back on Sunday, sitted on the Briefing Room for the Dhaka flight when suddenly Rostering Deparment comes and say that someone was gonna be pulled-out of the flight because there were not enough seats for all the crew. Suddenly my number and name was called and a huge smile really hard to hide from the other crew that were actually going to stick and operate the flight was painted in my face. Next thing: Airport Standby.
So there I was in uniform and suitcase looking at all the flights wandering, waiting and wishing to get into a good one when the people from Rostering came saying: 'Oh , you are going to Beijing tonight'.

Happy? Do you think? Amazed! just grabbed everything , went back home to get my jacket and hopped on the briefing for my new flight. Crew were really nice and they made me feel welcome really fast.
Flight left on-time and with no highlights, it was the shortest night of my life ( as we were flying towards east) and after flying over the Himalaias, serving a lot of food in a fully-loaded flight and having stomach cramps , finally got into Beijing Capital International Airport.

-- This is not a must know, is a need to know --

2009-06-13T23:40:00.006+03:00

Okay people , just had three days-off in a row , as part of the terrible plot that rostering prepared for me this month, so from today onwards, every hour in Doha will be for sleeping and eating purposes, since my time here will be very limited. ( can't really complain , love being out of station, specially when it's reaching temperatures above 45 degrees now daily).

I promised myself that I'd go to the swimming pool , but I didn't! can not really say that these days were really crappy, indeed there were not too many interesting things to do here , specially because going out to the streets in the midday and afternoon hours is like asking to die slowly, but here's an important detail: It does feel like home.

Remember the feeling when I was arriving from my Stockholm flight, it was good to know that I'd be home soon , in my own bedroom , with all my precious high-tech gadgets and specially my new friends , the ones that welcome you with a big ' how was your trip? tell me everything' and make you feel better about yourself. Those are the friends you think about when you are in the souvenir store trying to buy cheap but meaningful presents.

Must say that these days I've been feeling a little homesick specially because it has been 6 months since I left home and lots of things happened to me since then. I love what I do and I can't really complain of anything. Having so much positive feedback from my beloved ones ( friends , family and people who are just curious about my new lifestyle ) had me thinking about them and how much I miss them.

Anyway, maybe my friends and family will read this , so I can only say 'Thank You'...Lots!
Tomorrow I'm heading for Bangladesh, never been there in my life , heard lots of stories about the flight itself and about the city but I am not really into the 'stay in the hotel sleeping the whole day' thing, so I might hire a guided tour or something, will keep you posted!

-- Midnight Sunset + Beautiful Women = Stockholm --

2009-06-10T22:15:00.007+03:00

Hej! Svenka? Just arrived from my first ever layover trip and there was no better place to start my Cabin Crew life than with a nice stay in Sweden's capital: Stockholm.
Flight time between Doha and Stockholm is something around six and half hours, so it was also my first 'long' flight ( as I only had gotten short turnarounds before ).

So there I was again again , feeling all ' cabin crewish' in my uniform , this time for a day flight to Scandinavia. We departed from Doha with some steamy forty-one degrees and the flight was with a medium load. Most of them coming from holidays in the Indian Subcontinent and Thailand.
Flight just went without any problems ( just some ladies who were having some intestinal gas problems, so the air spray was a very requested item ).

We arrived into Stockholm sometime between eight in the night and it was really sunny , looked like it was three in the afternoon in any other part of the world , then the ground staff told us that since we are heading towards the summer , the sunset was at 23:00!
The hotel was amazing and very well located in the City Centre , in front of the Old Town , so the next day , after a huge breakfast ( including pancakes and bavarian sausage ) we headed for some sightseeing with another two crewmembers.

Must say that I really enjoyed the city, Stockholm was founded over many islands, so there are a lot of bridges , some of them really modern and some others really classic with the 'imperial style'.
It was great to be back in Europe, some trees and feel the cold air in the face for a change so I enjoyed myself while we were taking photos of pretty much everything , including the main points such as the Royal Palace ( where we were just in time to see the change of guards ) , Riksdasthuset and the impressive VasaMuseet , where there's an original viking ship who sank back in the 1700's that was recovered and refloated pretty much intact.
Note for myself: Women in Sweden are beautiful ! simple as that. Whoever that has been there can agree with me in this.

Nothing better to rest the legs and end the afternoon than a boat trip through the channels to see the whole city from the water point of view. At one point the trip got so quiet that we started to feel sleepy.

According to the watches, the afternoon was indeed over...now I was asking to myself, 'when will that sunset gonna come?', as I saw that people were actually saying the truth , just took my camera and decided to go for a last walkaround before going to sleep and I even got to take pictures of the city's watches when it was around midnight and there was still sunlight!

Later a nice night of sleep in the hotel and then ' wake up call' for getting ready and operate the flight back to Doha, which was full so we worked a lot.
Crew members were really nice and helped me a lot, taught me a lot of things as well and gave me some pointers to make my life easier.

Now I'm here again, where the temperature is again 41 degrees and now gonna enjoy some days-off before starting with the hectic roster I have ahead of me.

-- Flying without wings ( and swimming in freezing waters ) --

2009-06-06T10:11:00.005+03:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, introducing the new Qatar Airways Cabin Crew member...ME!

That's right , Thursday got my graduation days or as we call it here , I've got my 'wings' with my name on it and now I'm officially able to go flying around the world by myself , also meaning that I'm fully responsible for my behaviour inside and outside the aircraft.
We got our diplomas ( now I've got two 'degrees' in my life, as my mom would say) and a really good chocolate cake.
Of course some words from the staff members that stuck with my batch for the last 8 weeks and then some celebration.

It feels good, now I'm sure that there will be no routine in my life anymore and that will finally see the world I always wanted to.
Also feeling a little worried to know that I'm not protected anymore and that I need to get used to pretty much everything as soon as posible, specially because my roster for this month is so hectic ( again, I love it ).
On the other hand , I am really gonna miss my batchmates, we were like brothers for the past weeks , learned a lot about them, helped them, they helped me and since we were from 16 different nationalities, I felt able to see and open my mind to new cultures, to deal with that and to learn about their countries ( and how to swear in 16 different languages ).

Yesterday we woke up early and took the morning flight to Dubai, United Arab Emirates where we headed straight to the EK Aviation College for evacuation and ditching training.
Dubai seems really interesting, I will definitely go there on my days-off to explore it a little , even though it really looks like the credit crunch affected them , as the airport was incredible empty and the city as well ( maybe because it was Friday ).
Training was really nice , we had a lot of fun and we swam in the freezing water of the indoor pool with the life-jackets around our necks, damn how I miss swimming!

On our way back to Doha we said our good-byes, even taped a video with everyone's nicknames and we got home.
Now I have two days-off and flying out on my first flight as a official Cabin Crew, destination: Stockholm, Sweden!

See ya in the skies! ( and 426 Rules! )

-- You can call me ' Tran'--

2009-06-03T14:11:00.004+03:00

Waking up from a quick nap now, thinking that I must sleep every time I can from now on ( or every time I feel extremely tired as I want to do some sightseeing while on layovers ).

Just finished my 'observer flights' which I would like to call as 'internship flying hours', and now finally finished with every training issue in Doha.

The first one was a short-haul flight to Dammam, Saudi Arabia where we had a night stop , meaning that we had to wait INSIDE THE AIRCRAFT for three hours due to KSA regulations, time between disembarkation of the passengers in Dammam and embark of the passengers on the returning sector to DOH.
It started around midnight , when well-groomed and prepared, headed to the 'crew terminal' and got to my first ever briefing.
Quick grooming briefing then some SEP questions and finally First Aid, somehow managed to answer everything they asked me and then it was time to board the aircraft.
Good A320 with a low load of passengers which quickly boarded as we finished our security checks and warmed some of the meals that we were gonna serve.

Passengers entering the aircraft and I was at the forward of the economy class, so I had to greet them and help them find their way inside the cabin.
Normal take-off and then running to put on the Dining Jackets and start our service for this night flight : a warm sandwich and juice.
Boy how we ran !, we were handing everything so fast ( we were about to pretty much chew the passengers food so they could finish faster) and then clearance as the plane was approaching into the airport.
Landing , disembark and the beginning of the long waiting until we got back to Doha. Nothing really interesting to do , so we watched some movies and ate a lot of things.
As the morning came , passengers boarded ( and then again I was at the forward) but the load this time was lower so I supposed the ' delivering food service' was gonna be easier, WRONG! when I did it , I even forgot to serve a row , which I quickly solved and apologized for like 8 times.

Arrived in the early morning and got home, slept for like 8 hours and then ran some errands.

Five in the morning today , woke up, groomed and went to the airport for the second flight: Dubai. Again a quick briefing with some quick questions (and quick answers) and then boarded the aircraft: an A330.
Low load of passengers again, this time I was in the middle of the economy class and the flight service started. Sweets there, freshnets there and we took off.
Again , running against time to give the meals , this time I didn't forget any rows and felt way faster than yesterday ( even for a wide-body aircraft ). Landed in Dubai and stayed there for an hour , enough time for the passengers to disembark , eat something , go to the toilet, open and arm the doors , learn some things and then passengers embark again.
Nice flight back to Doha , smiling passengers ( of course, smiling cabin crew) and a short and bumpy flight.

So , got home again...hot as usual and tomorrow I'm getting my 'wings' , meaning that I am graduating after a long and hard training...ok , not that hard.
I operated these two flights with the ' Trainee ' badge , so crew members on the last flight were calling me just 'Tran' , from tomorrow I'm using the ones with my name written on it.

Then coming back to Dubai on Friday for ditching training in the Emirates Aviation College , so as the roster says , I might be there for the entire day.
Anyway , nice experiences, kind of liking my new lifestyle, hope it lasts for a long time.

Still feeling a little sad about the AF 447 flight as somehow I do feel connected with things that happen in Brazil and I've been in Galeão Airport and took the same route once. God keep their souls in peace.

-- Holidays are over! now feel the rush --

2009-05-31T19:10:00.004+03:00

Today was my last day of training in a classroom, we headed to the main building in the early morning for a quick briefing on some missed details through the training and then headed to the airport for some briefings and check-in procedures.

That's it, got my updated roster with my 'Observer flights' ( or 'supply flights' if you want to) and everything starts tomorrow with a really nice overnight turnaround to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Dammam), where I'll be spending nice three hours inside the airport and then head back to Doha in the morning. This is my narrow-body aircraft flight as we are gonna be flying an A321.

My second flight is on a wide-body aircraft , an A330 which will be taking me to Dubai on a really quick turnaround ( something like one hour on ground before coming back to Doha).

Now it's getting real , it really feels like I've been living on Doha for years, since we've been going through a lot and specially getting a lot of information in a really short time.
So , after these flights I have my graduation on Thursday ( gonna get my 'wings') and then going to Dubai again for the ditching training on Friday.
Will try to keep all my readers updated.

See ya!

-- Anesthesics are funny! for the first time... --

2009-05-30T14:43:00.005+03:00

Second day-off in a row today and with the termometers now bursting some mild 47ºC in the city , you'd think I would be enjoying a nice beach or a nice Health Club swimming pool but...YOU'RE WRONG! Today actually I had my first ever surgery!

It all started like three days ago with a rash in my left upper arm, thought it was one of the hundred pimples you have in your life so I didn't notice anything different and just ignored...WRONG!, last night the pain and swell were so big that I had to go to the Emergency Room in the hospital and get it checked , specially because the pain was already spreading to the whole arm.
They told me it was an abcess so I would need to go back tomorrow and get surgery for them to remove all of it.

So there I was today in the morning, wearing a hospital robe ( the one that you feel like you are half-naked ) in front of the doctors in the O.R. and that was it , the next thing I remember was myself saying to one of my batchmates ( who kindly escorted me to the hospital and took care of everything) things like ' anesthesics are so cool , feel like drunk but without the nausea' or ' We... need.... water.... every... three....hours'.

Back home now and with my whole five senses fully recovered, it's really funny to remember everything that happened , specially due to the fact that my first ever surgery was held thousands miles away from home!

On the bright side, my training is...OVER! ,Thursday I finished my First Aid course ( meaning that now I am able to do the Heimlich Manouver and CPR properly ) and with that, I only have my observation flights left ( or suppy flights ).

Anyway , next week seems really cool, gonna start flying , going to Dubai on Friday for ditching and gonna get my 'wings'.

-- Fresh from the oven! my first ever monthly roster! --

2009-05-25T21:40:00.004+03:00

Still excited about this! This is my last week of training and today we finally got the roster of the flights that we are gonna operate in June , as said before we bidded for them , so I am pretty happy about the result, as I got a lot of the flights I wanted!
So let's explain it in cristian words , as most of people in the world are not familiar with IATA three-letter codes:

My month starts with my ditching day in Dubai, UAE we are flying in the morning , then we are going to the Emirates Aviation College and we are coming back to Doha at night, then two days-off before I actually start my flights as a Cabin Crew.

Then I am gonna go out of these suffocating 46ºC in Doha to a cooler place: Stockholm, Sweden, where I'll be spending three wonderful days, any suggestions on what to do there?

Arriving from Stockholm, gonna have three days-off in Doha and then heading somewhere different: Dacca, Bangladesh , definetely didn't bid for this flight, although I really find it interesting to mix something from the 'Indian Subcontinent' in my June life, gonna be there for only two days.

Rostering thought that it would be enough rest for this new joiner, so decided to tight things up, one day later I have a long ( really long) flight to Casablanca, Morocco via Tripoli where I'll be spending only one day and then back to Doha where I will have minimum rest to put the uniform again and do a quick turnaround to Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Two days-off and enough time to recharge the batteries, because the next stop is the paradise better known as Male , Maldives where I have a layover for one day...blue ocean, white sand and of course ME ENJOYING IT!

Arriving from the beautiful beaches and again with minimum rest is time to get myself some chocolates and fondue as I head to Zurich , Switzerland for two days.

As the month is over, I'm doing a quick turnaround to Dammam, Saudi Arabia and again with minimum rest I'm flying to another of the world wonders: Beijing, China where I'll have two days-off and then back to Doha!

That's my June roster, again really happy with that...now it's gonna be interesting to think about CPR and First Aid knowing that I'll be flying to these places!
See ya!!!! If I'm near your city , let me know!

-- So, that's the way the passengers are gonna see me? --

2009-05-22T11:59:00.006+03:00

Really busy week the past one , lots of things to do! ( not really, just want to excuse myself for not have written in the past days ).
The week started with a really nice day-off , which I'd like to call ' housekeeping day' , because all I did was laundry , sleeping, cooking ( tried ), listening music, sleeping, cleaning my bedroom and putting some things together and sleeping again.
Then we had Dangerous Goods and Security where we learned how to deal with special situations inside the plane, so as I know so far, Cabin Crews are chefs, psicologysts, fire-fighters, and police mens...and always smiling! lol.

Next days were Grooming Days! not really much to talk about , as we men don't need too many grooming details and tips , kind of everyone knows how to take care of themselves and we don't need any tips on how to tie our long hairs or which kind of make-up to use.
Then they gave us the uniforms and suitcases! it's always cool to get free stuff ( no matter what )!

When I tried everything and looked myself in the mirror I must admit that it felt really weird and felt some butterflies in my stomach, for the first time since all my 'immediate-dream-of-working-for-an-airline' started , I idealized something but I never actually saw it materialized until that moment. So actually , that's the way the passengers are gonna see me everyday? does that means that I actually became a cabin crew? No more industrial design? No more 8-to-5 job? No more routine? Yes!

I only have one week left of training before I start flying, I do feel like it happened all too fast and now everything is getting real.
Anyway, haven't got my roster yet because they tried this new rostering automatic system this month so the rosters are taking a little longer to come out, still I keep checking my crew account every hour to see if I get lucky.

Just for the record: Hablo español, Falo português and Speak English.
Cheers!

-- Cerquinga! ( Really close ) --

2009-05-17T14:26:00.005+03:00

Done with SEP , had my final exam today and I couldn't be happier with the result, my training history have been really interesting so far, I am not the studying type person , sometimes I have a really big focusing problem ( specially if my Facebook homepage is around ), so my so-called grades around here have even amazed myself , specially because I just can't go through the books for long hours...starting to think that I might be a little smart ( Japanese family side coming out ).
So right now I can say that I've been safety certified to fly some of our aircrafts here in QR and now I am heading to the last part of training, which in some ways is easier than the part I already went through, now comes what really matters...GROOMING? hahaha , just kidding.

Have a day-off tomorrow ( good for a change ) and planning to finally head the Health Club they talk about so much , it is like 35 QR, about 10 US dollars, to spend the entire day there.
Running still looks interesting as these week temperatures got milder ( don't know why ) and we had a little sandstorm yesterday , I was intended to take some photos , but I forgot my camera at home.

Also new batches are arriving here in Doha , some people I already knew before they were coming , so it is really nice to talk to them, advise them and help them with the Qatari lifestyle peculiarities, so the past few days have been kind of busy for me as well ( yes, you could be the next one ).

Anyway, my roster is gonna be finally revealed on the 20th, like I said before can't wait to see where I will be heading to for the next month but as for now , I will only chill and enjoy the ride!

Hot and sandy greetings from Doha! ( Dawhah! )

-- Update ( because people are asking ) --

2009-05-12T21:55:00.005+03:00

Is nice to see that people are enjoying reading about my happenings here in Doha , today is my One Month Anniversary here ( been here for a month ), since I have nothing REALLY interesting to share with my readers, I might as well say some random things:

- Finally bid for my flights for June , so now I will 'calmly' wait for my roster to come out ( yeah, right, probably will be counting the hours to get it ), bid some interesting non-cliche places, so let`s see what can I get.

-Today I went for a run in the blog-famous Al Corniche and finally after two weeks, we broke the record and got a nice 19m 11s ( the previous one was 19m 26s. Next goal is to get something less than 19 minutes.

-Yesterday after a long day of training and exams ( got a 100 per cent in my A320 SEP exams ) I arrived home , ate something and got online , suddenly my laptop just turned-off and wouldn`t turn on again, so now my internet resources are limited, will try to post anyway.

-Oh , found out that when two men are holding hands on the street here in Doha , it means that they are like really best friends and they would die for each other ( I first thought it was weird , so I needed to ask ).

Cheers from hot Doha , where right now is 22:30 hrs and is 32 degrees Celsius.

-- Not much to say ( It happens! ) --

2009-05-08T15:40:00.005+03:00

Friday , day-off as usual, just woke up late and cooked something ( limited options , today: Mac and Cheese ).

Not much to say , so here is my update :

Last night I didn't have a good night , was feeling tired and sick because I ate a bad 'shawarma' before going out , so the night was kind of an endless pretending of ' I love dancing' followed by some moments of ' I am so gonna throw up now' and some ' I wanna go home' as well.

Good thing that my legs are better, they were really sore the past days , because I use to run periodically ( read the Super Cabin Crews rubbish a little down south of this page ) and forced my knees. Might go running today again, if the 40º C mark gets a little down at the end of the day.

'Plane school' as my friend would say, has been really funny the past days but also hard at the same time. A lot of info coming into my little brain, but nothing that a good large cup of black coffee and some food along with the books can't solve.

Also I couldn't be happier about the feedback I am having from my readers, I started this blog as a way to let my 'closest ones' to know what's happening with me, what are my experiences and wether if I'm enjoying or hating something ( that way I would save precious minutes in sending an e-mail to each one of them telling the same things ). Today I took a look at the visitors and noticed that people from over 90 different cities around the world have visited me, even from places I'd never thought I'd receive visitors e.g. Kenya, Brunei Darussalam, Japan. That's something I didn't expect before, so a big applause from me to you people! Keep it up!
As for me , back to my laundry, studying , maybe running and maybe a quick visit to the ' crew airport' because , I still haven't bid for my flights!

Have a nice weekend! mine's already gone! =D

-- Cabin Crew = Fire Fighter? Hell yeah! --

2009-05-05T15:22:00.005+03:00

Waking up from a short 'siesta' right now and very hungry, at these kind of moments I would like to have my beloved mother or my beloved Alicia around to cook for me, since they are two continents and an ocean away , I have to figure out what to do now, order in? cook?

As the water boils ( already figured out what a cheap person like me would choose? ) , I 'll might as well drop a few lines here. In the early morning had my SEP exam, piece of cake, scored a clean 100 % obviously and then, just fun. Had a quick killer breakfast at the cafeteria ( two chicken burguers and a juice seemed healthy at the moment ) and then....FIRE DRILL!

And there we were, the crazy batch in the bus going across the plain green, humid and fertile valley on Qatar's landscape ( read a lot of sarcarsm here ) towards the Doha Industrial Area.
Should I mention again that it was bloody hot?

Middle of nowhere, a quick briefing, instructions and of course overalls!, astronauts , take your places!
Everyone inside the airplane mock-up and fight the fire! .It was really an experience , I never had to fight fire in my life before so it was really interesting to have the feeling because is really different to learn about fires, types of fires, smoke , etc in class and then actually feel the heat through the overall and feel the smoke getting into your breath.
Oh yeah , we are going back there tomorrow! Can't wait!...Until then, all I know is that...someone has a date!!!

( Not me , it's part of a joke from my batch, but some people might understand it as well )

-- Open Seat Belts, Come this way, Jump and Slide..--

2009-05-04T14:26:00.005+03:00

First of all , must say that it is really nice to have a feedback from my readers and see that people are actually paying attention to what I am writing about, that really encourages me to keep on sharing with you my funny life and incidents. I had only two days a week for updating purposes but I am planning on adding a third frequency to the schedule , what do you think?
Talking about rosters, I am getting anxious as I have to bid for my June flights and get my first ever flight roster ( you know, with all the times, flights, etc. etc. )

QR has plenty of cool destinations , so I'll might as well look at the map and point some of them...or I'll go for the certain things : Beaches! ( leave european victorian style houses for later).

Still on SEP training, it was funny because the first days I found it really hard , classes and subjects were going really fast and sometimes it was hard to catch up , specially because English is not my mother tongue.
But I finally pictured the whole thing e.g. equipments and procedures, and everything is easier now ( grabbed this, twist here, hold there,check that). Tomorrow I'm gonna have the first exam which I am sure is gonna be just fine.

I am really enjoying here, mix 20 people from 16 nationalities in one training room and the result is always gonna be interesting , lot of cool names ( nicknames as well ), cultures, accents and way of looking at things, Virgin Atlantic's evil cigarettes are still wandering around our minds and dreams.

By the way , evacuation commands are funny when doing drills, but are something that I hope I'll never use along the next years.

Knowing that you are tired of reading the same thing I must say it again: It's bloody hot in here!
See ya!

-- Hot! Hot! ( and VS's evil cigarettes ) --

2009-05-01T13:10:00.006+03:00

Hot is the common word for these past days, starting with the Arabic dessert weather who keeps increasing the temperatures everyday, today we reached 40ºC as did other major cities along this region ( Dubai , Abu Dhabi , Manama, Riyadh ), we are desperate looking for a swimming pool , which has become a really hard task considering we only have one day-off.

That day-off is also becoming really short, specially because this week we ended Cabin Services ( now I am the master of Bloody Mary´s in flight ) and started our long and hard SEP training.
SEP: Safety and Emergency Procedures, actually is not hard, the thing is that you have to memorize a lot of information and is not like you can 'say the info in another way' you have to learn it word by word , because these are internacional standard procedures.

I still find hilarious a video they showed us about fire on board the aircrafts, it was a really old video, like early 90's according to our UK friend, filmed with the help of Virgin Atlantic ( one airline from the UK ).
Special features for the man who couldn't stop smoking, who kept putting plastic cups above the smoke detector in the bathroom and was really nasty with the cabin crew.
The main features go to the evil cigarettes, who couldn't remain quiet and were always diving into the paper bins , creating a in-flight fire and the really special 'suspense-terror movie' soundtrack.

Last night we went to the Irish , had a great time again, it was one of our batchmate's birthday so almost all of the batch wanted to go out , including the southeast Asia wing! ( I call them that because they are always together and they are from countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore , South Korea, etc. ).

Anyway , back to the real life...have to go study a lot today , so my day-off will be pretty short.
I still have 10 days to bid for the flights I want to operate for June, any suggestions?
Cheers from desertic Doha!

ATTENTION: THE COMMENTS TOOL IS WORKING AGAIN! FEEL FREE TO LEAVE SOME COMMENTS IF YOU LIKE THIS BLOG! Cheers!

-- Soon!...Super Cabin Crews --

2009-04-27T22:43:00.004+03:00

Almost midnight right now, temperature: 31ºC, considering that today we had some pleasant 39ºC and spring is just beginning, must say that sometimes I miss that cold Irish weather I was complaining about some days ago ( SOMETIMES means like 10 seconds a day ).
At this temperature we decided to go for a run again, we are trying to get a proper exercise routine along the next weeks ( and also because we want something to spent our time with and specially, get us away from the Malls and shopping with money which we don't have ).

Already 5 times since I arrived into DOH and more people joining! so far like 6 people have run with us but still nobody can keep my pace ( and my british's friend as well , that bloody runner!).
Routine goes like this:
2 kms. walking from the buildings to the Al Corniche , 4.3 kms running to the City Centre along the Bay, 4.3 kms return running and 2 kms. walking back home , TOTAL: 12.6 kms.

Evolution of best times ( considering just the running )

4.3 Kms : 21min 50 seg
4.3 Kms: 20min 37 seg
4.3 Kms: 20min 15 seg
4.3 Kms: 19min 57 seg
4.3 Kms: 19min 17 seg ( today )

So , if that happened in only two weeks here, maybe by the end of training before flying we are gonna be Super Cabin Crews! with the special power of running under the suffocating arabian sun!
Actually today I tried to do my best, remembering something I used to do back when I was swimming, yesterday I received some really bad news from home, even not being able to do anything to solve the problem ,that running was dedicated for someone special.
Love you Grandma!

-- Smurfs Fantasy! --

2009-04-24T21:05:00.005+03:00

Second day-off since I arrived into Doha! , last night was really fun.
Again we went to the Irish Harp into the Sheraton Hotel and stood there chatting , drinking ( drank Coke ) and dancing ( for me is more like a slightly movement towards both sides with no rythm at all ).

Today woke up really late and decided to do everything I had pending , went to the supermarket, cleaned my bedroom , cooked something quick ( no rice ) and did my laundry.
When I did my laundry I was still sleepy ang put everything into the washing machine / dryer and got out.

Four hours later , I don't know why did the machine took so long to do everything, I opened the hatch and...A LOT OF BLUE CLOTHES! White t-shirts? Now blue! White Underwear? Now blue! , then I realized that I had put a pair of jeans that were not supposed to be inside !
Too late, now I have a great stock of light blue clothes and almost all of my white clothes are now gone! Good thing that I didn't wash my shirts on this batch.

Noted. One more lesson about living alone: Check your clothes before laundry.

-- The Flying Barman --

2009-04-22T00:36:00.005+03:00

I've been in Doha for a week and one day already , must say that there are some things that I still find very strange about this place, it's cool to discover sometimes though!
Everyday the weather is getting hotter and hotter, sometimes I see the weather forecast with the hope of finding any lost cloud around there but...just sun and more sun...and more sun! can't really complain , two weeks ago I was complaining on how bad the weather in Ireland was and how much I hate cold weather , so right now I'm feeling kind of like home.

I finally got to understand my Doha map so these days I have been getting out more often and walking around the places, still wanting to take the bus sometime but for now , it's OK if I just take a taxi or walk.

Training is also getting really interesting as we are finally heading to the real stuff, there is a lot of things to remember , Cabin Crew service is not just ' look good , greet and pour some juice in the cup', there are a lot of things involved, procedures, sequences, presentations...so for a new non-experienced person like me , sometimes is hard to catch up.
This week I also learned how to make drinks! I am a non-drinking person as well , so it was a really new experience for me ( as for my batchmates, they all were like ' that's something we know already'). Those drunks! it is getting really hard for them here in Doha with all the drinking and alcohol regulations they have here. We are having also some real scenarios and how to deal with picky customers and special situations, so that helps a lot.
Oh! and I must be the only CC in the whole Qatar Airways history that fell off the mock-up and injured!
My batchmates are cool , they are really funny and make the sometimes long training hours to pass by really fast, some of them are quiet ( specially the ones from Asia ) and some of them are really noisy and hyperactive...which kind do you think I am?

These days also I finally figured a better way to work out, I just hate running in the gym , so as I am finally a Qatari ( talking about maps here ) I marked the better way to get to the Corniche and run there.
A total of 12 kms right beside the Doha's coastline , with the marine breeze blowing and cooling the hot sunburn you can get sometimes in the Middle East.
The view is kind of nice too as you go along the main landmarks here in Doha and you can pretty much see every kind of people running , walking around or having a nice family picnic in the well-groomed green grass.
Some of my batchmates are joining me in the running as well , so it's really nice to have someone to compete with in order to improve the results along these next 6 weeks, before starting to mess with my body with some hard jet-lag sessions and long-haul flights ( I am counting the hours to do so hehehee).

So...even though I don't drink , that won't stop me to get all my passengers drunk and happy in their medium and long-haul flights! Anybody there wants a Bloody Mary???

-- A child in a candystore --

2009-04-18T22:34:00.003+03:00

That's the way I feel right now! I still can't believe I am actually here , fullfilling one of my main dreams. It was not always like this , when I was a small kid ( smaller ) I wanted to be a pilot, remember drawing planes and runway since I was 5, my first drawings were some BAE-146 from my country's regional company.
My parents always encouraged me to develop my talent AS A DESIGNER, my father would take me to the airport to see the planes and hang around, they would always also buy for me books about aviation and gave me material to create new aircrafts ( Lego's when I was a kid , Mock-up materials when I was a teenager ).

As I grew up, different things started to wander inside my head, I frequently thought that being a pilot could be risky in a lot fo ways ( security itself and job positioning ) so after I graduated from high school went for my second passion: Design.
Must say that I am really talented about designing objects and landscape , please don't ask me to draw an animal because you will only get a really ugly dog that actually looks like a horse or cat.

Finally graduated from college and after working for four years in my area with the classic 8am to 5pm basis, I decided that I wanted something different, so I tried this.

Saying all that crap above , must say that I feel like a child in a candy store , everyday is exciting and with different things to see, finally study something I pay a hundred per cent attention to.
Today we had training inside the planes and I remembered that it was actually what I always wanted to do , since the very beginning.
Sometimes it seems like I am dreaming or something and will be awake in a few minutes, sometimes is very real ( like when I have to wake up really early to get ready and well groomed for training ).

Yesterday was also our first ever DAY-OFF, got to know a little more about my training batch colleagues, everyone from a different background and country , a lot of interesting stories and cultures. We headed to the Villagio Mall which is a shopping that imitates Venice ( you know, Italy ) streets ! they painted the ceiling which looks very real and every store is like a little house with windows and they even have a channel with gondolas inside the Mall!

So everything is really new for me now , maybe it won't later...but , SO FAR SO GOOD.
Next step is to look for a place to swim along the next weeks, maybe the Doha Olympic Village has something there for me.

Anyway , cheers from hot , steamy , dusty, under construction and rich Doha!

PS: Feel free to leave a comment on the post, so I can get to know that you visited and took enough time to read all the rubbish I write!

-- Doha at a first glance --

2009-04-15T23:18:00.008+03:00

These past two days have been really busy, mainly because I arrived here late ( I am the late joiner ) and had to catch up with everything, specially paperwork.
Anyway ,starting to get Qatari around here, it is going to be 'Home' for the next years so is good to see that everything happens quickly and without any problems.

The company has been really nice and has handled everything in a really good way so I don't feel lost or with any doubts in my head.

Must say that the Cultural Shock is really big , I remember the first day I got here and saw all these people in the streets with such a different culture , I was really impressed, sometimes even scared wondering ' I am so far from home'.

Now I am getting used to it and I am liking it , is nice to learn about them and how to respect them ( sometimes is hard to remember, specially because in Latin America we are very friendly and we don't have as much boundaries as they do ).

Training is really hard but I really like it , I think it's maybe because are subjects that really interested me since I was a kid so this time I pay attention unlike college when I would sleep in almost every class.

Today I went to the City Centre, finally! got really impressed, Doha has not been affected by the economical crisis because they still have enough oil and petrol to go along with their economy growing. Really tall buildings and a fast growing skyline.

Shoppings are really big and with many options for both western and eastern cultures.

Wealthness here is really obvious , mostly amongst the Qataris and the foreigners working for the oil companies and the airline.

Public transportation is almost unexistant , however, they are trying to improve this because they are bidding to become the city that will host the 2016 Olympic Games.

Everywhere you look there's a construction site, buildings with every shape and material you can ever imagine.

Luxurious cars...gold...and luxurious cars...and gold...oh , did I mentioned that there are a lot of luxurious cars?

Even seeing that, life custs here are not high , considering that a few days ago I was leaving in Dublin , which is more expensive that London nowadays.

Taxis are almost for free, consequence of the petrol price here which is like 0,20 cents of an US dolar per litre, cheaper than water actually, which costs like 0,40 cents of an US dolar.

Anyway, is almost midnight and is still very hot , thank God that every building, car, bus here has air conditioning.

So that's it! I will keep you updated! ( If there are any english mistakes here, it's OK, I am very tired anyway ).

Here's a photo of the City Centre! Enjoy!

So , my Visitors Counter suddenly failed, so I had to put a new one. So far people from over 120 cities around the world have visited this website hole! Keep on doing it!

-- Welcome to Doha --

2009-04-13T21:37:00.005+03:00

QR 002 just arrived from Heathrow! we got out of the plane by the rear door , because the front door was being used for Business and First Class passengers who have a private luxurious car waiting for them. As I am humble enough to fly Coach , just followed the crowd.

I remember that in the way from the plane to the Main terminal I was thinking something like ' Oh my God , I am actually here...and it is so different!'.

Most passengers were connecting flight passengers to Asian , Africa and the Indian Subcontinent destinations, so just a few passengers cleared customs in Doha.
Got my 'State of Qatar' stamp on my passport and a visa for many years! then the cultural differences were obvious, lot of people wearing burkhas, some women who were completely covered in this black veil ( you can see only their eyes ), lot if indian imigrants who arrived as a wave of people from the Mumbai flight...
Grabbed my luggage and waited for the Housing Officer who took me ' Home'.
I was lucky , got assigned the new building , so all the apartment and furniture are entirely new, every apartment is designed to house two Cabin Crew , each one has its own room and bathroom , but kitchen and living rooms are shared.
My flatmate is from Montenegro , a really nice guy who had just arrived two days before me and is going to be in the same training batch as I will.

Nice to enter my room and see everything ready and thought, beginning with the linen , to the cutlery and even a basket with some basic supplies.

Slept a little because I was feeling really tired from yesterday and then decided to have a little glimpse of Doha's life. Hot steamy weather...a lot of sand, and a little mosque right besides our building, so now I am learning at which times Muslims pray, always pointing to the Mecca.
Then my flatmate arrived and he showed me where the supermarket was, bought a lot of things and goods and then he cooked. ( Tomorrow is my time...Rice Guru , there we go again ).

Then we headed to this apartment Store near the City Centre to buy some clothes for the traning, shirts, trousers and basic t-shirts.

So now I'm home , tomorrow 's gonna be my first training day...I'll keep you updated!
See ya!

-- Dublin - Heathrow - Doha --

2009-04-13T21:24:00.006+03:00

So there I was, leaving Ireland like I was running away from something , got my boarding pass for my AerLingus flight to Heathrow and since my flight scheduled for 18:00 was delayed, they put me on a earlier flight that left Dublin at 17:00...Crossed the Irish Sea and an hour later I was landing into Heathrow...a really messy and weird airport.

My plane docked into Terminal 1 for UK and Ireland flights ( not any Immigration controls ) and then I had to walk with all of my luggage to the Terminal 3 for my Qatar Airways flight.
Reaaaaally long walk! Tunnels , escalators, lifts, even a nice square in front of Virgin Atlantic Terminal.

Anyway , Qatar Airways check-in was really fast , I talked a lot with the Ground Staff there, promising to remember about them everytime I fly to LHR.

Got into the passengers area really fast and grabbed something to eat, then my flight was called and the A330 was waiting for me, right beside this beautiful A380 from Singapore Airlines.
Flight took off on-time, not many passengers on this flight. Couldn't stay still on my seat, even with so many IFE options.
So I just stood up and walked to the back of the plane and started to chat with the Cabin Crew on that flight.
Really nice people! lot of nationalities indeed, they answered many of my questions and got impressed on how quickly I got my answer and I was flying out.

By the sixth hour of flight I was really tired and decided to go back to my seat, but we started our final descent to Doha International Airport, must say that sunrise above the desert is something really interesting.

Sand...sand...sand...sand....highway! houses! Buildings! Yeah....we are on final approach to Doha!

-- I am going to Doha! Tonight???? OMG --

2009-04-12T16:30:00.008+03:00

After a 22-kms walk yesterday because I had nothing else to do in Dublin and had no money , last night I got online and started to chat with a girl through MSN that had already being successful for a QR CC position, but she was at the same point as I was...waiting for clearance.

Talking and talking , she showed me some cool things about Doha and flying itself, so I started to daydream about it...then I definitely dreamt the whole night about it and woke up feeling like ' wish it was not a dream'.

So, Easter Sunday came , did my laundry, ordered my messy room and suddenly...a call! foreign number! could it be?????
Yes it was! I started to shake and speak with a little difficulty.

It was something like this:

- Good Morning Mr Camba? We are calling from QR to tell you that your medicals have been cleared , you got the job and you're booked to fly to Doha in May!

- That much? Could it be sooner? I have no money left to remain in Ireland for another month!

- Sorry , you can't , there is only one Male Crew training batch per month , and this month's batch is gonna start tomorrow.

- I could fly out tonight if you want, via London.

- Don't joke with me like that! I could fly you out tonight!

- I am not joking , got everything ready and packed here, just go to the airport and that's it.

- Hum , let me check here and will call you back.

-- 10 min later, as I was starting to pack everything up thinking that I wouldn't make it --

-Hello Mr. Camba, got your e-ticket here, your AerLingus flight leaves at 18:00 from Dublin to Heathrow and then Qatar Airways from Heathrow to Doha at 21:30, you'll be arriving at 5:45 am here in Doha and transportation and pick-up has been already provided. See you tomorrow.

So that was it , packing my bags and heading to the airport in a few minutes to catch my plane to London and then...Doha!!!!

Anyway , I'm so anxious, happy , euphoric...I just can't believe it , it's like a dream.
So, tomorrow I will be posting from another part of the globe...THE MIDDLE EAST, as for the next hours, will try to calm myself down and enjoy the ride!

-- Is this spring time? --

2009-04-06T21:36:00.006+03:00

Having really elderly days here in Dublin, the once nice weather I experienced through my whole short stay in this city has been transformed into something really unstable, rainy and cold!
Tried to go to the Park this weekend because I saw some sunlight when I woke up in the morning but as soon as I closed my house's door...it started to rain, combined with the North Atlantic chilly winds.

Anyway, just went through another medical tests round again...getting good at this! maybe after being a QR CC I'll become a doctor...not!

Cheers from windy / cloudy / rainy / unstable Ireland! (now getting the sunset at 8:30 pm!!!)

-- The Rice Guru --

2009-04-04T19:23:00.004+03:00

Ever since I was born I never found myself in the need of cooking, at home I always had someone who would cook my meals ( mom , maid, even my brothers) and when I moved to Brazil I always had the luck of working in places who would pay for my meals in the restaurants near the workplace.

Recently moved to Europe ( and now going even further ) I found myself in the need of learning some basic dishes , because dining out is always really expensive. These days I learned how to boil macarroni ( yes , not even that ) and prepare some basic sauces and more importantly, how to make rice.
After three sucessful times I can now consider myself " The Rice Guru " !!!...maybe I'll carry my special recipe to the Middle East, pretty sure it will make the biggest success around there.
I also learned how to make a weird Portuguese soup but I can't remember much of it now.

Oh yes, I finally got the right medicals exams and I'll join the group of the 'waiters' for clearance and e-ticket and visa.

-- Medicals? More medicals? --

2009-03-30T22:39:00.005+03:00

Received an e-mail today saying that I need some more detailed reports from some tests...since every country is different , didn't know about that one when I took the first round of medicals.
So back to the Doctor's office, back for some X-ray radiation, needles...and crazy 'never-saw-in-my-life-before' machines.

It's also getting warmer here in Europe, maybe I can catch some spring weather around here.
We had a weekend of contrasts, on Saturday we got to -3 º C and on Sunday to 14ºC!

Past weekend also some friends were attending QR events in Frankfurt and Sao Paulo, some got through , some will keep trying ( as I did once ).
Anyway...off to cook some of my really special bachelor dishes! tuna melt and some Haribo gummies I have left for dessert.

-- Medicals Results , now more waiting --

2009-03-28T01:57:00.004+03:00

Got my medicals results today, all items are OK although I found out that my defenses are kind of low, maybe this cold weather is taking its toll on me.

Sent them to DOH today...now will wait for clearance and confirmation... Damn anxiety! Gotta read a book or something ( wait, I don't like reading books that much )

-- ' Vamos a los Cliffs?' --

2009-03-23T01:50:00.004+03:00

After a really cold , tight night...sunlight revealed a really Irish-looking countryside around us, lots of green, sheeps, stones, anyway...what we were looking to see.
Then we drove around small villages around the Galway Bay until we got to Doolin where we found a really nice cheap hostel and then headed to the Cliffs Of Moher ( or like we used to like to say it : Cliffs of Moooooouuuuher ).

Really nice place, great view , great landscape, Atlantic Ocean roaring down the Cliff, wind , definitely a 'must see' place.

So, in an attempt of having a really Irish experience we were after some Fish and Chips with unsuccessful consequences, after driving almost 40 km around...NO SUCH DISH FOR US!

Some boiled pasta and canned tomato sauce in the hostel is really Irish as well!

-- No hostel? Sleeping in the car is nice too! --

2009-03-22T01:42:00.003+03:00

So , my friends from Germany came to Dublin this weekend and I showed them all around Dublin ( learned some thing myself too, considering that I`ve been here for only two weeks).
Then we decided to see the real Ireland , the one you get to see in the magazines.

Rented a car and rolled across the island to Galway...big detail: almost all the travelers who came into the island for St. Patrick's festivities also had the same idea, so all hostels in the city were booked!
In the good 'backpacker mood' we decided to buy a lot of crap to eat and sleep in the car! looked for a scenic place to park and stood awake until we were beat by the tiredness.
Coooold night! really cold! and a really small car ( and I'm not even that tall ).

Anyway...nice experience to be remembered

-- Yes, I'm going to Doha! --

2009-03-20T00:48:00.002+03:00

After 9 days of waiting , checking my e-mail account every 5 minutes via cell phone and some housing problems in Dublin , I got online today ( visited my good friends from the lithuanian internet cafe near home ) and a few minutes later I received an e-mail with my name on the subject. Thought it was advertising but somehow I opened it.

'Congratulations' and then the rest...really happy feelings, suddenly all my thoughts started to cristalize....trips, hotels, planes, business attires...

Yeah , I`m going to Doha!
Now running with the medicals!

--Looking for something new!--

2009-03-10T20:32:00.007+03:00

So , after a 20 hour flight from São Paulo,Brazil ( via Madrid ) I arrived into Dublin with a really cold weather and a lot of rain...so typical of Ireland!
Stamp on my passport, customs cleared and taking a taxi under the freezing rain to my new house in North Dublin.
Next day in the morning woke up early and after gathering enough courage, decided to wear my business attire and made use of my orientation skills to go across Dublin to the Hilton Hotel in Kilmainham to participate on Qatar Airways Open Day.
Lot of people from different parts of Europe showed up there ( counted like 105 ).
We had a little presentation about the company, about Doha and about Qatar and we were explained everything from there. Then we handed out our CV's to the lovely recruiters who took them and asked two random questions about our background or even about the weather.
I was invited later to attend the Assessment Day next day, same hour and venue. 52 people were shortlisted and after a long day with elimination rounds, group activities and tests, just remained 12 for the last phase. Then the next day , a personal 2-to-1 interview and another...WAITING TIME!
Now I have to use all of my patience to get this days pass by quicky and hopefully get my positive answer.As for now, I'll keep freezing in Dublin.