BKK, SYD, AKL and BNE trip !

Once I got my roster for January I saw I had the new trip on my roster. You start in Bangkok, then you stay there one day, then on to Sydney, stay there for one day, then on to Auckland, stay there one day and then to Brisbane, stay there for one day and then after that going back to Dubai.

I was leaving on the 18th of January and I just got back this morning on the 24th of January. The flight to Bangkok was completely full (like almost every sector), I knew that I had big plans on the other layovers so in Bangkok I just ordered room service, went to the pool and slept.

The flight to Sydney was 9 hours and we even had 1.20 hour rest on the flight. We got to the hotel in Sydney around 10.30/11.00 and the wake up call the next day was already 7.40. I thought it would be good to go in town and stay awake and then go to bed early and hopefully sleep a good and very long night. Once we got to town we went for lunch because we were all starving. We went to this place and the food was amazing!! I had steak AND ribs AND sweet potato fries and they were just all the best, just what you need after a long flight, some good food and a glass of wine.

Then I had to go UGGS shopping, and they were even on sale as well !! Afterwards I met up with the other crew at the Opera House, because you can't go to town and not just have a little look at the opera house, it's mandatory! Even though the chinese ruined my photo and I can't cut them off. I have some friends as well living in Sydney but I was just so tired that I wasn't able to see them this time.

One of the crew and me decided to then go back to the hotel, because we were so tired! Once back to the hotel I fell asleep at 6pm, woke up at 1am, and I was thinking, I better fall asleep again otherwise this will be a very very long day! And luckily I did, next time I woke up was with wake up call, so I had a good night sleep, and was going on to flight number 3!

Off to Auckland where I was meeting my Dutch friend from University. Juliette has been traveling through New Zealand with her boyfriend for over 10 months now, and I didn't see her for about 1.5 years. Then Marissa was in town as well, she left a week ago to go traveling through New Zealand as well, and what are the chances that I was going to Auckland as well, so luckily. The best part about my job is seeing my friends all over the world. We first went for dinner and had some bottles of wine, then we went to Danny Doollans. Danny Doollans is a bar where no matter what day of the week it is, there is always live music and all the crew always goes there as well, since we get discount. We just had the best night, and at one point I got a bit emotional that I was just so happy to be around them again after all these years. We were missing our fourth musketeer though, Hannie! But we forgive her that she couldn't make it to our reunion in New Zealand. A photo says more then a thousand words, and this one pretty sums up our night out. 

The next day I just chilled in bed all day and mentally preparing for the next flight to Brisbane, which was only going to be around 3 hours. 

Brisbane was going to our last layover, and by this time we were already on the move for about 6 days and we could all feel it, we were getting tired, but what to do. Because I also have a friend living in Brisbane. My friend Maki is my birthday twin, we have the same birthday and even the same birth year, so for the past two years we spent our birthdays together. The first year we went to Malta to celebrate and last year we went to Barcelona and Mallorca. She was picking me up from the hotel with her father, because she lives in the Gold Coast, which is about an hour from Brisbane city. Once we arrived at her parents place her mom started cooking for me, and it was just lovely. Maki is Japanese so you can imagine how good the food was her mom made for me, at one point she just started making some potato salad, she had chicken skewers with sweet chili sauce from the oven and some Japanese dish that I already forgot the name about, but it was good! The next day we woke up early to bring her mother to work and then we drove around the Gold Coast, had breakfast at Burleigh and chilled at Burleigh Hill, when then we moved to the beach just on the other side. By this time it was still cloudy and we were hoping the sun would come out at one point, and oh it did! It feels like I did botox on my forehead cause it just won't move, not that I know how botox feels like but I imagine if feels a bit like this haha! We even put factor 50 on us, but obviously not enough, so I am just moisturizing like there is no tomorrow. The Gold Coast is just BEAUTIFUL, the beaches are so white, the water so blue, the trees so green and the people so chilled !!! 

This was the view from Burleigh Hill, the town you see in the middle sort of is Surfer's Paradise.

And there is the sun !!!

Just felt like I was on holiday !! 

Maki !!! 

She brought me back to the hotel about 2.30 pm so I could still sleep a bit before the flight back to Dubai. Flight number 5 on day 7! The whole crew were so happy to be back in Dubai, including myself. It was an amazing trip, especially because I got to see my friends, but to tiring. It's now 7.40pm in Dubai and after I finish my blog I am going to sleep, not going to set my alarm and see what time I wake up tomorrow! 

Must give some credits as well to the crew I was flying with, we managed to do all these flight because we got on so well, and I truly hope that I might see some of them even after this trip. Having a laugh on the flights makes our job worth working for <3 ! 

Bring it on 2017 !

We are already halfway January 2017 and I finally found the time to write a blog. I will first tell about my amazing Christmas in New York. That city, I don't know if everybody has it but there is just something about it, so lively and so incredibly free. It doesn't matter what you wear or do, New York accepts you. The flight over was a light load (for a change) so we could do everything in our own pace, there was no time pressure. We got to the hotel around midnight, and it was extremely busy, since we stay on Times Square, it took us ages to get to the hotel, and trust me, if you have to pee it feels way longer as well!!!

One of the girls and me decided to change and go straight to the Christmas tree at Rockefeller centre. While we were walking there it wasn't that busy anymore, and guess what, the light were OFF! We just flew about 13 hours all the way to New York, all we wanted to see was the Christmas tree with the lights ON! So as you can imagine we were a bit disappointed. The next day we decided to go to a musical, and the girl I was with really wanted to go to Aladdin, even though I have already been, I didn't mind to go again, so we did! After the musical we messaged the other girls to go to this rooftopbar I heard of. It was called 230 Fifth Rooftop Bar, and it was like in the movies, so incredibly stunning.

The best part of this rooftop bar was as well that there were some bathrobes you could wear to keep you warm, and they were bright red!

We had some food and of course some drinks as well, then it was time to find a secret bar. Back in the day it was not allowed to have bars in the States and New York, that's why they invented these 'secret' bars, and nowadays they are very popular and some are pretty hard to find as well. The secret bar we were trying to find was first used as a coffee shops (not the ones we know in Amsterdam, but one where you actually buy coffee), and then the bouncer was there to literally open the wall/door and there we were, in the middle of such a small and kinda like 'great gatsby style' with a live band and a singer who looked like Marilyn Monroe. We had another drink (shock) but at this point we were already pretty tired and we still had to go to the Christmas Tree at the Rockefeller centre, I was NOT leaving New York before I have seen this tree with the lights on!

I know it's a bit dark, but you have an idea what I meant !

And there it was, THE CHRISTMAS TREE !!!! When you walk there, with about thousand other people, you still feel like you're in a movie, and it's the best feeling. It all looked so unreal because it is the fact that you always saw the tree on the tv and in movies and now you see it in real life, which is a blessing, and I did have one of those happy moments again. New York just never gets bored, and deep down inside I still hope I might be living in it one day, no matter for how long, just being able to experience the whole New York vibe for either weeks, or months.

I think they call New York the city that never sleeps because for some reason I almost never sleep at all, and I am a good sleeper (especially with my own pillow), but New York just gets me too awake and too excited to be able to fall asleep with the fact that I am on Times Square in New York, hehe.

The best part of this trip is yet to come. I heard from my sister-in-law Nienke that they send something to the hotel, so while I was checking out I just went to the 'local' post office in the hotel to check if they had any mail for me, and the answer was yes!!! Now I was on my way back to the airport and I had 3 Christmas cards from my parents, Tim and Nienke, and Martijn and Saskia. This was the best Christmas present I could ever ask for, reading these sweet words from my family made me have some tears in my eyes, when they tell you how proud they are of what you have accomplished in life and how much they love you. This made me so happy and even more blessed with my family and hereby I want to thank Nienke (and Tim :P) for taking the iniative for sending me the cards and the cute earrings I got as well.

I could not do what I do without each and everyone of you.

All I want to say is that I am also super proud in what they are doing in life and for me to be able call them my family and be the little sister. A family wouldn't be a family without mom and dad.

That's it with being sentimental, but sometimes it is good to realize what you have and tell them how much you love the people around you, to tell them how much you appreciate all the things they do for, and probably will do in the future.

Here's to 2017 being an amazing year, lots of more travels, ticks of the bucket list, many more laughs, save some money (yes mom I am trying :P), to the wedding of the year of Martijn and Saskia, more adventures, and most of all more stories to tell and to share! I am ready for you 2017 !! <3