Long Haul Life

Oh my gawwwdddd I was so nervous for that first A380 flight. I was going as a ‘spare’ to Los Angeles but was still expected to sit at a door, serve all the passengers and do everything all the other crew did. When I first got on board I reminded myself just how long 14 hours was to LA, but the whole thing went pretty damn fast in the end, probably because I was so busy and had so many new things entering my headspace, begging to be remembered. I was fortunate enough to get to sit in the flight deck for landing into LAX, which was awesome, albeit not very scenic, as most of LA is concrete concrete concrete and just grey grey grey. But it was still awesome, sitting there quietly behind the flight crew, watching as they maneuvered this massive beast of a plane, carrying 484 passengers, 4 pilots and 22 cabin crew, onto the ground so smoothly it might as well have been a feather.

I was absolutely shattered by the time we reached LA. I think I may have even nodded off for a bit on the crew bus to the hotel. I know I slept for a solid five hours when I got to my room. I just couldn’t do anything else – I could barely move, let alone go out shopping or sightseeing. I HAD to sleep.
 

Of course this meant I was awake, like, the whole night, but that was okay. Most things in the immediate vicinity of our hotel were still open, so I went shopping with the other newbie on my flight, and treated myself to many things from Victoria’s Secret, Sephora and Nordstrom, amongst other stores (and this trip was over my birthday, so I was totally allowed to splurge hehe). Ever since that first LA trip I never buy anything in Australia anymore – clothes, make up, shoes, gifts, linen, even some food – I buy it all in the US. It’s sooooo much cheaper, and the choice! Ahhhh! It’s heaven. I never come back from an LA trip with any of my allowance left over. Or with an empty suitcase.

When in London...

So I made the grade on that LA trip, and they let me graduate! My first roster was awesome and I was frothing at just thought of getting to go to a few places I’d never been to before (side note: the A380 only services a handful of routes, I guess due to its size, and because I’d been to London and Los Angeles years before in my own time, the only new places I was going to get to go as a crew member on the A380 were Dubai and Hong Kong.) Most of the trips were 3 or 4 days away from home all together, but a London trip was epic in that we first flew to Dubai, spent some time there, then went onto London, and then came back to Dubai before returning to Sydney. All together it was an 8 day trip. I would come home from these trips feeling like I had been away for 3 weeks – and my luggage certainly indicated I had! But hey, who can resist the lures of Oxford St and Harrods shopping when in London?! You only live once.

London trips were my absolute fave, but to date I have only had two, sadly enough. But they were fantastic. I wouldn’t sleep at all in London – I just slammed back the Red Bull and got out onto the streets and into the fresh air to wake myself up and headed off sight seeing, shopping, seeing shows on the West End, walking all over that beautiful city, and catching the tube anywhere I couldn’t, or was too tired, to walk to. I absolutely adore London, and have ever since I first laid eyes on it the first time I went in 2009, before my first Contiki tour. I just love how it’s so elegant and chic, how it’s so clean and well kept, and how there is gobs and gobs of history and things to do there. Sure, the weather is mostly shithouse, but you can put up with that. And when the sun is out and it reaches more than 20 degrees celcius, all the Londoners get their kit off and sunbake in the parks and gardens. I love it! They’re so deprived of warmth and sunshine there, but they make up for it in so many other ways. If it weren’t so expensive and far away from Australia I could totally see myself living there. Of course now that I’m 28 (and still seriously poor, even living in Australia), I’ve probably missed my chance to ‘do the London thing’, but as long as I can visit every now and again I’m happy.

I heart the tube



A glorious day to walk up the Mall towards Buckingham Palace

 

On the London Eye

Now that I have been flying long haul for more than a year I have done my fair share of Dubai, Hong Kong and Los Angeles. Because I never get to go to London anymore, Los Angeles is now my favourite. Soon I will be starting to fly to Dallas on the A380, and I have many, many plans to do some epic sightseeing and side trips to other cities when in Dallas, so stay tuned for what I am sure will be many Dallas themed blog posts!

 

 

Jorgs