Come Fly With Me

Yay for me, Marianne is back flying! So much to see and do! Buenos Aires here we come!

Buenos Aires is the capital of Argentina called the “Paris of South America.” It has European architecture and rich cultural life. The famous dance called the Tango originated in Buenos Aires.

We left New York Saturday night at 945pm to embark on a 10 hour flight to Buenos Aires. The passengers were very kind and thankful. After serving dinner and lots of wine, especially red wine, we were assigned are rest breaks. Marianne and I were given a 3 hours and 25 minute rest break. We still can’t believe our good fortune with all these long breaks! Work hard but rest harder. It is so important to try to sleep so you can get up and go and enjoy your layover. We arrived in Buenos Aires at 10:30am. You know you are going to have a great layover when you are picked up by a green bus.

We had a 25 minute ride to the hotel. When we arrived at the hotel, it was gated off with lots of women fans and camera crews hoping to get photos of a popular Italian band and also the Argentinian National Soccer team was staying at our hotel. You can just imagine the disappointment in their faces when the bus pulls up and flight attendants get out! No time to rest, we had to get moving. On Sundays, Buenos Aires has a fabulous street fair that can’t be missed.

We truly enjoyed the street fair. I few fun trinkets were bought. The real fun didn’t start until we ran into our Spanish speaking coworker that showed us around. A quick note about our flight, since we were going into a Spanish speaking country, our crew has to consist of 2 Spanish Speakers on the plane for interpretation.

Jan showed us all her favorite places. She took us to the indoor Mercado San Telmo. For all my Boston fans, it’s comparable to our Faneuil Hall, but much more elaborate. Lots of delicious food and drinks.

One funny tidbit about the Mercado San Telmo, they do have a public restroom, but it comes with no toilet paper. A smart lady stands outside the restroom with a roll of toilet paper and rips a couple of pieces off for a small fee. I was impressed with her initiative.

Jan even took us to her favorite dress shop! She had me tempted to buy this dress. Maybe next time.

Jan even stops and talks to all the policemen. The policemen all look like they are in their 20s.

Thank you Jan for making it a day to remember. She even took us to a park to watch Tango dancers. Couldn’t of asked for a better 1st day in Buenos Aires.

DAY 2 IN BUENOS AIRES

Since we don’t leave our hotel til 9pm on the 2nd day, we decided to do a city tour. A van picked us up at our hotel at 930am and it’s a 3 hour tour.

First stop was at the Neighborhood of La Boca. A neighborhood defined by its immigrant roots. Due to the river near by, the area became the preferred settling for immigrants of a wide variety of origins. The buildings have such vibrant colors. We were told the immigrants would use the leftover paints from the ships and paint their houses with it. Many artists show their work in La Boca.

The next stop was the Centro. It’s the center of Buenos Aires, where we saw the government buildings and a lot of historic sites.

Our crew member Tim joined us on the city tour. Behind us is the Casa Rosada. (Pink House) The palatial mansion is known officially as Casa de Gobierno (House of Government). A fun fact is the President of Argentina will not go in a car, he arrives at Casaa Rosada by Helicopter. Behind the Casa Rosada is a big heliport.

BUENOS AIRES METROPOLITAN CATHEDRAL

This is the main Catholic Church in Buenos Aires. Pope Francis used to perform mass here before assuming office in the Vatican in 2013.

RECOLETA CEMETERY

Great way to end the tour is at the Recoleta Cemetery, which is in the heart of Buenos Aires. They say this is the most beautiful place in the world to Rest In Peace. It’s 14 acres. It’s full of the rich and famous Argentinians. Next visit to Buenos Aires, we will have to go inside the Recoleta Cemetery and see it’s beauty.

Marianne and ended our visit to Buenos Aires with a steak dinner. Argentinian beef has earned a reputation for being some of the world’s best.

It doesn’t matter where you are going – it’s who you go with that makes it fun!

Friday night at 730pm, I left New York for Madrid. Unfortunately, I was traveling without Marianne. She was feeling under the weather and could not travel. So I took on the streets of Madrid, all by myself.

The plane to Madrid was a different type of 777. This time I was on a 777-200. It holds 37 passengers in Business Class and 236 passengers in Economy. Nine flight attendants work this flight. This aircraft has 4 crew bunk beds. It felt like they put bunk beds in a closet. I must admit even though I felt like I was in a closet, I sure had a great 2 hour nap.

We arrived in Madrid around 830am. Our bus ride from the airport to our hotel was only 20 minutes. The concierge at the hotel helped me come up with a game plan to venture out and see the cultural and historical treasures of Madrid.

Madrid is the capital of Spain and also the largest City of Spain. It has amazing architecture that I enjoyed seeing.

PUERTA DEL SOL

I spent the day at Puerto del Sol. One of the city’s most famous sites. It is a bustling square located in the center of Madrid. I had to walk down this hill to get into the heart of Puerta del Sol.

Lots of people walking around and sitting in cafes. An interesting fact is the square has 10 important streets that converge here. It was fun to walk up and down the different streets.

THE BEAR AND THE STRAWBERRY BUSH

The statue of the Bear and the Strawberry Bush is in the center of Puerta del Sol. This sweet toothed bear searching for snacks has been a symbol for Madrid for decades. The female bear symbolized the fertile soil of Madrid and the tree symbolized the aristocracy.

After many hours of exploring Puerta del Sol, I had to head back to my hotel early because they were blocking off the streets in front of my hotel. For all you soccer fans, my hotel was 2 blocks for the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium , which is home of the Real Madrid soccer team. Real Madrid was playing that night against their local competition Atletico Madrid. You can just imagine the excitement in the air. The stadium holds 80,000 people and I think most of them stopped in at our hotel to have a cocktail before the game.

So much more to do and see in Madrid! Next layover will definitely be with my partner. Traveling is not the same without Marianne. She was missed tremendously.

VIVA LA VIDA

( LONG LIVE LIFE)

I will be flying my next trip on Saturday, March 4 to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Our trip to London was more like a Family Reunion. We flew with 7 of our SFO Flight Attendant Family and met up with more in London. So, it felt more like SFO Flight Attendants take on London, Pub Style!

This is our fun crew to London. We were on the 777-300 which holds 304 passengers and every seat was full. It was a 6 and 1/2 hour flight there. Without fail, we were all given our 2 hour rest breaks. Lots of drinking was had by the Brits, but only made these passengers nicer. A much needed fact for all of you to know is that American Airlines gives all alcohol free on International flights no matter where you sit.

So once we landed in London our luxury coach was waiting for us for the 1 hour ride to the City. We got to the hotel around 8:30am. We each gave ourselves a 2 hour nap limit before we went exploring! We want to be able to fall asleep at night.

We loved walking the different neighborhoods. It was so clean and we felt safe.

Low and behold, I found a great street, but go figure we also found a fun pub on Weymouth Street, which we had to par take in.

Cheers to all my love ones back in Weymouth!

The Red Telephone Box

For decades, the red telephone box has been the symbol of London and fact the whole of Great Britain. A glorious red iron beacon of tradition. The first telephone box appeared on British Streets in May, 1921. Each box has a prominent crown representing the British government.

It was a fun afternoon walking the streets and stopping in at some shops. But, our day was not finished we were meeting up with SFO Flight Attendants at a posh pub in the Kensington District. I was told by a local that she saw Meghan Markle at this Pub.

You can take the San Francisco base away from us, but AA can’t take the San Francisco spirit out of us!

Marianne and I had a grand time at the pub with our buds. We will be back again to London to experience all the London History.

Thank you London for your hospitality! The Brits are famous for their politeness, self-discipline and especially for their sense of humor. It was our pleasure to be in such good company.

Marianne and I cannot be all play, we have to sometimes go to work. This is our plane which holds 62 business class seats. Our flight was empty and we had only 60 people with 10 people sitting in business class on our entire flight back to New York. If we did not want to take our rest break up in the bunks, we were allowed to take it in a business class seat.

As you can see, Marianne was very cozy in her business class seat watching a movie.

We landed safely back into New York at around 6pm. Marianne and I caught a 9:00pm flight back to San Francisco. We are home for a few days, until we fly again on Friday to Madrid. I’m so looking forward for this trip. I have always wanted to go to Spain.

CHEERIO UNTIL NEXT TIME

Our Crashpad is in Jamaica, NY., 5 minutes from JFK. The best part of all this is Dawn contacted an Airport Parking lot 1 block from her house and asked them if they would shuttle us back and forth from the airport for free. These kind people agreed.

Marianne and I have checked out the neighborhood. We found a delicious deli and of course a liquor store.

No neighborhood should be without Cowboy Curly roaming the sidewalks.

Marianne and I are all rested and we are now getting ready for work. Tonight we fly to London!

KEEP CALM And CARRY ON!

It sure does make it a lot easier being a commuter when you have a nice place to crash at before and/or after a trip. For example, Marianne and I flew in from San Francisco on the all nighter and we arrived this morning at 7am . We don’t need to be at our gate until 545pm tonight. So we are relaxing at the Crashpad. I’ll try to explain how this works.

Marianne is standing in front of our Crashpad. Our landlord, Dawn and her son live on the 1st floor. We have the entire 2nd floor. Dawn is a retired police officer, which we feel is a bonus.

There are 14 ladies in our crashpad. We are all from San Francisco and have been flying together for 30 years. Our home consists of 2 bedroom , 1 bath, kitchen and living room.

Now I will explain how this all works. One bedroom has 4 beds and then the 2nd room has 3 beds. The beds are called hot beds, which means when you arrive you claim a bed , go to a cubby and get your sheets and make your bed. When you leave, you put your sheets back in your cubby. Dawn has kindly offered to wash our sheets and towels.😃. Win, win for us!!!

Flight attendants have all different schedules, in order to let the others know what bed you have claimed there is a sign up board to let everyone know who has that bed.

You must be wondering what if all 14 show up to sleep. It actually doesn’t happen, we have been told. For instance Marianne and I are the only 2 here today. We filled out a big calendar and the most we have seen st one time is 4 flight attendants spending the night.

We are so lucky we found this awesome Crashpad.

After a good night sleep, we woke up and enjoyed a delicious complimentary Breakfast Buffett at our hotel. It was a great way to start our day. Then we were off to run the streets of São Paulo.

My favorite place we visited was the Ibirapuera Park. It is the largest urban park in the middle of the enormous metropolis of São Paulo, similar to Central Park in New York. It is hard for me to put into words to fully describe the exquisite beauty and charm of this park.

The best part of this amazing park was the area of the park called the Peace Garden. This part of the park is an open grass area where people read, meditate, exercise and just be with Nature. The most amazing part of this Peace Garden it is surrounded by a tree from every Country. The São Paulo people wanted everyone to have a piece of home when they are in the park.

Look beyond these trees to see the Peace Garden.

Marianne and I loved these trees. I need to figure out what Country they represent.

Such Beauty!

I am such a dog lover and this melted my heart!

We needed to leave this beautiful park . We still had to take a nap and get ready for our bus pickup at 9pm to get us back to the airport to work our 10 hour flight back to New York. Keeping with the São Paulo tradition, we treated ourselves to a much enjoyed beauty treatment.

We just returned back from São Paulo. I can’t say enough how kind and welcoming the Brazilian people are. After arriving in Sau Paulo, we took an hour bus drive to the City. São Paulo is Brazil’s biggest and richest city. As I found out quickly, you must take naps to get the best out of your day!! So after we arrived at our beautiful hotel, we took a 2 hour nap and then took São Paulo on! We woke up to torrential rain, but that did not stop us from exploring!!

After getting a bite to eat and a walk through the neighborhood , we joined the rest of our crew in the hotel lobby and celebrated with a Caipirinha Cocktail. This is Brazil’s National drink… very yummy and refreshing! The crew warned us to have no more than 2 cocktails or we would start dancing on the tables!!🤣

We ended our day with a fabulous steak dinner. Brazil is known for having delicious meats and it did not disappoint. We went to bed to get a full night sleep, so we could fully enjoy the experience of São Paulo on the following day!!

So much to tell you! I don’t know where to start. First International trip was to São Paulo, Brazil.

I’m flying with 2 friends from San Fransco, Marianne and Cori. First of all let be tell you about our plane. We are flying on a 777 that holds 304 passengers and 14 crew members. From New York to São Paulo it’s a 10 hour flight. As I mentioned before there are 8 crew rest bunks and go figure, it is my responsibility to make the beds before take off!! With help from another crew member I was shown how to make the beds!

Let me explain how the breaks work. We first did a beverage and dinner service and picked up everything. Then the first group of flight attendants take their break. A 3 HOUR break!! Marianne and I were on the 2nd break so we held down the fort while the other Flight attendants are resting!! You can read, watch a movie or sleep. You have a curtain so it’s a private area.

I think you can see I’m liking this lifestyle. I was so cozy I fell asleep.

Our 1st commute to New York. We were lucky enough to get First Class! What a great start to our new journey!❤️

On our way to New York! Let the fun begin!