Sleepless in Shanghai

It’s 3 o’clock in the morning on a Saturday night and the only one who’s in a party mood is my head. My humble self is actually trying to get some sleep in a cozy big bed in an awesome hotel in Shanghai. Yes, I’m in China. I think I wouldn’t have so many troubles with sleeping here if I didn’t come back from a one-week trip to Miami with my epic friend Anna. I’m totally jet lagged, this may sounds funny coming from a Flight Attendant. Everyone thinks we get immune by the time but it’s not true. I try to deal with a 13 hours’ time difference from Miami to Shanghai which isn’t easy to handle; believe me. I fell asleep around 6pm, woke up shortly before midnight – starving. So I put on some clothes and went on food hunting. A family mart right next to the hotel made it a bit too easy. Packed with ice cream, cookies and green tea I fell back on the bed. I have never been happier to have my computer with me – and all 6 seasons of Sex and the City. Being sleepless in Shanghai isn’t that bad with Carrie Bradshaw and cookies.

5:15 a.m. and I’m still wide awake. I have 15 minutes left until my alarm clock is ringing and making fun of me: “Come on, wake up!!” Haha – I’m laughing my ass off -.-

After this exhausting day I should've literally fallen into bed like a sack of potatoes. In the morning I went to this underground market right at the subway station “Technologie museum Shanghai”. I wanted to buy a warm down jacket, a fake one of course. But I already woke up tired so I wasn’t really keen on bargaining the whole morning and not at all on talking to hundreds of Chinese who want to sell me a watch, some shoes or a vacuum cleaner. I spent 10 minutes there and ran back to the subway – followed by dozens of Chinese shop keeper waving with their business cards “miiiiss, com baaack, seeeee, good qualityyy.” RUUUUUUN!!

Subway, Shanghai

Then I thought about taking a relaxing sightseeing bus tour with the “Big Bus” company. It was far from relaxing as I was running from one bus stop to another – all day long –  only to miss the bus by a minute and wait for 30 more minutes. This happened on every stop I got off the bus to see the skyline, a Buddha or just to grab some food. My Karma sucks. The only relaxing stop was the one at the beautiful Jade temple where I was looking for Buddha. He wasn’t hard to find as he was sitting in every temple, hanging around in every niche and was printed on every tourist’s T-shirt. While passing a Tamil family who’s having a spontaneous fotoshooting in front of a temple (hahahahahaha) I recognized the strong smell of smoke, it came from thousands of incense sticks. I’m pretty familiar to thhem as my brother used to smoke out our whole house when he was a child. He was walking through every room – like on a religious procession. Thank you my lovely brother, thank you… :P (you know I love you)

Jade Temple, Shanghai

Buddha, Jade Temple, Shanghai

Jade Temple, Shanghai

10 minutes left. *sigh* I hope the return flight won’t be so stressful like the flight to come here. I mean the flight was quite okay and I wasn’t acting so bad on my business class introduction but there was this passenger. The one on 12k. Chinese, middle age, acting like a king. Sorry, like an emperor (we wanna be correct with all the history stuff here). The flight was more than 11 hours and he really managed it not to talk to me, not to look at me and just gesturing for like 10 hours. 90 minutes before landing, the sun was rising, we were just about to serve breakfast I saw him smashing his pillow into his face while pressing the call-button like crazy. I sighed, looked desperately at my colleague and made my way to his seat. With a frozen smile and clenched teeth; I asked him what’s going on. And guess what? The sun was shining in his precious face and he wanted me to close the window blind. The window blind on the other side of his row. At another passengers seat (awesome). So I went to seat 12a to close the blind, he took away the pillow without saying thank you. He should’ve left the pillow on his face. 
Haha, sorry about that, I'm just so tired. xD

8 minutes to go… I just made a coffee with sweetener and milk powder. Tastes strange (awful to be honest) but I hope it will activate my brain cause I feel like a Zombie. Everytime I was turning off my computer and put on my eye shades (To explain: I can’t turn off a lamp in my room, I literally tried everything. Even to remove the hotel card but this tiny little bastard is shining like there’s no tomorrow) my head was having a party. “LEEEET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!!!” All night long. Computer back on, some cookies and a green tea with Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda (I’d die for a Cosmopolitan but yeah you know, work and stuff).

Alarm clock is ringing. I don’t wanna get up. Please…… I should go and take a shower; maybe it’ll make me human again…

*zombie-grunt*

Ari

Skyline of Shanghai

Shake what your Mama gave ya - but behave ya! :-P

A huge semi-dark room, loud booming music, crowded with sweating guys shaking their perfectly trained body – bare chests everywhere. And my humble self standing helplessly in the middle of the dance floor, my eyes fixed on the man dancing on the platform. No, it’s not a scene in “50 Shades of Grey” – it’s a normal Saturday night in a famous club in São Paulo. Before my imaginations run wild, my gay friend -  let’s call him Alan – drags me to the bar where we order a strong “Sex on the beach”.

But let’s start a bit earlier that day. After less than 2 hours of sleep (yeeees, I was out the night before despite having to work the next morning... Well, who's bad? :P ) my alarm clock was going crazy – like me after I checked the time. There wasn’t much time to get ready so I jumped in the shower, put on my uniform, grabbed my suitcase while applying some of my dark red lipstick and ran out the door towards the train station. I had to leave for a 12 hour-flight to São Paulo. My only motivation was the warm weather and the promise of cold Caipirinhas… lots of Caipirinhas.

When I’ve met my two colleagues who were working with me in the Economy class my mood improved immediately. They were just awesome. One of them was Alan I introduced before. He’s crazy but totally amazing. Silly dancing to imaginary music (see headline of this post xD), making comic faces during service in the cabin and playing table tennis with Ricola candy in the galley were just a few of our stupid ideas. 

But yeah, 12 hours of flight with almost no sleep the night before – what did you expect us to do?

We arrived at our crew hotel around 9 p.m. – exhausted but happy. First a hot shower then meet up in the lobby – it was Caipirinha-time! Me, Alan and the third guy from our economy crew (let’s call him Jake) were the only one ready for clubbing, all the others were close to fall asleep on their chairs (I'm mean: whaaat?!). Softies. Eco-crew foreveeer! So we made our way to a Salsa Club called “Rey Castro” 5 minutes walking distance from our hotel. The music was nice but for Alan there were definitely not enough gay guys around. To overcome his disappointment about the missing gays in the club he wanted to smoke a cigarette. While standing outside he started a conversation with a guy. “Just to make it clear, I am gay, those two aren’t – where should we go clubbing tonight?” I love his directness. “The Week” was the answer. THE place to be on a tonight in São Paulo. A gay club? Let’s go.

Best decision ever. Like ever ever.

Now, 25 minutes later, I'm standing at the bar - a cold colourful and far too sweet drink in my right hand - stunned by the overload of sexiness in this club. The only sad thing: everyone's gay. I knew that before don’t get me wrong but if you'd see those guys here you'd understand my frustration.

Dancer in the club "The Week"

Do you get my point?

So I'm dancing on my own but I just can't take my eyes off the dancers. I wish I was a gay guy now. Seriously. 
Like many times before, Alan wants to smoke a cigarette which by the way I have to carry aournd in my tiny bag. I mean he's gay why doesn't he have his own tiny bag? "No way", he says. Except it was a luxury brand purse of course (no offense Alan, you know I love you :P). So we make our way through the sweating, dancing crowd towards the smoking area. While we're sitting on a bench we picture a guy sitting next to us, almost dropping like a sack of potatoes and embracing his friend like a little monkey a branch. The friend tries to help him sitting upright but fails epically. We're all curious: what happened to the little monkey (which was very cute by the way. But gay, what a surprise)? “Aah don’t worry, he just had a little bit too much Ecstasy before” his friend said with a Portuguese accent. “We’ll go on the toilet and I’ll give him some heroine. He’ll be fine then. Want some too?” Uuuhhm, nope..?

We switch benches. New bench – new story. We meet a guy who speaks some German. But his voice is just hilarious. Do you know the squirrel “Hammy” from the movie “Over the hedge”?

Hammy: https://outnow.ch/Movies/2006/OverTheHedge/Bilder/246

I’m totally serious, his voice was EXACTELY like Hammy’s which makes it so damn difficult to keep up with his story especially after I share my thoughts with Alan. It takes all we got to hold back our laughter but we somehow act to be seriously interested in his story (don't ask me how). Hammy's totally fascinated about the weed culture in Switzerland (yes, the weed culture). “How much does it cost? How do you get it? Are you going to Netherland to get some too?” I'm just too tired (and a little bit tipsy to be honest) to stay serious so I just walk away, laughing my ass of. It's time to go home. Like NOW.

To all my gay friends, “The Week” is definitely the place to be for you. For all my girlfriends: go and take a look, a loooong look – it’s worth it! ;)

Over and out,
Ari

Sweet home Chicago

“Good evening, Sir, what can I offer you to drink?” The man on seat 24B stares at me; totally shocked with his headphones on. In slow-motion he removes them while asking “What?”. Isn’t it obvious? I’m standing here with a huge trolley filled with drinks. What in the world could I have said to him? Okay, be patient, it’s your job. With the cutest smile on earth I repeat my question and serve him a coke with ice and lemon. Everything you want – grrr. This is just the beginning of the odyssee with PAX 24B (PAX is the abbreviation for passenger, by the way). What almost made me cry is when he pressed the call button for like 150 times just to tell me that I should remove his plastic cup. And this after an exhausting 9 hour flight. It takes all I got to stay polite. But I survived the flight, don’t ask me how.

Now I’m sitting in the Crew bus heading to our hotel in Chicago. Exhausted I’m staring outside the window and guess what I see? Or better who I see? PAX 24B standing there – impatiently waiting for a taxi. Seriously?! I wave, smile and whisper: “Thanks for flying Swiss but PLEASE never do it again.”

After a shower I make my way down to the Navy Pier 15 minutes walking distance from the hotel. Wow, lots of bars, restaurants and people walking along the Pier. A frozen Margarita in my left hand I admire the breath-taking skyline of Chicago.

Skyline Chicago

Skyline Chicago; and me ;)

My desperate attempt to take an acceptable Selfie attracts a mid-fifty security guy. I must have looked pretty helpless. He offers me to take a photo of me. His photo is even worse but he seems to be nice so we’re talking for a while. Suddenly, I’m surrounded by security men banned by my stories about my job and passengers like 24B. Cute. After some anecdotes I leave. Ari’s over and out. There’s a free movie shown and for those of you who don’t know me, I LOVE movies. Even more if they’re free, haha. They are showing classic movies, today’s “Caddyshack”. I’ve never heard about that but it seems to be famous – and funny. Still sipping at my Margarita – which is by the way disgusting  – I’m choosing one of those red seats in the openair cinema. It started to rain some minutes ago and the atmosphere’s amazing. Warm, rainy, sunset, movie, margarita. What do I need more in life? You’re right, may be a better margarita.

 

Openair cinema; Navy Pier

The acoustic was terrible – not as terrible as my so called “drink” but let’s stay realistic, nothing’s possibly worse than that – so I’m leaving. Suddenly, I hear a sound. Beautiful, it makes me wanna dance on the Pier. It’s a live Blues concert! By approaching it I catch a sight of the blues band called “Breezy Rodio” going crazy on stage. I can’t resist and sit down, watching the musicians and moving my foot with the music. The wind in my hair – the music in my ear; fantastic. The front singer is a real joker and an amazing singer what makes me forget about all my problems and sorrows for a moment. “He’s got more souls than an international shoe company” – quotation by himself.

During a short break I talk to the pianist; his name’s Luca and he’s originally from Florence but here for 2 years living his dream by dedicating his life to music. I’m kinda jealous; he just left to follow his dream and made it.

Breezy Rodio

The next day I leave the hotel in a perfect mood; humming “Sweet Home Chicago” by the Blues Brothers while walking through the streets. With “Mariano’s” I find a new friend near the Millenium Park; a friend who offers Blueberry Muffins, fresh fruits and whatever you can imagine.

After a huge hike through the Millenium Park, lots of Selfies at “The Bean”, breath-taking pictures of the Buckingham Fountain, I’m walking a part of “The Loop”.

"The Bean"

Buckingham Fountain

Flat squirrel xD

I’m a bit tired that’s why I’m no more as attentive as I should be. But when a blurred “Fro-Yo” sign flashes by I immediately stop. No matter how tired I am, no matter how hungry I am, I could never ever pass a Frozen Yoghurt shop without stopping by. With a huge cup of this piece of heaven I make my way to the “River walk”. A long pier along the Chicago River – including an amazing view on Chicago.

Riverwalk

The frozen Yoghurt had a recovering function and I feel full of power again, full of power to do some shopping… The “Old Navy” was my first stop and also my last as I already exceeded my budget by buying an awesome military-green jacket. But it’s worth it. J

Swiss flight LX 009 back to Zurich, and again I’m punished with annoying PAXs. Why… Why?! An Indian family in row 42 is going crazy in ordering drinks and bread. I mean, have you ever seen the small tables in an airplane? They normally don’t even have enough space for the hot meal and ONE drink but PAX 42D seems to be a master in Tetris and manages to put three more drinks and two pieces of bread on top of it. I pray for a clear-air turbulence but the flight is as calm as never before. What else. But the daughter definitely hit the jackpot by pressing the call button like ten times in a row. The whole crew’s already in alarmed position as the sound reminds us of an emergency situation. I run to seat 42F – expecting the worst. What happened? Is someone’s close to death?? Nope, little princess just wants her breakfast. She slept through the service. Thanks for that.

Except the annoying PAXs – I could’ve really done it without – I had a great time in Chicago. And hey, keep singing guys ;)

"Come on
Oh baby don't you wanna go
Come on
Oh baby don't you wanna go
Back to that same old place
Sweet home Chicago"

I’ll go, definitely.

Cheers,

Ari

"Where’s Wally?" – or: One day in Athens

Hi there :)

Let me first introduce myself. My name is Arianna (call me Ari) and I made my bachelor's degree in economics last year (Note: I studied in German so I’m sorry in advance for all the English grammar mistakes). But I got bored (what a surprise) and the world was calling. My next steps? I sent an awesome application to SWISS Airlines Int., got the invitation to the Assessment Center and became Flight Attendant after a tough 3-month training-session in Zurich.

Now, 8 months after my decision to change my life completely I live in Zurich, travel the world and couldn't be happier. And like many other bloggers before, I'd love to share my experience both while working on the plane and while travelling with you folks. :)

Meme: http://www.scoop.it/t/what-i-really-do/?tag=Flight+Attendant

I’m going to Athens! I've never been to Athens before but I was in Greece with my familiy when I was a little ankle-biter. The Crew-Hotel is one of the best hotels I've ever been to. In private I'm one of those travel-as-cheap-and-see-as-much-as-possible-Travellers. I've never stayed in a 5-star-hotel before; I'm more used to tiny, dirty rooms above an Indian restaurant and next to noisy roadworks, if you know what I mean. ;)

It’s far after midnight when we arrive in our hotel and I fall asleep the moment my head touches the pillow. In the morning I get up, enjoy some greek yoghurt with fresh fruits and honey and step outside the hotel, taking a deep breath. Wooow - even with my eyes closed I would have known exactly that I'm in Greece. It has a unique smell which takes me back to my childhood days, back more than 15 years when I and my brother ruled a Greek camping site during family holidays. It smells like wood, wet wood; sweet and sharp at the same time (like Roiboos-Tea?). Every city has it’s own smell; it’s own perfume. Sometimes there’s nothing better than just standing somewhere, turning your face towards the sun and taking a deep breath. It always feels full of life, full of happiness.

While walking, enjoying the smell and the sun on my skin I found myself in a huge park called "National Garden" 5 minutes walking distance from the hotel. Standing there, completely banned of so much beauty I suddenly recognise the noise. Not a typical noise you hear in the woods, with birds singing and frogs croaking. No, it's an ear-deafening noise coming from insects (what I realised later when I found one of those little monsters sitting on a branch). Almost invisible but unmistakable (Google says they are called Cicada). I challenged myself trying to find as many Cicadas as possible, like in the famous children’s game "Where's Wally?". But it's much harder to locate them as the bugs don't wear the unique red-white striped shirt and the beanie like our beloved Wally. ;)

Cicada

  

Wally: http://blocs.xtec.cat/ceipernestlluchcs/2015/02/04/carnestoltes-2015/

By walking and looking for Wallies I passed by the "Temple of the Olympian Zeus". The first proof I'm in Athens. While I’m observing a little kitten playing with some leaves, an old man with a yellow taxi starts talking to me and tries to sell me a tour “just for you and for a special price”. A proof that I’m exposed. Hello world, yes, I’m a tourist. Okay, to be fair I was wearing my Canon reflex camera around the neck while holding a map in my right hand. Oh come on, where did I lose my Ninja-abilities? I’m glad to realise that I’m not also wearing a cap, sandals and white socks. But I’m wearing my Flip Flops, my Havaianas bought in São Paolo the month before (I know, kinda touristy as well). It wasn’t the best idea as my feet already hurt and it starts burning between my toes. But it’s totally my fault. Why would I only take Flip Flops with me to explore Athens? To walk through narrow alleys? To climb the hill to Akropolis? Fortunately, I’m not thinking about that at all. My only sorrow is to escape the man’s offer and to hide somewhere behind a tree. Or a Greek pillar.

Opposite the “Temple of the Olympian Zeus” there’s a cute touristy shopping street with lots of cafés, shops and restaurants. I’m walking through the alley, buying post cards here, observing tourists there – everything accompanied by the overwhelming sound of Cicadas. Where the hell are they hiding??

Then I caught a sight of an absolutely beautiful painting. A big tree standing in a meadow. Nothing more, nothing less. I need to talk to the one who painted this master piece, so I make my way to the shop around the corner. His name is Sofokli Telo and we are talking for a while. The painting costs 400 Euros, it’s worth it but it would exceed my budget – haha, by far. So I only take a business card, may be some day I can buy it. In case I’ll win the lottery. After taking a photo of the painting (sorry for that, Sofokli, but I couldn’t resist) I start to climb the hill to go to Akropolis.

Painting by Sofokli Telo

While making my way up the hill I suddenly find myself in one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. Narrow old stairs, steep, surrounded with lots of flowers, bars and restaurants. I walk up the stairs, vines and grapes over my head, people eating at small tables or sitting on the steps, children laughing and cats playing. Like a sequence from a romantic movie. I’m just waiting for a handsome man, kneeling down and propose to his stunning girlfriend in front of this scenery. But I guess I just missed it.

The stairs

After climbing the stairs I see the Akropolis – wow, very impressive. Especially if you have in mind that everything is standing here since 406 BC. I force myself to conquer the last few meters – in the merciless heat of the sun – to the entrance. 50 meters to go, 40 meters to go, 30, 20… I’m gonna die, need a drink. Oh, what a fortunate coincidence! Next to the entrance they sell frozen lemonades (that’s what I call smart). I walk like a Zombie towards the life-saving, crazy expensive (of course, what did I expect?), frozen drinks. Few seconds before the sun turns me into dust I take a sip and it’s the best drink I’ve ever tasted in my whole life, promised (okay, maybe it’s my near-death experience talking here).

Akropolis

The Akropolis is great; I take a lot of pictures (and Selfies, of course). After this hike I slump into a chair in a café called "Melina", exhausted. I order an ice coffee (seems to be the It-drink in Athens) and a canister full of water; I feel totally dehydrated. Slowly, really slowly, I come back to life and feel ready to walk through the shops again. Suddenly, I realise that I run out of money and there’s this gorgeous necklace with a heart-shaped amulet… I need it!!

So I make my way to a Greek cash machine. Considering the current situation in Greece I’m quite unsure about what happens if I insert my card. Will I ever get it back? (Sorry to all Greeks, no offense but I was just worried about my already poor financial situation) I’m standing in front of this Greek cash machine waiting to get back my bank card – sweating; comparable with my physical condition during the hike before. Then a loud beeping sound – just to make sure that everyone within five blocks knows that I used the cash machine – and the money together with my card (YES!) appear. Necklace, here I come!

Sitting in a small café, pretty sure observed by a thousands of Wallies, a glass of an awesome Greek red wine in my right hand, I review my day in Athens. And the memories of all the funny conversations with the locals, the beautiful architecture and – yes – the red wine on an empty stomach, makes me forget about all the blisters on my feet.

Greek wine

Go and explore Athens it’s well worth a look – but wear sneakers…

See ya,

Ari