Frequent Flyer

As you'll probably have gathered from my recent posts, I've been travelling quite a bit and actually will continue to do so for 3 more weeks. Is it tiresome? Well, yes, it is as it's not vacation, but work, but to be honest, it always has some element of a vacation, too. 

I get at least a sneak-peak of places I would not have visited otherwise that probably allows me to experience the city in question in a more authentic way than a Japanese tourist on a "Europe-in-a-week" package trip would. After all, I am taken out to lovely and authentic restaurants by my charming colleagues (mostly male), my hotels are mostly in the city centre and there's always time for some sightseeing and shopping. I've discovered bargains in Lithuania (linen scarves!) and Bulgaria (stylish and super comfortable plastic shoes) that I have purchased for friends and my Mum, too, on the second visit. Let me know if you have any orders ;-)

What I absolutely hate other than the time lost travelling to and from the airport and waiting around at departure gates is unpacking. I really effing hate this. My flat tends to look like the scene of a bomb explosion for at least a day after I've opened my suitcase as I can't motivate myself to repack, refill and iron (washing dirty laundry is quick and painless enough) for the next trip. This might be an as-yet-unexplored niche for the service industry - I'd be happy to subscribe to professional unpackers and mess-removers.

What is strange due to the mix of "my" countries is that, with the exception of Slovenia, they are not part of the Euro-zone. As I'm off to several days in Dubai on Sunday I got some UAE Dirhams. They look quite exotic:

My hotel in Dubai has direct access to one of Dubai's biggest and fanciest shopping malls. Dangerous! Whether the hot guy with the aviator glasses on the website is included in the deal, I have yet to find out...

I'm well prepared for my next flights, by the way thanks to my fancy (and ridiculously expensive) Bose noise reduction headphones. They really make a difference even though they don't completely cancel out squealing kids or other noise of the speech-variety. The Empress pitched them to me successfully and convinced me that I had to have them.