As some of you might know I am currently based in Barcelona. This means that I am working/flying out of Barcelona to all kinds of destinations.
The City
Barcelona is absolutely amazing! Ramblas, the market, Plaza Espana, the beach and the mountains. There are so many things to do. It’s almost impossible to get bored. Everything is cheaper, so bring an empty suitcase… you will need it, haha! And perhaps the most important, the sun always shines! A few weeks ago people walked around in T-shirts… in January, can you imagine? 🙂 I made a new video about my life in Barcelona.
My Pilot Housemates
After the Type Rating course
in Amsterdam I met a few guys who were based in Barcelona for their Line Training. Of course it is way cheaper to share a house, that is why we decided to live together near the centre of Barcelona. We rented an apartment near Plaza Espana via Airbnb. We basically lived in the ‘Mercadona’ supermarket.
I shared the house with a quiet Italian guy, named Luca. Also called ‘The Ghost’. He was always in Barcelona but we did not see him a lot since he had an opposite roster. Smart guy, always reading some documents on his Ipad and eating Pasta Pesto.
The other Italian is Gabry. I think his nickname was Captain Italian or something… Anyway, I blamed him for snorring in the night (while it was actually the neighbour), for leaving his alarm on during the night (it was the neighbour as well) and for lots of other stuff. I felt so bad but I liked him and luckily we could laugh about it 😉 Me: ‘Gabry, I can hear you snorring, stop with that!’ He answered almost immediately: ‘Nope, I am in the bus’ Oops…
The German guy called Marc. A ”money bitch”, as he calls himself, and the biggest fan of the Global and all the other business aircraft. Girls are trying to date him all the time during work.. He has such a hard life. 😉 Sorry for starting conversations in Dutch with you, you just look a little bit like you are from the Netherlands. #3konly
So basically I was very lucky with my housemates.
The Base
We fly to a lot of destinations from Barcelona. Some on a more frequent base than others
. These destinations are Santiago, Vigo, Ibiza and Menorca. On a ‘lucky’ day we get to fly Bergamo & Stansted. On a bad day, we only fly towards Menorca which is about 30 minutes of flight time! In general we fly 4 legs per day, 5 days in a row. So we are pretty busy during the week. There is a standard taxi routing which gives you as a passenger the possibility to enjoy the whole apron. It takes ages haha! 😉 Taxi via S, M & hold short DS. E, J, K etc. Don’t worry, we always hope & ask for a runway crossing, just to save some time! When there are a lot of airplanes on final approach we have no chance and we taxi according the standard route. What a lot of people (passengers) don’t know about Barcelona is that we use the Airbridge there. This means that people in row 31 have to wait a long time before they can disembark once we arrive at the gate.
Off Duty
When I am off for a fe
w days I always try to go home. Unfortunately there are no direct flights from Barcelona El Prat to my home country but there are other routes I can take to get there. 🙂 Normally I proceed via Dublin. I have to wait 3 hours for my next flight to Amsterdam. I always enjoy and like to eat something from the Staff Menu at The Garden Terrace (Terminal 1, After security, first floor)! 😀 And then finally.. we are back in The Netherlands.
Home sweet home!
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