Category Archives: Travel

Travels to Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. And the country that got away.

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In recent years I have started travelling to destinations more exotic (or simply further away) than those in Europe or North America. Places which pose a slightly greater challenge to reach and spend time in. Places without a Ryanair ready tourist infrastructure. In the last three years I have been to Nigeria (for a wedding); India (for a solo trip); Thailand and Cambodia. South America had long been on my wish list but plans to go there had never been more than an ephemeral ‘One day’ wish. I always considered it to be a place that I’d need to visit as part of an organised tour. I was somewhat intimidated by rumours of danger.

Until this year when I decided that ‘One day’ meant 2026, and that I didn’t need to be part of a larger group other than with a friend. And that I was well able to organise the trip myself.

We decided that our first stop was the city of the cheesy Peter Allen; Barry Manilow and Frank Sinatra songs – Rio de Janeiro. And what while there we would be located at the Copacabana beach.

We arrange to meet in Lisbon Airport. I had a ten hour layover before our 11.30pm flight to Brazil. This meant an excursion into the city. Waiting to exit the airport I found myself in a slow moving but aggressive queue. Listening to the voices around me I realised that everyone in the queue was from the UK.

‘Is this the UK queue?’ I innocently asked a surly man ahead of me.

‘It’s the non-EU queue’ was his taciturn response.

Like a middle-aged gazelle I skipped out of that queue towards the electronic gates with my Irish passport to make my way to the Metro station that would take me to town.

My trip into Lisbon was brief – it lasted four hours. I went to the Alfama district to see the cathedral which was impressive but lacking the gaudy razzmatazz of a Spanish or Italian church. I also visited the chapel where St Anthony was born. I have no idea who St Anthony is, but he sounds like a very important Catholic saint.

We landed at Galaeo Airport in Rio de Janeiro at 5.30am and after immigration and bag collection took an Uber to the hotel arriving at 8am. Our heavily tattooed receptionist Juan was super sorry that our rooms wouldn’t be ready until 2pm but stored our bags while we ventured to the Botanic Gardens – a serene way to spend a few hours. I had paid for a coffee in the airport upon arrival in Brazil. When I tried to pay the entrance to the gardens to my horror my bank card had been frozen. Being extremely tired after an overnight flight it took me a few hours to check my text messages where I discovered that the bank had merely halted my card due to suspicious activity. A cappuccino in Rio de Janeiro was a tad more adventurous than the chicken and coleslaw sandwich from Spar in Limerick that my card is usually used for. We chanced our arm and arrived back at the hotel at 1pm but to no avail. The room was still not ready So we wandered down to Copacabana Beach which was a few hundred metres away and had a strawberry caipirinha at a beach bar in the 30 degree autumn sun while the samba band played.

After an early first night we had a favela tour planned for the morning of our first full day.

A favela is an unplanned urban development built in the hills surrounding the planned section of a Brazilian city. They tend to be impoverished and outside the realm of police control and instead ruled by gangs. The houses within the favelas are built by the residents. The higher up in the hill your house is located the less likely it is that services like running water are present (electricity is always present as favela dwellers who work for the electricity company will hook you up to the grid – for a fee.

Rocinha close to Copacabana is the largest favela in Brazil. Home to 200,000 residents it is controlled by the Red Command gang – a drug trafficking and arms dealing organisation which controls the district. A few years ago the rival drug gangs in the favela were removed by the police and now the Red Command gang have an understanding with the police – so long as there is no petty crime in the favela the Gardai will not enter. Meaning it’s fairly safe for tourists. Petty crime against tourists will require a police response inside the favela which the gang does not encourage

The tour of the favela I had booked for 10am was cancelled by the guide at 10pm the night before due to a personal tragedy. I declined his offer of a tour at the same time the following day, Being a person of class I decided that 24 hours is too short to get over a tragedy. Instead I booked a tour of the Santa Marta favela at the same time this morning.

At 10am at the designated spot we arrived. At 10.05 a woman who seemed chemically altered approached and whispered ‘I live near here’. I resisted the urge to inquire why that would be of interest to me. The very serious Bavarian woman was also waiting asked her ‘Are you our guide?’

‘Yes’ replied the woman.

And then the local stallholder selling fruit juice shouted ‘Don’t go with her, she is not a guide’. At 10.20 we decided to leave as our actual guide had not appeared. I shudder to think where the lady would have taken us. To have our personal belongings removed I suspect.

Selaron Steps

We took an Uber to the Selaron Steps – a famous stairwell decorated in beautiful tiles by a Chilean artist as a tribute to the city. It has become a popular attraction in Rio.

After lunch I took a solo stroll on Copacabana promenade. I had heeded the warnings and dressed down. Apparently petty crime is a risk but avoidable if you take the same safety precautions as you would any where.

At 4.30pm we gathered at the Jesus and His Father Universal church back in Rocinha. Third time lucky for a favela tour.

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Sick in Gran Canaria – January 2025

Spain, Travel, ,

Early January was cold. Horrifically cold – by Irish standards. Nighttime temperatures plunged to minus four degrees Celsius. There was snow on the footpaths. Compared to Canada or Finland this may seem tropical but for Ireland this is catastrophic – snow, ice, frost. There were colour coded warnings of ‘multi weather hazard events’ to terrify the nation. I was not scared of the weather. My fear was that Dublin Airport wouldn’t be able to de-ice the airplane on which I was due to fly. To Gran Canaria. In June last year a Finnish friend had asked whether I was interested in spending a few days in the New Year in the volcanic, mid-Atlantic, Spanish archipelago off the coast of Morocco. My response was in the affirmative. Little did I know that as the motherland hunkered down to deal with the cold spell, I’d be jetting off to enjoy BigTourism – Spanish style.

On the beach

Until January 2020 I had a snooty aversion to mass market tourism – preferring a nice city break where I’d get a false idea of what living in another European city would be like. My nose curled in contempt when I heard of the sun, sea, sand and sangria trips. ‘It’s just like Ballybunion, except with sunshine,’ I would sneer to myself. In 2020 I took the plunge and visited Gran Canaria for the first time. That trip was amazing – partly because I travelled with a friend who rented a car meaning that we saw the island from all angles – the western cliff coast, the volcanic centre, the capital city of Las Palmas, as well as the industrial tourist town of Maspalomas and its beach – Playa del Ingles. It was also because mere weeks after my maiden voyage to Gran Canaria the world shut down. My memories of that trip grew even fonder as the nation locked down. Thankfully the pandemic didn’t halt my wanderlust and I continued to travel throughout that bizarre time – just more discreetly so as not to attract the ire of the online twitching curtains. My first trip after my inaugural bout with Covid 19 was the day I came out of quarantine – to Gran Canaria where I met up with the Finnish friend I was visiting this January.

This time she would be accompanied by her daughter. I was joined by my regular, Irish travelling companion.

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Thirty-six hours in Milan

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Despite my near miss when I accidentally boarded the Tirana to Rome, rather than the correct Tirana to Bergamo flight, we landed in Bergamo on time at 10am. My flight back to Ireland was not until 9pm the following evening. My trip had been extended for a specific reason – I wanted to finally visit ‘The Last Supper’ by Leonardo DaVinci in Milan. This is a painting I have wanted to see since childhood. It’s not an easy undertaking, however. Located in a climate and temperature-controlled monastery, visitors are strictly limited in number. Tickets to see it are like gold dust. I had forked out fifty-four euros for a guided tour of the painting – justifying the price with the realisation that unless I was willing to pay this amount then I’d never likely see it.

I took a bus from Caravaggio Airport in Bergamo to the Central Rail station from there I walked to my hotel which took an hour. This was my first time in Italy’s second largest city.

Milan had never been high on my list of places I wished to visit. Italy is such a beautiful country there always seemed to be a more appealing option. This time was different.

Duomo di Milano

After dropping my bags at my hotel, I strolled over to the Duomo di Milano – the ridiculously ornate cathedral of Milan. It’s an architectural marvel on a par with the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. To take the lift to the roof was more expensive than to take the stairs but it was my chosen option. Having walked an average of twenty kilometres per day while in Albania my leggies were exhausted. I must give props to the Catholic Church – they know how to do a glamourous church.

I spent an hour on the roof and inside the church before exiting on the Piazza Del Duomo and made my way to the Grand Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II on the square. This is an opulent nineteenth century shopping mall housing all the unaffordable Italian designer labels – Milan is a world centre of fashion on a par with Paris and New York. You can tell – the locals are impossibly thin, beautiful, and stylish. I didn’t buy anything. The prices were not visible on many items indicating that it would require a mortgage to buy them.

Grand Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

Making my way to La Scala opera house I noticed a queue coming out the door. There was a self-guided tour of the place. I waited in line behind an Italian woman who took about fifteen minutes to purchase her ticket. Why rush I guess. It’s an interesting building with an informative museum included. Not quite on a par with La Fenice in Venice, but in the vicinity.

La Scala Opera

The fifteenth century Castello Sforzesco is located a fifteen-minute walk away. Relieved to discover that its museum was closed on Monday I whiled away an hour wandering about its grounds, before heading back to my hotel.

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November travel to Tirana, Albania

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My flight to Tirana in Albania was via Bergamo in Italy – or ‘Milan-Bergamo’ as Ryanair calls it – as if Bergamo is a mere suburb of Milan and not a separate city of 120,000 people, more than fifty kilometres away. Flying over the Alps into Bergamo gave impressive views – not a cloud in the sky with mountains, towns and lakes fully visible from the airplane forty thousand feet in the sky. It was Friday November 8th, 2024, and for the first time in my life I was visiting the Balkan nation of Albania. Landing at 11.10 in Bergamo I had a four-hour layover until 15.20. My friend G was waiting for me in Tirana – he had arrived from Heathrow a few hours before I landed.

Skanderberg Square, Tirana

The internet had warned me that public transport from the airport to the city centre was sporadic, so we had booked a transfer to our apartment with our landlord at a decent price. What a very friendly and talkative man. He gave us a running commentary about the buildings we saw on the way to the city centre. He told us that the route to the airport was like a continuous building site as Italian investors were swooping in to erect buildings now that the Albanian government has decided that Albania needs to become Mediterranean tourist hotspot.

Our apartment was located about fifty metres from the city’s main Skandenberg Square. We dined that evening at the restaurant Ceren Ismet Shehu in the grounds of the Toptani Castle just off the Square. This was a traditional Albanian restaurant with a wood fire burning in the middle. A very tasty and very meat heavy dining experience. The Toptani Castle has become a nightlife area so after our meal we enjoyed a few glamourous cocktails for about a quarter of the price you’d pay in Ireland (one hundred Albanian lek is worth about one euro).

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Travels to Tangier, Morocco

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Our plane touched down in Ibn Battouta Airport in Tangier at 9.50pm on Saturday night so we hopped into a taxi driven by a friendly man named Omar and asked him to call our host Mohamed. We were going to be staying on the narrow laneways of the walled old town (medina) of Tangier so he had to give Omar instruction where to drop us so he could take us to our lodgings. The medina is inaccessibly by car. Our house was an old-style house with a rooftop courtyard and blue tiles on the walls. It was already quite late when we arrived, so we headed over the coast (about ten minutes’ walk away) for an evening meal before heading to bed for an early night. There was walking to be done the following day and we wanted to be fresh. 

Break from a busy day, Tangier

The following day gave us sunshine so after a quick outdoor coffee on a terrace in a medina café with indoor smoking and without tourists, we walked down to the coast (La Corniche) again for a breakfast looking at the sea. Based on my judgement (and Google Maps) the landmass in the distance must have been the southernmost tip of Spain. Tangier is located on the Tingitan peninsula and is on the coast where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean Sea. We took a walk along the beach where we spied some camels in the distance giving rides to tourists for a cash payment. A friendly local dog approached us and sat with us for half an hour before heading on his way. I noticed that he had a yellow plastic earring. I wondered what that was. Lunch was consumed outdoors where I had a lamb shawarma – a dish traditional to the Middle East but seeing as Morocco is an Arab-Berber country the cuisine is similar. Moroccan cuisine is very tasty but not new to me. Having lived in Amsterdam – a city with a large Moroccan population- for many years I know my Moroccan dishes.

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Madrid in December

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My plan to visit Madrid in December 2022 was thwarted, when standing at the gate in Dublin Airport, ready to board at 7pm an announcement was made, to inform us that due to weather conditions our flight was cancelled. Disappointed, as I had been looking forward to visiting the Spanish capital for the first time since 2006. This December another flight was booked – for our winter wanderings we’d be spending three days in Madrid followed by three days in Tangier in the northernmost tip of Morocco. Sunshine at this time of year is a great means of cheering oneself up in the Irish grey season.

‘Guernica’ by Picasso at the Reina Sofia Museum

The Ryanair flight from Dublin to Madrid was non-eventful and we landed at 2pm, whereby we each acquired a ten-ticket metro pass for fourteen euros and followed the internet’s instructions on how to access our apartment. Lunch, en route in Chinatown involved Szechuan chicken and rice. Out apartment was located on the edge of the city centre so theoretically it was possible to walk to the heart of the city. We took the metro that evening to Gran Via which was festooned in Christmas lights. We enjoyed a few drinks in the Chueca district which seemed to have calmed down from the riotous party district it had been twenty years ago. A more likely story is that Chueca has remained the same and it is I that has become more sedate. We dined on pizza at ‘ThatsAmore’ – a pizzeria owned and run by an Italian man. Rather tasty.

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Sicily in summertime

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My first trip to Italy as a tourist was in February 2020, just as the world was about to shut down. My first holiday to that country was a revelation. I found Rome to be enchanting. Since then I have averaged two trips a year – never to the same place. Italy is a country where you can pick any spot, and it will be a delight. My favourite place to visit thus far is Venice. But not Venice as most know it. I was lucky enough to visit during the harsh lockdown of 2020 when international travel was strongly discouraged, meaning that my flight to that city was empty and the tourist throngs were conspicuous by their absence.

Palermo

This year I decided that it was time to visit Sicily. . Or rather the Ryanair sale for a return flight in August decided for me. Frugality is a necessity when it comes to travel, as otherwise I would be bankrupt. My return flight cost 140 euros. I was planning to travel alone but as often happens I had an inquiry from a regular travel companion. I wouldn’t mind at all – I like solo travel but given the choice having a co-conspirator is very much appreciated.

Sicily is much larger than I had imagined and has a population of almost five million people. How would we decide our itinerary. Some research indicated that a few stops would be possible. We decided on three days in the capital Palermo; two days in the second city Catania in the shadow of Mount Etna; and our final two days on the island of Ortigia in the ancient Greek city of Siracusa.

Our flight landed on Saturday evening at 8pm and we reached our enormous apartment. It was one of those high ceilinged, old, Italian houses with a complicated floor plan and random doors leading to nowhere. We had an early night. In the morning we had an early start. We were being collected from our apartment at 8am for a day tour. Two weeks earlier I had booked a full day excursion to the town of Agrigento in the south of the islands to see the Valley of The Temples.

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Chicago, Vermont and a very small Murphy

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In January of this year, Aer Lingus had a sale. I checked out the destinations and found a six day return trip to Chicago for 395eur in September. That was a steal so I booked it immediately. Having travelled to Chicago a quarter of a century earlier, I did not have any abiding memories of the city. That earlier excursion had been in August and was three days at the end of a fortnight’s journey to New York, Boston and Chicago. I remember the stifling humidity of August, my friend urgently requiring a toilet while in Boystown after a burger went down the wrong way, and me getting trapped in a different toilet.

Back in the twentieth century I had two regular traveling companions with whom I travelled each year. Usually at the end of our holiday we needed a break from each other and we’d take an ‘alone day’ where we’d do our own thing and then meet for dinner and drinks later. I think I went to a bookshop. I selected a diner for lunch and had a sandwich. After my meal I repaired to the restroom, to a cubicle. Unfortunately the door would not unlock for me after my business was finished, and I ended up calling for assistance from the laughing waitress, while being a luminous shade of puce. I remember her comment ‘don’t worry, you’re not the first that’s happened to.’ With 20/20 hindsight I wish I had replied ‘Maybe the door needs fixing then.’

This trip would be different. I was travelling alone and therefore would be marching entirely to the beat of my own drum. Travelling alone is not a challenge for me. About ten years ago I decided that the world was far too big to wait until others are ready to see it, and that if I have a yen to take a gander, then I should go right ahead. Happily when I make the booking I will often acquire a companion who will ask if they can come as well. Not this time however.

In March, a curveball flew in my direction. My youngest brother and his wife (whose wedding I attended in Ibidan, Nigeria last year) announced that they were expecting their first child on September 20th. My travel dates to Chicago were 18th to 24th September. They lived in Burlington, Vermont. A mere 900 miles / 1500 kilometres away. I took this as a sign that I was meant to travel to Vermont for a few days. A return flight from Chicago O’Hare to Burlington International Airport (one flight a week to Canada) was acquired.

My flight to Chicago departed on time at 3pm on Wednesday and lasted eight hours. I watched the films ‘The Bridges of Madison County’, ‘Singin’ in the rain’ and ‘Joker’ during the trip, where to my joy I had a row to myself.

I was staying at a grim little boarding house in Chinatown. This suited me fine. It had a bed, a table, chair and bathroom which is all I need. I wasn’t planning on doing anything there except sleeping. Chinatown is about four miles south of the famed Chicago Loop which would be classified as the main downtown, tourist area. I didn’t arrive till 9pm so that evening I stayed local and dined on sour fish soup in Friends BBQ in Chinatown.

I woke at 6am on Thursday (the six hour time difference meant my body thought it was lunchtime). I had an appointment at 11am for an architectural boat tour of the city. I estimated that it would take me about ninety minutes to reach the meeting point along the Chicago river. The plan was to take the Metro but the early morning sunshine was refreshing so I walked along the banks of Lake Michigan to reach the meeting point, stopping en route for a Korean breakfast of an egg tart, apple and bacon on toast, washed down with filter coffee.

I passed the famed Cloud Gate statue (more commonly known as The Bean as it resembles one) in Millennium Park. This is possibly the best known landmark of Chicago. I am not sure why. Although to see the majestic skyline reflected in the bean is impressive.

The architectural boat your was fascinating. In 1871 Chicago was a rapidly, expanding city of 300,000 residents. Mrs O’Leary’s cow knocked over a paraffin lamp (allegedly) resulting in nearly all of downtown burning to the ground, and one third of the population being displaced. Amazingly only 300 people perished in the fire which raged for days. Chicago became an architect’s dream as it was being rebuilt. A blank canvas – the skyscraper was invented in Chicago. The first skyscraper only had ten floors, but even that must have been a wonder in the 1870s. Various iconic buildings were shown to us including Willis Tower (pronounced locally as Sears Towers – at one time the world’s tallest building), Trump Tower and the St Regis tower – the 101 storey building by Jeanne Gang which is the tallest building in the world by a female architect.

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Siem Reap, Cambodia

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Cambodia was an extra to the holiday at the planning stage.

Back in 2020 during the throes of lockdown I decided that in 2021 I would travel to Southeast Asia once life had returned to normal. Thailand was the destination – I had friends who’d travelled there and recommended it. As this was such a far flung destination I wanted to add in another country to visit while on the trip – who knows when or if I’d get the opportunity to return. Vietnam was the original choice for my second stop – I could picture myself on a boat sailing down the Mekong River. At the booking stage I realised that time restraints meant that Cambodia would be an easier option to navigate timewise than Vietnam. And in particular Siem Reap – the city renowned for its array of ancient Buddhist and Hindu Temples.

Sunrise at Angkor Wat

The flight from Bangkok took only an hour. After getting my passport stamped with an entry visa at Bangkok Airport, I went to the Foreign Exchange desk to buy some Cambodian Riel. The riel is a currency that only seems to be recognised by Cambodia’s neighbours on the peninsula. US dollars are the preferred currency, but riel apparently offered lower prices. I bought one hundred dollars worth – almost half a million riel.

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The Italian Riviera and Genoa

Italy, Travel, ,

My first trip to Italy was in February 2020 – mere weeks before lockdown. It was a revelation. So much culture, history, food, beauty. You can close your eyes and pick anywhere on the map of that country, and you’ll likely find yourself in a beautiful place steeped in splendour. Since that time, I have returned to visit Naples, Florence, Lecce, Pisa, Siena, Bergamo, and – most memorably to Venice.

My journey to Venice was a once in a lifetime experience. October 2020 – the world was locked down. But airplanes were flying from Dublin to Venice and me, along with five other passengers visited the fabled city. A city that in normal times suffocates through tourism, was largely empty. No cruise ship passengers or budget airline city-breakers, no day-trippers. That week, the city was left to Italian tourists and me. To be able to witness Venice in those circumstances was special, and likely never to be repeated.

Riomaggiore

This year’s trip was taking me to the Cinque Terre and onwards to Genoa. The Cinque Terre (Five Lands) is a coastal stretch in Liguria, in northwest of Italy. It comprises of five villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. The villages lie to the west of the city of La Spezia . Part of the Italian Riviera the Cinque Terre is regarded as one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world.

I landed at 9pm in Pisa Airport and took the train to Central Station where a high speed Frecciabianca would get me to La Spezia by 10.15pm. Not quite. The train was an hour late, so it was close to midnight when I rang the bells to the B&B where the landlord who was reeking of stale wine, showed me to my room.

Monterosso Al Mare

The following morning, I rose early to have an Italian coffee and pastry before heading back to my room to do a morning’s work. This was inconvenient but unavoidable. Having gone quite overboard when it comes to travel in 2023 my remaining holidays were insufficient to cover my travels. Meaning I was accompanied by my work laptop – which thankfully this time I managed not to leave in airport security at Dublin.

At midday I logged off and went to La Spezia central station where I purchased a forty-eight-hour Cinque Terre ticket which would allow unlimited travel between each of the villages. I was keen to do this on the Friday, calculating that as a workday the crowds would be thinner than the following day. I boarded a jam-packed to the furthest of the villages – Monterosso al Mare. My plan was to visit each one, coming closer to La Spezia with each stop.

The villages are spectacularly beautiful – multi-coloured houses built into the mountainside surrounded by a UNESCO World heritage park with vineyards dotting the landscape. The middle village Corniglia was the most challenging as it required a steep climb to reach it. All are hundreds of years old and have been perfectly preserved. An enchanting place to spend six hours walking.

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