A Little Escape to Lisbon

Myself and Kevin spent a weekend in Lisbon in October and we absolutely loved it.

How to Get There?

We went on the inaugural Aer Lingus flight from Cork to Lisbon. The flight left on a Friday evening and returned late on Monday so it was perfect for the bank holiday weekend and we didn't need to take any time off work for it. 

Where to Stay?

Lisbon had a few surrounding towns/suburbs that are accessible by tram. We tried to stay as close to the Avenida da Liberdade as possible as everything seemed to be in walking distance from there. We stayed in an Air BnB called the Lisbon Gloria Apartment and it was perfect. It was in an ideal location, lovely inside, reasonably priced and the hosts were great with information on Lisbon.

What to Do?

Ponte 25 de Abril

Visiting this bridge is a must!!!! It's similar to the Golden Gate bridge and it's incredible to see. The views are fab and we really enjoyed sitting down next to the water looking at it.

Torre de Belem

The Belem Tower is a must see! We got a tram to it and it was lovely! We didn't go inside but admired it from the outside :P It looked lovely with the water behind it.

Padrão dos Descobrimentos

The Monument to the Discoveries is a fab sculpture that is definitely worth seeing if you're visiting the Belem Tower as they're very near each other. We also viewed it from the top of the museum across the road which was definitely worth it - there was literally no one else there so we had all the view to ourselves!

Bairro Alto

We loved the graffiti walls of Bairro Alto and it was so close to our apartment. It had loads of insta worthy backdrops which was ideal :P the whole area has some gorgeous graffiti that I'd definitely recommend you go and see.

See the Trams

Lisbon is famous for it's little trams (especially Tram 28 which still runs). There's loads around the area as Lisbon is very hilly so it's a great way to get around though they are incredibly crowded as they're so small!

I'd definitely go back to Lisbon and maybe visit Sintra next time (I've heard it's fab). It's been great having new routes added to Cork airport!

Escaping to Sunny Salou

A few weeks ago, myself and Kevin headed off on our third trip of the year. The last two trips, Paris and Munich, were very busy trips with lots of exploring and sightseeing so we wanted a break away in the sun where we would do nothing but relax! Searching through Ryanair and Are Lingus websites, we found relatively cheap flights that worked around a weekend to Reus. We chose to go to Salou (we actually were there about 6 years ago too) as we knew we'd be guaranteed to have a total chilled out weekend.

How to get there?
We flew with Ryanair direct from Cork. We flew out on a Friday evening at about 6.30pm and arrived back into Cork Sunday night at about 11.30pm. This was ideal for us as it meant we didn't need to book any extra time off work.

Where to Stay?
We were initially booked into one of the Port Aventura Hotels, Hotel Caribe, but Alpharooms ended up overbooking us and we were left to find a new hotel 4 days before we were due to travel. Not ideal considering 91% of the hotels in Salou were already booked out. We ended up staying in Hotel Dorada Palace which was gorgeous. It had two pools plus a rooftop pool, a bar, restaurant, games area, entertainment and was just a short walking distance to beach and local bars and restaurants. We had a gorgeous room with a huge balcony that overlooked the main pool and entertainment stage.




What to Do?
For us, this weekend was just a chance to unwind and do nothing! Of course Port Aventura was nearby and there was plenty of waterparks but doing all of those would have meant we'd be doing the opposite of what we booked the trip for which was to relax. We basically spent the whole two days lying by the pool which was total bliss! In the evenings we just strolled along the beach and by the local shops.

Where to Eat?
Breakfast in the hotel was included in our booking so we had a continental breakfast there each morning meaning I didn't eat very much there :P For lunch we chose to eat in the hotel's poolside bar just so we didn't waste some of the afternoon venturing out looking for a restaurant. For dinner, we actually ate in two restaurants that we loved when we visited there 6 years ago. The first was Robin Hood's which is a UK bar. It looks a little tacky from the outside but the food was great. We both had Tikka Masala and although it wasn't as enjoyable as we remembered it was still really good. The second night we went to Spaghetti House for some gorgeous pizza. It was absolutely amazing and I'd definitely recommend it.

Although it was a very short trip, it was so lovely to just completely relax. I honestly felt like I had been away for about a week! We vlogged the trip too so you can watch that below!

A Weekend in Munich

A couple of weeks ago, myself and Kevin jetted off to Munich for the weekend. It was our first time in Germany and we absolutely fell in love with Munich. The buildings and architecture were absolutely gorgeous and we really enjoyed just strolling around, wandering the beautiful streets. I decided to put together a quick little travel post on where we stayed, ate, visited etc.

How to Get There?

We flew with Are Lingus on an early Saturday morning flight and came back on a Monday. It was the first flight out of Cork so unfortunately, I don't think the future schedules fly on a Saturday.

Where to Stay?
We stayed in the Holiday Inn Munich City Centre and the location couldn't have been more ideal. There's steps from the hotel leading down to the underground train station so you don't even need to step outside to get on either the S-Bahn or U-Bahn (one stop to the city centre - Marienplatz). The hotel itself was absolutely gorgeous and we couldn't fault it.

What to Do?
Ok I need to first point out that we arrived on a Saturday, had that full day and a full day Sunday. BUT what we didn't know beforehand was that every single shop closes on Sundays. So we had left all of our shopping until the Sunday and we got a great shock to see that nowhere was open :P So if you are planning a trip there on a weekend, leave the sightseeing things until the Sunday as they're still open.

Frühlingsfest 

After searching Google for ages to find something that was open, we went and visited Frühlingsfest (Spring Festival) which was like a mini Oktoberfest. There was two big beer halls and lots of outdoor rides like mini rollercoasters, ferris wheel etc. It was a gorgeous day and I'm so happy we found it. I think this festival was only on the time of year that we went but it's worth Googling as they do a few different festivals and markets every so often.

Tierpark Hellabrun

We visited the Munich Zoo and loved it. There was a variety of animals but we were most looking forward to the ones we had never seen in other zoos e.g. bear, polar bears, wallaby etc. The weather was gorgeous so it was lovely to stroll around for the day.

Open Top Bus Tour
The first day we arrived, we did an Open Top Bus Tour which took us around to the various sites and landmarks Munich has to offer. We got off at the Olympic Tower and the English Gardens.

Olympic Tower
Olympiapark is an area in Munich where the Olympics were held years ago. They have lots of sports facilities and the 291m high Olympic Tower where you can go up and see the views of Munich. For only €7 it was definitely worth it and although I'm afraid of heights I actually didn't mind it too much.

English Gardens
This is one of the largest urban parks in the world. It has lots of pathways and grass areas which are perfect if you want to stroll around or have a picnic. We walked around it for a little while and came across these guys surfing on a really rapid part of the river - it was very cool!

Here's our vlogs from the trip.

 

A Weekend Break in Killarney

Hey guys!

I know it's been a while since my last blog post, I'm super busy at the moment with something that'll be revealed really soon! To take a break from the busyness of it all, myself and Kevin booked a last minute trip to Killarney in Kerry last weekend.

We stayed in The Holiday Inn as there wasn't much availability in Killarney that weekend. The hotel was about a 15 min walk from the town centre and because the weather was absolutely amazing that weekend, we were able to take in all the beautiful surroundings. We did a lot of strolling around just admiring the town and also paid a visit to the Killarney Outlet Centre as well as a few shops in the town.

We wanted to just relax and have a chilled weekend and that's exactly what we did. When we go away we always have something on or something to attend, so it was nice to just completely relax and unwind with no time schedules! We'll definitely be back.

Just Touched Down in London Town

So our first trip of 2016 was a birthday trip for Kevin to London! During the Black Friday sales, Ryanair had return flights to London (and probably other places) for €4 per person. No that's not a mistake...I did mean €4!!!! So I got return flights for us both for a ridiculous €8!! We flew from Cork (which we haven't done in SO long and it was so handy!) and arrived in Stansted at around 8 a.m. It was a very short trip as we arrived home early on Sunday but considering the price of the flights, we didn't mind!

We stayed in the Thistle Euston which was less than a 5 min walk to the tube station. It was a perfect location as we were only about a 5-10 min journey on the tube to Oxford St. The hotel was gorgeous and we really enjoyed our stay there.

Since we only had one day there we wanted to see as much sightseeing stuff as possible, without having a jam packed day, so we decided to do the open top bus tour. We booked the Golden Tours hop on hop off bus tour which brought us on a guided tour to all of London's main attractions. We chose to stay on the bus but you can hop on and hop off as much as you like all day. Big Ben and Westminster Abbey were our fav - the architecture is just amazing! It was Kevin's first time in London and he loved it! Afterwards we headed to Oxford Street for some retail therapy!

 

We had a lovely, though very short, trip and we can't wait to go back again! Let me know what you like to do in London so we'll know for our next trip :)

Hopefully, there'll be many more travel posts on my blog for 2016 :)