Travel, TripAdvisor, Walking Tours, and...the President of Ireland (pt.2)

     Welcome back for part 2 of "Travel, TripAdvisor, Walking Tours, and...the President of Ireland." (Part 1) Given my past post, I am thinking you are all wondering, what does any of this have to do with the President of Ireland, and how freakin long is it going to take him to get there? Well, let's get started.

     I already wrote about TripAdvisor, and what big fans Day and I are, we are also fans of the walking tours. What are they? Go to TripAdvisor, "your destination city," "things to do," and find, "walking tours," there are tons of them. Tour guides who walk the city with you and others, showing you the sights, relevant to whatever theme you chose for your tour. Don't get overwhelmed, first decide what you are interested in. Do you just want a general tour of the city, or some history? Day and I recently went on a WWII tour of Prague, what a great tour, and a fantastic way to see the city and learn about the history. After photographing the crap out of Prague, I later searched the web for WWII photos of Prague, the (Google Album) or (FB Album) are worth a look. If you are a photographer and are interested in getting that one great picture, a "photography tour" may be for you. I haven't done one of these yet, but I am looking forward to it. A local photographer spends a half a day with you, and others, bringing you around to the best photo opps, at the right time of day, and shows you tips and tricks with your camera. These can be a little pricey, so do some research. Our favorites, the "food tours," yep, a tour about eating. We have done a number of these and have yet to be disappointed.

     We recently went on the "Eating Prague Tour." To be honest, this was one of the best we have been on. Our guide Jan, was fantastic, in no time, he felt like a friend that was feeding us in his kitchen, like he had done it a hundred times before. Jan was friendly, smart and funny. We spoke on many topics, the history of Prague, politics, and even Trump. Most importantly, food, you could tell he had a passion for food and loved talking about it.

And, the food was amazing

So, if you are in Prague, "Eating Prague" is a must.

     "Sights and Pints," the "Presidential Tour" with Garvan is a can't miss if you are in Dublin. We had just gotten in, and needed something to do for a few hours before we could hit the sack. Jet lag is a killer, so if you're getting in at mid day, book an afternoon tour. Yes you're tired, but if you took a nap instead, you'd be up all night and never get through the jet lag. Well that's just what we did, we scheduled an afternoon tour of Dublin, with Garvan. We booked a private tour, so it was easy and low key, Garvan was the perfect guide for four tired travelers. He was fun, friendly, knew a bunch of stuff about the city and the "1916 Easter Rising," but kept it pretty light, up until, the President of Ireland showed up!

     It's obvious Garvan made "sucky face" with the Blarney Stone because he has the "gift of gab," and as he's going on and on about this bookstore we are standing in front of, a car with two flags on the hood pulls up. "Hey Garvan, who's in the car," I asked. He looks for a second, and replies, "uhhh, that's the President." "The President of what?" "The President of Ireland, dude!" Well crap, I gotta get me a picture then, don't I? So I followed the President inside, against the wishes of my friends.

So in I go, I muscled my way through the crowd and introduced myself, as Curly of course. I told the President of Ireland the story, "we are from the States, here on vacation, bla, bla, bla," and asked if I could get a picture. Mike D. (that's what we call him) was more than happy to humor me, we chatted a bit, seems he made "sucky face" with the Blarney Stone also. Then he asks, "Curly, what's the story with this Trump fella?" "Mikey," I said, "You know you shouldn't be talking politics without a Guinness." "Ah, yer right there Curly, I dunno what happened to me manners. What d'ya say ya round up yer crew and we'll throw back a couple of pints at the pub then!"

     Ok, all that didn't happen, but it could have, if I followed my heart and hadn't listen to my freakin friends. The President did show up though. I did follow him into the bookstore and got his picture, and that's pretty funny. So, if you're in Dublin, book the "Presidential Tour" with Garvan, tell him I sent you.

     Regardless of where you are going, look into booking a walking tour. Day and I like to do them in the beginning of our trip, you get a good lay of the land and the guides are full of information that might help you plan the rest of your trip. Ask them tons of questions, they love talking about their city and all the cool things there are to do there. They make the best restaurant recommendations and they can tell you what to stay away from. So for your next vacation, book a walking tour, and follow your heart, and enjoy!

Mentions: +Eating Prague Tours +Dublin Tour Guide

Luv ya,
Curly

Travel, TripAdvisor, Walking Tours, and...the President of Ireland (pt.1)

     Day and I consider ourselves pretty seasoned travelers. In the past we avoided touristy activities because, hey, they are for tourists and we are "world travelers." The more you travel, the more you learn, and the first thing we learned, we are still babies when it comes to "world traveling." The other thing we learned, we like doing the touristy things, we just don't like hordes of tourists.

  TripAdvisor is a great website for planning your trip, we use it prior to our trip and while we are on our trip, (as a matter of fact, TripAdvisor and smart phones are essential for travel and worthy of a post themselves) but that is for another day. With TripAdvisor, we decide where we want to stay, what we want to do, and where and what to eat. People review everything, but take the reviews with a "grain of salt." You can get a pretty good idea of let's say a hotel, by their overall star rating, an average of all the individual reviews and then peruse through the reviews. We watch for many things, such as, the number of people who have reviewed the hotel. Doesn't mean much if only 5 people have reviewed a place, or maybe it does, why does it have only 5 reviews? We also pay attention to how many reviews a person has posted. What I mean is, if you saw that I reviewed something, you could click on my profile and see who I am, where I am from, how many reviews I have posted and, click on my previous posts. Why is this important, well some people like to bitch. If you see someone has nothing better to do than write hundreds of reviews on TripAdvisor and all they do is bitch, well who cares what they think. I also love the ones that start with, "my wife and I have traveled all over the world." They wanna brag and hear themselves bloviate.

     Also, pay attention to where people are from, different cultures and people expect different things. Americans and Europeans are completely different, for instance, bathrooms, more specifically, the showers. My shower is 5 ft. × 5 ft, has a seat in it, plenty of shelves and two shower heads, that's usually not the case in Europe. Showers are usually quite small and often it's a bathtub with the shower head on the hose. That's just the way it is. An American might complain about the hotel's breakfast, as a matter of fact, they often do.
   
     An American breakfast is usually the hot stuff: eggs, omelets, pancakes, sausage and home fries, the list goes on and on. A European breakfast leans towards the cold dishes: yogurts, cereals, fresh fruit and vegetables. They put out some hot stuff, but...it's not the best. Now surely you can complain if the yogurt has mold on it, but you can't complain that there is no pancakes, I have never seen a pancake in Europe. So keep in mind who is writing the reviews. I just read a review about the "Gap of Dunloe" in Killarney. The review was written by some guy's mommy, about what a terrible time this adult guy had on this tour, really? We went on it and it was fantastic, which brings us to "tours."

     More specifically "walking tours," but I promised to keep my posts short, so I am stopping here with (pt.1) of Travel, TripAdvisor, Walking Tours, and...the President of Ireland. Haha, I hope that is enough of a teaser to bring you back for part 2.

Luv ya
Curly
P.S. if you are reading my blog, please take a moment to comment, I would enjoy some feedback.

Day: travel companion, best friend, wife and caretaker

     I am so far behind on my blog now, and I have so much to say, I am going to try this a different way. My posts are about trips and are long, maybe too long, shorter and more often might be the way to go. Posts about ideas, thoughts, or a specific event instead of a whole trip, may be more interesting for you, and easier for me. So many ideas are rolling around in my head.

     Our trip to Ireland with friends, a trip to Prague and a distant relative, TripAdvisor and walking tours, blogging, selling photos, traveling for the disabled, traveling with friends, and most important, traveling with your significant other, which is where I will start.

     Day and I recently went to the Grand Canyon and Ireland with friends, and finally after 15 years of traveling with friends, we went to Prague, Czech Republic by ourselves. I love traveling with our friends, but this was a much needed trip for just the two of us. It takes years of practice to become a good traveler, well it did for me.

     I have little patience for long lines and less than smart people, the more politically correct way of saying, "stupid people." My impatience and short fuse, would only stress out Day, especially on our day of travel. On the outside, Day appears to be calm, but on travel day, she is stressed, and does not need me making it worse. So on travel day I have learned, if Day wants to be at the airport three hours early, then we are at the airport three hours early. "Stand here with the luggage," my reply, "ok fruitcake." And why not, it doesn't cost me anything to do what I am told on travel day. It makes travel day less stressful for my wife. Once we are one the plane, Day gets the window seat, every freakin time.

     The plane ride is not so bad though, I keep myself amused on my phone with pictures or writing on the notepad app, or, farting, yep farting. Getting healthy means eating healthy, and that means gas, and I let them rip. Everyone within 15 ft of me has their shirt pulled up over their nose. Yep, I am that guy, and it amuses the hell out of me. I laugh as Day pulls her shirt up over her nose, rolling her eyes and shaking her head at me. Hey, it is no more offensive than too much bad perfume.

     Travel for Day is about food, so our trips usually involve a "food tour." It makes her happy, and I get to eat. For me, it's about writing and getting that one great picture, so I photograph everything. This means Day needs to stop often and walk slower, and for those of you who know Day, nothing drives her more crazy than walking slow. But, she does it for me, because it makes me happy (topics I will write about later).

     These last two trips have been challenging for the both of us, I am having serious back issues (traveling for the disabled). Painful does not describe sciatic nerve issues, especially while walking on cobblestone streets and sidewalks for 10 miles.

     I did not want to ruin her vacation, so we did everything we wanted, and she took care of me. She walked slow, I held on to her arm most of the day, and we sat often. She help me out of bed, into bed and tied my shoes. In the mornings we sat for breakfast, a buffet, and she brought me my food. I appreciate everything she did and thanked her often. She was patient with me, and I tried, I think I did a good job, to not be an ass to her, because I was in pain. We did everything we could to make it a great vacation for one another.

     We do this because we should, and we appreciate one another and thank one another, because we should. We are travel companions, best friends, husband and wife, and caretakers.

Thank you Day, you were wonderful, and I love you for that.