Living La Dolce Vita: Exploring Lake Como, Italy

Going to Italy on holiday but don’t know the language? Wanting to know just enough Italian to use on your holiday without having to learn the grammar and tons of pointless vocabulary and phrases? 

Download my simple, easy and colourful guide to Italian for your holiday in Italy which will give you exactly the word and brief phrases you will need for chatting to the locals in Italian here!

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Ten years ago, I booked flights to Milan but they were later cancelled by the airline however I never forgot about my wish to visit Lake Como. When my friend Lawrence suggested that we finally go, I didn’t have to think twice.

I’d seen plenty of photographs of Lake Como but let me tell you this: it is even more stunning when you see its vast, shimmering blue expanse before the surrounding mountains in reality.

I wasn’t disappointed when I finally made it there after all these years and I can definitely see a return trip there in the near future.

So, I’ll talk you through our two gorgeous days in Lake Como, what to see there, what to do and of course, being Italy, what to eat and drink. Oh yeah- one word you will hear a lot while in Italy is prego; it means ‘you’re welcome’ but they seem to use it for ‘thank you’ too. Handy to know.

Continue reading “Living La Dolce Vita: Exploring Lake Como, Italy”

The Magic of Marrakech: Exploring Morocco’s City of Vibrant Markets and Snake Charmers

Please note- there are many images in this blog entry due to Marrakech being such a photogenic place!

When I was a child, my favourite Disney film was Aladdin. Magic carpets, enchanted snakes and exotic music; food and colours everywhere.

After years of waiting for an opportunity, I took the 1 hour flight from Seville to Marrakech which is not where this children’s story is set but the photos I’d seen and all I’d read about it evoked this mystical, dusty and glittering land.

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Bonjour Bordeaux: Discovering the Beauty of France’s Wine Capital

There is a game called ‘Ryanair Roulette’ where people go online and book flights to whichever destination is the cheapest on that day. I love this idea as I am happy to visit almost anywhere and to be fair, Ryanair does offer some unusual and interesting destinations.

My cousin Luke and I didn’t exactly go blindly for the cheapest but we collected a few potential destinations into a list and we decided which one to go for.

I am a lifelong Francophile and Luke appreciates French cuisine and wine so we opted for the under 2 hour flight from Manchester to Bordeaux, France.

So off to the land of red wine we went…

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Algeciras: Visiting Andalusia’s Forgotten Corner

Going to Spain on holiday but don’t know the language? Wanting to know just enough Spanish to use on your holiday without having to learn the grammar and tons of pointless vocabulary and phrases? (‘La niña come manzanas‘ on DuoLingo, anyone?)

Download my simple, colourful and helpful guide to holiday Spanish which will give you exactly the word and brief phrases you will need for chatting with the locals in Spain here!

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Algeciras is often spoken about as the ugly spot of Andalusia. Industrial. Crime-ridden. Barren.

You won’t find it featuring highly in travel guides and it is often seen as just a transient port of call between Spain and Morocco. Algeciras is in the autonomous region of Cádiz, it is the last stop on the train line from Madrid and overshadowed by its stunning neighbour, Tarifa to the south-west.

I first heard of this supposedly unremarkable town when I was studying A level History, with reference to the Algeciras Conference of 1906, held to discuss the future of Morocco.

Intrigued to see why this place is both disregarded and heralded, I spent three days in the Algeciras zone, visiting a friend who lives there. The Campo de Gibraltar encompasses the following areas:

  • Algeciras
  • Los Barrios
  • La Línea de la Concepción
  • Castellar de la Frontera
  • Jimena de la Frontera
  • San Roque
  • Tarifa

With my knowledgeable friend to show me round, our first stop was at one of Algeciras’ surprisingly beautiful beaches. The ugly reputation is largely undeserved, once you look past the grey dusty streets and shutter-drawn windows.

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Visiting Porto: Visiting The Stunning Portuguese City of Blue Tiles

Porto is a blend of chilled, happy days and charged, wild nights. It feels very, very safe and the people are amongst the friendliest of any city I’ve ever visited. 

This is the first travel article I’ve done for my own blog on a place other than Andalusia but I feel it’s now a natural progression to cover more of the world. I’ve noticed that over the past few years, I’ve travelled a fair amount around my home continent of Europe (my last long-haul trip was back in 2015 to Las Vegas).

The beauty of Europe is how the culture, climate, language and history is so varied and you can be in a completely different place after only a 2-3 hour flight!

My cousin works with a Portuguese woman who had long been recommending for him to visit Porto as she knew he had visited the Algarve around five times. When he suggested Porto to me, I had no visual impression of what it was like, I had never seen photos of the place.

The only thing I knew was that it has a football team and is sometimes referred to as Oporto.

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