Certainly my last trip before Christmas 2024, sent me to the Balkans, with the main purpose to watch the football between Montenegro and Wales. When booking the trip in March, little did I know that I wouldn’t have a ticket, I’d have to take unpaid leave from my new job (just a fortnight after doing the same for my three week honeymoon!) and the venue of the game would be changed just a fortnight before matchday!

Nevertheless, I do believe that it is my favourite Wales away yet. With so many potential things that could – and did – go wrong, ultimately it all worked out – AND we won which is never a given!

The trip is poignant as it is the first time I have spent the whole trip going solo. Other times I have travelled alone, I have always met up with friends or events the other side. I will admit I enjoyed the freedom and not having to have any immediate plans at the drop of a hat. If I wanted to go for a walk, no probs. Spend 30 minutes having a fag sat on a park bench watching the world go by? Absolutely. Nobody to tell me once I had too much to drink? Thankfully I didn’t get to that stage! I felt safe in every location I visited. I was very grateful for a little bit of company before the match in Niksic from a couple of fellow Newport County fans, and a few strangers on a boat trip that was just enough to avoid feeling lonely – oh and my wonderful wife on WhatsApp!

Introduction

My usual template of how I write my posts can’t really work here as I kinda had 2 small holidays in two separate countries, plus a day trip to another! You will obviously get to read about what I got up to with hopefully a sprinkling on some fun facts on the way.

For clarity in the hope that other parts of the blog make sense, in total I was away for seven nights/eight days. Days 1-4 in Montenegro, days 5-7 in Dubrovnik (Croatia) although I also made a half-day trip to Mostar Bosnia on day six! You with me? Good. Too confuse you further, I went to three different places in Montenegro that consisted of a day trip to coastal Budva, a city called Niksic for the match, with my base being in the capital called Podgorica (I knew how to pronounce it for about a week but I’ve lost it since! (I think it is pronounced Pod-gor-it-za!)

Costs

Following on from my last point, if I listed individual expenditure from three different countries we’d both be here for days, so I’ll try and summarise.

Flights were €250 and were made up of a WizzAir flight from Gatwick to Podgorica, and an EasyJet return from Dubrovnik to Bristol, which was worth paying that little bit extra as Bristol is a lot closer to home. These fares were with hand luggage only, and both flights I think I was a little lucky to avoid the extra fares as no way was my bag fitting in that shitty little box before boarding. I also washed my own clothes on 2-3 occasions which saved on luggage and laundrette fees (massive benefit of staying in an apartment or somewhere with outside space or balcony!).

The bus from Newport to Gatwick was decent at £22, but did mean leaving home at 7pm on the Thursday with my flight not until 5am on the Friday!

To get from Montenegro to Croatia I used a £25 Flixbus, but note that one should not expect the comparative luxury you get on a branded FlixBus in this neck of the woods. In this case they were simply an agent for a local company with coaches that I doubt would pass their MOT in the UK.

I’m not adding up every entry on my Monzo statement but I reckon the total cost all-in was less than £1,000.

Accomodation

To reduce costs it turned out that I stayed in apartments throughout the trip. Podgorica and Niksic about £20-25 per night and Dubrovnik £50 per night, which was good for the area.

Other subliminal costs and prices of tours etc I’ll try and remember to include in the diary itself. Let’s get started.

Day One (Friday) – Podgorica

Shall we quickly begin with some fun facts? – given that Montenegro isn’t high up on the most popular tourist destinations I’ll visit. Montenegro is a former Yugoslav country in the Balkans. It’s size it about half of Wales, yet has a population of only 620 odd thousand. It is bordered by five different countries to help you find it on a map (clockwise Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Croatia and Bosnia with a coast to the south on the Adriatic Sea.

The name Montenegro translates to “Black Mountains” a nod to the thick forestry within the country. After the break up of Yugoslavia is became part of “Serbia & Montenegro” but gained full independence in 2006. The majority of the country is Christian, although a significant number of those with Islam faith still remain, being once within the Ottoman Empire.

A significantly fun fact is that they use the Euro as currency, yet are NOT part of the European Union.

I seriously cannot find many famous Montenegrins of the current day, and previously I assume they’d be regarded as Yugoslav. Football-wise, Stevan Jovetic played against Wales – who is a former Sevilla, Inter Milan, Fiorentina and possibly remembered at home as a Man City player in the mid-2010’s.

The flight from Gatwick to the Montenegrin capital was a comfortable enough three hours. Not so fun fact: I had researched beforehand that the airport is one of only like, two, in Europe that do not have any public transport connections. Bizarre as it was only about 15 minutes outside of the centre, where public buses ran really well and were free for my stay.

For this reason, cue a plethora of taxi drivers trying to rip you off. The internet suggested that a trip to the centre would cost €12, so I was mildly peeved to get a bloke down to €15 from €20. THEN the cheeky sod grabbed another three stranded tourists and ALSO charged them €15 each. An absolute scandal, but at this point I worried that if I disembarked this ride I would struggle to get offered another one from the fat controller running the show outside arrivals. I did not leave a tip and purposely paid with a fifty note just to hear the driver whinge about his lack of change.

I forgot to mention in my rage, that he did try and get another ten Euro off me for a drop off at my apartment, saying it was 8km away from the Centre. I told him in different terms to shove it up his arse, and that it was actually 4km, and headed for lunch with a hell of a frown. Great start.

The one thing Scrooge McDriver actually did do for me was to drop me really close to the main square pictured above. Now I really did like the city but what a bloody crap main square, even with a token Hard Rock. Exploring the menus for the three café restaurants nearby and after picking up some cheap cigs, I was delighted to find a pizza and a cider for under a tenner. I was not planning on drinking at 11:30am however the Somersby cost less than a coke. No brainer really.

This pleasant lunch break gave me chance to cool off (it was bloody boiling most of the time in Montenegro and I wasn’t quite prepared for such. Much more humid than South America a fortnight earlier!) and to find my way to my apartment using local transport.

Luckily a relevant bus stop was a mere ten minute walk away, outside the stadium where Wales should have been playing at on the Monday. The bus ride was interesting. I boarded what could be considered right in the middle of town, yet 4km away in a straight line it felt you are in the far suburbs, borderline countryside.

This meant my apartment was in a quiet area and I was grateful for a sign post.

The apartment I stayed at was called Apartments F (link) and whilst the outside gardens were nice I did get a bit of a shock when being shown to my room in the basement. Blog-followers will note that only a fortnight prior I was living the life of comparative luxury in 4-5* hotels in Peru, Argentina and Brazil, so this was somewhat of a come down!

Still, another bonus of solo travel, is that – for me and for the cost – it was ab-so-lute-ly fine and nobody else had to be satisfied. It was near a bus stop, had a decent shower, fridge, superb air-con and supermarket nearby. It was also nice to give my cash to a family rather than a big corporation, albeit Booking.com classes as one I suppose.

After only I’d say about an hour, I caught the bus back in to town to do some exploring. Podgorica suggestions didn’t come up with much, but anywhere with a river running through the middle of it brings hope.

There was a pretty basic “Millennium Bridge” that popped up on a few lists for reasons unknown, but the park nearby was really pleasant.

From here it was a riverside walk to the oldest bridge in the city, super dried out as it was I think the hottest summer on record (this qualify as a fun fact?). I did have a local beer in a bar just to the right of the bridge, but the fact they charged me €5 instead of the anticipated €1-2 means they get no photo, sorry folks. I swear most of the time I must have a sign above my head that reads TOURIST TAX.

Up some rather unfavourable steps in the heat followed to bring me to the old town. You’ll get to see what a few ‘old towns’ look like as you continue reading, but maybe scratch this one. The area was mainly small houses, empty/derelict houses, I really think with a bit of investment and a few coffee shops it could be bustling, although I appreciate the residents here like their privacy – there certainly were not many tourists. Even the sight in the area, a mosque, didn’t really take my fancy as I walked on through for some dinner at a shopping centre.

Although I didn’t plan to beforehand, now I had found my bearing I popped back to the apartment. I would be going to watch the Wales home game down the pub this evening at 8:45 but that was still a few hours away. I topped up some snacks in the supermarket and believe I had an hour or two kip (I had a total of 90 minutes sleep on a plane in the last 36 hours). I remember it being a minor struggle to drag myself up and set off for a pub.

With no idea what the buses were like in the evening, I was delighted to be offered a lift in to town by my host. I picked a posh looking bar called the Welder Pub, and with some affordable €3.80 lagers settled down to watch a 0-0 draw between Wales and Turkey, back in Cardiff near home.

Not so fun fact: The reason I missed this game was utmost stupidity on my part. When booking, I ‘accidentally’ booked a flight for the Monday matchday, thought to myself “No, make a weekend of it” and paid £30 to change my flight, twenty minutes before realising I’d be missing a bloody home game!

Funner fact: My wife had my seat, going to her first ever Cymru match with my mum and friend. Although it was goalless she did have a good time and has even hinted about going again!

At half time I actually moved to a bar a few doors up where bottles of local beer was just €1.50. I stayed here until close around midnight, grabbed a very decent chicken kebab wrap, realised the local taxi app was less than useless and made the long 4km trek home – which, with a new Simon Kernick audiobook on the go, was actually really pleasant. I was however, way too tired at this stage. Just what you need before a 7:25am bus in the morning…

Day Two (Saturday) – Budva and Sveti Stefan

Pre-assuming that Podgorica wouldn’t keep me fully entertained for 3-4 days, I booked a 90 minute trip to the southern coast of the country and a return back TWELVE hours later at 9:30pm. It was a long day. Bus price around £12 return.

Budva is probably the most popular tourist destination in the country, surrounded by mountains. It was super-hot today so being by the sea offered a little respite. I realised beforehand that there is nothing in the way of public buses or trams/trains, so started off by walking for half an hour from the bus station to the marina and had a look at the boats I’ll never be able to afford.

For the first time since the flight over, I noticed a few Welsh bucket hats bobbing around the old town. I think a lot of fans, especially those who didn’t secure tickets, stayed here for a few days.

The old town was instantly different from that in Podgorica, with your typical narrow streets, cafe bars and gift shops.

After walking around the old town for a little bit deciding whether to pay more than expected for breakfast, I noticed the citadel was open to visit and a few people on the roof. I do love a good viewpoint.

The citadel itself was small and apart from a closed restaurant and two library rooms that Mikayla would have enjoyed, the best was undoubtedly the view of the old town and further afield.

Already with a sweat-soaked back, I picked up a magnet for the mother (she really need to reinstate pocket money for the amount I’ve spent on these this year!) and realising it was only 11:30, made the rare decision to just do nothing for an hour. I picked a great spot on a beach under the shade and stretched out a can of €4 Fanta for the duration as I researched somewhere reasonably priced for lunch.

The place for lunch was another 20 minute walk away but on the way I did notice a bus service that would take me to a beach a little further along the coast. The lunch itself was, well, meat heavy, but for €15 it was outstanding, albeit a lot more than my intended light lunch. The look on the waiters face when he brough two plates out with the food, with me looking at him to say “I’m not sharing, pal”.

Close to regretting the salt content of the above platter, I paid about €3 for a minibus that would take me to Sveti Stefan, a small beach area to the east of Budva. The minibus filled up to capacity and was SO uncomfortable in the heat, and then I had to walk down 200 steps to reach the beach!

I hadn’t brought with me any swimming gear or towel so initially just made to with a short walk and a drink. The “town” as you can see, is actually out in the sea a little, joined by a narrow path. I’m led to believe people live here yet I cannot see one actual window in the photo below!

I was further put off a swim by the €25 cost for a sunbed, but after some time in the shade, decided the heat was so intense I needed to cool off.

The sea was lovely and warm (yet cool compared to the air) although I should have made more of a plan clothing wise before jumping in in just my boxers.

I can’t quite remember how or what order I re-dressed myself, apart from hanging my pants on a tree for about 20 minutes to dry off (I had my shorts on…). Not sure if it was worth the hassle but it was more pleasant than my last dip in the Adriatic, a NOVEMBER visit to Sarandë, Albania in 2018!

Rather surprised that I haven’t taken any other photos before the bus back ‘home’ to Podgorica?? Hmmm… Basically I returned back to Budva just in time for the County game at 4pm on the same beach I was earlier (lost 4-1 and two players sent off – good one to miss – even with another expensive Fanta). I went to another restaurant afterwards to watch more football on the TV with a bowl of soup, walked halfway back to the station, had some dinner in a local restaurant away from the touristy stuff, and headed to the station way to early struggling to stay awake.

I have found one photo, a rather crap one from the bus back, driving up the mountainside overlooking the town.

Day Three (Sunday) – Podgorica

Today will be quick as I had another full day in the capital.

My first stop was the “Orthodox Temple of Christ’s Resurrection” Church that looked quite impressive with no buildings of a similar size in the vicinity.

I say it every time but I’m not really one for religious buildings, HOWEVER, look at the colour and detail in here!

Strangely, apart from this grand open space, there wasn’t much else to explore for such a large building.

I’m certainly not a prayer-er-er-er , but I did remember that I still hadn’t secured a ticket for tomorrow. So a bit of divine intervention wouldn’t go amiss.

Whilst during a long aimless walk from the church to the below, that shows the apparent Podgorica “castle”, a phone call with my mother offered me slight hope of a ticket. Long story short, the official travel company for Welsh fans couldn’t get here because their plane was grounded, and therefore there MAY be some tickets that were returned.

As I entered the hotel where the ticket collection point was, I was told that if there are any spares they will be made available online later in the evening or tomorrow morning. Slight hope perhaps, but having seen plenty of people without tickets and the £4 price tag not worthy of being returned by no-shows my chances were not looking good.

With my list of things to do in Podgorica now almost exhausted, I returned to the hotel to wash some clothes (it’s not all photogenic sights and beers, kids….) then back out for some tea.

That evening, whilst boring dinner-wise, did entail a few Wales tickets being on sale officially – yet in a higher band than I’m in and quick to sell out, and TWO responses from Montenegrins giving me real hope.

A taxi driver I used a few times during my time in the city knew a mate in Niksic who worked for the Montenegro Football Association, and interested because I told him I’d give €30 to anyone who could help on top of the ticket price.

Secondly, my apartment host in Niksic for tomorrow also seemed keen to help, with tickets not going on sale until the day of the match (tomorrow). I was in high spirits choosing to walk the long road back to my digs for my last evening in the city.

Day Four (Monday) – Niksic and matchday

Fair to say the first 90 minutes of my morning could not have gone any worse.

I turned up for my 8am train around 40 minutes in advance, bought my €3-ish ticket and waited patiently for the train.

Only at 8:15 did I go to ask what time it was due, only to be told it had already departed twenty minutes EARLY and, being British, never expecting trains to arrive on time let alone early, was none the wiser as it approached, stopped, and consequently left the station without me.

Shit.

To add insult to injury, I received a message from my taxi driver stating that his mate can’t get me a ticket as his own Association warned not to let any Cymru fans in to the home end.

Shitter.

Now before you get too upset, this is where things miraculously started turning around.

The bus station next to the train station had a coach going to Niksic as soon as 9:30am and I was delighted to pay €6 and jump aboard. Whilst on the coach, my apartment host also agreed that we would go together to get some tickets once I arrived. Don’t get too hopeful, Christopher.

After only an hour or so the bus pulled in to Niksic, where it was only a 15 minute walk through the main square to where I was staying. I met my host Vladimir just as he finished getting my room ready (the highly recommended Old Niksic Apartment – link) and a few minutes later were in his car on the way to the stadium!

I was really surprised to see the queues outside the ticket office and immediately lost a bit of hope. Vlad and I agreed it would be best if he went to scope out the situation.

Unfortunately, due to Wales being a MASSIVE pull for the locals, tickets were strictly 1-per-Montengrin-ID, so we wouldn’t be able to go together.

However, being an absolute martyr, Vlad used his ID to buy a ticket, giving it to me(!!) along with the obvious comments about me behaving myself and keeping a low profile as it was his name on the ticket.

And there it was! Vlad the lad wouldn’t even accept more than the €10 cost even though I was adamant he should accept the €30 bonus I offered him when booking the stay.

I still had concerns about passing security at the ground, but nothing a few lagers wouldn’t calm. Perfectly, as Vladimir dropped me back at the apartment it was now 11:30 – acceptable enough to have a beer.

For the several hours before the game I stayed in one single pub (weirdly – it wasn’t even cheap) as I started editing photos for this post, spoke to a few north Walian’s and see the sunshine turn into grey clouds as it started to ABSOLUTELY PISS DOWN.

I really enjoyed the company of two fellow County fans Duncan and Tony (with his 8? pint glass) as we chatted and got excited for the game, in much quieter surroundings that usual, undoubtedly due to the weather.

I even put up with one of the local drunks trying to talk to me. Although I couln’t understand a word he said apart from a slurred ‘Montenegro’, he obviously loved me that much he donated his cap with the word Montenegro on to me! After initially fuming that he wouldn’t take his possession back, I thought…. well this will work bloody wonders getting into the stadium as a Montenegro fan!

AND IT DID.

Luckily the weather was so dreadful the security outside of the stadium wasn’t as stringent as I worried about. I took my seat with the home fans who didn’t look too disconcerting, yet I applauded their team and the anthem as though I was one of their own, reducing myself to only quietly hum along to Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau.

By the time I settled down and got over the fact I was actually there – I made it! – Wales were already two goals ahead after just three minutes thanks to Keiffer Moore and Harry Wilson.

It was a good job as well, as twenty minutes in to the game, the rain became impossibly worse and whatever tactics we had must have gone out of the window!

I didn’t want to chance hunting for a beer at half time so made do with a few ciggies and a selfie with my sexy aforementioned Montenegro cap.

The second half was chaotic as expected. Chuck in a short fireworks display and a late Montenegrin goal to make things interesting. But we won!

The walk back from the ground to the centre/apartment was about 20-30 minutes. I gave up trying to keep my shoes dry after two minutes, and by the time I got back was just walking in puddles up to my socks.

As we were walking I witness pubs closed, food outlets that would usually be open doing a roaring trade packing up, and went to bed hungry, wet and cold. Still. What a whirlwind of a day, thanks to the unbelievable generosity of a stranger. Cheers to Vladimir!

Day Five (Tuesday) – Niksic to Podgorica to Dubrovnik

Well, the rain stopped at least.

I didn’t bother putting too much effort in drying my clothes last night, so I was content with just my socks and trainers still being soggy. I was DREADING walking around in my only pair of shoes for today but they dried out quicker than anticipated.

After a slightly groggy start, it was time to walk back to the station (not the fucking train one) to travel back to Podgorica, before the onward journey to Croatia. I managed to book one in an hour’s time, which gave me an opportunity to get a burger and chips (at 11am) and replace my drowned ciggies.

As soon as I returned to Podgorica I thought in hindsight that I should have stayed a bit longer as three hours back here seemed a bit much.

Nevertheless, with a bit of digging above your usual google and TripAdvisor, decided to visit a park / forest area near the stadium, so quite central but a solid 45 minute walk each way with a heavy backpack on.

Gorica park was actually quite cool. The park itself covers a big area and I expect gets quite hilly as there are several viewpoints, although with limited time I was happy to walk up a small incline for ten minutes to reach the ‘Partisan Fighter’ monument, a tribute to those who fought in World War Two.

On making my way back down to the centre I noticed a few steps that would give me a decent view of Podgorica City Stadium – remember this was where yesterday’s game should have originally been played, but due to the pitch it was moved to Niksic. The ground had quite a bit of character but looking at the playing surface I doubt there could be to many complaints from the players!

Anyway, you’ll be pleased to know the rest of the trip was rather uneventful. I walked back to the bus station and on to the 4 hour ride to Dubrovnik. With a few stops and a ridiculously long time at the Croatian border crossing I didn’t get in to Dubrovnik until 10pm, so caught a quick uber to my apartment, a kebab from over the road and made some plans for tomorrow!

Day Six (Wednesday) – Dubrovnik

I’ve just mentioned I made plans late last night, but looking back I’m sure I booked today’s boat trip a bit earlier – a slight risk as I’d yet to have any idea of my bearings or how I would get to such vessel. Ultimately, after an early wake up and bag pack for a potential swim, I walked 20 minutes downhill from my lovely apartment (link) in the Lapad district of the city.

OK so it wasn’t that boat above, but cool eh? I think it goes from the Marina to the small port in Dubrovnik old town.

My boat tour would be around a few caves with a chance to swim, then on to a beach on a vehicle-less island. Having had a bit of a treacherous time at a beach on Saturday I hoped this would be a bit more enjoyable. The actual trip I bought through Viator is linked here. Not cheap but at £57 but very good value.

After the group of 12 sailed out of the marina then drive’ put his foot down, we soon arrived at a small island that was home to the ‘Blue Cave’. I made use of the complimentary snorkelling equipment and chucked myself in.

These 20 minutes or so were up their with the highlight of the trip.

The water was so clear and the amount of fish in the water was something I hadn’t experienced before, which was cool. As you can see in the photo below, the cave entrance is pretty much underwater. I think drowning would be my last option when my time comes, so it took some courage to swim underwater for 3 meters, not knowing what was on the other side. I can adequately swim but have never had to do so at any sort of pace or urgency. Never would have tried it if another 20 odd people went under before me!

The other side of the cave was an experience. It was obviously nearly pitch black, with the only light coming through the water. I’m still kicking myself I didn’t bring my waterproof phone pouch to take more photos.

As nice as the cave was, I didn’t really want to hang around, so after a minute made my way back out, under estimating the length of the cave, kicking the roof on the way out that produced way too much blood back on the boat for such a small cut on my foot!

Undeterred, I was straight back in the water for our next stop, an area with four caves of different ‘squeeze through this if you’re buts / stupid’ levels of size. There wasn’t really much to see and given my size (and slight claustrophobia perhaps) I weren’t going to do much exploring. I just enjoyed it as it was something I hadn’t done before.

Our third and last stop was to the beach on the secluded Sunj beach on Lopud island, the one with no cars. It does have a few shops and hotels, but as we had to disembark IN the water, waist high and walk to shore, decided to hang by the beach instead.

By the way, it really was a complete balls-up that I didn’t bring my flip-flops. In total I visited 3 beaches and a waterfall, which apart from here, all had really sharp sand or stones!

The water here was very shallow even quite a way out, but it was very clear and for not the first time this trip I had that “what a time to be alive” kinda’ feeling.

… so it was only right, that on the way back I rounded off the morning with a beer!

Back on land, I spent way too long first finding a bus stop then realising how infrequent some stops are, before choosing to walk back uphill for a nice shower in my room and more laundry duty!

I can’t quite remember how long I stayed in the room for, but it wasn’t as long as I thought looking at the sun below. This evening I was going to waste no time planning to briefly visit the old town and get a good view for sunset. My pedometer must have been close to a heart attack as I again sided with walking 30 minutes (downhill at least) to the old town rather than a bus.

Oooh look it’s that pirate ship from this morning!

There is probably a few photos missing here, but I’ll visit the old town again on Friday, so let me take this opportunity to tell you how miffed I was about the prices in the area.

One activity I was planning for Friday was to walk the city walls, a circular route along the walls (there is a path) that can take up to two hours. However, I thought €35 was an absolute piss take. Of course I get that the area needs significant investment to maintain the site, but that was just too much. There were literally hundreds of paying punters who did cough up the cost and I hope they thought it was worth it (I said I’ll pay it next time when I go with the wife).

Not to concentrate too much on the old town before Friday, but I like to try and to things in order, and on my way to the cable car noticed a few of these posters around, showing how much of the old town was targeted by the Yugoslavs between 1991 and 1992. Must be heart-breaking to see something of such historical and cultural significance being targeted.

Ok so I have changed my mind and will provide a couple of photos of the old town rather than two posters….

More of that further down.

My goal this evening was to reach the top of the hill / mountain whatever to see the sunset. By the time I reached the cable car to enable us tourists to do such, I was running very close to missing out.

Deep down I am way more furious at the cost of the cable car over the city walls. TWENTY EIGHT fucking Euro for a return trip on a cable car that takes 45 seconds. Trying to be a little defiant, I only bought a one way ticket at €15 and thought I’d walk back down after sunset. Ooohhh what a decision that was…

But before then, lets enjoy the nice stuff. The photo above is all of the Old Town, with the diamond plated magical cable car in the foreground.

… followed by two rather pleasant photos of the sunset. I’m pretty sure the first two islands in the background are where the caves were, the third being the beach.

So. That was nice. I just had to get back down now. After going the wrong way twice to even find the path, I was glad to see a good few others attempt the walk down with me.

However, that did not make up for the fact the path was formed of mainly large, loose stones and if you haven’t put 2+2 together being after sunset… it was starting to get dark.

The next HOUR was really quite a challenge. From the get go, I already felt a bit daft that I was doing this instead of paying the €13 for the return car. If I hurt my foot a) that’s the rest of my holiday buggered and b) will I get eaten by wolves up here?

The trail consisted of about 14 zig-zag paths, with each point depicting the journey of Christ – assumingly to his crucifixion and then the rising from the dead stuff. I wasn’t really in the spirit of following this too closely as just wanted to get down, and couldn’t even see them after perhaps the third one. I have no idea how the below picture came out so bright! It was ten minutes after the one above?!

With the help of some bangers on Radio X in my ears I eventually made progress with only a couple of slips. God, it was just so monotonous especially in the dark.

After I reached the last Jesus-stone-marker thingy I fully expected to be back in civilisation, yet was presented with about 15 minutes of forest to walk through, with mud replacing the rocks. Below would have been my view if my phone ran out of battery! I’d be dead wouldn’t I?

I’m writing this, so you guessed I made it. Funnily enough the end of the trail actually led out on to a busy dual carriageway for shits and giggles. I was so tired and fed up at this point I couldn’t be arsed to think about getting a bus, so walked for around another 45 minutes uphill to the apartment, again via the takeaway opposite, demolishing a 14 inch pizza. I had done 20,000 steps since teatime (which is a lot harder when you’re 20+ stone FYI).

Day Seven (Thursday) – Day Trip to Bosnia & Herzegovina

I had slept well after last nights shenanigans and a telling off from the wife.

Today I would spontaneously be adding country #46 to the list, by booking THIS Viator day trip to Mostar and Kravice Waterfalls through Viator for a very reasonable £38.

Fun fact: until a few years ago, from the southernmost area of Croatia where Dubrovnik is, you had to travel a few miles through Bosnia (and therefore two boring border crossings) to reach the rest of the country. The bit of Bosnia is where a small town called Neum is located, where we briefly stopped for a wee and I took the photo below.

A magnificent fun fact according to the tour guide: Bosnia has the shortest coastline in the world apart from Monaco! I made a note to check Aqaba in Jordan, as when we went there it was only a tiny gap between Saudi Arabia and Egypt, but to my surprise that coast is 26km compared to Bosnia’s 20km.

In the distance you can see a nice new bridge that has recently bypassed Bosnia – we’ll go there later.

Another fun fact: Why Bosnia *and* Herzegovina? Well, quite simply Bosnia is to the north, Herzegovina is the southern area. The nothern parts tend to be more aligned with Serbia and the south with Croatia.

In lieu of providing not as many fun facts as expected until now. Three in a row incoming….

Bosnia has three presidents and they change every eight months. I was surprised to find that B&H has a Muslim faith majority of 51% with Orthodox second around 30%. The place where we’re going next – Mostar – is the fifth hottest city in Europe (apparently – it wasn’t today!).

A not so fun fact is that Bosnia was not included in any of O2’s travel plans so I had to go, like, four hours without mobile data. Archaic. Imagine the costs if you were a Pokémon Go enthusiast.

I digress. We arrived at a coach park on the outskirts of the Old Town in Mostar, and for the first few blocks walking to the famous bridge witnessed dozens of buildings displaying reminders of the tragic Bosnia War between 1992 and 1995.

Our guided tour of the area only took about 30 minutes but covered enough. It was ample I thought. Through some very narrow market streets you end up at one side of the bridge, itself bombed by the Croats in 1993. I was surprised that the current version has only been in place since 2004. When checking the dates for this part I found this webpage really useful and insightful.

The bridge itself is… perhaps not the most spectacular you’ll see… but I guess the significance and history that surrounds it makes it very important. Nowadays, you’ll see many a social media video of people jumping off. Given the height, and the narrow river SURELY not being very deep?! I didn’t fancy getting my pants soggy just yet this morning.

Instead, I headed for an early lunch, which I kid of stumbled upon as I wanted to get a decent picture of the bridge from further away. Mission accomplished you could say with this banger below! Lunch was also really nice. I had soup followed by steak and chips with two cokes for about £18, and it looked the poshest place in the area.

There were two occasions where young lads (my eyesight is very good) were in a position to jump, attracting loads of selfie-stick waving tourists, but I’m sad to say they both bottled it. Pussies.

After lunch it was another slow walk through the old town, over the bridge and past the many gift shops and cafés (with SO MANY people in my fucking way) to jump back on the bus.

Although delighted that I felt enough to tick BiH off the list, I was still looking forward to visiting the waterfall on the way back, and unlike Saturday, actually brought a change of shorts!

I’m a bit annoyed that below is the only photo I took of Krevice, an area in the middle of nowhere but a good tourist setup with big car park, ticket office, cafes and even a train to bypass the 200 odd steps down to the small lake at the bottom of the falls.

We didn’t have much time here. 45 minutes I think…. So I didn’t waste any time stripping off and having a swim in the lake. I can’t really think of a time as an adult that I’ve swam in anything other than a beachy place or an actual swimming pool, so this seemed new. Again massively regretting my decision not to pack flip flops, I was greeted by rocks followed by sharp sand that I genuinely thought would draw blood!

When in the water though, I was peaceful again, to the point I lost track of time enough to miss the train back up the hill to the bus, and walking back up the bloody steps! At least the chafe was averted with a change of clothes eh?

That waterfall stop was about an hour from Mostar, so we had about 2-3 hours to go until Dubrovnik. This was pleasantly broken up by a stop at some toilets at the bridge I mentioned earlier. The bridge that meant Croats could finally travel to the whole of the country by road, without going through a slither of Bosnia.

Not embarrassed in the slightest to appreciate a good bridge, this beaut was opened no more than 3 years ago and incredibly only took two years to build! What I thought was equally impressive was the miles and miles of new road constructed over mostly redundant land on one of the many islands off the coast.

Although it was only mid afternoon by the time I got dropped off at the apartment, I made the choice to have a quiet night, watch some TV, smoke too many ciggies on my balcony and try to decipher whether to depart with 35 euro to walk the Old Town walls.

Don’t be disappointed. This would be at least 4 paragraphs longer if I actually did something!

Day Eight (Friday) – Dubrovnik Old Town

As my flight home wouldn’t be until 10pm that evening, I left my apartment at the last possible moment although I was able to leave my bag there for the day.

As I finally caught a bus the short time to the Old Town I was still in two minds about the walls. It wasn’t nice to have that treacherous path from Wednesday looming over me up the hill!

Ultimately I think I made the wise choice and decided to explore within the walls rather than walk around them.

A good choice in hindsight.

It was surprising how much of the town is on an incline and a steep one at that. Strange how many streets up the stairways felt so off the beaten path, and there’s quite a lot of houses, flats and hotels adorning these narrow alleys.

After a considerable effort making it to the top of the south side, there was a little opening that led to a stairway ending up with a bar and a view of the sea.

Back on my own trail following the internal circumference where I could, after about 45 minutes ended up at The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, which was worth a brief visit.

Just to the right of the image above were some steps leading down to the busier areas. These steps were obviously memorable from Game of Thrones with at least three tours simultaneously being delivered. I’m sorry but I just couldn’t relate. The TV show must have added so much in the way of special effects. Or maybe it was just the amount of people. I did nose at one tour that mentioned the shows had to bargain a payment with EVERY business within the walls to film, but I can’t recall the figure. Much like Harry Potter and Privet Drive, by the end of the season

A lazy coffee people watching and a final walk down the strip and I felt that I enjoyed the area enough within 3 hours.

On exiting the Old Town area Fort Lovrijenac caught my eye. More bloody steps but hopefully a decent view at the end of it!

And this view certainly didn’t disappoint. I didn’t go in to the fort itself at a cost of 15 Euro, but I thought the view to the visitor entrance was very acceptable and again justified not departing with unnecessary cash.

So that little trek was a good way to bring my adventures to a close. Albeit after a splendid lunch and getting lost finding my way back to the apartment to pick up my bag.

Don’t really want to end on another plate of cattle, so here’s another one of the Old Town. Best football away trip to date!

Finally, just a note that Dubrovnik airport is rather shit. Nowhere open even at 8pm, and of course the flight back was delayed by 90 minutes, being the last easyJet journey of the day!

Thanks for reading! I’ll leave you alone until 2025 now hopefully!… Unless I’m really on the ball with a trip to Northern France straight after Christmas.

Hi everyone, thanks for visiting.

Firstly, as the title suggests, this mammoth trip was for our Honeymoon after getting married in March. The trip would not have been possible if not for generous gift contributions from guests, so thank you.

As this link will appear in our (very late) thank you cards, for many of you it might be your first time visiting. Brace yourself for some bad grammar, perhaps a little potty language, but some incredibly fun facts and enough nice photos to separate my spiel.

I (i.e. Chris) have been very fortunate to have travelled quite a bit, with this trip adding countries 43, 44 and 45 to the ongoing total. Many of my other trips since around 2018 can be found elsewhere on my blog by using the menu above, including our mini-moon to Barcelona and Andorra (link here).

As our honeymoon covered 18 days including travel, I’ve given you a break and split the trip into three parts, one for each country. Hope you enjoy and any feedback would be appreciated!

• NOTE that I did initially attempt to write this during the trip. I failed. I’m writing this sentence in the hotel reception on an ancient PC on day 16!! As day 16 is in Brazil i.e. Portuguese language I cannot even find the bloody apostrophe on the keyboard! So that did not go to plan. However, I will likely upload separate posts in full, so if there is not link below, it has not been written yet.

Introduction.

Not really sure what to put here. I usually say a bit about the country I visit especially if they’re a bit off the beaten track. For this post though, they belong in their respective pages.

For the trip we used a company called Exoticca and paid our deposit in August 2023. At that time I never heard of Exoticca, so parting with a 60% deposit equating to thousands of pounds was a leap of faith! Since then I believe they have increased their presence a lot in the UK. The total price we paid for the trip was half of what local travel agents could offer.

Exoticca themselves are not much more than a middle man.  Sorting flights (nine in our case!) and handing us over to local tour operators in the given country. However, they pieced together the itinerary brilliantly, the hotels were perfectly adequate and they or the local operator were always on hand to assist.

We expected to be part of a group but in reality we were mostly left to our own devices. We shared a few excursions with other groups who had different holidays (for example one group done Peru and Ecuador so we were grouped with them in the Peru leg).

I usually thrive off planning my own travel plans, but in this case I’ll happily say it would have been impossible to achieve such a fulfilling holiday of a lifetime.

There is a lift of our hotels below with the relevant Booking.com link too for your perusal (PERU-sal, lolz).

That’ll do for the introduction at the moment. Click the links or images below to see our trip in detail.

Days 1 – 7: Peru

NOW FINISHED – CLICK HERE

Days 8 – 12: Argentina

NOW FINISHED – CLICK HERE

Days 13 – 17: Brazil

NOW FINISHED – CLICK HERE

Hotels.

• Lima – Mercure Ariosto Miraflores
• Sacred Valley – Inti Punku Valle Sagrado
• Cusco – Hotel Xima
• Beunos Aires – NH Buenos Aires Tango
• Puerto Iguazu – O2 Hotel
• Rio de Janeiro – Windsor Excelsior Copacabana

Having yet finished the blog for my wedding day, forgive me for jumping ahead for this 3 night break to The Algarve in southern Portugal, primarily to watch Wales play a football friendly versus Gibraltar. A slight shame as I’ve yet to tick off Gibraltar as a country, whereas I’ve been lucky enough to visit Portugal twice before… Porto in 2009 and Lisbon in 2022.

What makes this holiday unique, especially for a football match, is that I dragged along my mother, who, approaching the age of 69, was a bit of a gamble but what’s the worst that can happen eh? (She’s alive this is not an obituary).

Introduction

The Algarve is the collective area of tourism hotspots along Atlantic beaches. Its capital is Faro but other prominent places include Albufeira and Lagos. Given its southern European location it offers good weather all year around. Although the resident population is around 500,000, it welcomes circa four million visitors each year. That’s like 11 thousand per day on average!

Flights, Locations and Accomodation

The flights direct from Bristol to Faro were around £200 each, using Jet2 going; easyJet coming back.

Having followed Wales away for 7 years now, I had been crying out for a proper beach destination, so this trip focused on more relaxation than fussing around seeking out interesting things. I had been in the sea during trips to Albania, Turkey and Latvia, but this was a different vibe.

We spent 2 days near Albufeira (in a tiny village called Evaristo, which was nothing like Albufeira) and 2 days in Faro. The game on evening 3 was played in the Estadio Algarve on the very outskirts of Faro.

In Evaristo, we stayed two nights in Hotel Torre Velha costing £113. For a 2 star hotel it was lovely. The pool was small but quiet and the restaurant and bar would excuse you from having to leave the place, although apparently one of the nicest beaches in the Algarve was just a 5 minute walk down the road. That being said… 2 nights here were plenty. Another day I’d be pulling my hair out as there’s only so much relaxing (or grey hair martyrs) I can muster.

In Faro, we stayed at Villa Monaco at £74 a night. Looking for somewhere on the centre of Faro proved difficult in my price range (I was originally going solo) so I think I got lucky here.

The villa was outstanding with it’s own pool, endless amenities including loads of perfume and kitchen essentials, that were nice but certainly unnecessary for our single night. They had 3 ensuite bedrooms but it was unclear whether you would stay with strangers as the place was marked sold out on booking.com. Only a 4 euro Uber into town too, which was out of walking distance.

Costs

So the flights and hotels mentioned above amounted to £400… £200 each. Finding a package holiday anywhere near that price for 3 nights would be impossible and we had the freedom to stay in two different places.

Drinks were in the region of £4 for imported lager and cider, with local lager variants a quid or so cheaper.

Food in an average/nice restaurant I’m gonna say is between £15-25, but there are enough places around, even in quieter areas, where you can pick up a burger and fries for under €10.

Uber over here is REALLY good and a bit of a must considering mum’s mobility. The public buses that I researched beforehand appeared punctual if you’re happy for slower journeys, but with two travelling the prices weren’t that cheaper. For example, an Uber from Albufeira to our hotel, about 15 minutes ride, came in at £6 whereas the bus was £5 and would have taken 45 minutes.

I have to mention the ticket cost set by either the Gibraltar football association or the stadium. Thirty quid to watch Wales reserves against one of the lowest ranked teams in the world in a mostly empty (shit) stadium. Good job I had already booked flights as this was a piss take. Before the full time result.

Getting Around

This is a stab in the dark as it really depends on where you stay along the southern coast.

You can get a coach from the airport to the major spots, ours cost €10 each to Albufeira, so Faro won’t be dearer than that and I doubt Uber would be as much. For that reason I’d use the airport taxis as a last resort (but then I am frugal AF).

Public buses in Albufeira and outskirts had good routes but seemed to run hourly and were cash only.

Uber, as I’ve mentioned in the previous section, was by far my most convenient way to travel. From Evaristo to our hotel in Faro it only cost €26 for a 45 minute journey. We could not have done that cheaper spending hours on buses and coaches.

Everywhere we went would be a walkers paradise if you’re comfortable with narrow pavements and uneven paths especially outside of the popular areas.

Google maps worked very, very well here. Research your mobile data usage with your provider before you go as per. O2 still offers free EU roaming in 2024, mum with Sky cost £2 per day but if my wife joined us I think EE charge £6 per day!

Things we didn’t do…

Ok this is going to be a drop in the ocean as there are so many places to stay. Before the trip I did plan on going quad biking or a boat trip but ultimately found myself content lazing around. The boat trip is perhaps the one thing I should have done. Available from most beach areas I believe, they advertise potential dolphin sightings and a trip to Benagil cave, a cave with a hole in the roof that can only be accessed by sea.

In my defence, the offerings on TripAdvisor or GetYourGuide didn’t really offer anything unmissable. A lot of other Brits we shared a bar with seemed content with beaches, pools and beers.

Itinerary

This is usually the longest part of the blog but I really thing the majority of my time especially in Evaristo isn’t worth writing home about! But anyway… One of the benefits for never writing this without a beer in hand!

Day One

I’ve never seen Bristol Airport so busy at 4am. Both the parking checking-in and security entailed long queues, but in fairness to the Airport they dealt with demand really well I thought. You can imagine how surprised I was then, when on the plane I had a whole row to myself! The flight was only half full and that was including 30-40 Wales supporters. I was not complaining.

The Brexit passport control in Faro was infuriating as per but nothing to cause too much stress, in fact by the time we asked about transport to Albufeira we were just in time to catch the coach to Albufeira bus station.

From here we had a 50 minute wait for a public bus with a coffee. Yet after a quick browse on Uber decided to use this with a car already outside direct to our hotel.

On set by 11am and with our room not yet ready, we enjoyed a cider poolside.

Once we had the keys to our room and had hung my aging flag over the balcony, we headed to the beach. I’ve never had to pay that much attention to inclines with maps usually so was not aware of the  hill and 50 odd steps down to the beach, both of which were a challenge for Mum (bear in mind I walk her 500m from the pub to the stadium on County matchday!)

The beach was nice albeit a bit sharp with shells. The sea was warm and clear. The sunbed hire at 15 euro a day was never going to get me to part with my cash but the stewards did double up as lifeguards.

We returned to the hotel before the lunch service ended at 3pm to enjoy a burger and a swim in the pool, paying zero attention to the rules as we chucked around a tennis ball. Aww playing catch with my Mum, how cute.

True to Iberian culture, I allowed myself a siesta before we wandered around the streets for some tea. I had researched every eatery within reasonable walking distance but decided on a low end sports bar offering peri peri chicken. I’m starting to think peri peri must just mean grilled rather than a specific spicy flavouring, as my chicken had no flavour at all, but was ok whilst simultaneously watching cricket, a Portugal friendly, Wales women and drinking a Kopparberg before the short walk home to have an early night.

Only once I jumped into bed that evening did I notice my solar panel shoulders on fire from sunburn. The factor 50 was still in my bag…

Day Two

Up early and straight to the beach. On my own this time to ensure mother would be on a seat on the flight home rather than in a box with the cargo! I was the only person here at this time, and whilst I didn’t notice a particularly low tide as signed, I did notice the jungle of seaweed I had to wade through. I’m someone who can’t stand the little bits in the milk after my cornflakes so this was an issue I was proud to overcome!

For breakfast, we headed to an English pool bar called Scooby’s a few minutes away. A large proper English breakfast worth the €13 whilst being really impressed by the venue. In addition to a pool with slide, complimentary if you have a drink or food, they also had a park, sandpit, animal area with ducks and terrapins, showers, comfortable seating, complimentary sun lotion… A proper effort that otherwise wouldn’t make it in this piece of literature with such a high bar. To top things off, the place also had a mini golf course we intended to use tomorrow.

The afternoon was spent by the pool side, which was lacking in interest aside from me starting to write this rubbish.

We grabbed an Uber into Albufeira arriving at 6.30pm in the old town. I immediately noticed on our approach that where we were staying was nothing like Albufeira, a bustling tourism hotspot, countless apartments built in to the cliffs, hundreds of bars playing British classics filled with thousands of tourists and a beach that looked better than where we were based. In comparison calling Evaristo a village is pushing it a bit!

From our drop off point we wandered through a narrow street aligned with bars that led to the main old town square. Here there were loads more restaurants, with each one having two people trying to persuade you to choose them. This got really annoying really quickly even though I’m somewhat used to it. I didn’t take my earphones which are always a good piece of equipment to encourage the “marketing” gangs to leave you alone.

Escaping at the other side of the street (think British bulldogs fighting to get to this stage) we were greeted with an excellent view of the sprawling beach.

An outside escalator – genius idea I must say – took us up to a panoramic view out of ear from another play of Sweet Caroline. The views here were really nice and made me think we should have come here earlier than we did.

After our descent back to the chaos, we chose a bar/restaurant… Obviously one without any fuckers outside begging for custom. Chicken and chips weren’t the worst at 12 euro including a pint, but you could tell the places were filling up fast. From our seat you could watch 5 different football channels (win) and hear four different speakers (not win).

Instead of escaping back home there and then, we braved another walk through Bon Jovi hell – back to the main square to grab mum a magnet, enjoying an ice cream in some relative peace near the steep narrow streets of the proper old town.

Christ, I’m a miserable old man! Maybe because I wasn’t on the piss myself? I do over worry about things kicking off at any given moment, without realising my total European away game days must be now pushing 2 months and I’ve never witnessed anything above slight inconvenience.

By now, mum had used up her 110% effort for the day, so after a few hill climbs to the nearest road we grabbed an Uber back to the hotel.

This was the only moment I thought to myself I would have done more if I were alone. I bet there were some really good viewpoints up here once the streets were navigated. Just as the sun was setting too. But never mind.

It’s not everyday you go to sunny Europe to watch the footy with your mother is it, and I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who would give anything to be in my shoes.

At the hotel we had a coffee, and I did sneak in one cider enjoying my own company (again writing this) but still in bed by 11pm, noticing that I would have trebled my alcohol intake had I stayed at home for quiz night down the local.

Sunburn update. Shoulders are now okay. It’s my thighs that now resemble a pair of doner kebabs being roasted on full.

Day Three – Faro and Matchday

Lets get the sunburn sorted nice and early. It was fine here on. I did ultimately tan orange but it did highlight my wedding ring beautifully. Very helpful with my psoriasis too!

Up at 8 for one final swim in the pool. Back to Scooby’s for breakfast as we had to check out at 11. I kept my promise with mini golf as I absolutely annihilated mum, not my usual matchday routine, before out Uber to the next hotel.

Our host for our villa who was waiting for our arrival 2 hours before planned, was overly nice telling us all of the complimentary facilities. I didn’t have it in my heart to tell her that as soon as we set bags down and freshened up, were going for a beer in town.

We headed straight to what we thought was beer central in Faro, yet the three bars in a row were sparsely populated with Cymru fans. Good for us, as pints of Super Bock and Somersby Apple were consumed, chatting to a decent guy and fellow Bucket Hatter called John who lives in Sheffield who we ended up giving a lift to the ground.

We got to the ground. A purpose built facility for Euro 2004 when Portugal hosted the competition. If you Google map it, the stadium was designed to look like the trophy, which it does majestically.

In reality the stadium was absolutely awful given its young 20 year age. Perhaps the way we were accommodated and the ground  5% full added to my opinion.

For such a low key game, our Uber took us to the drop off point 200 yards from the turnstiles, yet when we approached the ground, we’re herded through a 400 yard, completely OTT fenced area to actually get to said turnstiles. Half way there, with a security check, a number of groups were walking the other way as, for the first time in probably 1,000 games I’ve seen, they breathalysed random people upon entry. I did not note the parameters of the exclusion. Although I was with my hobbling mother, I did worry my 4 (only 4 FFS behave) beers might have been too much.

For a usual game our football association, the FAW, try to warn such mediocre stipulations. So that was frustrating.

Token flag photo. Up the County.

Gosh, what to say about the game. We drew with one of the lowest ranked teams in the world. It was so bad it will  be “one to tell the grandchildren”. I clocked the dry pitch disadvantage early on but every conversation ultimately must end with “you have to win against fucking Gibraltar”. Shambles.

A few caught me on the Tele. Absolutely loving the spectacle. At least it didn’t rain?!?……..

Back in to town afterwards using yet another Uber, we chose an Italian for pizza with a bucket of salad and called it an early night.

Day 4

As our flight was not until 10pm we had a full day to look around Faro.

Approaching the marina and yesterday’s brief visit, I could tell the city was a lot smaller than imagined.

We booked a boat trip for later so after a small breakfast headed to Santa Maria church, primarily for the views, although a chapel made using human bones was something rather different!

The views from the top were worth the 5 euro entrance. It wasn’t very high (less steps like) but neither is Faro.

Although you’d think Faro is a coastal place given the marina, there is a whole national park between the city. Wetlands that run for some massive square kilometre-age that I forget. A bout tour around these was the next stop.

The boat tour around the area cost 17 quid for an hour, not bad. Our Portuguese guide Andre spoke fluent German, French and English which was something special in its own right.

As Mum and I left the harbour we were flown over by at least four aircraft. I’m always in awe of how such metal machines can glide through the sky and still be considered the safest method of transport.

I was informed the area is a nature park, rather than a nature reserve. The difference being that if it was the latter, our small boat wouldn’t be allowed and neither was the big bloody airport!

We meandered through the park / marshes / bogs / whatever. Because the tide was so high at the time our obviously knowledgeable guide told us that we wouldn’t see a plethora of birds, but the one guarantee was that we’d pass an area full of “fiddler crabs”, which was good enough for me.

Fiddler crabs are known by their massive left claw, that they use to…. pull a lady crab and shag. Bigger the claw and all that… and wave to tourists on a boat, obviously.

Imagine coming to read this as a football blog and learning about a type of crab. I spoil you.

Back on solid ground, we wandered around the central streets so mum could get a Portuguese pastry and a coffee (and a rest).

Given it was only now 2pm and the town didn’t look as though it offered a lot, I kinda put my foot down for the first time and suggested we book yet another boat trip, this time going further than the national park to a beach on the coast.

Ilha deserta. Gonna take a hunch and guess that translates to deserted island. A perfect choice a few hours before a flight home.

In actual fact, there was a public shuttle to here and when we arrived there was a sole restaurant. But the rest was proper nature. Whilst mum enjoyed a sit down watching the waves I had a very detoxing walk.

We had a (nother) coffee in the restaurant before our boat back to mainland, Uber to the airport via villa to collect the bags, and that was that.

It’s a shame the football always has to ruin a Wales football away trip.

Thanks for reading.

Hi all. Top tip even before the actual travel stuff.

Don’t go on honeymoon the day after you get married. You got to get people to take suits back, freeze the cake, take flowers to someone to preserve in resin… And in our situation, have a mile round trip so we can pick up our belongings each time as there was no vehicle access to the pier where we held our wedding. With a hangover.

Thanks to friends and family this did actually go better than planned so by 1pm I was like… Lunch wifey?!?

Didn’t actually say that at the time. I just said “Kay it’s lunchtime and I want fish and chips”.

By the time we arrived at parking for Bristol Airport, we didn’t know if we were too early or too late, we just parked up and had a nap for an hour.

No issues with the airport or flight. We did treat ourselves to the front row given the occasion.

Introduction

Anyway. We arrived in Barcelona. Barcelona is Spain’s seconds biggest city and the capital of Catalonia. There’s some history between the Catalans being independent of Spain so look that up at your leisure. Barcelona lies on the east coast of the country and is about a 2.5 hour flight from the UK.

If you land in terminal 3 do not be tempted to walk aaaaages to the metro like us with anything over a backpack. Pay a few Euro for the bus to somewhere central and THEN get your metro pass. I’m gonna big up the metro pass shortly… But from easyJet (terminal 3), with luggage, it’s like a scene from Apocalypto. That is a significant top tip.

Costs

Flights with easyJet including front seats but no additional baggage came in at £412. Bristol airport parking was 40 quid for 5 days booked ages in advance.

We stayed at Best Hotels Autohogar (3*) costing £390 for four nights including a decent breakfast. We also stayed in a Best Hotel in Andorra for one night that was just £60 for a 4* including breakfast, swimming pool and gym if time allowed.

The Barcelona hotel was perfectly adequate and was located in the Parallel area of the city with brilliant transport links and Las Ramblas within walking distance.

The metro passes were not cheap but we got our money’s worth. They included airport transfers that would’ve cost around 6 Euro. 4 days were 48 euro each.

Day to day spending on food etc wasn’t too bad, but if you’re a regular reader of this rubbish you will know we usually grab take out and don’t go boozing.

The three hour FlixBus to Andorra cost 25 quid per person per way, which was reasonable.

Anything else I’ll probably chuck it in with the itinerary.

Getting Around

See above. I’ve covered a lot already. I found the metro map easy to follow (although this is a talent of mine I reckon) and the bus service was excellent if you prefer more relaxed, longer, above ground travel. Google maps worked really well especially with walking routes.

To complete the set there are also two cable car rides and a funicular you can enjoy.

The beach isn’t far from the main city area at all. In fact, I’d say it was part of it.

Andorra was a bit different as they only had a few public bus routes. Fine for us but should you want to go hiking, skiing, rinsing the duty free etc. you probably should hire a car.

Things we didn’t do…

I never know why I put this here before things we DID do, but if you’ve gotten this far you’re aware I’m not making millions writing these.

For this trip, I’m going to be a bit risky and state there really wasn’t too much I felt we missed out on, aside from the usual plethora or churches and museums.

Park Guell is a park showing many pieces of art by Gaudi, the bloke who is (was?) the most famous architect of the La Sagrada Familia (so far). Here supposedly offers the best panoramic views of Barcelona. I disagree and if you reach day four you’ll find out why. We wanted to go here but you have to buy tickets, which were sold out a day before. It’s very possible only a small area of the park requires a fee so you can still get decent views for free, perhaps.

I’ve watched Barcelona in the Nou Camp 16 years prior. In row one-hundred-and-whatever… Two rows from the top. Quite high up considering it held 90,000 before being reconstructed. For that reason we couldn’t do this but it makes the list. For this year and probably next, they do play in an Olympic stadium… See day one.

I won’t cover Andorra in this as we were only there for an evening and a morning. Seems to be a good place for sporting activities such as hiking and skiing.

Itinerary

Day 0

We got to our hotel at, like, 11pm. See previous content for our trials and tribulations getting to this point. Taxi aside we would’ve got there before you. Nevertheless, don’t hate me that we had food from the kebab shop two doors down.

Early night with my wife, feeling rather weird that this is day two of married life.

Day 1

Considering I didn’t have much to do in the weeks leading up to the trip (just the final bits of a wedding to sort!) I did do quite well planning at least our first day in the city.

After breakfast we had a few hours spare and noted that the tube station that connects to a funicular up Montjuic hill. It was here that we identified a cable car that would take us to the castle of the same name, but without our bearings (we went on day 4) decided to enjoy the views over the city and head to our first designated stop and the most obvious, La Sagrada Familia.

Now you may be shocked to see me visiting a building of religious significance on my travels but this is something else and a definite must see.

Work started on the world’s largest unfinished Catholic church a massive 142 years ago in 1882 by Antoni Gaudi, who has loads of stuff around the city. I seen somewhere recently that they hope to fully complete it by the mid 2030’s but who knows! I came here as a very small kid (probably pre 2000) but can’t remember enough to compare, apart from scaffolding that ruins any attempt for the perfect photo. 

Our tickets included an audio guide and a trip up one of the tallest towers for about 30 quid each; just about acceptable.

The queue to get in was surprisingly quick given the hoards outside and I did like that the audio guide being only 45 minutes long, which started outside to detail the incredible artwork such as a model of what the place will look like when complete (if it ever is…) and the murals covering the entrance.

Inside the Basilica was equally as impressive, albeit supported by the guide. It explained how the pillars are to depict trees and branches and some architectural stuff about how on earth they’re finishing the main and tallest spire.

Minor details were also of big interest. What will be the main doors when finished, has stained glass either side differing in shades, so they compliment sunrise in morning on one side, and sunset when the sun is in the west.

From here the tour took us outside to the south west side where you can view a timeline of Jesus’s crucifixion sculpted in to the building. Whether you believe the stuff or not, it was impressive.

Another surprisingly minimal wait allowed us to access the lift up one of two available towers. The passageways were rather narrow but the views were worth it. The second time that day I was perplexed that I couldn’t see the largest stadium in Europe in the distance.

Fun part over. Now to get back to ground level using over 400 steps. I didn’t think this would be an issue but they went on FOREVER and I even had to stop once with dizziness. My knee brace utilised for this exact purpose remained in the hotel room. I think the photo below was taken about half way down.

Reaching ground level and taking a literal pew to extinguish the jelly from my legs and it was time to go after one final take-in of, not only a phenomenal structure, but a really good tour and experience. Well done.

After some local cuisine (KFC if I remember) for lunch we were ready for more walking and no place is better known in Barca for this than La Rambla.

I need to mention getting off at the Placa de Catalunya tube station here. Those of you from Newport will remember the amount of pigeons in the old John Frost Square, but Christ me this was something from an Alfred Hitchcock film. The vermin happily flew spot to spot amongst the outnumbered tourists. I genuinely think there was so many it actually made it less of an issue, I cannot believe Mikayla didn’t freak out, she just kept on looking for her exclusive Pokémon Go treats!

Anyway, here marks one end of the most well known street in Barcelona. The street is lined with high end fashion shops, ice cream vendors, bars and the usual.

One shop I 1000% did not expect to see in the middle of Barcelona….

Ok there were countless plastics in fake (or even worse, genuine) Barca shirts everywhere but this was OTT.

The slow stroll one end to the other took about an hour and ended up near the coast at the Christopher Columbus statue. Not sure what the significance is of the statue but feel free to go find out.

Being 3pm in the UK on Easter Monday, meant Newport County were about to kick off so I watched that on the way back to the hotel before thinking what to do in the evening. We lost 4-0 at home. We wouldn’t win for the rest of the season losing 8 games in a row. I’ve joked (honest) that Mikayla has until October to turn our fortunes around or she may be getting her wife version of a P45.

That evening we considered going somewhere nice for dinner but ultimately chose to go exploring a little more up Montjuic hill. I knew that up here was the temporary home of Barcelona football and in recent trips often use up a few hours to unofficially tick a stadium off.

We caught a bus two minutes away from the stadium. The Luis Companys Olympic Stadium was built in 1927 for something called the 1929 International Exposition (looked important) it only came to fame sporting wise in 1992 when it hosted the Olympics.

My first thought was how small it was. After some googling I found that the stadium actually holds 55,000 seats, so I’m assuming the majority of the capacity is below ground level. Apologies if this sounds boring but it was interesting to me!

The best part of the stadium visit was walking back down to the bus via the “Olympic Ring” promenade with perhaps the sexiest communication tower I’ve seen.

After a little bit of research we identified the bus would take us to a popular place called Playa d’Espanya. This to me acted like the road gateway to Montjuic, but on our way home realised this place acts as a significant bus route not only to the rest of the city but the airport.

Our stop here, apart from being on the way home, was for Arenas de Barcelona, a converted bullring that now houses loads of shops restaurants and a cinema. Somehow we managed to get roped in to paying 2 euro for a lift to the top of the bullring, instead of just using the escalators inside the shopping centre. We avoided the expensive rooftop restaurants instead choosing for something closer to the hotel.

Day 2

We were up super early today to visit the beach and be back in time for breakfast. The man-made beaches of the city really give it that something extra I feel, and the water was clear albeit the sand slightly sharp.

It was a surprise to see the beach almost deserted bar the odd jogger and “yoga doer” but it was around 7am I recall.

After breakfast we had to have a bit of a think what to do. We put a lot of pressure doing a lot on Monday as we’d be catching the coach to Andorra later, but with our hotel so close to the funicular up to Montjuic,were confident a ride on the cable car would still leave us ample time.

In hindsight we had enough time to get off and explore the castle, but if you know me, I’m more than content with a panoramic view.

I still couldn’t see the bloody Nou Camp and started to feel a bit miffed at this point. So the only thing to do was go there.

Even rising from the nearest tube station, we had to check which direction to head. We eventually laid eyes on the stadium, which provided a few answers as to how it’s not viewable from everywhere.

Although 16 years (and a lot of beer in 2008) is a long time ago, I’m pretty sure they actually removed the whole top tier whilst they add a roof to the new design. You couldn’t get close the stadium / building site but the merchandise “street” was still a hit with tourists pathetically believing Robert Lewandowski is any good.

With that last minute detour to the stadium taking longer than we thought, we didn’t have time for lunch before arriving at the bus terminal for our coach to Andorra.

It was here I remembered that the hotel I stayed at on 2008 was on top of the central railway station. Nothing really of note but I was surprised my small brain could recall such memory.

The coach to Andorra was simple and direct, taking about 3 hours. Just before arriving at the bus terminal I caught a sight of their national football stadium… Quite famous for Wales fans and Euro 2016 qualification. I actually visited the stadium the next day, but this photo taken from the bus remained the best as it was otherwise difficult to access.

Andorra is Europe’s sixth smallest country located between France and Spain in the Pyrenees. It’s capital, Andorra la Vella is the highest in Europe. Just reading up whilst writing this, I’m amazed the country is bigger than Malta, yet significantly lesser known.

It was the capital that was our base for our 20 odd hour visit. A slight lack of planning meant I was stuck without WiFi and had to locate our hotel a kilometre away up a steep incline using an ACTUAL paper map. Very impressive.

Our hotel was perfectly placed to start the downhill walk along the main street of Andorra la Vella, lined with countless duty free and boutique shops. We had a token hamburger in McDonald’s as we tried to get tomorrow’s activity sorted and witness a light show featuring the main bridge along the La Valira river that runs through the city.

Reaching the Pont de Paris (Paris bridge), we identified that the light shows are only a weekly affair at this time of year. Our hopes to visit a Tibetan rope bridge the next day also took a hit when the tourist centre explained it too was seasonal and therefore closed. Thankfully they did suggest something we could do instead!

From here we had a really peaceful walk through town and chose a hotel’s all you can eat buffet for 25 euro each to make up for a missed lunch… I think we just about got our money’s worth!

There was also a lift in one of the car parks up the worst of the hill. Good call. 

Day 3

Breakfast was a 4* hotel treat this morning and it was a shame our early start and checkout made a pool visit unobtainable.

The plan today was to take a bus to a small town called Encamp and take a cable car to a ski resort. Not our first choice, but not something you can exactly do in south Wales.

I can’t remember how much the cable car cost, maybe around 9 euro, but the 25 minute ride up was worth every cent. Just look at the photos.

Above was after about 5 minutes and below was very close to our destination “Funicamp d’Encamp”.

At the summit we looked a tad out of place in shorts whilst everyone else kitted out with their skiing gear, but it wasn’t cold.

We didn’t expect the morning to take quite this long and with an equally long descent back to Encamp found time for a quick selfie before getting our arses back to the bus terminal in la Vella with a detour to the hotel (up a massive bloody hill again).

Our plan took a little tumble once we realised we for 20 CENTS (17p) short of a public bus back, and had to take a free bus in to Encamp town centre, draw some cash out, and then catch the bus.

Whilst the situation was starting to become a little bit stressful, we couldn’t help but smile when Mikayla’s aisle walk wedding song came on the Andorran bus radio – Hey Soul Sister by Train.

Long story short I managed to pick up the bags, lose a few calories and still had 10 minutes to visit outside the aforementioned stadium, before our bus back to Barcelona. Worth noting Spanish customs did check bags at the border, but the tobacco wasn’t especially cheap for me to bother.

Back in Barcelona, we were at a bit of a loose end so decided to visit the aquarium on a recommendation. This is not something we tend to do, and now I know why. It was very quiet just before closing, but walking around we were just keen to see the sharks. God their life must be a misery.

They also had penguins. Thankfully not in close proximity to the sharks. That ends my aquarium review.

After a bus back to the hotel, that was pretty much it unless you’re desperate for me to tell you about a walk around a nearby shopping mall for the essential Christmas tree decoration and McDonald’s for tea.

Day 4

Rinse and repeat day 2, early doors for a beach visit and dip in the Mediterranean. Trying to think how I dried my trunks in time. Maybe I wore an old pair of pants instead. I digress…

Our flight wasn’t until 10pm so after breakfast we went to a temporary Harry Potter exhibition by the docks. Given Kay’s love for The Boy Who Lived, or more accurately the potions professor (weird), the exhibition was interactive compared to others we’ve been to. Great for youngsters more than us oldies, but they did squeeze some merch sales out of us.

And another photo of us both. Two in one post is unheard of! Bear in mind for most of my trips she’s in work.

Snape’s wand. Not sure how that has made the cut. But I’m nearing the end and can’t be arsed to edit this further.

Approaching lunchtime, we had a few hours just to tick off a few more things. First up was the market in Las Ramblas for some food.

If allocated the time, I would still be there now deciding. I went with a Gyros, wedges, some meatballs type thing AND a spicy beef pasty. Whilst that was a treat be aware there is zero seating, so had to do with sitting kerbside, a few minutes away from the pigeon republic of Spain we seen on day 1.

From here we had a walk through the narrow streets of the gothic quarter, visiting Barcelona cathedral and Santa Maria basilica, without going inside either. Not sure why this is the only photo I have. We both needed a wee and ended up having a really refreshing lemonade for the purpose of using the bathroom.

Next up was supposed to be Parc Guell, which offers a good view of the city. Tickets for the day were sold out but I found another option. Turó de la Rovira is an old Spanish civil war bunker. It has quite a bit of history behind the area that can be read here… But our main reason to visit was the view.

It did take a painstaking hike from the nearest bus stop, especially when you realise the place your looking at is nearby Badalona, but if you get to the top it is more than worth it. Reading a few reviews people are adamant these are the best views in the city, so the park being sold out was a blessing in disguise.

A purposely chosen route back to the hotel to pick our bags up took us past the Casa Mila in Eixample, another one of Guadi’s work. That was very tick-boxing even for me!

Once back at the hotel we made our way to the airport. Top tip to catch a bus, as if flying to the UK, you’ll save a hell of a walk to the correct terminal of catching the metro as we found out on day 0. You’re welcome and thanks for reading.

Next up, The Algarve with my mother for a Wales game at the start of June (writing this mid June I’ve actually already been, so just pretend).

Welcome and thanks for visiting what is surely to be my last trip away before coming a married man! Saying that, the closest thing to a stripper I’ve come across on these Wales football trips is a few drunken lads with tops off, questionably belting out various Cymru ballads having over indulged in the local lager.

After this result (a 1-1 draw) and the same result versus Turkey a few days later. we ended up needing a playoff to hopefully reach EURO 2024. Thankfully we avoided any away ties, so no going to Poland or Estonia 4 days before my wedding!

Introduction

Yerevan is the capital city of Armenia with a population of around 1.1 million. On the very very very edge of Europe, Armenia is part of the Caucasus region that also include Georgia, Azerbaijan and a bit of Russia.

Armenia has spent a lot of its existence being oppressed. During WW1 the Ottoman Empire mass murdered 1 million during the Armenian genocide. Then they were in the Soviet Union until 1991, and from then to today they have been in conflict with Azerbaijan over borders. Azerbaijan has recently been on the front foot, possibly down to Armenia’s reliance on Russia, that has taken a back seat whilst Putin focuses on Ukraine.

Today many public buildings and hotels fly the Russian flag alongside the red, blue and orange of Armenia. I must admit this did feel uncomfortable, although the pleasant hospitality we “Westerners” received from everyone we met is certainly worth a mention.

I think it’s time for a fun fact. Armenia was the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as a state religion in 301 A.D. The magnificent Mount Ararat that appears in the background of any decent panoramic picture, is thought to be the location where Noah’s Ark landed. Make of that what you will.

Finding famous Armenian people *to me* is a bit difficult. Peter mentioned singer Charles Aznavour who I’d never heard of, although he was born in France. If we’re going down that route; one website I looked at also mentioned Cher, and even claimed Princess Diana was 1/64th Armenian. Shoop shoop…

Even in terms of football players – and I’m bloody good at these – I can only think of Henrikh Mkhitaryan who has recently retired from the international game. He has however played for a number of top teams including Inter Milan, Arsenal, Roma and Dortmund. He has also played for Manchester United.

Flights, accommodation and costs etc.

I usually break this up a bit more, but as my mate Peter was back in the driving seat to organise, I haven’t got an exact breakdown of costs. In total the trip cost around £700 each all in. This included about £150 on ciggies, taxis and beer, £55 for our day trip, £250 for four flights, £150 hotel and £100 coach/train to Gatwick from Newport. We also had to pay for the premium £44 tickets for the game instead of the £3/£8 options in the proper away end.

Beer and food was cheaper than your usual European country but we did choose places where a beer was more expensive than average. If you find the right place you can get a pizza for around a fiver. The bar visited before the game charged me just £8 for two beers and a G&T! On the eve before the game, I mostly drank £7 pint cocktails and imported Strongbow that added up. Gosh, if I had any more Sex on the Beach that night I would’ve ended up with twins with Pamela Anderson…

Getting Around

Thankfully Yereven international airport is located close to the city, albeit a good 30 minute drive with the city traffic.

Armenia has it’s own group of Taxi apps. The recommended GG app was a big help, with an app similar to Uber that set fixed prices, allowed payment by card, and had lots of cars available. One 40-minute trip we took stuck in traffic cost little more than six quid.

We did stay very central so there were no need to explore the public transport system. They have one main metro line that runs through the center and a maze of minibuses. I think these cost about 20p a journey, but there really was no need to use them. Even the stadium was within walking distance and the taxis we did get were due to laziness or drunkenness.

Things we didn’t do…

In terms of Yerevan itself, I don’t think we missed anything I’m disappointed about. They do love a statue mind, so maybe a walking tour would have been useful to break up my itinerary of booze and football.

Outside of Yerevan, I’m not sure how far you can go to visit the aforementioned Mount Arabat. Our day trip on the final full day was a good idea, although my friend’s day trip choice also included a trip to Tsakhkadzor that sounded a fascinating resort village with cable car, although the feedback was that late-November wasn’t the best time to sit on a cable car with inadequate clothing!

Itinerary

Day one – Newport to Yerevan

Although our trip was technically early Thursday to late Monday, two of these days were pretty much full travel. So I won’t bore you too much. The trip started at 1am on the Thursday to board our National Express to London. To get the best price possible, we flew early from Gatwick to Milan (2 hours), around 3 hours layover, then another flight to Yerevan (4 hours). Taking in to account that Armenia is also 4 hours in front of UK time in November, it was past 11pm by the time we checked-in, so we went to bed, noting that WizzAir really isn’t much better than RyanAir.

Day two – Yerevan sightseeing

We were up nice and early to enjoy the hotel’s minimal breakfast offering before a long morning planned of walking. Planning beforehand, our intended trek covered everything I wanted to see in the city, all in the space of 4 miles or so.

A short walk north from our hotel was the main Republic square with the national museum taking centre stage. It was very quiet today, but still had a smattering of armed police officers. In front of the museum were ‘singing fountains’ that I was looking forward to seeing one evening, although on approach it was obvious these are not operational all year round, obvious due to the lack of water in the pools.

From here we walked through the busy streets that would not have looked out of place in many other European cities. Shops, restaurants, cafes were opening up for the days trade. One shop I popped in to for 40 ciggies, 2 cokes and a water cost me a measly £3.50 before we arrived at stop number one, a Church, to somewhat to against the grain of my usual stop-offs!

St. Astvatsatsin Kathoghike is the city’s oldest church dating back to the 13th Century. For clarity, it is the tiny old building in the picture, encompassed by the much larger and modern St Anna’s church consecrated in 2015.

The older version only had space for maybe a dozen people standing, and frequented by locals to have a quick pray during their busy day. The larger church was somewhere where you could spend a bit more time to sit down and reflect. I don’t really know what else to say.

A short walk from here was a impressively large building that housed the National Opera and Ballet, located in ‘Freedom Square’. We didn’t go inside here, but enjoyed a chat with some other Welsh supporters.

Still going in a quite linear direction we approached the Yerevan cascade, undoubtedly the tourism focal point of the city. The Cascade, or staircase to you and me, consists of 5 hillside terraces connected with 572 steps, 302 meters high. I say building, as under the steps there are areas for exhibitions and cafes. There is also an escalator that will take you up to near the top. Peter was grateful for this, whilst I chose to drag my fat arse up the steps (my foot hasn’t been the same since, a month later).

At the bottom of the cascade is a park that had countless statues, all very different to each other. In hindsight I would have liked to take some extra time exploring these, but I didn’t. I had exercise to do FML.

Whilst the steps weren’t that steep, it was a must to turn around once reaching every terrace to see ever-better views of the city with the massive Mount Ararat becoming increasingly clearer in the background.

Once the initial 572 steps were climbed, it was still a further climb to a square right at the top. In the gap where the cascade ended and the square was placed, it was a building site that hasn’t look touched for some time. It seems obvious that the plan is/was to continue building the cascade to it meets the square. At present, tourists have to use a narrow makeshift path to access the Monumental terrace, housing the 40th Anniversary of Soviet Armenia monument.

This is definitely worth the trek for the best views – I think even Peter would agree, who is reaching his late-70’s! The clouds and insufficient phone camera didn’t really do the view justice.

For such a tourism hotspot it was a bit peculiar to see the project unfinished – and so obviously unfinished. Either side of the cascade also didn’t offer much with a lot of naked hillside, and I thought the bushes and plants could be more uniform. Hark at Charlie Dimmock over ‘ere.

After a well deserved rest at the top, we were now at a bit of a crossroads. It wasn’t long before lunch, but the restaurant I located would be a bit of a gamble. Do we go back down the hill for some lunch or proceed to have a walk through Victory Park and hope we can get a decent lunch?

Thankfully we decided to crack on with the latter. The park, whilst not of particular outstanding beauty, was a nice change from the noisy traffic. The first sight of interest was a disused Soviet era restaurant. I flagged this up when doing my research before the trip. Given the views from what I assumed used to be a dining room, I found it strange that no one had taken it on and it’s not in use today.

It didn’t quite have a feel of a ghost town type place, especially as once we got back on the main path we bumped in to Wales gaffer Robert Page. Catching me unaware, I told him that I was fit for the game tomorrow as I just managed to walk up those quote “fucking steps”. His response was a simple wave and smile. He should have stuck me on the bench at least in hindsight.

Understanding the team was staying at the nearby Radisson Blu posh hotel, I was over being star-struck rather swiftly as we headed to the most dominant statue in the city – “Mother Armenia”.

The current version replaced a similar statue of Stalin in 1962. I’m told the current statute depicts ‘peace through strength’. The site itself houses a small museum and in the courtyard outside has a few war-related exhibits including a tank and a few fighter jets. I assume these would be really impressive if it’s your thing.

Following the statue we had a stroll what is I’m sure a popular amusement park during the summer. Today though, apart from an odd stall open and a big Ferris wheel in operation (I think) overlooking the city, it was very tranquil. It did give me vibes of the Ferris wheel near Chernobyl in Ukraine. A visit there had always been quite high on my list, but who knows the next time that will be possible, if at all.

Eventually we reached the site of where we intended to have lunch. Whilst it didn’t look open from the outside, we eventually made it to the inner garden of tables and had a fabulous lunch of pork and roast potatoes, with a few obligatory beers, coming in very inexpensive. I was so pleased with the meal I left a google review, and regularly reminded every few hundred views it gets. Oh how I wish I added a link to the blog on there!

Well fed and quite tired after our trek, we headed back to the hotel using the taxi app. This took forever on the gridlocked ring road so were well ready for a siesta once back at the hotel.

The nap did me no favours as the effect of two flights and countless steps set in. For tea I suggested the Hard Rock Cafe out of being unable to put the effort to think of anything better. I rarely go to Hard Rock in places, but the memorabilia are a lot more impressive than their high prices for bang average food.

Nevertheless, it was an opportunity to have a beer and cheeky cocktail whilst we arranged to meet up with my mate Donna. Going to the underground Beatles Pub, advertised as the Wales gathering place, was not an option as it was absolutely rammed to we went to a nice bar close by among the locals. We met up with Donna and started what turned out to be one hell of a drinking session. As one group of locals left they were replaced by Welsh fans and in no time at all did we had a sing along. As always, very well behaved, even the bar manager was too busy taking videos to quickly serve me.

This was only a 2 minute walk away from where 40 odd fans got arrested for doing absolutely nothing. Unfortunately when away, with the best reputation around, you can still be in the wrong place at the wrong time with a lot of countries police.

Still, the night luckily went without any handcuffs and we ended up in the now quieter Beatles bar to drink them out of cider. I managed to walk Donna close to her hotel before giving up and getting a taxi for the remainder of the few hundred yards costing £1.32!

Day three – Matchday

I allowed Peter free reign on match day morning to have a walk around whilst I slowly dragged myself up skipping breakfast.

It was one of those times where I genuinely felt I needed a beer to sober up(!), so just before midday, that’s what we did.

I did succomb to a pizza lunch with more beers before meeting up with Donna again with the designated Welsh pub and had a few more drinks in here, cautious of the time, gambling on whether to take 40 minutes to walk to the ground or book a cab.

Deciding on the latter but still giving ourselves an hour before 6pm kickoff, the traffic was as bad as feared but ‘drive’ got us within a few minutes walk of the ground in good time. By good time, meaning time to buy two beers to watch the game with.

The ground itself, Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium, was small, 14,000, with a single tier of about 25 rows around an athletic track. Although the track meant we were some way from the pitch, this didn’t spoil the atmosphere and the game was well attended by the locals.

The game itself got off to a bad start with our goalkeeper not doing enough before Armenia made it 1-0. Although we equalised before half time through an own goal (which I missed as I was queuing for another beer) we couldn’t get the much needed win, and I don’t think we deserved to either.

This result was disappointing as it meant our qualification hope was no longer in our own hands. Leaving the ground, I think the three of us were a bit dejected. We definitely needed that ad hoc stop off in a dreadful cocktail bar to get some gin and local brandy down me. Waving Pete home we somehow agreed the Hard Rock was the chosen bar to go for drinks.

With some band on and a few beers we had a good night, especially meeting our friend Chelle who I hadn’t seen since pre Covid. I have no idea how we came in to contact but she’s always a good laugh so it was great to bump into her and her pals. A mix of still getting over last night and all the excitement meant I was fasto well before last orders. Donna helping me in a taxi for the second night running. Perhaps this is why my fiancé doesn’t like coming to the pub with me? *Sigh*.

A good effort to try and get over the result. Unfortunately though, with these trips the result is a very important element, so it’s not up there with Latvia previously.

Day four – day trip

Right then, back to some actual travel content. Although my head was not exactly in the mood as we were collected for our day trip at 10am.

We planned a trip using TripAdvisor for £110 to escape the city for the day. This is the specific tour (link). Knowing nothing about sights before visiting, we hoped that the trip would do that for us.

I’m going to do something different here and link to the relevant Wikipedia pages, that saves me from blatantly rewording the text instead regarding the history and religion related bits.

Our first stop was Charents arch for a quick stop off, not too far from the outskirts of the capital. This would have, I’m sure provided a great view of Mount Ararat but with the weather being a bit miserable it was a tad underwhelming, as can be demonstrated by my hungover half arsed photos.

Next up was the Garni temple, located in the village of… Garni. Apparently the temple is the best-known structure and symbol of pre-Christian Armenia. Initially built in the 1st century, it was destroyed by an earthquake in the 1600’s and reconstructed rather recently in 1975. The views here overlooking the Azat ravine and the Gegham mountains were more appealing than the temple itself that was pretty much empty bar the people sat on the steps taking snaps for their Insta.

Third on the list was the 13th century Geghard monastery that did take my interest more than the previous stops. The area is built in to the cliffs and is still used for services today. I know that, as it was a Sunday morning and we walked right in to a service. Chris going to church on a Sunday? Bloody hell.

Fascinating but typically strange for me. This place is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. So you know it’s worth a visit even if I can’t articulate it.

Jeez, my reviews of the trip so far aren’t exactly going to get you on a plane to Armenia soon, is it? To be honest it was a good experience dotting around these sights and I think on a clearer day they could have been so much more impressive to me.

Finally we headed to lake Sevan. The lake is the biggest in the Caucasus region and over 6,000 feet above sea level. The exact point we were dropped off, outside the town of Sevan, seemed a bustling tourist spot sometimes during the year, but the stall traders and restaurants were either closed or very hopeful of a decent day’s business. The sight to see here apart from the lake itself was the Sevanavank monastery. Itself a climb of a few hundred steps. I can’t really write much about the religious building, but the views were enjoyed.

I didn’t take any swimwear for a dip to make it three swims on the trot after Turkey and Latvia, which I don’t regret. It wasn’t the warmest.

We double checked that a googled restaurant called Hayetsi was actually open for lunch – we were the only people there when we ordered. Having not eaten for over 24 hours at this point, the food will live long in the memory. Chicken noodle soup to start, some fat pork chops and a bowl of proper chips were devoured and helped me along the way for the trip back to Yerevan that took around 90 minutes.

That evening we went to a ‘sky view’ bar next to our hotel. A posh but almost empty place that didn’t discriminate against my tracksuit bottoms and boring food of another pizza and chips. Proper last night gloom before a probable miserable home game before the impending doom of back to work later in the week and a week’s worth of unread emails.

Day four – Armenia to home

Monday. No-one likes a Monday. I’ll keep this short. Again sacrificing breakfast for a lie in, the journey back to Gatwick, via Rome this time, was uneventful, getting back to the ‘Port before midnight to have a kip ready for Turkey home later the next day.

A very pleasant trip. Not cheap, not outstanding, but another country off the list! Thanks for reading.

Welcome and thanks for reading my rubbish commentary on a trip to Riga.

Overview

Riga is the largest and capital city of Latvia. Perhaps included in with the lesser known European countries, Latvia borders Estonia, Lithuania and Russia – gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Latvia has a population of 1.8 million, uses the Euro currency and has a large coastline along the Baltic Sea.

To be honest, even including football knowledge (Marian Pahars??), I’m struggling to think what Latvia would be famous for. The inventor of jeans, Latvian Jacob Davies partnered with some guy called Levi Strauss. There ya go.

I am pleased to tell you that I had a really good three-and-a-bit days. My main reason of the visit was to watch Latvia v Wales in the football, a game that we won!

Flights and Accommodation

Bear in mind there must have been a good 3,000+ other football fans fighting for airfares. I spent days comparing flights from Stansted, Luton, ferries and trains and in the end forked out the extra 50 quid to fly direct from nearby Bristol. With Ryanair, sacking off any extras, the return trip cost £287 but if you wanted to go ‘usually’ I would be very surprised if the flights were over £200 return. The National Express from Newport to the airport was only £9 each way too.

There are a wide array of hotels available that vary in price and quality, similar to your usual European capital. As the flights were high I chose a budget option for the hotel. Primo hotel is to the west of the river, a side that I guess is rarely visited by tourists.

Primo hotel was €81 for 3 nights including a reasonable breakfast. As my option was a single person room/bed it saved a few quid too. The hotel decor was quite dated but I really couldn’t care less about that.

My friend Peter stayed in the 4* Radisson Blu tower, that was actually only a little more expensive based on 2 sharing.

Getting around

This is a positive section. Following on from my hotel, although outside of the centre, I was lucky to be based on the doorstep of bus and tram stops, a supermarket and foodhall.

In terms of public transport around Riga, a five day ticket cost just €10 and spanned a wide area with buses and trams plentiful and on time. After 11pm the transport seemed to end, but Bolt taxis were very affordable. I didn’t get a normal taxi bit was told Bolt was about half the price and much easier to manage with their app.

Getting to the airport was a linear #22 public bus that was either €2 or included in your day pass. The trip took about half an hour, passing my abode… probably 45 minutes by the time it ended up at the central train station.

As I had a lot of free time I did use a few eScooters provided by Bolt. These were good fun outside of the old town (just don’t bother with cobbled streets) and cost just 22c a minute. Their top speed was also 25kmph that felt faster than previous experiences.

Worth noting that if you are based in the small City centre, you may not need to use any public transport bar the airport journeys.

I did have one train to Jurmala on day 2. This took around 30 minutes and a return trip was €2.20! The cost of public transport in the UK is a shambles.

Interestingly, with the Bolt app I’ve mentioned… you can use the same app for scooters, taxis and grocery delivery!

Costs

I have covered a lot of costs above, so thinking about other things…

The supermarket by my hotel was similar to Lidl and Aldi and prices were as such. Some things a little cheaper, some things a little more expensive.

In the centre, a main course cost €15-25 each and a pint came in around €5-6, again in the centre that is going to be the most expensive locations. A pack of cigarettes is priced at around 4 euro. McDonald’s was also similarly priced. A burger meal costing about 8 quid. Tourist attractions entry ranged between €5-10.

All in all, just expect to pay prices as we would in the UK and you’ll end up being a few quid better off.

Things I didn’t do…

As always, I never know where to put this, but the things I DID do are mentioned in my itinerary below. Thankfully this list is brief…. to the best of my knowledge!

The Blackheads Museum is probably the most visited museum in the City, it didn’t really appeal to me though. Plenty of churches, other museums, galleries etc etc that I never really divulge in!

There is a lot of impressive architecture around the city and I feel a bit daft covering it as little as this. However, with my dodgy feet I seldom had the opportunity to look up!

My friends recommended a canal boat you can get from the park near the freedom monument that goes out to the Daugava river for about €18 per person.

Further afield, Jurmala I’m going to highly recommend, but a little way again is a national park. If I had another full day I almost certainly would have looked at a day trip to neighbouring Lithuania and its capital Vilnius.

Itinerary

Day 1 – Newport to Riga

Well, I’ve written quite a bit already so will try and make this section shorter.

As my flight was 3pm I enjoyed an hour in Newport with a breakfast (by breakfast I mean 2 pints) before catching the National Express. No drama whatsoever.

As Latvia is 2 hours ahead of us, I didn’t escape Riga airport until 9pm. My research getting the bus to the hotel came in super useful, giving enough time to pick up some drinks and snacks in the supermarket and a posh takeaway pizza from a market / food hall.

The market looked as though they had some form of entertainment going on but I couldn’t tell if they were about to start, or packing away, or what the entertainment was supposed to be… *shrugs*.

I secured plans for tomorrow morning, watched a bit of the Rugby World Cup for my sins and went to bed.

Day 2 – Jurmala, Riga and a shitload of beer

I was rather impressed with my 7am awakening considering a few days dodgy sleep pattern. Breakfast was slightly better than I expected with a few hot items and by 9am, caught the tram outside to the nearest train station with the intention of visiting a popular summer resort city, Jurmala.

Ticket bought and train boarded with a bit of guesswork, my designated stop was in a small forest and gave immediate vibes that this was a good idea. The park included loads of areas for active buggers, including sports courts, climbing trails and skating routes.

I set sights on a viewpoint and pleased with my energy getting to the top above the pine trees. Well, nearly at the top. The final 3 flights were an effort to be honest. I don’t struggle with heights, but I was constantly looking down through the mesh steps and by the time I got to the top, was unable to take my hand away from the rail! I’ve been a lot higher with no issues, strange but I survived.

The walking route to the beach was real nice. Coming out of the park to a small street filled with boutique shops, cafes and restaurants just opening for the days trade. I passed an impressive looking church, prior to strolling through the main street that I can only relate to Niagara-on-the-Water in Canada, not much help is it?

The beach was busy but not crowded. There were very few people in the water but I wasn’t going to come all this way without having a swim. I had no issues about leaving my bag unattended but always carry my phone in a waterproof pouch.

Perhaps of interest, when visiting Stockholm in May I was told the Baltic is the most polluted sea in the world, due to only a few small entry/exit points between Denmark’s islands. Thankfully there were no obvious signs viewable of pollutants, although the lack of tide made me think of the moon’s involvement way too much for my small brain.

If you have time in Latvia I highly recommend a half day visit. From the train to the beach is a ten minute walk and will get you back direct to Riga central station.

By lunchtime my friend Peter had arrived in Riga and we met in his Radisson Blu tower sky view bar for a cider playing “spot the tiny international football stadium” in the distance.

From here we had a very brief walk through the old town before choosing somewhere for lunch. I dropped a bollock here as I went for a ample sized fish and chips whilst Pete hit jackpot with a half meter sausage and trimmings! Greedy bugger.

We’re going to hit the fast forward button a bit here. After lunch I returned to my hotel for a nap and struggled to drag myself out for a beer. Thankfully I met up with a few County pals during a Welsh rugby world cup game to settle in.

Settle in and then some. Now technically in Day 3, I soon lost how many beers I had and stayed out until 7 FUCKING A M before crumbling in to a taxi. I returned to the hotel just in time for breakfast. 4 slices of bread plus a pile of bacon. Consumed just before I nodded off and I can’t remember how long I was asleep before hotel staff gave me a nudge and I finally made it to my room!

I really did expect to go out for one or two. Oops.

Day 3 – Sleep and Matchday!

Jeeeeesus I was exhausted today. I finally left the hotel at 4pm!! Pete managed to do some tourist stuff in my absence so when we met, simply enjoyed a stroll through the park, a soft drink and snack at the hotel counting down the hours until kick-off, itself bloody late at 10.45pm.

I was so tired before kick-off I decided to go for a walk. This actually turned in to a 4km scooter ride that started aimless but eventually ended up near the impressive national library building and 1back at my hotel to freshen up and have a lie down.

Every other Welsh fan drinking and singing copious amounts at this point in town as I made my way back in!

The ride and rest done wonders as we made a short 10 minute from Pete’s hotel to the ground, bumping in to the harmless Latvian Ultras and their pyro.

Prior to the game we knew thousands of Wales fans had tickets in the home end, us included, but told that this wouldn’t be a problem. Time for a few beers then!

There were indeed a ridiculous amount of Cymru fans in the home end and on the whole it was a very good atmosphere with the 2 sets of fans. We won the game two-nil, only my fifth Wales trip ending in maximum points!

Such a fabulous atmosphere, but incredibly exhausting standing and singing and dancing. I squeezed in one final cider before a taxi to my hotel via a kebab.

Day 4 – Touristy bits and home

It had still passed 2am before getting some sleep last night so I was surprised as any unnecessarily having breakfast at 7:30. Still, it was gone 11am once I got back in to town to see some bits.

Our first stop was the Riga Holocaust Museum. The site was really insightful to how Latvia and Latvian Jews were affected by both World Wars. The area included reconstructed houses from the initial ghetto and a replica carriage that felt uncomfortable, even empty.

From here we went to Latvia’s biggest market, a few minutes walk from the central stations and town centre. The market is spread across 4 or 5 old aircraft hangers and each is designated a specific area of food. Our gamble was a bit shit as we ended up with the fish market, but had success next with the food hall where we had a refreshment.

Lunch was back in the old town before saying cheerio to Peter as he made his own travels.

Just 7 hours to kill before my flight, and a bed no more! Discovering that St Peter’s (different bloke) Church had an elevator to the top of its viewing tower made the decision for me to get a good open view of the city, although the 9 euro charge was steep. For free, you can go to the aforementioned sky bar in the Radisson Blu and the views are just as good.

The next hour was spent scooting along the riverfront and along the impressive suspension bridge across the Daugava river. I still ultimately ended up at my hotel, sitting outside wishing the time away.

Finally, I did something I often like to try, catching a random public bus and hoping it goes in a circle and drop me off at the same point. Not quite as Gen Z to be considered ‘off the beaten track’ but it was free and time-consuming. The number 56 covered a vast area, I was struggling to keep awake at this point. Now deep in the leafy suburbs I got off one bus earlier than planned before catching the same in the opposite direction a few minutes later back to base.

I sensibly decided to give up on further exploration at this point and headed to the airport. Getting through the airport wasn’t problematic, I had 90 minutes for a kip before boarding my flight home, which is where I’m writing this from now.

The flight is running late. I hope I don’t have to add an *update* because I’ve missed my fucking bus….

*update* Didn’t miss my bus despite passport control doing the utmost.

Thanks for reading.