Hey guys; it’s Shauna from Without Bags and sorry about the sound, I forgot my headset today. So we are walking down from the very lovely Fitzpatrick Castle, Dublin, let me see if I can get you … This is where we are, absolutely lovely, it’s an old castle at the top of the hill here in Killiney. And the smells are absolutely … Today all the trees are in bloom and the clouds are kind of dark and apparently, there’s been quite a bit of rain and it’s just lovely. I really do like Ireland, it’s one of my top three in the entire world. There is, Thailand is number one, New Zealand is number two and Ireland is number three but depending on the time of year, those things change. Thailand is great during the winter time when of course lovely, Arizona is lovely and Ireland is fantastic in the summer. So it’s the beginning of May and it’s just gorgeous here right now.

So we’re gonna go take a walk down into the town here and go see what’s going on. So figured I’d bring you guys along for the walk, so I hope you guys enjoy. Let me get the image turned around here. So one of the things that I absolutely love about Ireland is just you can walk everywhere. And this happens to be a very particular lovely park, this is south of Dublin, south of main city of Dublin, so technically, it’s like a 30 minute drive into the main bit of Dublin. And you know it’s just lovely, there’s huge parks, apparently Enya lives up here and Bono. I was making jokes with my driver to get me here that you know, “Oh maybe I’d run into them when we go to the pub later today.” But for now, just walking around, walking through the parks and stuffs, so figured I would bring you guys along for the walk

I don’t know if you guys can hear that but the wind and the breeze and everything going through all the plants. So we’re headed to Dalkey and this is Killiney Hill. So this is one of the big local parks and apparently when we get to the top of the hill, there’s an amazing view, so we are going to go climb up this hill here in a minute. I heard it will take peak. And see what’s going on at the top of this lovely park up here. Half the level is green. Oh look at all the little kids, I see a puppy dog. I have to admit, I’m very excited to come, go home to my two, my puppy dogs, but it’s hard to be here. Oh the flowers, you can smell all of it. That zipline looks like fun. Wonder what happened there, it’s kind of a strange way for a tree to be. Okay we may have to go play on that zipline when I come back. Looks like too much fun. A cool park.

Oh look at the two adorable little English Bulldogs, super cute. Playing fetch or something with the ball yeah? Hi. It’s a lovely Saturday for a visitor to be out with their dogs. I’m sure if we had grass like this, my dogs will be having a field day. I love that sound, I don’t know if you guys can hear that, it’s the wind blowing through the trees. Super happy puppies. Hello, hi. Oh, well I don’t know where we’re going but we’re going back down the hill. Maybe I took the wrong path up there. Look at some of these trees, branches are just amazing. Oh so it’s Japanese with root system like over there. Oh that’s the back of the hotel.  Old castle wall. Just trying to figure out where we are. I mean obviously, we’re here, I’m not sure where we came in. It is quite a big park, I didn’t realize it was quite that big. Well, we’ll keep going, we’ll see where this leads. Oh a statue.

Oh it looks like there’s a viewpoint coming, I’ve got to see what this is. Looks like it’s a view over the whole county. Did you see a bit of a sea there? How can you not find this anything but beautiful? Look at all those green. I suppose that’s what happens when you have a desert grow here. It’s just lovely.

So I was talking to the driver earlier today on the way in and talking about how long people live. In Norway apparently, they live quite a bit longer, a lot of it is exercise, being outside. Coming from the States, we don’t tend to do, I mean unless you’re into an activity, we tend to be pretty sedentary. Not really a whole lot of exercise, not really a whole lot of walking. Obviously being in this kind of environment, I can see why you’d want to walk. The view is breath-taking but I suppose, it’s like anything else, it’s all what you get used to and what you were raised into. I’m addicted to tennis personally and very much looking forward to getting back, playing some tennis. But yeah, this walking thing, there could be something to it. Coming up on a view guys. Oh my goodness, look at that. All right guys, I’m going to pause the live video feed, so that I can get some pictures from up here, but I’ll come back when I start walking again.

• Wearing flip flops can make your trip much more enjoyable.
• Flip flops are a must for the shower when traveling.
• These are an excellent way to get comfortable on long flights.

Hey, everybody. It’s Shauna from Without Bags here today to bring you another tip and trick. One of my favorites, flip flops. Yay. As you all know, I am from Arizona, and so of course pretty much most of the time, we wear flip flops out here with the summer. Flip flops are probably, well, absolutely one of the things that is always, always in my bag. I take them everywhere in the world I travel, even on the most recent trip to Iceland, and the reason why is because flip flops are amazing for inside your room, just kind of hanging out, relaxing, but also wearing in the shower. You never know who else has been in the shower, or who else has been doing what in the shower or in the bathtub, so big, big, big fan of flip flops for the shower. Also really super easy to pack, and I’ll tell you, sometimes you get on the plane, and having just a pair of flip flops to be able to change into while you’re on that 20-hour plane flight from the far east back to the states, whatever it is, can be really, really handy, and really, really nice.

Big, big fan of flip flops, so always, always tip and trick for today, always pack flip flops, always wear them in the shower, and this is your correspondent, Shauna for Without Bags. If you have any questions on flip flops, let me know. I hope you guys are having a great day, and I will talk to you later. Bye.

You can buy Flip-flops by clicking here.

Hey, guys. We are in front of the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, and you can hear the bells going off. It must be exactly 9:00 a.m. Anyway, I wanted to show you guys the face of this thing.

Just a few little interesting facts that I’ve learned so far. You can see on the front, there’s a ton of Apostles and all the different priests and saints. This guy right here, that’s St. Olaf, the guy that actually created the capital city. And way up there is St. Michael, he’s a reconstruction. The original one came down, and the guy that reconstructed was a big fan of Bob Dylan, so the face on the statue is Bob Dylan. We’re about to start the tour, so let’s see what they have to say.

The carvings and the stained glass is absolutely amazing.

• Research before your trip to find out what type of beds are in your hotel
• In Scandinavia, all the beds are soft everywhere, so I found a way around it and converted a soft bed into a hard bed.
• If you like hard beds, ask the staff if they have an ironing board. Sleep on the ironing board. Worked out really well.

Hey, guys; it’s Shauna from WithoutBags. Today, I want to talk to you about the difference between a hard bag and a soft bed. You never really realize until you leave home, and maybe other people do. I always forget. Every single time I go on a trip, I always, always forget that your bed is something that you love and you spend a ton of time in, seven, eight hours a night. It’s so, so, so important to be happy where you sleep. This trip really solidified that in my mind. In Dublin, this past trip, if you guys have been watching, we went through Dublin and Scotland and the Scandinavian countries, Norway, Finland, Sweden, all this kind of stuff.

Dublin and Scotland have hard beds, and I apparently love hard beds. I never really realized that. My mind, I was always more of a medium to soft person. Got to Scandinavia. Their beds were basically giant, 3-inch, down-filled, super fluffy, super soft, like sink into the bed. I couldn’t sleep. I kept having the worst back pain, hip pain, knee pain. I thought, “Oh, my goodness. I’m just turning into an old lady. I’m cranky, whatever.” No, because as soon as I got back to Dublin … This was a big round trip all the way back down through Dublin. When I got back to Dublin, got into the hotel, sat down on the bed, put my stuff down, sat down on the bed, checked for bedbugs. Always check for bedbugs before you sit down. Sat down on the bed, laid down, and went, “Ah,” so comfortable. It was like a board. It was solid and hard, and I apparently love hard beds. I had no idea that that was important.

Things to note. Definitely a question. When I finally looked it up, you can look that up on Trip Advisor and on Hotels.com, Booking.com. You can read other people’s experiences about the beds in that particular hotel. Sounds silly, but figure out what you like and then make sure you get hotels that suit you.

In Scandinavia, if I had thought about it at the time, if I had really recognized what was going on, that I needed a hard bed, how do you solve a soft bed? Normally, it’s not something … If the beds are soft, all the beds are soft everywhere, how are you going to go about solving a soft bed. Last few days that I was there, you want to know how I solved it? There was an ironing board in the room, and I put the ironing board underneath the three inches of big, fluffy feather pillow and slept on the ironing board on top of those feather pillows. My back was perfect. My hips were perfect. My knees were perfect. If you like hard beds, ask the staff if they have an ironing board. Sleep on the ironing board. Worked out really, really well.

That’s today’s tip. If you like hard beds … Find out what kind of bed you like. If you like hard beds, search for the ironing board if your bed is too soft. All right. Hope you guys are having a great day. Shauna, a correspondent for WithoutBags, and can’t wait to see you guys next week. All right. Bye.

Hey, guys. It’s Shauna from Without Bags, and I just got to my hotel in Helsinki in Finland, and I am in love with it. This is so cool and so cute. I’m so, so, so happy to be here. It’s Hotel Krapi? I’m sure I’m mispronouncing it but it’s K-R-A-P-I. It’s a little bit away from the airport, maybe like 20 minute drive. Absolutely lovely. Apparently it used to be an old farm, so I want to share with you some of the really cool things that I’ve already found out literally just walking in the door, I haven’t even taken off all my gear yet, about this hotel.

First things first, the main part of the hotel actually used to be a cow barn so each of the rooms, I will show you, each of the rooms is named after a cow that lived on the farm. They don’t live here anymore, but name of the cow that lived on the farm. Let’s see if we can … Oh, sorry. I’m trying to figure out how to get out of my room one handed. There’s some very specialty locks on these doors. Anyway, I wanted to share this with you guys. Check this out. My room, the name is Aino. I hope you can see this. Room 27. Anyway, really, really cool. I know. I know. I know but anyway. You can see the carpet actually looks like cow pattern. This is so cool. Gorgeous little hotel.

Let me take you on a tour of the room. When you first walk in the door, you’ve got the main entryway and super cute furniture and very, very simple. I really like it. The room opens up into a really nice just bigger area, very comfortable. The two chairs are really comfortable, really cute views outside. Certainly looking forward to going and exploring out here. All of this land belongs to the hotel, so I think you can rent all those little cabins out there as well.

I’m going to have restaurant in the main restaurant later tonight or on the hotel grounds. Apparently in Finland one of the big things to do is a buffet actually. When I asked the people at the front desk, they said that that’s what you do. When you go out to a restaurant here in Finland, the buffet is the common … That’s how the Finnish people do it. And, I said, “Well, are there any special food, or desserts, or anything that I need to try?” And, she said, “Cheesecake.” The cheesecake is actually the best thing that they have here, so I will be definitely having the cheesecake for desserts. I know life is so rough as a correspondent for Without Bags. Super looking forward to trying this cheesecake.

Just so you get a full version of the rest of the room, there is some ensuite bathroom. If you’re used to booking in America, you always have an ensuite bathroom, but that is not necessarily true when you’re in foreign countries so always make sure if you want a private bathroom, always make sure that your room does come ensuite. That’s typically how it’s … E-N-S-U-I-T-E. Ensuite bathroom. Here’s the bathroom. Super cute. I love the doors. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever seen doors like that before. His and her robes and shoes and very clean, very, very well done. I do have to say if you guys have never seen this before, they actually give you two options on the toilet so there’s the low flow option. You see this little tiny button? Then, if you need more water, you can use the heavy flow option. Really trying to work on conservation of water out here.

Anyway, I just wanted to give you guys a little bit of a tour. I’m super happy with the hotel. It’s really super cute and can definitely recommend it. And, as soon as I get to dinner, I will let you guys know what’s going on. I think I’m going to go take a walk outside. It looks way too cute not to go outside. I’ll let you guys know and maybe take you out on a tour of the ground so I’ll see you guys soon.