Dublin once again

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.

 

 

Flip-flops for the shower

  • 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.

 

Hall of the Mountain King

Hey guys, it’s Shauna. I just came back from a fascinating tour at the musical instrument museum in Trondheim and I picked up a little toy, so I’ll show you guys the toy if I can figure out how to hold the camera and do it because it’s awesome. But, I have a question for you guys, and maybe somebody will know the answer. If not, I’m sure I will be Googling after this video. My question is, Edward Grieg, the guy who wrote Hall of the Mountain King, who is the Mountain King, and is he a troll king, or what’s going on? Now that I’ve been here in the Nordic, Scandinavian countries, trolls are big, elves are big, fairies are big. For example, in Iceland, 5% of the population, according to one of the tour guides, 5% of the population believes in Christianity, but 80% of the population believes, like absolutely 100% believes in trolls and fairies. I’m really kind of wondering if the Mountain King is a Troll King.

Anyway, so, we’re going to try an interesting little experiment. Let me see if I can get this set up here without knocking you guys over here. I have something really fun to show you. I picked it up at the music museum. Let’s see if this is it. I think it’s this one. Hold on guys, I want to show you something really, really cool. Let’s see if we can do this. OK, if I knock you over, I’m really sorry, I apologize in advance. I think you guys are good. I think you’re st able right there. OK, do you see this little box? This is actually a music box, so I’m hoping you guys will be able to hear this when I play this, but check it out.

So, I don’t know if many of you recognize that, but that is of course from the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg, from 1843 through 1907. He is considered the foremost Nordic composer throughout history and his music has become the very symbol of Norwegian musical language according to the box. This is in the Hall of the Mountain King and is from the Incidental Music to Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen first performed in 1876. I hope you guys enjoyed. I’m getting a huge, huge kick out of this little box. Random side tangent, my mom gave me one of these little things when I was a little kid, so I’m pretty sure that’s why I’m in love with the little box. I hope you guys are having a great day and I’ll try and post some pictures and stuff, and hopefully you guys saw at least the first bit of the video before we got cut off in the music museum, so, I’ll talk to you guys later. Have a great day, bye.

Nidaros Cathedral

 

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.

 

Thrown around like a rag doll!!

Hey guys, it’s Shauna from Without Bags. I wanted to film this because I’ve never had this experience before, so I wanted to share. So we just left the king of sheltered fjords of kind of middle-north Norway, and we are now in the open ocean of Norway, you know open waters and literally the boat is being thrown around like a rag doll. I can’t even stand, I am sitting to film this video right now, because if I stand I will fall over, that’s how much the boat is being thrown around, so I’m going to try and try and see if I can get you guys a view out of the little portholes here. Okay, let’s hope we don’t fall over.

I thought you guys might find this interesting. It actually looks super calm. Let’s see if we can get you a view here. So you see it actually looks super calm but basically every time we go over those waves that look nice and calm are actually not nice and calm, they said that there are probably about 3 or 4 feet tall at the moment, and they’re bumping the ship around pretty good.

Certainly … whoo … sorry. This has been interesting. So things I am learning on this trip. This is my very first cruise, if you guys haven’t caught on to that yet, and this is a postal boat, so there’s about 200 people on this boat. Things I’m learning about a cruise … I’m actually a little seasick. And so going up in the cold, so like outside on the decks outside is good for being seasick apparently, and it’s certainly been helping me, so that’s, that’s good. And sleep. Apparently for some reason I can sleep without a problem.

It is currently about 7:30 Norway time and I’ve been getting up about 4 Norway time. So Yeah, I’m gonna take a shower, and go to bed and hopefully pass this really super choppy water in open water Norway and get back to the very calm fjords and be a little more sheltered than, whoo, big crazy waves that just came in through the porthole, that’s so exciting. So anyway, I’m having a lot of fun out here in Norway, life is certainly an adventure and so this is Shauna, correspondent for Without Bags, coming to you from the open oceans in Norway.

Hope you guys are having fun. Tomorrow, I think tomorrow we are going to … no, today we went to Trondheim … okay, let’s see if we can make it over to the list of where I was at today without falling over, that would be lovely. Yes, today was in Trondheim, the Nidaros Cathedral and the Music Museum. Sorry, can you tell the waves are kind of knocking me off, knocking me off my senses a little bit here.

And tomorrow, I’m actually kind of excited, tomorrow night, I’m going like on a Viking dinner kind of thing, so that will be cool. And first thing in the morning, at about 10:15, we’re actually going to be crossing into the Arctic Circle, so very exciting for me, I have never been in that part of the world, ever … so Arctic Circle, gonna do some sightseeing, Saltstrumen, I guess, if anybody’s ever been there. And then in the evening there’s a Viking dinner kind of thing, so that should be cool.

So, anyway, I’m going sit back down before I fall over. These waves look a lot bigger than 3 of 4 feet now, so anyway, this is Shauna, signing off for Without Bags, hope you guys are having a great day. I’m going to try to not fall over in the shower. So I’ll see you guys later. Bye.

Do you like Hard beds or Soft beds

  • 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.

 

Always remember your sewing needle!

Good morning everyone. This is Shauna, from Without Bags, and today we will be talking about a very important thing. Just to give you an example which happened to me yesterday— I was on a bus in Trondheim, and we had plans to see the Nethadras Cathedral and the music museum. While climbing Mount Axla, I stepped on the back of my pants which ripped my pants. So, very, very, very important piece of your toolkit is always, always, always have a needle and thread.

Found this out that I had forgotten actually my sewing kit, which you know, strange, normally I never forget my sewing kit. But, forgot my sewing kit so when we were in Ireland earlier on this trip, had to pick up some thread and thankfully had a needle. So, needle, thread, fixed the pants, life was good so tip and trick for today, always needle and thread in your pack for whenever you are traveling.

Hope you guys are having a great day. I’ll be excited to bring you guys some video and stuff from the Cathedral. The Cathedral actually is going to be really, really cool. This is where the Viking kings used to be crowned and of course all the kings of Norway going forward have been crowned here in Trondheim. Can’t wait to show you guys. Have a wonderful day and I’ll see you guys soon.

And it’s chilly here. We lost the 70 degree beautiful weather. It’s not like, I don’t know, 33, 34, 40, something like that, so back on with the silk scarf. All right, I’ll talk to you guys later. Bye.

 

 

The importance of Keeping in contact

 

Hey guys, it’s Shauna, correspondent from Without Bags and realized something I wanted to talk to you guys about today, which is the importance of staying in contact. Especially when I travel for Without Bags, I’m typically gone for, from anywhere from four weeks to eight weeks at a time working for my other job while I’m on the road. One of the things, especially because I typically travel by myself, one of the things that’s just so, so, so important is the ability to stay in contact with those that you care about. It really, when you’re out traveling, especially on your own, it can get kind of lonely. Getting on this boat, if you guys saw the video from the other day they actually told me originally there was going to be no wifi, no cell signal for a week and I’ve already been traveling for about six weeks and that is my life line. Wifi and “wee-fee” for those of you who have been to Belize, “wee-fee”. Anyway, side joke, sorry.

Wifi and cellular signal is so super important to being able to stay in contact with those that you love. The world has moved really much more towards the social media side. Obviously if you’re watching this you’re seeing us on Facebook but Facebook, Twitter, blogging, those kinds of things. Even simple things like writing a letter or writing a postcard are so far removed from most of our world viewpoints anymore. Getting on the boat the other day they actually reminded us that this is a postal boat and the world is not about wifi and maybe you should consider writing an actual letter. Just wanted to kind of remind you guys that say that you love the people that you love, call them, speak to them, Skype them, Face Time them and if you’re in person give them a hug.

There is a Buddhist theory that says that at a minimum, barest thing at a minimum, people need four hugs a day, good hugs. Four good hugs, at six hugs they are pretty happy and at eight hugs they attain enlightenment. If you haven’t had your eight hugs from people that you care about today, Without Bags is here to tell you to go get yourself some hugs. Hope you’re having a wonderful day and looking forward to talking to you guys later.

You guys have been enjoying watching the adventures. Today we went the aquarium and to Mt. Aksla and the view from the top was fantastic. I tried to take some panoramas for you guys and posted them in one of the previous videos. Check it out and as usual, if you have any comments, questions, any topics, like travel type topics that you want us to cover here on Without Bags, put it in the comments. Write us an email WithoutBags@gmail.com or go to the website, Twitter, Facebook, anywhere you want to connect with us we would love to hear from you guys. I’d love to answer any travel questions that you have. Hope you guys are having a great day and I’ll talk to you later. All right, thanks. Bye.

 

Ice Cave 2

Hey guys. We went inside the glacier, which was pretty awesome. We were in one of the tunnels that was carved. Would have loved to do Facebook Live but there was no signal this far down into the ice. It wasn’t actually bad in there. It was zero down there but no wind at all, so it wasn’t really that bad. I didn’t even have my hands covered.

This thing was carved in 2015, so it’s really only been open for a couple of years. You would see in the video a black line which is the ash from the 2010 explosion of the volcano.

Thought you guys might enjoy seeing the inside of a glacier. I’ll come back with more videos.

Hotel Krapi – Helsinki, Finland

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.