• 2025 | buns,  belfast,  europe,  northern ireland,  uk

    Buns2025: Day 13 – Belfast

    Soundtrack: “Down among the dead men”, Flash and the Pan Titanic. But first, the quest for breakfast. I wanted to find whatever a traditional Northern Ireland breakfast was, to collect the full set. With no handy potato cake company to be found, I went seeking a pub or traditional looking cafĂ©, though hindered by my eSIM being slow and crap. I was further hindered by NI licensing laws, that mean pubs don’t open until 11.30am on weekdays, something I learned from a chap who was tidying the footpath seating of a pub I found. He told me that the couple of Aussies they had on staff also thought the 11.30am…

  • 2025 | buns,  dublin,  europe,  france,  ireland,  paris

    Buns2025: Day 10 – Paris > Dublin

    Soundtrack: “Army of Me”, Bjork/808 State Woke early with a mission to get my laundry done before hotel checkout. Part of the reason for picking this hotel was the close proximity to the laundromat, as clean underwear for me is as essential as nicotine to the locals. I felt like a seasoned traveller being able to navigate the weird central payment thing without assistance, which is good because, aside from a small gang of school kids who were using the space as shelter from the morning drizzle, I was the only one there. It was an untidy pack, the clean laundry bag just went straight into the case, but there’s…

  • 2025 | buns,  europe,  france,  paris

    Buns2025: Day 5 – Paris

    Soundtrack – anything but “Candles in the Wind” It never fails to amaze me how badly the worlds of accommodation and travel fail to to be in sync. Flights arrive all the time, but most hotels only let you check in between about 2pm and 1am. You might be able to store your luggage, but I’m yet to find a hotel that will let me check in at 8am or 9am, even if I do offer to book a full extra day (I won’t rule out that there may be places of the 5 star variety allowing this, and if I ever get to the point of being ablke to…

  • 2023 | fifty years,  europe,  oban,  scotland,  skye,  uk

    Day 11: Portree, Oban (Connel)

    Was a busy day of stops and travelling, so I set my alarm for just after 7am, and of course was awake at 6am. Google told me that Cafe Arriba, place of yesterday’s full breakfast, would open at 8am, so figured that I’d be right to grab breakfast there once I packed and sorted everything. I don’t know if today was some sort of special Tuesday, but breakfast was not to be: nowhere serving hot food appeared to be open at 8am in Portree today. Not even at 8.10am, when I grabbed a bread roll and some cheese slices from the Co-op supermarket. While Skye is indeed beautiful, I’m leaning…