Tall Boy Radio

#TBR244 - Travel like a Tall Boy 2

Join us for an exciting conversation with Verity Gough, a seasoned traveler who has explored some of the most fascinating corners of the world. From the vibrant markets of Morocco to the serene temples of India and the charming canals of Amsterdam, Verity has amassed a wealth of experiences and insights. In this episode, Verity shares her personal journeys, offering captivating tales of cultural immersion, unexpected encounters, and breathtaking landscapes. Discover her tips for navigating diverse cultures, finding hidden gems, and maximizing your travel budget. Whether you're a seasoned explorer or dreaming of your first adventure, Verity's stories and advice will inspire you to embark on your own global odyssey. Key Topics:

• Travel Experiences: Verity's adventures in Morocco, India, Sweden, France, and Amsterdam. • Cultural Immersion: Insights into adapting to different cultures and customs. • Budget Travel Tips: Practical advice for saving money while traveling. • Hidden Gems: Discovering off-the-beaten-path destinations and experiences. • Personal Anecdotes: Engaging stories from Verity's travels.

Guest Bio: Verity Gough is a passionate traveler with a love for exploring new places and cultures. With years of experience traveling the world, she has developed a keen eye for unique experiences and a knack for finding hidden gems. Verity's enthusiasm for adventure is infectious, and her insights offer valuable guidance for anyone seeking to make the most of their travels. The opening music is "London Bayou" by Oscar Albis Rodrigues and the closing music is "BDS" by Lewis Pickford. tallboyradio.com

Broadcast on:: 27 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: other

[Music] Welcome back to episode 244 of the Tallboy Radio Podcast. And as we always say, who knows where it goes when the beer flows well, that beer could flow just about anywhere tonight. As we're going to be talking about travel, one of our favourite topics that we like to talk about here on Tallboy Radio, we did an episode last year called travel like a Tallboy and this is our follow-up to that we're going to be talking about some of our trips. Now, Gaz isn't going to be with us tonight. He had a very peculiar dream on the weekend that he was telling me about in great details where he was checking a dog's prostate or something like that. It was very, very weird. But, you know, he told me about that in great length. Never mentioned, never mentioned once that he wasn't going to be here tonight, but hey, we'll move on and we'll do just fire without him because Dave's here. How are you doing, Dave? All right. Thank you, Adam. Good evening. Good evening listeners. Welcome to episode 244. Looking forward to this. We've got a guest tonight, a friend and colleague of mine who's going to introduce us out in a moment and I asked briefly how many countries she'd visited and it took a while to come back to me. So, we're looking forward to learning all about them. Indeed. So, as Dave says, yeah, rather than than Gaz talking about his travels, and one thing we know about Gaz, you know, he's been on his holidays quite a few times this year, not just a turkey to have his teeth done. Yeah, that's been all about visiting places. I can't even remember. I know he was in Malta or somewhere recently that began well then. But Verity, would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself? Why, Dave Prescott, was your last minute to join us on the episode? Sure. So, I work with David. I'm working with myself with David. And so, that's how I know him. And I'm also a journalist, a freelance journalist, so I do that as well. And I like traveling. I spent quite a lot of time traveling and living in different places, so I think that's probably why David strong armed me into this this evening. But I'm always happy to talk about travel. Really, that's a great passion of mine. So, yeah, and the thing you need to know, I can talk about all the deals I find because I'm quite good at finding good deals. My family have started to come to me, actually. They sort of give me a bit of a brief, and they'll say, oh, I might want to go here. And then kind of expect me to put a package together for them, but don't pay me. So, maybe I should be a travel agent. Who knows? You definitely need to start charging for that. And maybe, actually, maybe we can give out a few tips on how to save some money from the holidays tonight that I think people will definitely take something away from that. So, a couple of the places we were chatting about earlier, you know, so you've lived abroad as well. So, so you were telling me at the start, do you want to tell us a little bit about that, how do you find yourself living in those different places? Yeah, sure. I kind of, when I got to about 18, I decided I just didn't want to be in the UK. I just wanted to go. And quite a lot of my friends sort of had gone off to France, just kind of decided to go. And so quite a few of us ended up going off to France. We were there for about, well, I was there for about a year and maybe 18 months in total. And we kind of got together a little like fire juggling show, went around all the festivals and did that kind of thing. I wasn't fire juggling because I was not good at it, and I kept dropping the balls on my head and it wasn't great. But it kind of gave me a passion for travel. I learned how to speak French. And that, once I'd sort of done that, I didn't really want to come back. I did come back for different periods of time. Maybe I did some study and then I went back again. And then I ended up going to India and traveling around India for a while. I had a friend who lived there, so I went to see them. And then ended up buying a ton of stuff, as you do in India, really cheaply, and then decided to move to Holland to sell everything on Queen's Day, which is a big festival they have every year at the end of April. And it's like a free, you can sell anything you want that everybody just has like stalls on the streets, everything is very drunk. So we were selling like tequila shots and all this stuff that we bought from from India. And I ended up staying there about two years. I got a really nice job and I loved, I loved Holland. And that's some particular was just fabulous. So that's why I ended up living there. And then over the years, just different places like Brussels and in Spain for a while and France, and that kind of thing, really. So that's where I lived. But it was great. Picked up languages. And I just think it's a really good thing to do. And if you can ever get a chance to go and live in another country, even just like a spaticle for like three or four months, just to try something different, I think that would be really valuable for a lot of people and give them a different view of the world. So that's what I did. It's full enough actually because this episode really is in stark contrast to the episode we did last week where we had Deborah who was very keen to move to the UK. Now we're talking to somebody who's quite keen to get away from it. But I think with both the common theme in both episodes is that sort of enrichment from the different experience of different cultures now a couple of the places you mentioned that I visited at some of those and my dad used to live in India. He lived in Goa and Salago in particular. Oh, I know that. I know. I might be in there. Yeah. So the properties that I was. Oh, sorry, Kara. Sorry, I missed that. No, I was saying that the properties there were all Portuguese properties and he had one of those for quite a while. And yeah, so he lived there for quite a few years, started going there on holiday. Absolutely loved it. It was going for longer and longer and longer and it eventually ended up moving there. So tell us about that then because culturally, India and Goa would be my only real experience of it, although I visited Mumbai briefly. It's very, very different to the UK, isn't it? Yeah, sure. I found in India, we were there for about, I can't remember how many months it was, maybe five, six months. I had a friend who lived in Goa. So we planned to sort of travel down to see her and I ended up, I think anybody goes to India ends up having some funny stories to tell about it. And we had no budget and no budget in India is pretty, means you're not staying in very nice places at all. And we ended up getting a car from, we were in Pushka in Rajasthan and we drove the car drive all the way down to Goa and it was passed through five states. So we drove through five states. But the guy driving the car was like 15 years old and I just remember him driving past a bus that was like crashed on the side of the road and he was like, oh, that's my bus, I used to drive that. And I was just like, oh my god, I'm going to die on this trip. But we did, we got down there, we did, we went with the hotel manager. So he was Indian and he kind of like showed us the ropes and everything. And I think quite a few people drove down there, because Goa, you can drink alcohol, so they'd go down there and they'd have a few drinks and then they'd sort of go back again. But it wasn't very exciting and strange journey, but you know, lots and lots of experience as well. But I would recommend it, but I think I'd go with more of a budget this time, you know, and stay in somewhere a bit nicer because it, you know, we did get quite ill as well. Well, there's a lot in India. If you go to India, there's two things you should expect, bad driving being the first, and frankly, I think he's very brave for driving in India because I couldn't do it utterly, utterly terrifying and certain of all, you're almost guaranteed to get a little bit of belly belly off some of the food. I was hallucinating, I was hallucinating. I had a whole week that we were, me and my friends were just really ill and we did have a hole in the ground toilet kind of thing as well. It was, it was not pretty and I remember writing a letter to my mum, it's sort of like last wheel and testament to my mum because it was so ill. And we ended up going to the doctor on like day five. I don't think I'd eaten anything, it just sips a water. And the doctor just gave us like two pills, like a green pill and a pink pill and was like, just take them. We took them and we were better within like a few hours. And I can't believe I wasted like a whole week of vomiting when I got well really quickly because they used to treating people and they know what's wrong and they know how to deal with it and they know how to make it better. So I think next time I will be more inclined to, yeah, be careful. And I didn't take my malaria tablets either. So that was probably a bit stupid because I think, you know, I was young and foolish, I guess. I must admit that with those malaria tablets, first of all, they were very nice. Anyway, I stopped taking mine the second. I got back in the UK because I thought, well, I ain't got malaria. It'll be fine. It would have come out by now. Yeah. So medically, I was, I was a little bit older also. I've got no excuse. But no, in terms of the food, I think we ate a festival. We went to a, I think it was a Sikh festival. Well, it might have been no Hindi, sorry. And we were eating thoroughly dishes and I hadn't washed my hands at a spec. That's when I picked up whatever it was that I picked up that lasted, you know, a little bit longer than 24 hours. I don't mind talking yet. Have you got any experiences? I had quite a few of those. No, I've not been to India. So, most of my travels have been fairly safe in that respect. Certainly not having to to rough it on a zero budget or to eat food and stuff where I might get to get ill. So, no, I'm afraid I'm probably nowhere near as brave as Verity sounds like she was. And Verity, when you wrote that letter to your mum, what did your mum think when she received that letter? You're all the way around the side, other side of the world. You're writing a letter saying you're really poorly. But she's still got it. She gave it to me recently and she said, look what I found gave it to me. And I was like, oh my god, I sort of remember writing that. I really wasn't well. And I was like hallucinating all kinds of different things. So, I'm not sure if I wrote it during the hallucinations or after. But it was a little bit sort of sad and depressed with anything. Like, I'm having a good time, but this is good, but there's lots of like books. I don't think I wanted to make it sound bad because I spent like months saving up the money to go there. It was such a big thing. It was, you know, I was really excited about it. And they didn't want to sort of admit to having got ill. But I mean, that was one of many times I got ill when I was out there. So, you know, I think by the end of it, I think I must have picked up some kind of parasite to be honest with you. I was really not very well. But, you know, I would do it differently next time. And this was quite a while ago. And I'm sure things have changed a little bit since then. Maybe. So speaking of hallucinations, you also lived in Amsterdam then as well, where you can hallucinate for much better. Yeah, nice segue that yeah, I did. I lived there for two years. And that's where I went with all the stuff on Queen's Day. And yeah, I mean, I've got some funny stories to tell about Amsterdam. I mean, that's a place that really is just, you know, I won't go into it all. But it was a very interesting place to live and work. And I ended up, I was working in the Red Light District, but not as, you know, I wasn't in the Red Light District, but I worked in a hotel in the Red Light District. And kind of good friends. Yeah, some of the friends with the ladies in the windows, they were lovely and really nice. And you sort of say good morning and sort of, you know, it was a very surreal environment to work and live in. But it was fun. And the standard of living was really good. You know, the jobs, I mean, I was cleaner and I had really good salary and we used to get loads of free stuff. And it was, we had West Life, they were in the hotel, looking after West Life and stuff. So, you know, it was a really fun time. And I think if I went back again to do it, I wouldn't change anything with that. It was absolutely brilliant experience. I learned some Dutch, I made really lifelong friends there. I got a really good job working for a market research institute. Things progressed really well. And I would have probably stayed. I tried to go to study at university, but it's quite hard to get the paperwork right there. Everyone's subletting. It's really oversubscribed with people wanting to stay there. And I just couldn't get the address I needed. And I ended up coming back to the UK, but it was regretful. I would have loved to have stayed out there. It's a really magical place. And the Dutch are a real great bunch of people, they're characters. So all in all, it was great. I would recommend Amsterdam in particular. And I must say, I didn't really travel a huge amount outside because if you're living somewhere and working somewhere, you just kind of, you know, getting on with it. And Amsterdam's gotten off a lot to offer anyway. So, you know, went to Harlem and Zandam and some of the close places, but I didn't really go much further than that. I've been back a few times since. I really want to take my kids with me because I think they will really, really enjoy it. You know, there's two sides, isn't there? There's obviously the side I mentioned in the stag doos and all that sort of thing. But there is also a really lovely traditional side with the brown cafes. And there's lots of festivals and really nice cultural events that go on there. Really great design, shopping, you know, all the art, obviously, in museum, in museums and what have you. So yeah, it's a really good destination. I would, I'd say David, if you haven't been, it's a definite place to go for a nice long weekend sitting on the boat, going around the canals and, you know, avoiding the bikes and the trams, but it's all part of the fun. Yeah, I think I think I have been to Amsterdam. Is that where the Gustav Klimt Museum is, Gallery? There's a Rembrandt one. I've been to the Anne Frank Museum. I haven't been to the Klimt one, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was there. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I have been there. I've got a not great memory, but I'm pretty sure I have. No, no. Yeah, you are quite famous for your memory. I'm not familiar with it. It has to be said. Amsterdam is a fantastic city. And like you say, it is very commonly, when you think about Amsterdam, unfortunately, people think it's synonymous with stag dudes, weed. Yeah, those things are available in abundance there, absolutely. But I've said exactly the same thing to my wife. You know, we went probably, or maybe 10 years ago now. So, you know, my kids are nearly eight and five. And it's one place I said, I'd love to take my kids back to, because it is very family friendly, you know, sitting out in the squat, you're enjoying the drink. It is an absolutely beautiful city, although we might, they can be a little bit of a liability. And there's a lot of canals there, and they're not great swimmers. Well, I tell you what Christmas is a good time to go. I was there for lovers lucky to be there for three Christmases. And they have the syncholas, which is the, where the children put their shoes out. I think it's the fifth or sixth of December. They put their shoes out and then, you know, cinta clouds, he puts little sweets in their shoes. And people give each other lots of almond, almond paste filled items, food items, letters of the name, like in chocolate. And it was really a lovely time of year. In Dan Square, they put a huge ice rink and have like hot chocolate and olive oil and like these sort of kind of like donuts that people have. And everyone's eating donuts, drinking hot chocolate and skating. And it's very traditional. It doesn't feel overly commercialized. It is a little bit, obviously, because, you know, people are selling stuff, but much like the German markets and things like that, it's got a really lovely feel to it. It doesn't start too early. I just went to the shop before and it's full of stocking fillers right next to the till, had all the stocking fillers. And I was like, gosh, we're not even at the end of September. And it's already there. You don't kind of get that over there. And I think Northern Europe as well, I've been up to Copenhagen and Sweden and those places as well, very similar with that kind of vibe. It's Christmassy, it's festive, but it's not rinsing money out of anybody at any given moment. And I like that. If you're going to be cold, you want to at least be cold and sort of cheerful and not feeling because they're taking money off you. I did 25 years in retail. We started getting our Christmas stuff in around about August, so I used to get very, very sick of it. Yeah, same in journalism, writing articles in July for Christmas. I used to work on a craft magazine. We used to have to do the whole setup, Christmas trees, baubles, everything, middle of July, hot outside, doing fake snow and what have you? It was a life. Why don't you just do the Christmas before, the winter before, then you'd have to fake some. Trends! Trends! That'd be out of fashion, wouldn't it? Well, not if you make something up and that becomes the trend. Yeah, I'm sure that would work. Just humor. Just not in smile. Well, every Christmas, we do a certain amount of episodes that we recorded in advance. One of the things we did last year was, you know, room 101 where you put things you don't like into there. With you, like every Christmas, they were able to put Christmas presents that they last year. Oh, really? Yeah, why not? Well, all of them. Yeah, I don't need Christmas presents. It's just incredibly bad for the environment. It causes a lot of stress, a lot of aggravation, a lot of financial pressures. It's very little if any good comes from it. Well, we're doing the four, you know, the four gift thing this year. That was the plan anyway, where you buy something, you want something you need, something to wear, something to read, which is a four gift max then. And you ask, you know, I'm going to, well, aiming to do this with the children as well. And if I can, I think that's a really useful thing, because I would like, you know, this, I need that, I'll read that and all that. I think that's a really good idea. And it cuts down on the spending. It just means that you get in things that you want. We do a secret center as well in my family, so I pretty much get one thing I want. And that is genius, I think. So I'm going to try and promote that across the entire family this year, if I can, and see how it goes. And I'll let you know, David, if it works. I'll send you my four things, dirty. Okay. Yeah, I'll send the list right on back to you. Love the cold off the baby will be getting this Christmas. That's all it deserves. Oh, I see. Yeah. So to Northern Europe, I see it is. There's again, very different culture there. So never been to Copenhagen. It is one of the places I'd love to visit. Yeah, my daughter, when she was very young, tell was absolutely obsessed with the song about Copenhagen. For whatever reason, she absolutely loved it. Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen. So it's one of the places I have a lot of forward to visit. So we were in Norway this year. We took a cruise up there. Our PLO I owner, but the ship, if you're very familiar with it, I don't know. But yeah, we did a cruise down the Norwegian pre-order. And I have to say, very, very beautiful part of the world. Yeah, have you? Yeah, I absolutely loved it. To Norway. No, I haven't. I've been to Copenhagen a few times. I took the children there and we did trip to Sweden as well. Highly, highly recommend Sweden. We were absolutely just loved it. I love Copenhagen. And I think the Danish people in my experience are so friendly, so welcoming, so warm. I remember we turned up quite late all the whole of the city. It had loads of roadworks and all the buses had been detoured and me and the kids turned up at like 11pm off our flight. And we were just stuck. I was on bus somewhere and I was like, we're going out of the city. Just doesn't feel right. And I ended up asking somebody and, you know, can you help us? And everybody did everything they could. They ended up just putting us in a taxi, telling us which stop to get off. They were so helpful. I've felt really safe. It feels like a very safe place and very, you know, people really care and they are happy to sort of talk to you. And the same in Sweden. They were just so friendly. And I think one of the things that I've found in terms of where I like to travel, it comes down a lot to the people. And, you know, you can go somewhere that's beautiful. You can go somewhere that's, you know, you can tick things off your bucket list. But I go back to places where I like the people. Morocco is a really good example of that. I just have had nothing but amazing experiences every time I've gone. So these have become places that I've ended up wanting to become familiar with. And I think that's one of the things about travel I personally like is getting to know another area of the world that you didn't know existed. That people walk those streets all the time. They go there. They do their thing. And you would have you're completely oblivious. You have no idea that goes on. And then when you sort of become part of that world and, you know, exists, you get to know it, you get to know the people. And it's just really enriching for your life, I think. And that's what I think travel does for me personally. That's probably the thing I like most about it. It's sort of cultural assimilation that you get. It makes all the difference to me. It's not it's not just a tourist thing. And I maybe I'm a bit of a travel snob like that because I generally don't stay in hotels anymore. I will try and either stay with people that I know, if I can, or do Airbnb or verbal or something like that, and just stay. You know, in a house that is in a neighborhood that you can get to know. And it really changes the way you travel. I know this isn't for everybody though. There's a lot of people that are really anti, you know, staying somewhere that isn't all inclusive. You know, they say, oh, my holiday is for completely relaxing on the beach. I don't want to have any stress. I'll go on the day trips and all that. And I can appreciate that. I understand that. But I think they're missing a trick by not pushing themselves out of their comfort zone a little bit. So just I know exactly where you're coming from with that. I absolutely know what you're saying. You know, you do get a much more fully rounded experience when you do, you know, do it the way that you're doing it. You know, when you, when you're meeting people from that culture and you're integrating them into the society, it is a much more rounded experience. Talking about visiting places that you've been to before, Dave, have you ever, have you ever done that, Dave? Do you ever go back to a place that you love, love that, you know, so I'm going to go back there? Well, but yes, but not probably as much as we'd like to. I mean, very to you mentioned when a place feels really safe. It's really nice. And me and Katherine went to Vienna 20 years ago now, but it was it's probably the safest, cleanest, friendliest place that I've ever been to as a foreigner and just felt completely at ease. And it does, it does leave quite a strong impression when you've had that experience. We've, we like very says, when we tentacle in holiday, if we're going to France or to Germany or places like that, we tend to stay out of the main tourist areas and we will just rent an Airbnb or a house that's in a rural area that's not very busy, because you can use that as a base and you feel like you're actually in the more of a cultural experience. And you can still then travel and go and see the particular sites. But yeah, there's, I mean, there's a particular place in France, we've been to twice, just rent a house, a guy called Thierry, lovely house in the middle of nowhere, effectively. There's a cottage in Wales that we've been to twice. Again, it's just in the middle of nowhere. And we just really like that. You can just open your front door and see nothing that that for us is kind of relaxation. You know, every day you might be out and about, but to combat have nothing around you, I think is, is what we really like, whether it's in this country or abroad. France is good for that, I think, as well. It's got so many. If you go, well, and any area of France is different. You know, there's so many different types of landscape, inland lakes, coast, mountains. It's a really good country for people who perhaps want to try traveling, but don't want to go too far. They can get lots of different things in that area, so I think that's always a good one. Good tip. Yeah, it's very different. It's so close. It is, yeah, and we drive. So, you know, we've been to the east, to the west in Brittany in Normandy, that's somewhere in the middle of which you can't remember the name of. And then what we've been on the east near next, we've been over to Germany because it's just over the border or into Brussels. And it's just great. We find it a really great base to get out and about. Yeah, I agree. In terms, I mean, in terms of repeat travel, there's one for you. So, the crews that we've just been on to know, I enjoyed it so much and the wife enjoyed it so much, the kids absolutely loved it, that we booked it again for next year, and exactly the same week that we got this year, purely simply because it's a bank holiday Monday when we get the back, the wife works in the banking industry, so she's guaranteed to get the Monday off as well afterwards. Not only that, we booked it exactly the same week. We like the room we were in so much, it's in such a good position that we booked the exact same room on the ship again of all the five thousand, wherever there was available on there. We booked exactly the same room, that's how much we enjoyed it. Wow. Do you think that could go to year three and four? Or, yeah, because I guess, going back somewhere you're familiar with, because it's just nice. By doing that, you're also denying yourself the opportunity of trying new things and different things. I suppose it swings around about, isn't it? There's a limit, I guess. If you want to do both, you can't do both all the time. No, you're right there. See, one of the things this time, so obviously my wife's father passed away a couple of years ago, and while he was poorly, one of the things that him and his wife said that they do is, they wanted to do this cruise down the Norwegian Fjords. We loved it, and then we thought, do you know what, it'd be great if Sue could come with us this year? So we booked it, and she's in the room next door to us. So hopefully she'll have a great experience as we did. So what I do, again, and full enough actually, when you talk about repeat travel, Dave, what I do it so many times, as much as I love Las Vegas, and I've spoke about how much I love Las Vegas, I've been there many, many times, it's probably one of my biggest regrets in terms of travel, is that we went there so many times, that we could have visited other places in the USA or wherever. I think we went like four or five years in a row to Vegas. And we loved it, spent all the time on the Las Vegas trip, did a few little bits and bobs off of it. Yeah, it probably is one of my larger regrets in terms of travel, is that we visited that place as many, many times as we did, although I loved it, I've loved every minute that I've spent there. I do regret that maybe I could have spent a little bit of money that got elsewhere. I don't know, what about yourself, Ferriti? Is there any place like that? Is there any place that you've been to and regretted it? No, I don't think so. I think I've been either lucky or smart, and I've generally enjoyed everything I've done. I've had not great experiences maybe in some places, but not, nothing really. I didn't like, I say in Brussels quite a lot, but I didn't like Brussels very much. I didn't think, I felt, I didn't feel safer at all. And it felt, because I like to say this, I always feel like when we get people hating on me for saying, I just didn't feel it was all that. I went to see the mannequin piss, you know, the mannequin piss, went to see it and I was just like, oh, is that it? It's, you know, I just was like, wow, this is really what they talk about. So yeah, I didn't, I didn't like that so much. Again, I had friends there, so that was nice, but that's pretty much, yeah, about, no, not really. I think going to sort of touristy places like Menorca, you know, they're pretty, but they were quite touristy. I did just go to Venice last year, for the first time, I was on my first time in Italy, and I had an incredible trip, but I chose the wrong time to go. I went in August and we had an amazing apartment, really right in the middle of, well, it was about two streets away from St Mark's Square, and it was just perfect, but you got out of the door, and you had to like, take a step and just go with the throng. Literally, you were just like carried off, like flood waters. It was so, so incredibly busy, and I think the only time we actually got any like good photographs and things was really early in the morning or really late at night. When, you know, I think it's all the cruises, they come in, don't they? All these big cruise ships come in, people just trundle around, they go to Rialto Bridge, they go to St Mark's where they walk around, and then they go. And I found that a bit stressful, and I felt a bit so like damn, I should have thought about that. So hopefully, next year, my friend and I who went together, we're going to go to the Carnavale, which is in February, end of January, February, and that's with a masked sort of season where they have all these like festival, it's like a festival, masked festival, and that's meant to be fabulous. And I think if I get my tickets soon, or soon-ish, then I think I should get them for some really good price. So that would, I learned that. So I mean, I got something good out of it because I learned not to go there ever again in August, and I loved the experience of being there so much that I decided to go back at a better time of year. So that's probably my most negative experience, which is good, but that's it. That's it, literally. It is, it is. Absolutely. I've been to Brussels and I've been to Bruges, and Andy, you occasionally, and I mean, very occasionally presents the podcast with us, he used, he lived in Brussels for quite a while, and his experience is probably very different to yours. But again, though, if you said you didn't feel safe, that's probably a little different, Andy and I have both six foot five, you know, and quite a burly book. I know what you're saying about the mannequin piss, it is underwhelming. Yeah, it is. Yeah, in terms of a monument, and there's also the Jannequin piss, I don't know if you get to see that. No. No. It rained so much, it didn't go out much. Oh, no. So that, that is a, it's one of the people, one of the things that people are made of to be fair is it's equally unimpressive. It's a urinating girl. So we've got the pissing boy, and you've got a urinating girl over this thing that's just around the corner from the delirium bar, the main delirium bar there. And, you know, we wouldn't have found it. We wouldn't have found it. But the guy, I tell you what, one of those, one of the best experiences we've had in terms of hotels and customer service, we bumped into the guy while we were out at night, and he was telling us all the different places to go. And he put this, he says, go see the Jannequin piss. Everybody comes to Brussels and nobody ever, nobody can ever find it. We'll just go around that corner. It's just down there. You know, there was a danger there that he could have been mugging us, but he wasn't. It was all good. The Jannequin, I have to remember that. No, I didn't. I didn't, I didn't even know about that one. I mean, I was there for a few months. Wow. Nobody really mentioned it to me. Me and Catherine have been to Brussels and we didn't really like it. Pretty similar vibe to about, you know, it was a long time ago. So it was probably 20, 24 years ago, something like that, but it just didn't feel very clean or safe. But you know, it's, it doesn't, it doesn't mean it isn't. It's just the feeling you get when you're from the outside, going into a place. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think when you're going traveling as well, I sort of look at it as a particular experience. So if I'm going to France, I know that I want to go to like, nice markets, or like I did a lot of the festivals around France, and they're really great for families. Like, on the Acre Festival is fabulous. The whole town turns into a huge festival. There's camping, there's like, just activities, there's like, you know, spontaneous acts pop up in the street. You think, you know, sort of like flash mob type things. It's brilliant. And so you can go and have that kind of experience. So I think it's always worth thinking about what type of holiday you want to go for and go, right, I want some culture, or you know, or like you want the beach and you just go to the Dominican Republic and sort of lie on the beach or what have you. And that's the way I found I've had the best experiences kind of almost had in my mind the type of holiday I want to have, and I'll sort of build it as best I can. And then normally it sort of works out for me and I have that kind of holiday. But like I said, I'm not really a package holiday kind of person. I would never say no to that. If, you know, I've seen some, we were talking about deals before. I've seen some amazing deals this year. And in fact, when I was coming back from Morocco in June, June, I had a bit of a delay, let's say good old wine, I delay seven hours in Malaga, bit of a detour. And I got talking to everyone as you do, as you know, stuck there for seven hours with nothing to do in a room. And that they'd managed to go, you know, this one woman was she was a nurse and she's like, well, I've just came back from Malta. I'm going to she's come back from Morocco as well. I'm going to Sicily in a few weeks time and they just just go off all the time to lovely sunny, warm places and hey, like, well, she she had a week in Sicily for about 350 pounds. So, you know, you can do it. And that was with flights, you know, accommodation, like everything. And when you look at the cost of these things now, but because it is, you know, so so affordable to fly. And that is CO2 offset flights as well. And then you can see why people want to get out and travel more. I think it's great, actually. I think it's just maybe, you know, there will be people that don't necessarily agree with a lot of air travel. And I know that's an issue. But yeah, that's another argument and another conversation, I think, whether or not people want to get down the eco travel route, which, you know, like I said, you need to have money to be able to do that. So, it just takes it away from the average traveler. And I think that's a bit of a shame. It's nice just to expand your horizons. It's much, much money. No, I know what you're saying. And I guess it's one of those things we, I know, Dave organized another guest for us a couple of months ago now where we looked at the, you know, the dangers of what we're doing, you know, what our travel is doing to the planet. But at the same time, you know, on a personal level, there's a lot to be gained from that. But yeah, I just need to give a quick shout out to Paul Kelly for dropping some message there. Come on up to guarantee four seasons today and lots of midges. Cracking senior in chill vibes. We will get into Harlan. Thank you very much, Paul. If anybody saw the art or game on the weekend, that's just about enough about that. Thank you very much. So yeah, so in terms, so in terms of saving money and like I said, as you say, flying really isn't that expensive. Now, certainly if you want to fly to Europe, you can pick up some absolutely cracking deals. You know, sometimes you have to be prepared to travel at unusual times of the day, week or night, you know. So, have you got any other tips? You do. Um, well, you know, I actually booked another holiday yesterday, David. And I did because I am going back to Morocco again in December to go and see some friends. And my tickets were 20 pounds away, 20 pounds. So when you think when you think about that, it's incredible that it's so cheap. And again, I'm not, you know, they're not all that cheap. There's a certain amount of tickets that a certain amount of seats you've got to go at the right time and you've got to be quick and get them. Not all seats are going to be that. And I am not going on a particularly, you know, well, expensive airline, let's say. And obviously, yeah, if you're going low cost, there's more risk, you know, you're not going to have that experience. The travel experience might not be always like my Malaga trip. It's not always going to be great. But I don't really care about the traveling there. I'm going there. I don't, I don't think about, you know, I'm sat on a plane. I'll put my headphones on. I'll get the seat of the bag out of the way. I don't bother with drinks or anything like that. I don't even bother getting extra bags. I pack really light because I don't need and think I stay somewhere where I can wash away and close and everything. So I don't need to take as much stuff. And I can just travel so, so incredibly cheaply. But I mean, when I am in a country, I will always spend locally and try and support the local economy in some way. That's probably why, in a way, I don't like necessarily staying in big hotels and things like that. I would prefer to stay local. So you can do it cheaply. But I would just say advice wise, sign up to all the newsletters. That's what I did. And that's, I get, you know, weekly newsletter. I get flash sales. I get any kind of deals that are around. They just go straight into my inbox. I read them. I open them, you know, if you get a newsletter, read it. And I see the deals, you know, you can join them, like on Twitter, follow some people on X, anywhere like that. And just see when the deals pop up, really. And that's like travel zoo is a really good one I use. They send a weekly newsletter that has got like their top 20 that go really fast. I've had loads of nice holidays with Jersey, guns, I've been some nice places, just super cheap with them. And that's probably the best thing to do to find good deals and good travel at a low cost. Like I said, it's the type of holiday you want, you need to think about that. And if you don't want to be paying low prices and you want to do the eco travel thing, then this is probably not the best way to do it. This is for people who want to cheat, cheat travel, and to get out, get out of Blighty. That's a plan. You say that is a question for you then. You know, a couple of years ago, obviously, you know, we don't like talking about it too much. We had a bit of a pandemic and travel sort of went pear shaped certainly into that. So travel came very, very difficult. You know, when you talk about getting out of the UK, do you have a staycation? Do you have a travel in the UK? I do. I do. I do like going to Wales. You know, we're in a island in Ozwistry, which is just right on the border of Wales. And we do have a beautiful, beautiful scenery. And I have stayed locally as well. I found a really good website called canvas and stars, canvas and star or canopy and stars. And they do like glamping and all kinds of things all over the place, but they find quite unique places. So there's a place in Ludlow, and you can stay in these beautiful kind of tents, which have no, like, you can see the stars through them. So you sleep literally under the stars and these beautiful, I mean, they're luxurious, but they're not, they're not massively expensive. But just for things like that, I think, are all going to stay in a little gypsy caravan, you know, like a traditional caravan and have that kind of experience. I have a friend that's got shepherd's huts and she's got them on her farm. She's all saying, come down and stay. And I would do that. And I have done that gone and stayed locally. You know, literally just another county away. I do like that. And yeah, completely, I would. But the irony is, my friend and I wanted to go to Edinburgh recently, we were looking into it. And we just wanted to soak up a bit of, you know, Scottish culture, Edinburgh's beautiful. So we looked at going and we were like, we don't want to drive. Let's get the train. Let's get the train. Let's stay for two nights in Edinburgh. And when we priced it up, we were looking at the best part of £400 each for return travel on, you know, trains and staying in a nice hotel with breakfast in the center of, you know, we wanted to be close to everything. Now, I'm going to spend less than £300, including my flights and including my parking, going to Morocco for a week. So when you look at it like that, you're like, well, you know, where would I rather be? Well, I'd like to go for longer somewhere. And that's why you end up going somewhere. That's a broad and that's cheaper. So I think that we could make travel more affordable in this country. You know, I don't want to go on about trains and rail networks and buses and things like that. But we could learn a lot from European countries when it comes to things like that. And that would make things cheaper. And people would be more inclined to stay. I'm sure they would if those things were cheaper. It's expensive over here. That's the problem. It is. And I know what you're on about in terms of train travel. So I was over in Texas, like I said, a couple of weeks ago, visiting my cousin went out there for a wedding, had an absolutely fantastic time. One of the things we talked about there with my cousin and his good friend Ron, it was him coming over here, then touring around a few of these places like we were, you know, we last time he was here, we went up to Edinburgh, worked to go there again, Chester, York, Stratford, upon Avon, somebody's place to take a train between the two. She was when you looked at the cost of that, I'd be cheaper to fly them all over to France and have a crack in time over there. It's crazy. It is really expensive. I know, it's crazy, isn't it? But the rail network. Sorry about it. I was talking over it. I think it was a bit of a delay. I was just going to say that it is really expensive. And if you want to stay in any of the cities, then the prices then just go straight through the roof. I mean, I was looking to take Catherine away and perhaps just just bob over to Paris for a few days. But I thought I wanted to do it, you know, go on the train, ideally, straight into the centre of Paris and then just stay in a hotel that's right in the middle of Paris, just for a few days. And the whole thing by turning it in the Eurostar and the train just to get to London, get across to London, it was coming in at the best part of a thousand pounds. It was a nice hotel, but it just added up bit by bit. And then yeah, and it's just like, I kind of do that. I know that's Paris and it's the middle of Paris, but it just seemed astronomical. You know, the trains were, you know, they're getting to London before with the most expensive part. You know, it's just bonkers. Yeah, I find that. And having lived in Holland as well and living with such good rail service, I mean, they're not even a minute late, are they? Like, everything's on time. When I was in Copenhagen, we got the train over to across the bridge, you know, the famous bridge of the TV show. We went over to Malmer, I think we say Malmer, and had just such a lovely time. And the train was so clean, so fast, you get Wi-Fi, it's super on time, the station, everything. It was actually a really, really nice experience. And I spent a lot of time traveling, rail traveling around France and Spain, Belgium, Holland, Germany, like all of those countries. And I just can't fault their systems. They're just brilliant. And I just think, how is it that we just don't, just don't, I think I got the train to London recently. And it was two hours delay there. Then we got re-routed to Coventry, and then it was three hours delay back. So it was awful, it was awful. I'm avoided going to Birmingham at all on the train now, because it always, it's like, I think they must train all the people there just to sort of have a set of expressions they use constantly, that just apologizing for travel, because that's all they ever say, and they never say anything positive. It's not good. So that's why people go away. That's what we're dealing with. Yeah. So one of the, one of the things you mentioned there is glamping, okay. So I went glamping for the first time this year as well. In my 51 years, the first time I've ever been glamping. Now, my wife said to me, I found this place, it looks fantastic. The kids are going to absolutely love it. We've rented a double deck of bus that had been converted. So the downstairs of the living area, the upstairs was the sleeping area. Now, I thought, I'll tell you what, that's a great novelty. This is going to be a great, a great experience for the kids. The thing I overlooked is it's a double deck of bus, and as I mentioned a few moments ago, I'm six foot five. I spent most of my time stood on the stairs because it was the only place I could stand up straight. It was an absolutely miserable experience being in there. Oh, no. Oh, where was that? So Matt Lockett was, Matt Lockett. So again, not that far away, but there was plenty of places nearby. I took the kids to Tram Museum, took them to Gulliver's World. They absolutely loved it while I wandered around moaning about me back all the time. Oh, yeah, I suppose you've got to do your research. Read the small print. What do you think about in the news a lot lately, is Airbnb in particular causing problems with more and more people turning their properties over to Airbnb and cities and towns across the world, really, just being overloaded with tourists so that they just can't cope anymore. I was listening on the radio yesterday. I think it was where there are some age-to-state agents or travel agents. I like putting overcrowding indexes to say, if you go here, you're causing a problem, try and go some other time. And then there's a lot of cities that are just locking down an Airbnb completely on there. Well, yeah, this is what I was saying about the two sides of the argument though, because it's like these are economies that rely on tourism. So yes, they do need tourists. And then you've got the budget airlines that are 20-handed ticket and what have you. And it was a bit like remembering the 80s when everybody complained about all the high-rise blocks that popped up in Spain and all these hotels and apartments and everybody was just like, "Oh no, this is awful. It's like little Britain everywhere. It's just chip shops and beer and what have you in Toramellinos." So I keep using that as an example, but you know what I mean? People complained about that and things have sort of evolved again to have changed and now we're kind of moaning about this situation. I think it's, I just think it's the way of the world. I think that really if you're going to have another, some form of tourism or an economy that relies on tourism, you do have to put up with that kind of thing as well. And I think a lot of this is probably to do with post-COVID and the reaction people have because, you know, being locked down for the best part of three years, we are just all crazy for getting out and seeing the world. So I do think things will probably settle down. I think travel is going to get more expensive again to maybe offset some of the carbon issues. So it will change and people will end up staying together. They're like cycles aren't they? These things go in cycles. There will be another thing that will happen. Like I said about eco-tourism, I know that's on the increase, but it is pretty much an expensive sort of thing. So maybe people will either get back to that kind of mentality of really saving for a holiday, where they save all year and they go off on that type of holiday. So I mean, who knows how it's going to go? I agree. Yes, there is obviously issues with that, but it's also a free market and people can kind of do that. And this is supplementing some people's, you know, living and what have you. So I don't know, I've got a mixed view on it. I think more important to me is that how I behave and how I treat people when I'm traveling and the experiences I get and how I am and how I represent myself and my country is really important. And I think that's where my focus is when I travel. I'm not worrying about stuff. You can worry about everything, couldn't you? You just never go anywhere if that's what you thought back really. 100%. And like I said, I want to get out of Blighty because I'm a nice and warm. That's it. That's it. God bless it. That's the one that you don't want to hear is the weather for absolutely cool. So just out of interest then, you've got your trip booked then for later this year, as you just telling, they've hopefully booked holidays in within first. You know, we know all this works. I did, I did. So what have you got these destinations that you've never visited, somewhere that you'd love to go to? What on bucket list kind of places? Yeah, I do. There's loads of places I'd love to go. But you know, it's weird when you think about what makes a bucket list place, I don't know what it is. It's almost like your expectation of something. What you think it's going to be like, it's informed by your frame of reference might be movies or, you know, conversations or books or what have you. But I have always, always wanted to go to New Orleans. That is on my bucket list. I just, I've never been there. I've only been to New York and I just really, really want to go there. I love France. I'm quite a Francophile. So, you know, that's got the sort of French vibe going on there. And I just, it just to me sounds like the sort of place I would enjoy going. So that's on there. I want to go to Rio. Rio de Janeiro. That's another one. I've never been to South America. I'd love to visit South America. And I want to really like to go to Japan as well. I think it would just be a very unique experience. Everybody I know who has been there has just had wonderful things to say about it. So they, they'd probably be my, my key places. But I also been reading quite a lot about other areas in Eastern Europe. So Riga in Latvia and Albania and places like that, they seem to be really growing in popularity. People say, you know, they're hidden gems because obviously they had Eastern block countries have been kind of shut off to the world and now they're a lot more accessible. So I would really like to explore some of those countries because I don't really know Eastern Europe very well. You know, the places I've always wanted to go to Prague and what have you. But there's lots and lots of places. I would to be quite honest with you. I'd go anywhere. I'm really like, if somebody said to me, let's go here. Let's go. I would just, I'd go if I hadn't been there. I'd want to explore it. But yeah, bucket list, definitely new audience. That's the next place I'd like to go in the next couple of years for sure. Yeah, I've got a big birthday. I'm going to go then. Okay, yeah. Well, you're 21st. So yeah, I mean, in terms of New Orleans, it must have been it. It's on my bucket list as well. So my cousin, like I say, lives in Texas before he lived there, lived in Biloxia, Mississippi. And that's not that far away from New Orleans. He used to go there all the time. And yeah, he loves that place. Yeah, he absolutely loves New Orleans. And it's absolutely on my bucket list too. And in terms of Riga's role, it just sounds like it's going to be amazing that place, you know, long ice teas and, you know, the bayou and having a good night. I'm sure there's more. I know there's a lot more to it than that. But that's what I mean about the frame of reference that you get for things. For some reason, that seems to hit a note with me. And I think, yeah, that would be something I'd enjoy. Yeah. No, I get that. I get that. Dave, is anyone in your bucket list you absolutely have to visit? Cranky. I haven't really got a bucket list. I mean, Japan is up there. I think Albert really wants to go to Japan. Catherine would like to, Alice, not so key. And like Verity, everyone we know that's been there has said it's a great place to go. So I think that that's that's one. But other than that, it's, you know, for me, it's, it's get rid of the kids and get some time and and sort of the sort of thing that Verity's just been talking about when you've got, when you've got the final Verity's got kids, but when you've got the freedom to not have to consider other people than yourselves, and you can just literally think, okay, what's come on the email that you can go there for 40 quid for nights. And you think, okay, well, let's book it. Go. I think I'm quite looking forward to just having that freedom just to go to a lot of places for perhaps short stays, just to see it and experience it. Yeah. Well, that's that's exactly what I'm talking about. And that's what I don't have the time I'm apparent. And I have two children, you know, they're 12 and 14. So, you know, they're they're pretty self-contained. But obviously they still need their mom. They're still young. But it just means that my that's why my trips, my my time that I spend away is always a week or, you know, five days or four days. And you can fit that in quite nicely in your time off because you've got weekends. And that is why I end up looking. That's probably why I look like I'm going lots of places. It's just because I'm going for short, short journeys each time and and getting to know somewhere. You know, that's how that's how I've got to know Morocco going for a week here a week there and exploring it and getting to know it. And I think that if you can, you know, the kids can go stay with grandparents, what have you for a week, you know, you can book that holiday to Malta for 300 pounds for both of you. And because you've spent so little going there, you actually can eat in beautiful restaurants when you're there. And I really have a lovely time. I have quite a luxurious experience as well. If that's what you if you like, that sort of thing, you know, have to do it on a budget. If you don't spend much getting there and your accommodations cheap, then why not? David, you work very hard. You deserve it. Thanks very to you. He tells us he works out. He's very good. I know exactly what you say. Like I said, when I went to Texas this year, this is the first time in my 51 years I've ever traveled alone ever been to an airport through myself, always gone with the wine. You know, and we've always traveled together. And I've got to tell you this, traveling, probably shouldn't have told it as vociferously as I did when I got back. Traveling by yourself, it's so easy. Literally, you can do what you want when you want. I don't need a second opinion about where the airport gate is. If I want to go to the loop, I can go to the loop. I want to go belly up to the bar and watch basketball for 40 minutes, and, you know, cut it close to getting on that flight and drink some 9% beer. That's what I'm going to do. And I know you're what, it was a fantastic experience. I love traveling by myself. It's actually, it's really good for you. It's good for you to do that, I think. I think, you know, as long as you're safe and you know where you're going and what have you, that's 100% why I love traveling. I'm on my own quite often. It's just up to be, you know, if I'm late, it's on me. I'm never late, but I'm traveling, funnily enough. I think being able to do that really just is a really enriching experience. I mean, Texas sounds amazing as well. That sounds like a really great idea to go somewhere like that. And you don't want to have the hassle of anything else just immerse yourself in the experience. So you enjoyed it, I take it. Oh, I loved it. I loved it. It was my second visit to Texas. We went last year. I took the family last year. So me, the wife and the two kids, we went out there, we stayed with my cousin. And this time we went to a wedding. So it was my cousin's stepson's wedding. What an experience. Just, you know, we're probably going to talk about that on a on a later episode, but yeah, it was incredible to go to one of those tech. And if you've ever seen any line dancing or if you've ever seen, there was no line dancing there. But if you ever seen you put your question and anything like that, you can picture it. You know, you can picture the guys in the car, but that's drinking whiskey in this huge hall. And, you know, with the music playing, it was the experience of a lifetime. You know, yeah, I was only there for a very short period of time, because I can only take a short period of time off work. And it was quite costly because of the flights to the States, but every penny, every minute that's been there, I would do it again tomorrow if the opportunity came up. That's that's what I mean about the experiences, you see, when you when you go somewhere. So when I'm in Morocco, I'm having my friends cooking rock and food for me. And, you know, I've got their music playing and there's conversation going around. And you're in the thick of what it's actually like for people from that place. You're not just having a sort of sterile, touristic experience. You've got that because you're at a family wedding, you've got, you know, the people, the food, the music, the clothing, the access, like everything is all part of the sort of rich experience of travel. And that's why I think that's absolute best way to go and go and stay with people you know, or do that, you know, you can even do, you know, this at home to go where you actually stay in someone's house, do like house swaps, there's loads and loads of things you can do to really get a feel for the place and visit friends. And then you make friends and then those friends ask you to go back and then you've got cheap accommodation, you want to go somewhere. It all makes sense. It does more tips, more tips, they've got it. No, but the thing about going and immersing ourselves in the thing in the local area, that's we've got friends at Captain Wentz University with high-key and gunners and they live in Viplich in Germany. And they have every year they have to go to Pig Festival, which is, you know, something's been celebrated for God knows how long. There's an awful lot of pigs killed, don't go there for your vegetarian. And they're all barbecueed all around the town and there's beer and it's I think it's a three or four day festival and the whole town is decked out and there's this kind of atmosphere and we've been to that and just stayed with them for that time. And it is that you just and you meet all of their friends and it's just, it's just awesome. You just, it's a different kind of relaxation. There's quite a lot going on at the same time. There's feeling completely easy. It's that feeling at home when you're not. It's all very different, but it's very relaxing and it's very enjoyable. And I absolutely agree with it. It's a great way of learning different cultures and experiencing it. Yeah. Yeah. And then I think that's probably, you know, David, you know, me. I like languages and travel and culture and that. And it's partly because you end up feeling like you make these little kind of communities or friendships and things like that. And, you know, we, if you can live your life, forget to a nice age and look back and see that you've created rich friendships with people from other places because, you know, that's, for me, part of life, just getting to see other things and other people. And I think that's a really nice thing to be able to say that I've made friends from somewhere else. It definitely opens your eyes to lots of different things in the world. It makes, I think it makes you more empathetic and makes you a better person, more patient. There's lots and lots of skills and attributes. I think I found from language learning that as all feeds into the same thing. You know, I could talk about travel because at the end of the day, without using that overused expression, it is about a feeling, happy, balanced, really good for your mental health to go and do something like that. And also just to put yourself a little bit outside of your comfort zone, you know, like going on your own to Texas, you know, could have had issues and what have you would have to deal with them. Thankfully, it sounds like it was fine. But, you know, all of those things, it sort of builds a bit of resilience, doesn't it? You know, being able to cope with things if they go wrong. My kids, when I'm walking around Copenhagen at like nearly one in the morning, not knowing where we were and being completely lost, they were actually looked at me and they knew they were okay with me. They were like, my mum's got this. She knows what she's doing because I do because I travel and I understand that and you know, you just need to ask people. People will help you. Most people in the world that I've come across are good. You know, I have to say I've very, very rarely had bad experiences and I would say most people when you meet them, they want to meet you, they want to be nice, they want to help and be friendly. So it's good. It sort of reminds you that people are good at heart as well. Yeah, that's, I think, you know, we always turn to a wrap you up round about the arm up and I do think that's a really nice thought to leave you on as well. I totally agree with you. The vast majority of people out there are very, very good and kind. They're very small binarity and we can't let it spoil it for everyone. No, absolutely. And I always see this about, you know, when, you know, when it's our time to go, we're lying there, we're taking our last breaths. You won't be thinking about the houses that we lived in, the cars that we owned or the stuff that we've witnessed together. Well, think about those experiences that we've had and we've shared with other people. You know, hopefully my kids are in the same way, but I suspect they see me as they have an absolute liability wherever I am and what I'm doing. But nonetheless, I take some joy from that. Definitely. I agree. I think that's the way to be and that's the way to live your life and, you know, travel. It enriches the mind and it enriches the soul. All those cliches, they're a cliche for a reason and, you know, it's because it's true. So I think just got to keep doing it. David, to find some nice places to visit, you know, keep going, trying different things. I'll expect a report from Malta, wherever you go, when you get your cheap trip to Malta. I'll send you links to the newsletters so that you can sign up and get all the great deals I get. Yeah, I got to wait for the kids to leave home first, Verity. You don't, you don't. That's my point. It's because it's fine. Kids do listen to the podcast, yeah. Clear off, Verity. They'll be like, I'll see go. Yeah, I remember having parties at home when my parents went away. So yeah, I won't do that. So we are around about the hour, Mark. Verity, if you'd like to say you're goodbyes to our listeners. Yeah, thank you for listening. I hope everybody's going to go and do more traveling now and learn a new language and things like that. It's been great talking to you today. So thank you for having me on and talk about travel. Like I said, I can talk about that so the cares come home. Absolutely. It's been great to have you. Listen, we love to live vicariously through other people's stories as well. So it's been great to hear your stories and places you've visited. Hopefully it'll inspire Dave to do some of them. I know it's certainly inspired me. I'm, you know, Copenhagen is absolutely on my list. New Orleans is on my list as well. So if you do it first, be sure to share those stories with us. For so long. No problem, my world at you. Dave, any final thoughts? It's been great to have you on the podcast, Verity. Thank you very much for jumping in at short notice. It's, you know, for anyone that listens to our podcast, you know, the guests we have, we love it when people come on and share their experiences and, you know, their passions. I always find it fascinating. Even if it's somebody I already know, it gives me opportunity to learn some more about the people talking to and about experiences. And I think it's educational and hopefully interesting. So I've certainly enjoyed it. So thank you, Verity. And you're welcome. Thank you, David. And not only that, we've had some top tips as well, which you can get some use of, some newsletters to be signed up to there, no doubt, and some other tips that you can use. Next week, we're back and we're going to be talking to Marie, who was a New York City Police Officer. I know we promised we could do that this week, but we had to rearrange. And that's where we are, where we are. And that's absolutely fine. So we will catch you next week. It just leads me to say thank you, Verity, for joining us. Really, really enjoyed hearing about your travel stories. It's given me itchy feet. You know what I mean? I've got one holiday booked. I might have to book another one now before I offer a line tonight. So thank you very much, everybody. And good night. [Music]