everything is grand in ireland

Since my Mum was a school girl it has been her dream to go to Ireland, and since it is less than an hour flight I couldn't let her leave the UK without making the journey.

Countryside in County Kerry

feeling at home in the shetland isles

Like a large proportion of New Zealander's I have always known I have some Scottish  ancestry. Coming from a young country means that most people search for a link to somewhere else, and end up saying that they are "Scottish" or "English" or "French" even if they have no current connection to that country. 

Harbour in Lerwick

15 things i learned in paris

There is so much to do and see in Paris, and much of it well known, so I don't really need to do a blow by blow account of our time there.

Instead, here are 15 things I learned on our family trip just after New Year.

Eiffel Tower! Just as awesome in real life

road tripping scotland

While my family were over we had a car between Christmas and New Year, which gave us a really good chance to explore some of Scotland. There is so much to see but you can see a lot in a short time as well.

St Andrew's Cathedral

christmas in scotland

Last year I had a winter Christmas, for only the second  time in my life, in England with my best friends family. My first winter Christmas having been in Wichita, Kansas, when I was 17. I had an awesome time last year in England and had no responsibilities whatsoever. This year was a different story altogether.

With my family over for their first ever winter Christmas, I was playing host and going all out.

My cake!!!

dresden by train

Since we had originally planned to take in two cities on Mum's birthday trip, before Ryan Air thwarted our plans, I decided to have a look and see what was near Prague that we might be able to visit.

Such is the beauty of Europe, we could train to another city in another country in 2 hours! Plus Dresden has one of the oldest Christmas Markets in Europe. Tick and tick, we were on our way!

Mum waiting for the train to leave

december in prague

Mum arrived in Edinburgh right before her birthday in December, so we decided to do a trip that would take us to Christmas Markets, since Christmas is one of her favourite things. After a bit of drama with cancelled flights we ended up going to Prague, with a side trip to Dresden in Germany.

Just arrived at our apartment in Prague!