As if Bratislava (Slovakia), Vienna (Austria), Pamplona (Spain) and Cala Llonga (Ibiza) weren’t enough another trip to a random European destination had to be planned before the end of the year. This time, Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, an Eastern European country I know very little of and have never seen before. This trip made me realise how much we really take for granted. It immediately became clear that we moan at the state of our country, our roads, the traffic, the homeless, but other countries still part of the European Union have it far worse than we could ever imagine.

The streets in Bulgaria were littered with rubbish, some roads could be compared to a landfill site, I chose not to publish those photos. Being in a car was terrifying and the majority of people certainly knew how to use a horn. Road lanes, signs and signals really need not be there, in fact on our way to the airport we passed three cars driving at full speed the wrong way down the motorway!

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Having lived in the UK my entire life it’s difficult to understand why I had never been to Scotland considering it’s ‘only up the road’. Gemma’s parents invited us to go and stay with them in a small cabin in the Cairngorms in the middle of nowhere. Not the sort of holiday I’m too keen on but it turned out to be a brilliant experience and one I would happily do again!

Away from the busy streets of Edinburgh, Glasgow and other large cities, Scotland is a beautiful and extremely quiet place. We stayed in a tiny town called Feshiebridge a few miles from Aviemore.

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I’ve always wanted to go to Ibiza on a ‘lads one’ but never considered it a destination for a romantic holiday. It turns out Ibiza is incredibly beautiful and a place that anyone can experience providing you know which part of the island to go to.

Ibiza has a huge reputation around the world as being the clubbers destination. It wasn’t until the island cropped up in my search for a holiday as a relatively cheap destination to fly to that I looked into it a bit further. I soon discovered that there are parts of the island that remain completely untouched by the noise and drunken antics that are synonymous with the clubbing scene.

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What was originally planned to be a four day break in Bratislava, Slovakia turned into a week long holiday due to the Volcanic eruption in Iceland. The ash cloud created by the volcano meant the majority of European airspace was closed and it wasn’t until we landed in Slovakia on the day of the eruption that we learnt our flight home was cancelled and we were stranded!

Needless to say this didn’t stop us making the most of our trip so I thought I would share some of my favourite photos here. On the first day we toured Bratislava in the pouring rain, an excellent excuse to dive into every open bar, sit back and order an ice cold Slovakian brew.

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After what seemed like months of research to find a good place to go on holiday this year, Gemma and I settled on a self catering apartment on the outskirts of Albufeira in Portugal. I’ve been to Portugal many times in the past and it really is a beautiful country. Despite my reservations about using a cheap flight operator, EasyJet were an absolute pleasure to fly with, we even arrived earlier than expected so don’t be swayed by all of the negative comments you read on the Internet these days. On our arrival to Faro airport in the early afternoon it was above thirty degrees centigrade, ‘muito quente’!

On our first outing we were a little disappointed at the lack of ‘local’ restaurants, that was until we walked to the ‘old town’ which turned out to be the crown jewel of the area. Although heavily focused on tourism, Albufeira old town was teeming with life during the day and a hot spot of activity, street performers and a real feel good feeling at night.

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