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JOURNAL

A Welsh Cottage
 
 

We’ve had some terrible luck with AirBnB’s recently, and even our first one in Wales was a bad experience. We got there early evening as arranged with the host, and turned up to an empty property and an airbnb that hadn’t been cleaned since the last people staying there. Wine bottles, dirty bed and all sorts. The owner wasn’t answering her phone so we had to leave and find a local hotel and pay twice the price for a room. We did eventually get an apology and a refund but it could have left us stranded in the middle of nowhere in Wales! Thank god for local little hotels that also do cracking evening dinners to sort you out after a drama.

Anyways, our next stop was this thatched cottage a little more south of Snowdonia. It was probably the most aesthetically pleasing place we have ever stayed. Every nook was full of character and original features. We sat every night with the fire on, just reading or playing board games and exploring during the day. It’s also a lock box check-in which is honestly a huge selling point for an introvert like myself. There’s nothing worse than hours and hours of being in the car and then having to introduce yourself to somebody new and be shown around when you’re knackered.

I usually get quite a few people asking about these nice airbnb’s so here’s the link if you’d like to book. The only thing I’d recommend is booking another place further north before or after your stay here. There’s a lot more to see in the Snowdonia area of Wales in my opinion. But overall, it’s exactly what I needed after a busy year. Our last proper holiday was easter last year, so this week off was well overdue.

 
 
Amy Spires
Wild Ponies
 

We’ve just come back from a few days exploring Wales. We drove through Snowdonia, along the coast and through the Brecon Beacons. One of the most memorable moments was driving through these huge, bright open moors. There was absolutely nothing around and it was deathly silent, until we spotted a pull over spot surrounded by little wild ponies.

There was already a car in the spot, and a young girl coaxing the ponies over with bread and carrots. I honestly have never been so excited to find a turning spot and get back to park the car and get out with the camera. I was so panicked that the ponies would be scared off and I’d miss my chance to get close.

 
 
 
 
 
Amy Spires
A Day in Scotland

Our first road trip of 2019. The adventure to start the year! I’d been looking forward to it for weeks. But what is a road trip without something going horrifically wrong? At this point I should remind you of two of my favourite trips gone wrong here and here. Good times.

So, my husband and I worked a lot over Christmas and before that we’d been consumed by our house move and getting the house out of it’s magnolia/laminate floor phase, so we were both absolutely desperate for a little trip away. We never usually get full weekends off either, so we decided to make the most of it and book an Airbnb in south west Scotland. This is where I make a mistake. We’re currently in the process of saving up for a bigger road trip to Wales in a few weeks, so we didn’t want to book something really fancy for this trip. So I thought I’d be funny and book the cheapest Airbnb we could find in the area. To be fair, it had good reviews and all 5 star ratings. Basic, but clean. Just somewhere to rest our heads in an area of new surroundings.

We wake up on Saturday morning, ready to go and explore. However, it had just happened to be our annual British dose of snow through the previous night. Yellow and amber alerts for pretty much nearly everywhere, people stranded on motorways down south, wheel spins galore driving to work etc etc etc. Typical. We nearly didn’t go but I thought NO. I’ve been looking forward to this. I need this. I hadn’t used my camera properly since our Dutch road trip last year. If it was too bad we could just turn around and come home.

To our credit, the weather actually dramatically improved as we got towards Dalbeattie and I felt like luck was on our side. We stopped off at lots of small Scottish coastal towns and had a pretty good time seeing some amazing rocky beaches. We stretched out the day as long as possible and headed to the Airbnb as it started to get dark. We planned on doing most of proper exploring the next morning and heading home late.

So we’re both pretty tired at this point and ready for some dinner and a fire and an early night, but it takes us nearly another 45 mins to follow the directions and find the actual airbnb. As we pulled up to the farm (it was a converted outbuilding on a farm) we both looked at each other and read each other’s minds. Nope. Absolutely not.

We knew it wasn’t going to be anything spectacular, but in person it just gave off some very weird vibes. The owners hadn’t tried to make it even a little bit welcoming…. there was rubbish and wood everywhere and everything looked like it was falling apart. Fair enough, it’s a farm, but even the little house looked boarded up! Before the owners could come out and greet us we sped off into the night and panic drove 100 miles home. I’m not even joking.

Oh well. Fingers crossed our Wales trip is successful!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Amy Spires