Description

Hello and welcome to episode 159. In this episode of the Winging It Travel Podcast, host James Hammond takes you on an inspiring journey as he chats with Laura, known to many as Lo on the Road. Laura runs captivating food tours in the enchanting cities of Dublin + Florence, and her travel stories are nothing short of remarkable. From her beginnings in Canada to her adventurous leap into Europe, Laura's first solo trip at age 26 sparked a passion for travel that would change her life forever.

Join us as Laura shares her unique travel experiences, including her time as a nanny in the picturesque streets of Florence. She opens up about the challenges and joys of living abroad, painting a vivid picture of her adventures and the cultural richness that comes with them. This episode is a treasure trove of travel anecdotes highlighting the importance of personal connections. Laura emphasizes how meeting local business owners and immersing oneself in the community can lead to unforgettable experiences + genuine friendships.

Throughout the conversation, we delve into the transformative power of food in culture + travel. Laura shares her favourite spots in Florence and Dublin, offering invaluable travel recommendations to inspire your next adventure. Whether you're a seasoned backpacker or someone just starting to explore the world, her insights into the food tourism industry will ignite your wanderlust + encourage you to embrace your travel journey.

As we discuss overcoming fears and taking risks, Laura reflects on the lessons learned from her travels. She reminds us that stepping out of our comfort zones can lead to profound personal growth and new opportunities. This episode is a powerful reminder that adventure travel is not just about the destinations we visit but also about the stories we collect along the way.

Tune in to Winging It Travel for a conversation filled with travel inspiration, practical travel advice, and authentic travel conversations that resonate with anyone who has ever dreamed of exploring the globe. Whether planning a budget travel adventure or looking for some travel inspiration, this episode will motivate you to wing it and embark on your unforgettable journey. Don't miss out on this opportunity to learn from Laura's incredible experiences + discover how travel can transform your life!

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Transcription

• Speaker #0

  But I'm going to take you to this little place owned by this guy whose sons make their own olive oil. And we're going to talk to him and what life is like raising these sons. And we're going to have some of his meat and his cheese and have a glass of wine and kind of do a little trail like that through Florence. And we're going to have a dessert. We're going to have a coffee. We're going to have a panino. We're going to have some pizza. And my tour, and even in Dublin as well, is more about the people and their stories.

• Speaker #1

  nice small businesses with big hearts is kind of the most important thing to me welcome to the wing and it travel podcast with me james hammond every monday i'll be joined by guests to talk about their travel stories travel tips backpacking advice and so much more are you a backpacker gap year student or simply someone who loves to travel then this is the podcast for you designed to inspire you to travel there'll be stories to tell tips to share and experiences to inspire welcome to the show Hello and welcome to this week's episode. I'm joined by Laura who is also known as Low on the Road who runs food tours in Dublin and Florence. Laura was born and raised in Canada but travelled solo to Europe 15 years ago to become a nanny despite never being on a plane before and she's still in Europe. And she grew up in the restaurant business in Canada, used to own a cafe in Dublin and has led food tours in Tuscany too. So today we're going to hear about Laura's journey, why she travels solo, her experiences of running a tour and a cafe. and also some current details of what she's up to now with her current tours. Laura, welcome to the show. How are you doing?

• Speaker #0

  Thanks so much for having me. I'm good, James. How are you?

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, not too bad. Thank you. Not too bad. Tell our listeners where you are right now.

• Speaker #0

  I'm at home in Dublin. Yeah, just chilling in my apartment. This is where my stopping grounds are for the time being.

• Speaker #1

  Is that what is proper home for you now, Dublin?

• Speaker #0

  It's funny because, you know, when I'm away from Dublin, I refer to it as home. And when I'm... here I actually usually refer to Canada as home but um

• Speaker #1

  I suppose I suppose when I say home I mean physically in my flat so yeah and we go we go back to the backstory of some of our guests so as I mentioned in the intro you're from Canada so what about some Canada did you grow up and what were your early memories of any travel that you might have done early doors

• Speaker #0

  So I'm from British Columbia, way, way north BC. So if you go to Vancouver and you're driving in a car, you drive north for about nine hours, like until nothing, trees, animals, maybe you don't even see a person for an hour or so. And my father's Sicilian and he moved there in the 70s to start a logging company. So that's why we ended up all the way over there. Yeah. And, you know, it's funny, because as a child, we didn't really travel. Because we own the restaurant, the restaurant was kind of priority number one and my parents never would have left staff to look after the place so going on a holiday meant closing the restaurant for a week so as a child we did go on vacation now and then but just little trips to Vancouver trips to the Okanagan but I didn't really start kind of traveling until I was an adult and did it on my own but because my parents are both Italian I always did want to go see Italy, know there was a bigger world out there and definitely had my mind on coming to Europe since I was a child. But we didn't do it as children, unfortunately.

• Speaker #1

  That's quite interesting that your father's from Sicily and going to Northern BC, that's a heck of a change.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. And every year in September, he'd be like, winter's coming, winter's coming. I'm like, Jon Snow, it's not here yet. Don't worry. We still have a little while, but he never got used to the cold winters,

• Speaker #1

  unfortunately. It's tough, right? it's tough up there oh absolutely yeah and for bc so you're like way north i'm thinking if you're in a quite remote place as a restaurant is it one of those situations where like you're the only restaurant sort of in town or in the village that you're in um

• Speaker #0

  yeah so there's definitely um places where we had one cinema one dairy queen one mcdonald's but we definitely have lots of restaurants for the small town that we were there were lots of restaurants and We were the only Italian restaurant aside from, you know, maybe a pizza takeaway here and there, but definitely earned the spot of being, you know, one of the most popular and best restaurants in town. Really kept the quality up, had a great reputation for 40 years. And that was definitely earned. And not just because we were one of the only restaurants, but because we were, you know, one of the best restaurants.

• Speaker #1

  Of course. If you've got a Sicilian cooking Italian food, I think that's a game changer, right?

• Speaker #0

  A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Absolutely.

• Speaker #1

  And I guess your mum is from BC or Canada.

• Speaker #0

  Actually, my mum's Italian. Oh,

• Speaker #1

  okay. Right.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. My mum's from Calabria, but they actually met in Canada. They met in Canada after they had both moved there by coincidence, ended up in a small town and met there.

• Speaker #1

  Wow. That's crazy.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. Yeah. Because, you know, back in the seventies, it's like, if you move to a small town and you're from a country, you make a community with all the people there from your country. And so that's kind of just, yeah, what happened?

• Speaker #1

  That's mental. When I was living in Kitsilano, so that's a part of Vancouver.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  Which is quite nice, actually. Just below on our building block. there was a couple of Italian guys I think they were probably quite new from Italy and they set up a cafe and I think they've stayed now and they're kind of giving that restaurant cafe thing a go they're called Casarecchio and it looks at quite a nice cafe like home-cooked Italian food they've got Italian chefs in there so they're kind of staying here and giving that a go and just looked always good like the croissants the pastries were amazing as well as the oh man the pastries will get you Italian pastries will get you

• Speaker #0

  Yes, that's my siren song. It's Italian pastry.

• Speaker #1

  Funny guys, right? They're well into it. But yeah, you kind of read and also listen to on podcasts about this interesting moment we're in right now where a lot of Canadians are trying to go to Europe. And I guess you've got some Europeans coming here, which is we're all swapping over. It's quite an interesting time.

• Speaker #0

  It's funny. I remember there being a meme saying like, my father left a small fishing village in Europe to come to Canada. And now all I'm trying to do is get back to a fishing village. in Europe which you know what I was doing you know in my 20s so I completely understand it

• Speaker #1

  I kind of weighed this up right because I've seen that meme before as well I think I saw one in Argentina about they were trying to go back to Italy right because a lot of Italians went to Argentina I just wonder I don't know if this is unfair or not but back in the day they're obviously trying to elevate themselves socially right but that's kind of driven by money maybe and they probably was they probably had a good opportunity to to come here or Argentina to make some money right and then I guess maybe the Canadian standards it's gone like a bit weird because it's so expensive here so they're kind of looking for that lifestyle option now where here is expensive need to earn a lot of money a very Americanized type of working conditions in a normal job but like in Argentina I guess they're like oh well the economy is not great so let's go back to Italy and see if we can do something there it's just weird how it swaps over but there's different reasons for going back

• Speaker #0

  It's funny because you hit the nail on the head. That's exactly it. You know, the immigrants like my parents in the 70s came over here. Yeah, for opportunity, especially my dad and his brother. Sicily in the 70s was not a great place to be. So they came here, found an opportunity, built a business where there wasn't really a booming business up north where people didn't want to be living. It was too cold. And so they came over and they did that. And then, yeah, I think the appeal of going back to Europe is the slow living of it and not having to. do the whole grind but i think people really romanticize europe especially italy um because when you go and you spend time in italy you see no people still do go to work every day and it's not just you know drinking in a piazza actually the italians don't even do that in fairness but it's not just hanging out in the piazza and drinking your wine and whatever um people have lives but even if they do go to work every day and do their thing it is still much as much slower lifestyle And they can appreciate the little things much more than we do back at home in North America. And so I can see the appeal of both sides. And now with the prices being crazy in Canada, it's like, oh, people say we go back to Canada. And I'm like, I think I've been priced out of Canada.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, I think you're right.

• Speaker #0

  I'm not sure, really. Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  And we're in this space now where people can work online. So if you can earn Canadian dollars, where it's quite expensive in these countries, America, maybe not so bad. I'm not really sure. different state to state but um if you can earn american dollars at the same sort of rate but then living in italy or spain or portugal i can see why canadians are going that way because it goes further right yeah the only downside is americans when they come abroad they still have to pay taxes to america yes they're not living there which is that crazy yeah that's insane but yeah unbelievable that i think i know a few people with passports they have to submit tax returns every year right it's crazy yeah

• Speaker #0

  Yes.

• Speaker #1

  Okay. And for you, you mentioned that you're interested in travel, maybe because your parents migrated. Was there any trips in BC that maybe got it really going? Like, I don't know, you went to Vancouver or Okanagan. Was there any particular trip or were you just kind of waiting for that adulthood where you can go a bit further and explore on your own?

• Speaker #0

  You know, it's always like, yeah, you want to, you know, explore Canada. There's so much of it. It's so huge. But it really, for me, I knew that there was a bigger world out there. And I think that. having your parents speak another language and come from another country and raise you in a way that wasn't a hundred percent You know Italian or a hundred percent Canadian you always felt kind of a little bit here and a little bit there my idea was that I would always go to Europe and I was really waiting for that to happen and Like I said, my parents didn't take us, so I knew that it was something I was going to have to make happen. But I did not think that my life would take the direction that it has. I didn't think I would be living here, you know, long term. I certainly did not think I'd be living in Ireland. So it was just the want to go in and kind of feel a little bit European, which I had growing up, but also feeling Canadian, half and half, and kind of wanting to find where I belong to the world. And knowing, yes, my goal at one point is to... live abroad but like I said did not know after that how long or where or what I'd be doing so it was it was a little mystery to me for sure.

• Speaker #1

  And did you get the Italian passport as well?

• Speaker #0

  I did and I wasn't born with it I had the I was born with the rights to it but I actually got it after I moved to Italy and it was it's my most prized possession and it's something that I wanted I think the most in my life it's the one thing I've wanted the most in my life and that includes like opening businesses and and everything that I've done in my life, getting my passport was the thing I wanted the most. And I never like you will never take it out of my hand. Number one thing. So yeah, that's obviously made life a lot easier for me. I have siblings who didn't get it because, you know, they weren't interested or they didn't do the work to get it. And so it's crazy being able to just kind of go live wherever in Europe. And when I meet my clients, that's the first thing they asked me is, how are you able to stay in Europe, you know? looking for some sort of loophole or some sort of way and I'm like I have the passport which opens so many doors and makes things so much easier.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah I think as Brits I think we're in that space now trying to get a European passport especially ones that did not vote for Brexit right so they're trying to... Ireland's a classic classic place because a lot of people obviously have Irish heritage um unfortunately I don't have any so I'm stuck um so I'm getting a Canadian passport which doesn't really change anything but hey.

• Speaker #0

  Well, actually, I don't know, James, if you know, there's free movement between the UK and Ireland. So your UK passport would allow you to live in Ireland if that's an interest to you. But yeah, for the rest of the EU, it doesn't really help, unfortunately.

• Speaker #1

  So I can go to Ireland and I've got to stay there, whatever the rules are, for how long to get their passport? Yeah,

• Speaker #0

  you can be here for seven years. Sorry.

• Speaker #1

  Okay, right. To get the Irish passport. That's the dream scenario now, right? Because any EU passport, really, I don't know how...

• Speaker #0

  what the easiest one is to get but that's the kind of the next step if you want to have that free movement of travel i think if you're in the uk the easiest one to get is definitely come over to ireland because you can you know be here freely and then go from there yeah i also had portugal that's quite that's an easy one for uk people as well so i

• Speaker #1

  need to look into it yeah there's a certain visa that we have an agreement because we've been friends for like 500 years or something right you but that's sort of unique yeah yeah playground together yeah never been at war which i think so i think that's kind of yeah that's always been a thing i mean yeah the only upside of the canadian passport in terms of europe i found was that i can go three months in europe on the british passport go back to britain for a weekend and then go on a canadian passport to europe so i could stay there for all year without any working rights but like on the tourist visa if you're a digital nomad for example right that's the only thing I can think of that's an up sign for Europe.

• Speaker #0

  Days in the UK with a Canadian passport or EU with a Canadian passport I think that's what it is if I recall but honestly it's been yeah it's been a long time for me before sorry it's been a long time since I've had to think about that but that's from what I remember yeah.

• Speaker #1

  Okay and before we crack on with your initial first trip. A couple more questions. Did you have a career in mind or was it you know going through the school, college, you might earn a bit of money for a job. Was there any career in mind or were you just itching to go?

• Speaker #0

  Yeah so funny is when I was a small child I thought I'd want to be a teacher or something and that didn't last very long but I remember that when I think back that being the only career that I really thought about and then I remember at one point wanting to make like really pretty dresses like wedding dresses and stuff like that but I can't even listen. I can't even sew for anything so that's not even but I think that I always knew I wanted to be my own boss. I always knew I wanted to have my own business. I'm not the type of person that can work for someone else. And I knew that even as a child and definitely as a teenager. So kind of opening a shop and I make jewelry and stuff. So opening a little shop where there's spunky jewelry and then, you know, things for the house and kind of with a bit of a witchy aesthetic. And I think that's kind of what I was leaning towards. But at the time, I didn't think, of course, of, you know. when you have a business you have to keep it going and the ups and the downs and the whatever but I'm definitely running a business of my own and just chilling out with people every day and building a little community the way that my parents built a community with the town that we lived in. I was always definitely like the thing that I knew that I was going to do in some capacity.

• Speaker #1

  Did your parents stick it out in northern BC or did they go back to Italy?

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, no, no, they stayed. They stayed. Yeah, we went to the Okanagan for a while to give it a try and then ended up going back up north. Actually sold the restaurant a couple of years ago. So it's, and it made, it was so beautiful because it was like, it started as a deli in 1987 and then turned into an 80 seat restaurant and just went through so many changes. And my dad kind of all did that. on a whim you know he didn't have experience in the restaurant industry and he just made the most beautiful restaurant um but yeah stuck it out there and i talked to my mom recently she said you know i she went to italy for a couple months last year and she said you know i always consider myself italian but now i really feel like i'm canadian after going to live in italy for a couple months i realized that i've been away for a long time and i consider myself canadian she said your dad i really think he will always consider himself to be you know italian so it's it's interesting that's interesting i wonder what the period of time is for that where it switches or if there's a moment it's quite an interesting discussion that i think that my you know my dad never lost his accent he still always had the real italian way of thinking and the way of doing things and my mom was a bit more modern um she was more open to kind of the western like more western way of doing things and i think that um it's just you My dad kind of went back sometimes. My mom, she didn't go back for a really long time. And so I think it's kind of, she grew up with the way that we do things in Canada, which is much more organized, much more straightforward. Whereas my dad kind of was set in his ways by the time he came over here or over there. Sorry, by the time he went over there.

• Speaker #1

  I've got a question about food because obviously you do run some food tours now. So growing up, naturally,

• Speaker #0

  you're probably exposed to a lot of food stuff like a restaurant so did you have a genuine interest in it as well or did it grow over time you know I loved I always loved food and trying food and introducing people to food but I didn't really have an interest in cooking myself if I if I meet someone and I like them like a friend or whoever someone I'm going to date I will show love by cooking them a meal but I'm not someone who you know will go and make seven dinners a week myself at home. I prefer to go out, to be honest, or, you know, maybe kind of go off and on. But I had an interest in food in the sense that I love writing menus. I love thinking of flavor profiles, that sort of thing. If I go travel somewhere, I go on a trip, the first thing I do is look at where to eat. So food does play a big part of my life, but not so much on the cooking scale. um I do have siblings that were more involved in the cooking side of it but for me I was more front of house and kind of more interested in the community vibe of having a food business so let's go back to your first international trip

• Speaker #1

  I think you said in the bio when you reached out to me that you're supposed to go for three months to be a nanny so what was the what was the original plan and where were you going to go what were your initial impressions when you arrived into Europe you know it's funny because I had just

• Speaker #0

  um gone to my cousin's wedding in the okanagan and i was chatting to a friend of hers and she's about eight years older than me my cousin and so her friend and i were chatting and i told him you know i want to go to europe eventually and he said go like you need to go today figure out a way to do today you're not going to go and life is going to pass you by like take it from me and i was like oh my god right and it scared me into making a profile on a nanny an au pair website and i had been a nanny in vancouver before and babysitting kids since I was 19. So that wasn't new to me. So I went home and made a profile on a nanny website. And I chose the countries that I wanted to go to. And it was maybe like four or five countries. So Italy, and then, you know, all of the UK, Switzerland, France, blah, blah, blah. And the next day, a family in Florence chose me to come live with them for Yeah, for October, November, December. And I said, Okay. And so, yeah, that was really, people asked me, why did you choose Florence? And I said, oh, Florence chose me, actually. And I went over and I was so excited, but it was really like, yeah, I hadn't been on a plane before. But it was a good way to get your foot in the door and go live with the family. And you have a roof over your head and they can introduce you to the city and maybe introduce you to some people and that sort of thing. It's the safest, easiest, best way for young people to get their foot in the door in Europe, as far as I'm concerned. So I was completely nervous. I remember being with my sisters at breakfast the day before they dropped me off at the airport. And I got totally cold feet. And I was like, you know what? No, no, I can stay here, run the restaurant. It's fine. And I really tried to talk myself out of it. And they made me go. Two of my sisters made me get on a plane. And I got on the plane and yeah, that's, you know, that's it. The rest was history. I got on the plane and I got to Rome was where I landed. And then I had to take the train to Florence. And I remember when I first got there, the family said they would pick me up outside of McDonald's. And my first thought was like, are you kidding me? Like McDonald's is in Tuscany. But I didn't see them. And for a moment I felt relief. I'm like, oh, it was a scam. They don't exist. I can go home. That was a thought in my head, you know. But there was actually one McDonald's in the train station and one McDonald's across the street from the train station. And they were at the one across the street from the train station. And so they were there and they collected me. And yeah, that's where my little adventure began. And Italy was everything that I thought it would be, was everything I saw in the movies. I remember opening my little wooden shutters to the balconies that you see on TV. And yeah, it was absolutely beautiful. I fell in love instantly. Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  And what age were you at this point? And I guess you could speak the language Italian as well, right?

• Speaker #0

  Okay, so I was 26 at the time. Oh,

• Speaker #1

  okay.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, I was old. I was old to be honest. But no, I'm not fluent in Italian, as funny as it is. My parents actually didn't speak it with us, which is, I mean, don't even get me started on that whole thing. I can get... by I can have an easy conversation but I can't be talking about philosophy and politics and when I when I lived in Florence um all my Italian friends want to practice their English and so it was kind of like but yeah if I see something written in Italian I know how to pronounce it like I said I can get by I can I look Italian so nobody gives me the tourist menu when I'm walking down the street so um but yeah I'm not fluent unfortunately I know it's so sad what is it like now is it quite conversational Yeah, yeah, it is. And if I'm drinking, if I've had a few drinks and I'm in Italy, then, hey, I won't shut up. You can't get me to shut up. But yeah, most of the time it's just pretty easy going.

• Speaker #1

  And how long did the nannying last for that family?

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, so it's funny because it was only for three months and then they didn't need me anymore. So I had already bought my return ticket. I went home. But when I went home to Canada, I on my way home, I bought a ticket to come back. to Florence a few months later because I was not done. I was not done with Florence. So I went home and then I came back a few months later. And this time I stayed for six months on a working holiday visa.

• Speaker #1

  Got it.

• Speaker #0

  And yeah. And then same thing happened. I, after a couple, when that ended, I went home, but I bought a return ticket and I was going to stay for six. Actually, I was going to stay forever because at that point I had got my Italian passport.

• Speaker #1

  Right. Okay.

• Speaker #0

  My, yeah, my. my plan was that's it i'm gonna stay here i'm done and then after six months i said well you know what's going on in ireland and then that started the next chapter yeah before ireland uh in italy what

• Speaker #1

  places did you see there and was there any favorite haunts of yours like cities or towns or little villages or areas so you know it's funny because when i was in florence i kind of mostly

• Speaker #0

  They have like Siena, Pisa, Lucca, all those little towns. But there's a place, there's a square in Florence called Piazza della Signoria. And it has all of the statues, replicas of all the statues. And now they've actually put up a barrier. So they close it at, I think, 9 p.m. and they have a guard there. And it's completely different than when it was when I lived there. But before, it was open. So I remember going down there at... even one in the morning when I couldn't sleep at night and just sitting with the statues and I'd be the only person in the square. And it sounds ridiculous because it sounds stupid and dangerous, but Florence was very safe, especially at the time, very well lit. I knew every corner of the city center and sitting there and being with the statues and as my favorite place, I think in the world, like it's just really, it's just really close to my heart. And so Piazza della Sceneria is my favorite place in Florence, a hundred percent. You walk up to the hill, there's a walk up to Piazza Michelangelo where you can see the whole city from. And Whenever I bring someone to Florence, I take them like through all of my favorite spots. And that's my favorite part. Showing people Florence is one of my favorite things in the world. So you can also go up to Fiesole, which is a little town just, you know, maybe half an hour away. There's a couple little spots, but mostly my favorite spots when I go somewhere are little cafes owned by people that I've become friendly with. Places that really made me feel at home when I was there. Those end up being my favorite places instead of... maybe the most beautiful place or the most famous place or you know it's kind of more about the way that it made me feel at the time do you have like a favorite or favorites like in terms of restaurants

• Speaker #1

  in Florence or little food places?

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, I do have a few, but I don't want to spoil, you know, my Florentine tour, if anyone knows the name, but I definitely have a few places for sure. I think I know where the best aperitivo is at. It seems that all the places that I love going are places that are never advertised. They're never places that there's TikToks are never made on them. They're never on any lists, but I'm just like, you're missing out. Y'all are missing out on some good food over here. But I will say my favorite gelateria is uh gelateria la correa in and at the end of one of the bridges and they have this gelato that's pear and ricotta and that is the best wow yes it's my favorite it's the best and i will go there no matter what any trip i have to florence before i go to the train station before i get on that train i'm getting a gelato if i haven't already had it six times that week okay and you do run food tours in florence i think that's gonna come to that later but as we're in Florence now let's say do you have two food tours there like what type of tours do you run there in terms of what can they expect yeah so like the first when I first lived there I was meeting people through different um websites or through the community and would bring them on a tour that's very informal it's probably not the idea of what people think a food tour is I would bring them around to my favorite places to eat try this try that it wasn't like a kind of corporate tour that people may be thinking of So when I went back, I went back to live in Florence this past year in January and February. And so that's kind of thing. When I go for an extended period of time, people can book a tour on my website. If we're there at the same time, yeah, I bring them to my favorite places. And it's kind of more like that rather than, you know, I'm not there all the time, but I am there for extended periods of time. Often I go back about three times a year. So that's generally more a kind of special occasion. kind of tour my main thing is is here in dublin okay and the tours would be like a mix of obviously your favorite restaurants but i'm guessing you're giving some facts or some interesting quotes about the place yeah this is the thing like in florence i can't really compare with somebody who's like you know talking about their nona that makes this and had you know what i mean like i'm not i'm not going to try to try to compete with an italian especially someone who's from florence they're very proud people and so I'm gonna go to like yes, I'm not gonna come here and tell you the history of this You know this cheese or whatever, but I'm gonna take you to this little place owned by this guy whose sons Make their own olive oil and we're gonna talk to him and what life is like raising these sons and we're gonna have some of his meat and his cheese and have a glass of wine and kind of do a little trail like That through Florence and we're gonna have a dessert we're gonna have a coffee we're gonna have a panino we're gonna have some pizza and my tours and and even in Dublin as well is more about the people and their stories and nice small businesses with big hearts is kind of the most important thing to me I've got another question about your trip actually um which is quite important what did you learn about yourself when you're traveling solo um that I'm capable a lot more capable than I thought I was and that Whatever hardships I thought I had before I traveled were absolutely meaningless, basically. You know, when you when your parents are an arm's length away, you know, the difficulties you have in life for me anyway, were nothing compared to when you're an ocean away and you don't want to worry your parents if you run into some sort of trouble. And, you know, you're feeling like an outcast because. Yeah, it's hard to integrate into a new social setting, even if it's not a foreign country. You just move to a new city and it's hard to integrate and make friends and find a place for yourself. But I think that like getting on a plane and going to a place I never knew. And especially after I left that family and finding my own apartment to rent and finding a way to make money. I also tutored children. I tutored English to kids as well and still did some nannying and stuff. Like being able to find a way to support myself in a foreign country. All of those things, it's like, wow, I can do those things and I feel super capable when I didn't really have to be capable before. My parents owned a business. I always had a job. I could work for them, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then realizing that, oh, I'm capable of a lot more when I've actually had real hardships. Hardships that now looking back, of course, I'm thankful for. But that's what it taught me the most about myself that like, oh, you are actually capable of doing this and making something work, which is priceless.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, you can't really learn that unless you just. chuck yourself in right in the deep end sometimes yeah absolutely you kind of have to learn on the go figure out some techniques right i guess yeah yeah amazing so i guess like there'll be a lot of people listening like probably a bit nervous about doing that sort of thing especially if they're female maybe as well uh dipping into a foreign country

• Speaker #0

  100% and that's why I'm saying if you're of a certain age like if you're under 30 100% try to get a nannying gig at least just to get your foot in the door and a lot of people kind of think Oh, I'd love to live in this country that country, but you maybe you go do it for three months and it sucks And you're like, oh never mind And just get it out of your system before you sell all your stuff and try to get a visa and all of that stuff I really recommend people do that because it's just the best way or to maybe go do a course But when you do a course, they don't always help you find a place to live. The thing with nannying is you have a place to live and it's just the best option. I always tell people. And I also think it's like if you go abroad and something doesn't work out, you know, get on a plane and come home. It is not the end of the world. I think people just are so scared. And I know because I've done it and I was scared as well. But getting on that plane was the best thing that ever happened to me. And I think that just taking that first step is so, so important. and it leads to like um your evolution and that's you know what we're here for like humans having this experience to go up and experience more and learn more and get to the next level and you can't get to the next level if you're just staying at home in your mommy's house basically absolutely

• Speaker #1

  yeah yeah your situation is interesting because you would have had a guaranteed home job business right a lot of people don't have that um yeah so that's quite difficult to break out of because there's always comfort there to the degree i'd imagine right

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, at one point my dad said, if you come back, because he didn't want me to stay in Europe. He said, if you come back, I'll buy you a house.

• Speaker #1

  Wow.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. And I said, nope.

• Speaker #1

  How come he doesn't want you to stay in Europe? He's from Europe.

• Speaker #0

  I know, but that's exactly it. And he said to me, when are you coming home? And I said, well, dad, you never went home. You're in Canada still.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, yeah.

• Speaker #0

  But, you know, that's the thing. He went there to make a family and he had it. And Italians especially, they want to keep their kids close to them no matter how old they are. And so, you know, he wanted me to be home and tried everything to get me to come home. But no, it was an experience that I absolutely had to have.

• Speaker #1

  OK, so that kind of brings us on to the next place, which is Dublin in Ireland. So how did that come about? Why are you going over there from Italy? I would have thought you may be stuck into Mediterranean, maybe Greece or Spain or Portugal. But. straight up to Ireland.

• Speaker #0

  You know what's so funny is that like I love Italy and the history of the culture the weather the food the fashion everything is beautiful but it's too disorganized for me to live long term and I learned that and I was like let me go somewhere that's still in Europe but maybe is a little more familiar to me but I didn't want to jump into another situation so in November 2010 I went to Dublin for three days and actually what happened was I had met a girl traveling in Florence and she was from Dublin. And I said, oh, I'd always wanted to go to Ireland. And she was like, you should come visit me. You can stay at my house. And I was like, okay. So I actually bought the ticket and everything. And then she had told me that she was going to be doing her exams, but I could stay at her house, which is actually her parents'house out in the suburbs. And I didn't really feel comfortable with that. So I just got a hostel in town and I went for three days. And by the time the three days was over, I was like, yeah, I'm going to come live here. And like, that was it. February

• Speaker #1

  1st um you know a month and a half later I was living in Dublin and you had the Italian passport at this point so it's not a problem with visa wise so yeah what do you think in terms of sustaining yourself there maybe you saved money from Italy but like in terms of getting a job um

• Speaker #0

  the apartment that I was renting in Florence I told my landlord I'm gonna go for the magic number for three months I'm gonna go for three months I'll find somebody to take this apartment while I'm gone And I'll be back in three months. Yeah. And I found somebody to sublet it. And that was great. And I went to Dublin knowing I could just find a waitressing job, like by snapping my fingers, essentially, because I had so much experience. And I had found an apartment just from the online adverts where some guy had rented me a room in his house. And he didn't even have to trust that I was going to show up on February 1st. But he did. And he was lovely. And I rented a room in his house and got a job after a couple of weeks. But then of course, after the money starts coming in, three months is up. And I said, well, I want to stay longer and make more money and see what life is like here. So I told my landlord in Florence, another three months. And it kind of went another three months for, you know, a year or so. Until eventually I said, here, I'll come get my stuff. And yeah, and then just wanted to give it a go here in Dublin.

• Speaker #1

  Have you done the waitress thing?

• Speaker #0

  so I mentioned in the intro you owned a cafe so was that a bit after that and then how was that experience yeah so I had moved here in 2011 and then in two the end of 2012 I just worked in restaurants here there nothing you know whatever nothing serious and then I in 2012 I started managing a place in December 2012 I started and managed a place for about two years and then the owner had just sold it basically overnight and That was super upsetting for me because I was just, you know, loved the staff and loved the clientele and everything. And then I thought, I can't possibly go back to working for someone because the owner of the restaurant was never there. He had his other job. He was an accountant. And so I was running the place and I was basically the boss. I thought, I can't possibly go work for someone else at this point. So I said, I either have to leave Ireland or open up my own restaurant. Those are my only two options. Right. And. Then I just went for option B, I opened up my own restaurant. I ended up opening up a restaurant next door to where the one I just was working at closed down where it was. And it wasn't a restaurant at the time. It was an abandoned bedding shop. And I got it renovated and did the whole thing. And yeah, and that's how I started my cafe.

• Speaker #1

  What sort of cafe was it? What were you selling there?

• Speaker #0

  You know, we did like soups, sandwiches, coffees and cakes, but we'd also do like risotto and stuff like that. And it definitely had Italian influences, but I didn't want to put Italian anywhere on the sign because I didn't want people to walk by and be like, oh, I don't want spaghetti. You know, I didn't want them to have this idea in their head that Italian only meant, you know, pasta. So I would have, for instance, green eggs and ham, which is like poached eggs with pesto and prosciutto. So a little spin Italian influences, but a big jar of biscotti on the counter, you know, things like that. But, um... you know, also things that were going to appeal to the palates of the locals. But I did get them to try some things that they otherwise wouldn't have tried. And they ended up loving, but it did. It was a bit of a struggle at first, but they trusted me. They trusted that I know their taste at this point because they'd been my customers for a few years at the other place. So it all actually ended up working out pretty well.

• Speaker #1

  Hey, just a quick one. I just want to say there are many ways to support this podcast. You can buy me a coffee and help support. the podcast with five dollars or you can go to my merch store with the affiliate link with t public where there's plenty of merch available to buy such as t-shirts jumpers hoodies and also some children's clothing thirdly which is free you can also rate and review this podcast on apple podcasts spotify pod chaser or good pods also you can find me on social media on instagram twitter facebook and tiktok simply just search for wingin it travel podcast and you'll find me displaying all my social media content for traveling, podcasts and other stuff. Thank you. Is that quite a tough business, the cafe business? It seems to be a heck of a journey that from start to finish.

• Speaker #0

  I yeah, I 1 million percent. You can offer me all the money in the world to ever do it again. And it's funny because now I interview people for my TikToks and stuff sometimes, business owners. And I say to them, what's a piece of advice you'd give to someone who wants to open a food business? And they always say. don't. Don't do it. And I'm like, I can understand. And it's such a, it's such a struggle because on one hand, you love food and you love people and you want to be your own boss and you want to whatever. But on the other hand, I mean, even, even my boss, the one that closed down that restaurant overnight, he told me, you know how many sleepless nights I've had in the last four or five years? Like I can sleep tonight for the first time in half a decade. And I didn't really, I kind of like was exaggerating until I owned a cafe. And then I was like, Oh God, you know? um he's right it's really just you're thinking about and hoping that you know this happens that happens whatever and there's so many things you have to think about the place doesn't get vandalized it doesn't get broken into um covid wasn't even a thought in anyone's mind at the time but geez i'm really glad i got out of the situation before covid hit to be honest like um so it is very difficult i love that i had the experience because i could cross off my bucket list and i never ever have to think about doing it again for the rest of my life

• Speaker #1

  do you think it's easier if you open a cafe that's just for coffee for example i've thought about this before in terms of like a little dream of just having like a nice little espresso cafe or something like that but only yeah only like coffee really or tea to an extent but no food but i wonder if there's like little bits of the cafe business that may be a bit easier to do in terms of like coffee as an example so the funniest thing is that's what i wanted to do i just want to do coffees and cakes and that

• Speaker #0

  And the accountant and the people helping me set up the place, because the government has schemes to help you like build a business if you want. And they were like, do you know how many cups of coffee you have to sell? And I was like, yeah. And they really broke it down for me. And you look at the numbers and you're like, oh, God, like I can have this guy pay two bucks for a coffee or he can walk out of here paying a tenner for a sandwich and whatever and come for his coffee in the morning and come back in the afternoon for his coffee.

• Speaker #1

  Right.

• Speaker #0

  You know. If he's hungry, I want him coming to me and his morning coffee and his afternoon. I don't want him going to the person next door for a sandwich. He needs to give that money to me. And that's what kind of made me say, okay. But my place was very small. It was only eight seats. I did a lot of takeaway business, to be honest. But I think that... in a perfect world, if I could, you know, ever go back into the food business again, the only way that I would do it is if I had literally a little kiosk on a market, I think, you know, with my little dog, sit my, yeah, my little, my little Yorkie sitting on the counter. And I don't have a Yorkie, but this is part of the dream, you see. And, and that's it. And just do little coffees and little biscotti. And that's about it. But the money has to be there, right? And that's the downside.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, maybe like a little espresso machine on a little stall in a market or a very basic shelter, but not like a proper cafe where it's only takeaway only and they can go and sit in the square, whatever. Maybe that's a better dream because in my eyes, it seems the outlay is not as much. You just got paid for the permit, I guess, to be there and obviously your coffee machine and the coffee. But there's no overlay in terms of the whole building, right, with insurance.

• Speaker #0

  Yes. And there's so many things that you don't think about because then there's also pest control. There's also the health inspector. There's also the garbage man. There's there's so many people that you don't ever think about that you're going to have to deal with the landlord. So many people. And then you're like, wow, there's so many. When you think that you're going to own a business, you think you're going to be the boss. And actually you end up answering to so many people that you go, I had it all wrong all these years in my mind. I had it all wrong, you know.

• Speaker #1

  OK. And so you're in Dublin.

• Speaker #0

  and this is a bit of a journey did you travel to any other parts of Ireland in the meantime or was that after the cafe yeah I went to you know whatever uh Galway Cork and um I went up north to Belfast and you know little towns nearby Wicklow and all of that but I would really this year um as we go kind of into the new year my plans are to really travel more of Ireland to go to the farms that supply some of the restaurants that are on my tour go to some oyster farms really in that sense go and explore Ireland that way not so much as a tourist but kind of really seeing the places where the food um I serve people comes from firsthand because that's super important to me um and a special experience I think it'll be to me as well yeah that's a good way to see it because I love Irish food right like the classic stews and

• Speaker #1

  also the Irish breakfast and all that sort of stuff right yeah it's kind of a bit like British food to a degree right oh 100% yeah yeah it's that kind of same stuff which I kind of miss which you can't really get here sometimes and uh i just think that even the irish takeaways they're they're bloody good aren't they like compared to like here for example um yeah i thought a few food pages on online and they're like just takeaways only but you see them in ireland getting these like boxes are for chinese or indian just looks incredible so i kind of miss that dodgy irish in this group

• Speaker #0

  You know, you could go to China or India. You're looking for that thing as well.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, it's a weird one, right? You must know this, right? But when you grow up in UK or Ireland and you get a takeaway, you do think that's Chinese or Indian, right? You just, because it's labelled as that. But actually it's English Chinese or it's Irish Chinese. There's a difference to it than the real Chinese, right? So when you come here, it's like Vancouver and go to Richmond where they've got like proper Chinese restaurants. You're like, oh shit, this is well different to what I was eating. like yeah yeah which one's true um well i think the one that doesn't serve chips is probably yeah exactly um yeah i just missed that english or irish chinese takeaways or indian takeaways oh so good so you're in dublin now so you must have stuck out for a while so what happened in between the cafe ending and then we're here now

• Speaker #0

  and before we get to your tour so what were you doing in the meantime people asked me why did you stay in ireland did you fall in love did you do this do that i'm like no actually it was always circumstance like i was there and then uh someone wanted me to run their business so i did and then when that ended someone else wanted me this guy that closed down wanted me to run his business okay so i did every two years something happens um and then i opened up my own place and then i was ready to leave after the lease ended on that uh the landlord said do you want to go another year i said hell no i'm done but then i got in a relationship So then I stayed a little bit longer. And then when that ended, I said, okay, I'm going to go. And then COVID was like, hold up. You're not going anywhere. So then I stayed and then COVID is kind of, you know, out of the way now. And, but now my tours are going amazing. So it's really hard to get up and go. So it's just kind of that circumstances. It's honestly nothing else. There's no big reason for me to be here other than these things that kind of keep, but, but, but, you know, pulling me back. So after I. closed my cafe actually took a break from the whole hospitality thing and went into dog care full full time and so it was dog sitting dog walking anything to do with animals and that was really amazing especially because i could still do it during covid because people might be working from home but instead of them getting up and going and walking their dog i'd be you know doing that for them or if they're having staycations in ireland i'll go stay at their house for you for anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks. And then I also started an online greeting card shop, which went crazy during COVID because everyone was sending cards to each other. So that did really well. Yeah. And I had a few cafes that like have four wholesalers now that sell my cards in their shops. And so I had my fingers in like some pots. And like I said, I make jewelry. So I was making jewelry and making, you know, soaps and lotions and wax melts and candles and all of these things on an online shop. So kind of doing a little bit of everything to keep me busy. during those years and then um i thought okay now i'm gonna go and do the food tours again because actually i should say i started doing food tours again in 2019 but only for about two months before covid hit yeah so i you know didn't have a didn't have a long time to kind of get into it and then i said i'll just pick up my food chores again now and um yeah and then that's what happened so i started doing them again in the fall of 2022 here in Dublin and yeah I've been going non-stop ever since.

• Speaker #1

  And are these the same sort of tours as the Italian ones?

• Speaker #0

  No because this one's really focused on where the food is coming from and really that kind of thing is not so much my experience with the food and the owners but like where it's sourced and telling people about Irish food because I think a lot of people don't really know what Irish food is and my job is to kind of change their idea of what that is and be like you can associate beautiful gorgeous good tasting food with Ireland which is something I don't think a lot of people do unless maybe they live here and they've really experienced it firsthand um because I've had people that come on my tours that have been here before and they're like yeah my idea has completely changed because of you which is amazing that that's the best thing I can do is you know change someone's perception on something in a positive way yeah I saw one of the of the reviews actually on your website that said

• Speaker #1

  I think they're local in Dublin yeah and the places that they take that you take them to they're only i think there's like five i think they said but only one of them they actually knew so that's quite good because you're kind of helping even locals know or get to know like new places right yeah i do anywhere from six um from six to eight stops it depends kind of like you

• Speaker #0

  know how how much food we're going to have or if there's dietary restrictions that they have i might replace one stop with something else but um i even had a couple from dublin last night or two nights ago and they were like they've lived here for 10 years uh they're from Wicklow and they just said like yeah we're going back to every single one of these places we haven't been to any of them and we learn so much and appreciate that's the other thing I think a lot of people don't appreciate the amazing base ingredients we have on the island and if I can help them appreciate it then that's I'm so happy to do that so

• Speaker #1

  you explain to the people who tours not only the food they're getting but also where it comes from uh in particular parts of Ireland but also how it comes together to make this dish I guess

• Speaker #0

  Yes, and also how to eat it as well. I love it when people really take my instructions. Some people are just like, use me for the next two hours. Like I'm your puppet. And it's amazing. I just like do this, you know, cut it this way, put this on it, do this. And I love it when people are really open minded that way.

• Speaker #1

  What some of the dishes might they experience like just maybe one as an example.

• Speaker #0

  So for it. For instance, my tour really focuses around seafood, meat, and dairy. So for sure they're going to get some gorgeous Irish oysters, and I tell them where the oysters come from and how, if they're coming from different bays in Ireland, the different tastes that they're going to have. And a lot of people are used to just shooting an oyster, but I let them know to take some water first and then give it two chews on each side of your mouth to get out some salinity, get out some sweetness, and then swallow it. And a lot of people have been eating oysters their whole lives, and they've never eaten it that way, for instance. Or... you know, little things like that. I give them something sweet. I give them a beer. I give them some dairy. I give them some meat. I give them a little bit of everything from basically every food group. And if I can enhance it with something else, like putting a mignonette on the oyster, for instance, or, you know, we go for fish and chips. And so I say, well, eat half of it this way and half of it this way, you know, put this on half and this on the other half and we compare and um yeah it's a real fun experience how do you make sure that the individual stops let's say six right how do you make sure you don't eat too much um yeah there comes a point on about the third stop when i tell them okay guys after this we have two savory stops a dessert and a beer so I let them know and sometimes people ask me they're like how many stops are left how much food I want to pace myself yes there's at least one person in the group every time that's like eats everything if something's left they eat it that's my trooper I'm always chanting their name you know I'm like Kevin Kevin um but yeah I sometimes around the end I ask them are you guys are you can you fit another stop in they always say yes and then We get to the stop and they can do maybe half of it. And then like, I can't, I can't, I'm dying, which I rather than be too full, then they have to go to Burger King on the way home.

• Speaker #1

  my you know what I mean then that's all I want yeah okay I remember doing a dosa tour in India once and yeah we had about 10 doses and that is like ridiculous and then I think I think the 11th one was like a dessert though so I was like I can't do it I can't have chocolate and dosa again you're like I'm gonna over dosa well we didn't really get any like indication of how many we're gonna have so we're kind of trying these doses right and they're huge actually traditional ones And they just kept coming and coming. I just didn't, didn't really plan for it. And everyone at the end on the minibus were just out of it. Completely gone.

• Speaker #0

  Everyone's just passed out.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. Completely gone. Amazing. But that's kind of like, I mean, I think that might be my first food tour. So I learned a lot from that experience, like just to pace yourself, maybe take a few bites. I know you might still be hungry, but wait, a bit of patience. Crazy. Well, Dublin, is there going to be,

• Speaker #0

  much walking on these tours or are you trying to keep it in a close-knit community area or is that a is that minibus like how do you navigate so i actually did i actually did it one time i put into google maps and we only walk about like 800 meters really okay that much um yeah so a couple of the places are close to each other and they're in areas where cars can't get through anyway i did have a request of someone saying can we rent a driver and i was just like we really don't need a driver um So yeah, it's not a lot of walking at all. And it's all pretty much flat. There's obviously some cobblestones around Temple Bar. But other than that, no, it's pretty easy going. I've had people bring a stroller before a pram, you know, and that was fine. So yeah, it's pretty easy going.

• Speaker #1

  And people can see the tour itinerary on your website, right? Roughly.

• Speaker #0

  Somewhat. Yeah. Yeah. I just let them know we do about six to eight stops. And it has... you know meat seafood and dairy and i don't really do dietary restrictions yeah unless there's a private tour but even then i don't really like to do it because if i'm talking about farms and i'm talking about this that and the other and you don't eat meat it's not going to do the tour justice yeah

• Speaker #1

  okay and what is the prices of these tours

• Speaker #0

  So they're about, it depends. If you want a private tour, it goes to about 100 euro per person. Because especially like you want something dietary, if you have an allergy of some sort and have to go around it and figure out something new. Or if you have a big group, my maximum is six. But if you want to bring 15 people, it's going to be harder for us to get tables and restaurants. It's going to be, you know, there's some wiggling around. So there's an extra charge. Usually it's around 85 euro. And that's, yeah, that's around the price that it is sometimes. If you want to get a ticket, say that it's a Sunday night and you want to come on Monday and I don't have any bookings, there's probably a cheaper rate floating around if it's about 24 hours leading up to it. Kind of like a seat sale, if you will. But yeah, mainly around 85 euro.

• Speaker #1

  Where can they book the tours?

• Speaker #0

  So on my website, which is low ontheroad.com and you just email me for availability and like I'm answering back at lightning speed with my availability. And then I would send you. um an invoice with my business account and you can pay with google pay or whatever suits you or you can go to airbnb and look for me under experiences and i'm the unconventional food tour and i should pop up well i'm one of the highest rated food tours so i should be right up there yeah yeah well

• Speaker #1

  i'm gonna put links in the show notes uh so people can find you amazing that should be easy thank you i've got some extra questions about your tours because i'm really maybe not from The content on the tours, the things you've experienced, you must have met some interesting people on your tours. Do you have any funny stories where some stuff has happened or gone wrong or you've had to adapt to a certain situation?

• Speaker #0

  No, so well the first person I get, you know it's funny because a lot of people ask me this question which I find is very interesting, like people on the tour will ask me if I've met anyone interesting or strange and I find it really funny. So this person isn't particularly strange, you're very eccentric. I went, it was last summer, and I do groups from one to six people. So for one person, I'm bringing you. I don't think solo travelers should have to miss out on an experience because they're solo traveling, you know? He was very interesting. He was a sociologist, and he carried around a little notepad with him and would make notes on things. And on our second stop, I said to him, what's with the notepad? And he said, I've been carrying notepads like this since I was 12. I have about 300 of these at home that are filled up. I said, what do you do with them? He said nothing, just. you know i was like okay interesting and um i was at the next stop and i was ordering and he was standing beside me i said you can just have a seat at this table he said can i watch you order and i was like no can you let's go sit down it just became kind of like a funny thing like we started kind of start kind of you know making fun of each other you know but then he told me um He said, I read your description and this is why I booked your tour, but I'm going to give you some notes later about things that I think you should change and things that I think you should keep. And I was like, okay. And he wrote me a very lovely review, but then in the private feedback, he wrote probably four paragraphs of what he liked and what he didn't like in my description. And you know what? I took his advice and I changed what I could. And I love it. I love when people can be upfront and honest with you when they want the best for you. when they support what you do and they want you to be better. I really love that. So he's the first person that comes to mind when I think about that. I haven't had any bad situations or anything like that. Everyone's been pretty lovely. I did have one older gentleman that was upset that there was too much walking. But for me, I was like, it's not that much walking, but I can slow down if someone says we're going too fast. I can absolutely slow down, especially because this is my job. And... I don't have anywhere else to be. I'm here for you, you know? So, but other than that, I know everybody's been amazing. And some of the people I keep in touch with, a lot of people, they keep in touch with me. They follow me on Instagram or whatever. And yeah, it's really lovely. And that's the best part about doing the tours is meeting the people.

• Speaker #1

  I guess you need that sort of sharing. I do, right? For the podcast, I need people to effectively share it mouth to mouth. I mean, believe it or not, that's still the way to. to share the podcast and I can imagine it's the same for tours yeah sometimes there's people that actually like

• Speaker #0

  I had a couple they were from Dublin they did my tour and then a week later they sent one of their colleagues and his wife to come do my tour which is so lovely yeah yeah yeah it was lovely yeah any guests or people in the tours that maybe didn't like any of the food so one time I had this these two sisters here from Dublin and they were a little bit older like in their late like early 60s i'd say yeah and um one of them doesn't eat any red meat or alcohol or i think there was something else so she was left out of six out of eight spots she didn't want to eat at and they didn't tell me this ahead of time they just rocked up and uh and i was like it's too late now like i can't make that you know what i mean yeah you But she said, no, I'll do it. It's fine. I'll still, you know what I mean? Like basically watch her sister eat, which was a shame and where I could find substitutions I did, but I also am like, this is, I wasn't prepared for it. So it wasn't as good for on my, maybe I was being critical of myself, but I would have wanted to know more about what she was eating. I know the, my menu, I know it back to front. I know where it's coming from. I know what it is. I know everything, but If we show up and you say, don't eat this. But also I know that's vegetarian, but I don't like that either. Then I'm like, okay, that was my back of vegetarian dish. So yeah, that was one time where I thought, oh, that's not good. I don't like that because more than anything, I don't want one of my guests leaving hungry. And so if you're not eating at most of the stops, then you're going to leave hungry. But I also felt like it was your sister's fault. I'll be honest. If your sister doesn't eat so many things, let me know ahead of time. Or one time I had three girlfriends show up and yeah, one of them, same thing. Didn't eat meat. Didn't eat seafood. Wow. Yeah, it was. Yeah. But she was like, it's okay. I'm just here to hang out. And I'm like, okay, I'm not, I'm here for you to eat though. So, but yeah, there were a couple of times that usually people really read. Cause I say it twice in the description. And then when you buy the ticket, you get a confirmation email as a reminder saying.

• Speaker #1

  remember this you know yeah if I was in Dublin right I'll come and I'll come on your tours I would do that um but I don't eat oysters or never have tried them but I would give it a go so you'd see me eating an oyster for the first time and

• Speaker #0

  I'm not sure how I'm gonna react and I've had that situation oysters is one of the things I can really people love them or hate them or maybe people say I don't know um I'm if you bought oysters and I say like if you eat this oyster you And it doesn't make you love oysters. No oyster is going to make you love oysters. This is the final boss of oysters, you know. And also, but that's one thing. If you don't want oysters, that's fine. That's one stop out of eight. And it's just a little amuse-bouche. You're not missing out on a lot. So that's fine. Oysters is one thing. But if you're saying, I don't like oysters, and I don't like red meat, and I can't eat dairy, and I have a gluten intolerance, and I'm like, Jesus Christ, it's a little bit too much for me.

• Speaker #1

  Do you chuck in a pint of Guinness in there?

• Speaker #0

  somewhere yeah it's actually half a pint because usually people are actually just too full to do a full pint but absolutely yeah and I let them decide if they want to do Guinness or if they want to do one of the other beers that are well known or maybe not as well known but still lovely and that are rare that are only sold in certain pubs or whatever but I suggest Guinness but most people are going to the Guinness storehouse anyway at some point so I try to suggest maybe something else if they're not doing if they are doing that okay and I've got

• Speaker #1

  some questions more from the tour point of view in terms of your side so if someone is thinking right now I'd like to set up a tour in my home place it could be a food tour could be any other tour any advice you'd pass on about what they should look into first or how they should create their tour well first of all I I started doing ghost tours the year before last and I let that go because I got so busy with food tours that I let that take precedence but if you're going to do a tour that's not food related

• Speaker #0

  I would say research do your practice with like friends have friends go through it and only try to give a tour in something you're genuinely interested about. So I love ghosty things. I love going to the Shelbourne and seeing what kind of ghosts are there. So me remembering those facts isn't going to be difficult. Whereas if it's something that's going to totally bore me, and I have to kind of have an essay in my head, and I'm not genuinely interested in it, the tour is not going to go well. But I love talking about ghosts. So I love telling about the ghosts, the five ghosts at Malahide Castle. I love making a visual for you. I love setting a scene. So I would say only do a tour on something you are genuinely interested in and not just something you think might make you a bit of money. So that's my first point of advice. If you're going to do a food tour, for instance, think about what your angle is going to be. So my angle is, yes, like the farm to table connection and also foods influenced by like immigrants coming over and making a life here. That's what I did. That's what my parents did. And so that's very close to my heart. And so it's these fusions, half my tour. It's called the unconventional food tour because. Half the tour is traditional Irish food and the other half is Irish provenance within international dishes. So everything we eat is made and grown in Ireland, but it's going to have some fusions. And so that really interests me. That's close to my heart. So I think about what do I want people to leave here with the idea of what Irish food is? Well, I want them to think it's this, this and this. What foods best represent that and kind of go down the line. Then you have to go in, speak to the restaurant owners. And that is the hardest.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, how does that work?

• Speaker #0

  Not making conversation. Yeah, I mean, not making conversations with the people, but having them actually, you agree on what you want to do and having them not like ghost you or having them not like forget to tell their staff who you are and what your order is and not. It takes time and it takes practice to get the rhythm of who you want to work with and making it all be very harmonious. And I've had the same map now for about 15 months. And I- love the restaurants I go to. I love them to death. And I don't bring anyone on my tour where I don't go on my day off. If I don't go in real life, I don't bring my guests there. And that's just the end of the story. You know, um, my relationships with the restaurants is so, so important. It's maybe the most important thing. And so I would say that like making sure that your relationships with the people you want to work with are harmonious, or it's just not going to work. It's not going to work for anybody.

• Speaker #1

  Did I

• Speaker #0

  like guarantee you some seats if you've got a tour booked like in advance is that how that so there's there's one of the places on my tour where yes they do give me a booking the other places i have a very informal tour it's professional but some of the places are super informal and we can just rock up and there's going to be seat and if there isn't we can just chill out and wait a minute or find an alternative like oh maybe we'll just go you know uh we'll take our food in a takeaway and just eat it out front or whatever like that has only happened one time you But I'm at the point now, I think, with these restaurants where no one's going to send me away. If it ever came to the fact that there's not a table, we would just kind of hover and make conversation for five minutes until somebody leaves. Because they're not sit down fancy restaurants either. Like, you know, that's that's not the vibe of it. So, yeah, there's quite a quick turnover in most of the places we go to, thankfully.

• Speaker #1

  OK, so I kind of considered starting a tour here in Vancouver. And you're right about what the genuine interest for me would be. and I think my genuine interest would be coffee but I have a problem with coffee and you might agree or not agree with this and it's kind of the same as food is you can only have a certain amount of coffee per day so if you're doing like five cafes and you're having five espressos that is like

• Speaker #0

  a little coffee so I'm trying to work out how would I mitigate that with something else in there so that's like my only concern really yeah I think maybe like it would be interesting if you could do different types of coffee like different like coffee in different forms maybe you want to have an affogato is going to be one or maybe you're going to have coffee flavored ice cream at one stop or oh yeah I mean I really don't know maybe one stop is going to be actually going to a micro roastery and seeing how the beans are roasted like there's different kind of ways that you can do it But you're right. Coffee is a thing that a lot of people love and they're into. But there's a, you know, people only so many people can handle more than, you know, two coffees a day or whatever. Yeah. But it's something to definitely like sit down and think about. I've definitely seen tours that are like, oh, we're going on a whatever on a taco tour. And it's like just tacos. Well, tacos is a little bit different because people can eat like 12 tacos. No problem. But I do see some things that are concentrated. And I think how can people eat just that? Like a cupcake tour or something. Yeah. like it could be the same thing you know yeah exactly exactly um but i think if something is of a genuine interest to you you should definitely sit down and think about different angles you can take it from especially if it kind of keeps living in your head you know like knock knock i'm here i want to be you know worked with in some way then yeah have you considered starting another tour in a different place in europe yeah so that's the thing like when i finished my cafe i thought how can I work with food and work with people and not have to rent a brick and mortar and have a job where I can take it if I want to move and food tours was just the perfect thing and funnily enough before I opened my cafe I was sitting with my sister having afternoon tea at a fancy hotel when she came to visit me in Dublin and after the place that I was working at closed and I said my choices now are either start a food tour or open up a cafe and she said well what the hell is a food tour you know because this was this is back a few years now in 2014 and um so i just bring people around the way that i did in italy you know and bring them to places to eat and this and that and um but then i chose just to open a cafe so it was kind of a natural decision for me to um after the cafe be like okay maybe i'll go back into food tours you know and so and that's the thing is that i can move anywhere in the world because there's food everywhere and it's a common language that everybody speaks yeah and so especially doing it in ireland where If I tell people, oh, I have a food tour business and they're like, in Ireland, really? And I'm like, if I can make it work in Ireland, I can make it work anywhere. You just have to find what the gold, you know, in the soil of wherever you're living is and go by that.

• Speaker #1

  And do you have anything on the horizon that might be different to Italy or Ireland? Or is that the fix?

• Speaker #0

  I'm actually thinking of the Netherlands as my next kind of little place that I want to go. Yeah. And it's very similar to what people, you know, think of the Irish food scene where they're like, okay, well, it's a lot of British food, and it's a lot of whatever. But there's such a high rate of immigrants in the Netherlands. And that brings so much good food. And that might be my angle there as well. But Um, that's always in the back of my mind, but right now just tours are going so crazy for me here that I'm going to focus on this for the rest of the year anyway.

• Speaker #1

  And just finally, like for your tours, where can people book your tours and where can they find you for social media and websites?

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, so they can book my tours on my website. So that's low on the road or low on the road.com or the Airbnb. And they can find me, my social media on Instagram is it's low on the road. So I T S low on the road um i have a tiktok but honestly i just post a video there and after a couple days i i close the tiktok down i don't love tiktok but i like it to make videos on so instagram would be the number one where you can kind of find me and message me and all that good stuff yeah

• Speaker #1

  i think tiktok could be good for food right it seems to be a cool place to put their food up i'm not sure not an expert you

• Speaker #0

  You're right. It is. But for some reason, I don't know. I don't love social media and social media doesn't let me. Sometimes there's a I have one video that got like one hundred fifty thousand views. And that's you know, that's pretty crazy. But that was the one. No, that was a one time thing. Yeah. One time. That's what most people do. And the next one's 20. Right.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. Really?

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But my thing is, if I can make money, make a career out of doing what I love, then for me, it doesn't matter how many views my videos have. Sure. people out there that have millions of views but they're working in a cubicle in their real life and so for me it's if it has to be the other way around then i'm cool with that yeah i think the broke influencer is real you know i think people need to remember that when they see it on their yeah on social media for sure okay

• Speaker #1

  last question before we get to my last feature is any travel plans for this year outside of your tours

• Speaker #0

  um yeah so because my my season you know it's tour tour season right now i don't really plan on traveling um probably until so i every winter i go to edinburgh i go to the christmas market so for sure i'll do that just for a day or two um i would really love to go to istanbul in october for my birthday that's kind of the loose plan but i am getting bookings for october already so it kind of depends how busy i am um I probably for Christmas will go somewhere lovely. I'd love to go to Scandinavia. But again, everything is kind of got to see what's happening with the tour situation. And I think for sure, January and February, I'll do what I did last year, which is last year. I went back to Florence. I went back to my old apartment. I've been in touch with my landlord for 15 years, my original landlord, and stayed in my apartment there. And so I will go to Florence again this January, February. I will go somewhere, maybe somewhere in Italy, maybe somewhere else. I'm not sure, but I will take a couple of months off before the tour season starts up again in March. Before Paddy's Day, I'll go chill out somewhere for a little while.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, that's huge, right? Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah.

• Speaker #1

  OK, that's great. That's awesome. I'm going to finish the episode with some quickfire travel questions. And these are just like some of your favorite things that you've seen on your travels the last 15 years or so. So I'm going to kick off with. It's travel question time. Your top three favorite countries.

• Speaker #0

  You know, actually haven't traveled that much to have a top three. I love the Netherlands. Berlin is really cool. So Germany was really amazing. And of course, Italy. Is that a cheating answer? Can I say it?

• Speaker #1

  That's great. Yeah, yeah.

• Speaker #0

  that's good okay perfect yeah yeah okay what about three countries you're not traveled to if you can go there tomorrow you know no questions asked where are you going to go okay so actually funnily enough one of them is the United States because my number one place that I want to visit in the world right now is New Orleans Louisiana so that's yeah the US um I'd want to go to um Iceland that'd be really beautiful to go up there and Australia dream you I've always wanted to go to Australia. Always want to go to Australia.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, I think you have to. It's my dream place. Okay. If you could live somewhere that you've not lived in before for a year as another country or place, where are you going to live?

• Speaker #0

  To be honest, I think I'd say New Orleans. I just love the witchy vibes. It has a good food scene. I definitely, yeah, I'd have to be there.

• Speaker #1

  Okay. Are you a sunrise or sunset person?

• Speaker #0

  Oh, yes. sunset i'm not up early and i've seen the sunrise that is the most popular answer can you believe yeah i think i think heart but everyone says sunrise but the head says now sunset yeah exactly exactly let's be real here yeah okay

• Speaker #1

  if you could sit anywhere in the world but with a cup of coffee and watch the world go by where you're gonna sit you know what's so funny

• Speaker #0

  I think it's funny because I've thought about this before because like I said one of my favorite squares is that one in Tuscany I've seen you know the Scott monument the little snow come down in Edinburgh I've walked in the canal in Amsterdam I come from a place where there's rocky mountains and so much beauty and but my favorite place to sit with a place a cup of coffee is a little Turkish restaurant here in Dublin called Reyna I sit at the window seat. I actually have a tea instead of a coffee. It's on Dame Street and I watch the world go by. And that's one of my happy places. If I'm homesick, I actually go there because it's a family restaurant. And there's a lot of love there. And yeah, actually, I'd say there, funnily enough.

• Speaker #1

  Ah, interesting. Okay. This might be a tough question next. What about top three favorite international cuisines?

• Speaker #0

  Can I say Italy?

• Speaker #1

  Most people do.

• Speaker #0

  okay i'd say italian and i'd say japanese i can eat sushi until the cows come home and they have so many like ramen and gyoza and all these beautiful things and right now yeah i'm on a turkey kick so i'd say turkish okay is there a dish you've never tried but you'd love to try um off the top of my head off the top of my head no no i'd have to probably sit and think about it although i'd love a nice a nice big like po boy again going to the louisiana thing yeah um or they're all i get a lot of clients out from there and they're talking about um the beignets too so one of these like yummy donut type delicious

• Speaker #1

  things okay yeah what about a favorite landmark can be nature or man-made you

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, I have to say the square again in Piazza della Sceneria, just the Loggia where all the statues are. That's just my favorite place in the world. if you could learn another language fluently which language would it be is it cheating if i say it's all cheating now you really speak it gosh how is um you know i think french is probably the most useful language but i think i love the sound of arabic and i thought oh yeah really amazing language just to speak yeah yeah i'll say 10 words that's pretty much about it but gets you quite far oh wow

• Speaker #1

  oh yeah i went went to the lease last year and just thought i'll give it a go and people love that you try probably the most along with turkey actually if you go to turkey and you speak a bit of turkish they absolutely love it um i find turkish is such a fast and difficult language i gave it tried a little bit and i'm like i can't i can't yeah i think the effort is uh is applauded i think for sure yeah that's true that's true has there been a place on your travels that you didn't like um you know what

• Speaker #0

  I thought Rome was overrated.

• Speaker #1

  Crikey.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. Yeah. I just thought it was, okay, well, you know. I just thought it was another big city. And although it's beautiful, Venice, I thought, wasn't really my cup. Venice itself was beautiful, but the food, I was not impressed with. I'll be honest about that right now.

• Speaker #1

  Wow. That's a cup of boba, huh? Oh, Christ. Where do I go next? I've got two questions left I think I really want to delve back to your first trip abroad like what was the biggest lesson you might have said it already but what's the biggest lesson that you learned from traveling solo as a female sort of like taking that leap yeah just that that I could that I'm yeah more capable than

• Speaker #0

  I thought and um I think it's important for me to also be like oh I can be an inspiration to other people which I never thought that you me getting up and doing that was, but some people have said, you know, when I met you, I did this, or I heard you do this. And it inspired me to do this. Like my friend's little brother, he didn't know what he wanted to do with his life, but he knew that he was interested in diving. And I said, why don't you go work on a cruise ship? If you scuba diver, scuba diver instructor, instructor. And he's like, Oh, it's going to take time. It's going to take whatever. And I said, well, time is going to go by and you're going to be older anyway. So you may as well just say, I'll do it. And. you're going to waste away at home otherwise. And he went and he did it, you know, and that was really cool. Yeah. To, to meet people and, or I meet someone and they're afraid to travel. And, you know, I met, I met a guy here in Ireland. He was working in a corner shop. He said, well, I was going to go to Australia for, you know, whatever it was, four months, but I don't know what's scary. All my friends are here, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, that's, that's 16 Saturday nights, you know, that is not a big deal. Yeah. Before you. before you know it, it's going to be over. And he ended up going. And that was really cool to be able to say to someone, I'm not just talking shit. I've done it. And I've been in your shoes. And I've had to be dragged onto a plane to be standing here talking to you right now. But you won't regret it. There's no regret in evolving. There's no regret in just being more grown up tomorrow than you are today, I think.

• Speaker #1

  not necessarily more mature but just being like i'm putting my my big girl pants on and i'm gonna go do this going for it yeah yeah okay that kind of leads me to my last question which is which might sound a bit of a repeat but any advice for someone who wants to take that leap or why they should go and

• Speaker #0

  travel the world or at least go somewhere different if you can imagine yourself as an elderly person in a bed saying i really wish i would have done that and if that's a reality that you can see yourself saying something a regret that you can think of that comes to your mind right now then you should just go do it and that's what usually gets me to do something am i going to regret this when i'm older can i imagine myself does something come to mind when i imagine myself in that situation um because all we get from life is lessons right that's the whole point where we're here and a lot of people kind of live the same life day in day out for their whole life and some people are okay with that and some people just never took that leap and i think that um You can only get better when you take a risk. Even if you fail, then you learn a lesson and you go, okay, I know what to do or not to do next time. Even for me, opening the cafe. Oh, it only lasted three years because there was a sublease and it didn't last 10, 20 years. No, it lasted three and that's all I needed. Now I'm never doing it again and I don't ever have to think about it again, you know? So taking the risk and, as they say, being scared and doing it anyway. I'd say that would be the number one thing I'd like to tell people.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, amazing. The whole work thing is interesting, right? It's amazing that people don't want to take six months out because you're going to be working for 40, 50 years, more than likely. Yeah. It's nothing, is it? Yeah. To go on a worldwide trip for six months and have an amazing time. Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  And the funny thing is you can go out a door and turn left instead of right. And your whole world can change. You just never know. If I hadn't met that girl in Florence that said she lived in Dublin, I would not be talking to you right now.

• Speaker #1

  Of course. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  Talk to her anymore. Like we're not in touch anymore,

• Speaker #1

  but she really,

• Speaker #0

  yeah. And doesn't even know about it. Or my, or my cousin's friend at that wedding, he has no idea that I joined in any website the next day. He has no idea that he played such a role in my life 15 years ago.

• Speaker #1

  that's interesting isn't it that's quite um yeah that is wholesome almost yeah yeah okay amazing Laura it's been a great conversation uh super fun yeah it's been fun thank you tours and travel stories they're always fun things to talk about because we love food and we love travel so if people are heading to Dublin they should hit you up and uh get on a tour and if you ever come back to the UK and you're around Dublin you know

• Speaker #0

  I know they're not the same thing. Don't let people think that I think they're the same thing. If you're ever around Ireland and I'm still in these parts, let me know and come be a guest on my tour.

• Speaker #1

  Absolutely. I will hold you to that and I'll be in Dublin next time. I'll be hitting you up with a tour. I don't know when that'll be. I'm in UK for Christmas though, but whether I make it across the water, I have to see when I haven't booked it yet. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll keep in touch with that.

• Speaker #0

  We'll keep in touch.

• Speaker #1

  Awesome. Thanks, Laura.

• Speaker #0

  Thank you.

• Speaker #1

  Thanks for tuning in to the podcast episode today. If you've been inspired by today's chat and want to book some travel, if you head to the show notes, you'll see some affiliate links below, which helps support this podcast. You'll find Skyscanner to book your flight. You'll find Booking.com to book that accommodation. Want to stay in a super cool hostel? You'll see Hostelworld down there too. You'll find Revolut to get your travel card sorted. Click the GigSky link to get your eSIM ready for your trip. And more importantly, you'll find Safety Wing Insurance to get that travel insurance for your trip. There are many more to check out. So when you click that link and book your product, a small commission goes towards me and the Wiganet Travel Podcast. Thank you in advance and enjoy your travels.