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50th Adventure of a Lifetime
  • Michelle Bailey
  • Michelle Bailey

50th Adventure of a Lifetime

I've been wanting to do an extended Summer Trip to mark this milestone of a birthday 🎂 loosely have some flights and accommodation booked but after the freedom of the Christmas Adventure in Europe a lot of this Trip is unplanned. Read more
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  • Trip start
    July 30, 2025
    Michelle Bailey50th Adventure of a LifetimeTraveler

    First Stop, Manchester

    Jul 30–Aug 1, 2025 in England ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    Travelled up for a quick stop in the home town and to see friends. We're staying in Urmston so a 15 minute train into town. Cades first time out in Manchester and is being led astray tonight 🤣 Hopefully he won't be too hungover on the flight tomorrow. Weird seeing some of my old haunts from Uni days.. and going round Afflecks Palace.. it hasn't changed a bit in 40 years! Canal Street, Northern Quarter, Picadilly gardens, Oxford street and more.. 10000 steps then back for an early night. Flight to Albania tomorrow.Read more

  • Michelle Bailey50th Adventure of a LifetimeTraveler

    Flight to Tirana from Manchester

    August 1, 2025 in Albania ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Up and at 'em.. David Lloyds first at the Trafford centre and a massive protein breakfast to start the day.. Parked in Heald Green and called an Uber. Only 5 minutes from T3 Ryanair at Manchester Airport. It's really weird flying from Manchester Airport as we used to go there so often. My grandad worked there and I just have flashback memories of going to see him at work and him walking the airport pushing his trolley. It was mad busy and they herded us on in typical Ryanair fashion and then the Captain said there was an hour delay due to air traffic in Europe. He wasn't wrong! We left at 16.50pm but made up some time on the flight which was 2.5 hours. We landed in Tirana at 20.30pm. It was absolute carnage getting through customs. There was no organisation, several flights must have landed at once and people just swamped the desks. Crowded and being pushed around is not my thing 😞 it took about an hour to get through customs. We found the hire car and that was quite straightforward and we were on our way. So tired though! The car guy warned us about Albanian drivers and he wasn't wrong either.. it was just like customs, no queuing, lots of honking, aggressive drivers. Finally made it out of the airport and found our hostel in the City. About a 45 minute drive. Stumbled out to find food as we hadn't eaten since breakfast. We had grilled meat just round the corner and stumbled into bed about 1pm Albanian time. 1 hour ahead of the UK.Read more

  • Michelle Bailey50th Adventure of a LifetimeTraveler

    Bob Marley bnb and Bistro

    Aug 1–2, 2025 in Albania ⋅ 🌙 23 °C

    This is a lovely place that i found on Booking.com and can highly recommend it. It's the only night of accommodation that I had booked before we left 🤣 I love the freedom of not really having a plan and not really knowing where I'm going to be staying. Just go with the flow and pick and choose based on a bit of research using mostly Google maps to find an area that grabs my attention. Then I use Air bnb or Booking.com to find something a bit quirky.. it was £40 for a twin room, shared bathroom with breakfast. Can't grumble at that! It was a bit warm as there was no air con, just a fan but I slept well. Cade had a bit of a moan about the heat. As soon as we arrived there was a beautiful kitten in the room 🤣 he looked like a Bengal and was super playful. I sat down to have a beer before finding food and there was ducks! Hilarious.. kittens and ducks. Just my kinda place. We were up for breakfast about 8am and were entertained by the animals once again. I'd stay here again.Read more

  • Michelle Bailey50th Adventure of a LifetimeTraveler

    Koman Dam, Komani Lake

    August 2, 2025 in Albania ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Whilst waiting on the delayed flight and having Cades undivided attention I asked him Beach or Mountains for the next leg of our adventure and he said Mountains, always.. so I got on to Google Maps, joined some Albanian Facebook groups and Booking.com. There was a few places that looked interesting and seemed to be a lot river tours being advertised somewhere up near a place called Shala River. I found a hotel that looked pretty decent, right on the river with breakfast for €80 and just booked it as the flight was leaving. We were so exhausted by the time we got to the Bob Marley Hostel i didn't even check the directions 🤣. After breakfast we got in the car and put the hotel into the Sat Nav.. I've never seen Google Maps tell me that "there's no route available" UH OH!
    A little bit of research later and we have to get a boat to the Hotel!!
    There's only me that can happen too.. we had better get a move on as there's only 2 boats a day 🤣 9.30am (already missed) and 4.30pm. It was a beautiful drive up the mountains and through a town called Shkoder    Read more

  • Michelle Bailey50th Adventure of a LifetimeTraveler

    Shala River Boat Ride

    August 2, 2025 in Albania ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    So, the boat we had to get to the Hotel was quite the experience 🤣 feeling very under researched we followed the vague instructions from the hotel. It said find parking at the dam and get on the boat named N. M. Moller... well.. it was chaos lol
    First, finding parking... Panorama parking was mentioned so we somehow, God knows how, found that and parked. Paid €5 per day and then had to pay for transport to the "tunnel". We then had to walk through the tunnel and the boats would be on the other side. The photos will tell the story! But, safely (I use that term loosely) ensconced in our boat we set off on what we thought would be a short ride.. an hour later and Cade was asking me "are we there yet". This really is in the middle of nowhere!    Read more

  • Michelle Bailey50th Adventure of a LifetimeTraveler

    Guri i Lekes Guesthouse

    Aug 2–3, 2025 in Albania ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

    This is one of the most incredible places I've been too in all my travels.. unique location and breathtaking scenery. Cocktails on the beach with Cade, late night swim in the freezing river, Uno with the Aussie girls.. bonfire on the beach and a lovely breakfast. Spent the next day chilling and sunbathing on the beach before our "windy" boat ride back to Panarama parking.Read more

  • Michelle Bailey50th Adventure of a LifetimeTraveler

    Shala River Boat ride back to Panarama

    August 3, 2025 in Albania ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Just because Shala river deserves another footprint (and I took soooo many videos and photos). The wind was howling on our ride back everyone got very wet on the boat 🤣. I ended up sitting on the floor with a towel over my head. We got back to the Dam, walked back through the tunnel and found the car. 2 hour drive back to Bob Marley Hostel now. We really liked it there and such great value for money.Read more

  • Michelle Bailey50th Adventure of a LifetimeTraveler

    Dubai Mall

    August 8, 2025 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ☀️ 39 °C

    We absolutely love it here.. was really disappointed that the fountains weren't working at the Burj Khalifa.. tallest building in the world but at least we've seen them before. Almost too hot to be standing outside though too! 48 degrees today. We tried the new Apple vision in the Apple store and I tired the new Ray Ban smart glasses.. super cool 😎 I'm very tempted haha! Found a GDK in the food court so had to grab that for a quick lunch.Read more

  • Michelle Bailey50th Adventure of a LifetimeTraveler

    Dubai Dinner Cruise, Xclusive Yachts

    August 8, 2025 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ☀️ 37 °C

    Well, after last years debacle of trying to get a deal on some excursions and them never materialising I decided to just book a couple through Booking.com for reliability. To be fair I got a really, really good deal on both trips, this Dubai Marina Cruise with dinner and open bar and Dune bashing for tomorrow evening with dinner. We were picked up, chauffeured and dropped back home. It didn't mention the open bar when I booked and honestly for the price I never expected it but they just kept bringing wine around and never asked me to pay for it 🤣Read more

  • Trip end
    August 31, 2025