SabrinaSummerville's VirtualTourist Home Page

I have just returned from the most amazing business trip to Croatia and Bosnia Herzogovina. I count myself lucky that the nature of my business allows me to mix work with the pleasure of sightseeing and meeting the local people. In both regards this particular trip was truly exceptional.

Late February and early March brought a couple of trips to Dublin and gave me a couple of new restaurant and shopping tips on my Dublin pages.

As for my usual New Year's Eve holiday, what can I say! My longed for trip to Cuba turned out to be an almost total disaster. It all started with an embarrassing and unsatisfactory flight on Air France's Alize class, progressed to our hotel in Varadero having no record of the reservation, continued to me getting food poisoning in the substitute hotel and sort of rambled on from there.

In the meantime you might like to take a look at my far more calming pages on the villages and small towns of Ireland - Inistioge , Fiddown, Graiguenamanagh, Carrick on Suir, Tramore - others are in construction.

You might also like to join my friends and I virtually as we enjoy some amazing new restaurants that have just opened in my home city of Waterford.

Here's the travel line up for 2006, 2007, and the start of 2008:-

JANUARY 2006 Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt

MAY 2006 Las Vegas and Los Angeles, USA

SEPTEMBER 2006 Italy, to include Sirmione, Limone, Riva, Lazise, Florence and Venice

SEPTEMBER 2006 Cardiff, Wales

DECEMBER 2006 Talinn, Estonia

DECEMBER 2006/ JANUARY 2007 Aruba

FEBRUARY 2007 Cruise around Cape Horn to include taking in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and the Falkland Islands.

APRIL 2007 Work weekends away in the stunning Irish towns of KILLARNEY and TRALEE

MAY 2007 Cairo,Egypt (work)

JUNE 2007 Marbella/Puerto Banus

AUTUMN 2007 The Irish Villages and Towns

OCTOBER 2007 Tenerife PLUS, closer to home, CORK and GALWAY

NOVEMBER 2007 Close to home in Tramore and Dunmore East.

DECEMBER 2007 Cuba

FEBRUARY 2008 A sad trip to Cardiff to the funeral of a dear friend. Malcolm Clements was the husband of my cousin Helen, and he was always a friend to me.

MARCH 2008 Business trip to Croatia. This is a new venture and first trip to Croatia. It also allowed me to take in quite a bit of Bosnia Herzogovina.

My tip writing has been a bit quiet of late as, in addition to lots of travelling, I've been writing another book, but that's finished now and off with the Agents for (hopefully) publilshing, so watch this space for news of that.

Lately I have re-established my social life. Let's just say - the party is sooooo not over:-)

In the meantime, please.......read on:-)

I've been on this site almost four years now, but it took me quite a long time to discover what a wonderfully friendly place it is. I've discovered this courtesy of the Misc Forum, of course:-) Since then I have started going to VT meetings abroad (oh well, ok, just one so far) and making arrangements to meet fellow VTers when in their country. It puts such a different slant on the benefits of travel, having met Tartu2005 in Tallinn (with VT friends) and Pushi Rubiano in Aruba, both in 2006!!!!

My real name is Gabrielle and I live in a small City in the South East of Ireland called Waterford. This is where I was born, and I've lived most of my life here (apart from my College years) so I guess you could say that I'm a real homebird.

I'm a lawyer, for my sins, but please don't hate me 'cos I'm one of those really nice gentle lawyers who listens well and fights her clients corner moreso for the cause than for the money. A bit like Sandra Bullock in Two Weeks Notice:-) Are you OK with that Sandra?

Travel is my main hobby and I get away as often as I can - the main restriction being time away from the office. One of my big ambitions would be to see as much of the world as I can, but to date I've just managed 31 countries even though I get away four or five times a year. I guess I keep going back to places I love.

In 2007 my career and my travel hobby began to merge when I became involved in International Property from a Legal advisory and liaison point of view. Now having a reason to travel for work adds a whole new meaning to the working side of life.

I love chatting to friends online and have only recently discovered that there are some great friends to be made here on VT. Travel is truly a hobby that brings people from all walks of life together.

I like to take photographs, too, so I pepper my posts with my favourites wherever I can. It's a hobby I need to work at, but then I hope I'll always have something that I'm working towards. I hate to be bored:-)

I thought I was a great traveller until I came here and saw how much of the world others have covered. We have a programme on Irish TV where a girl called Kathryn Thomas gets to travel to all these amazing destinations - and it's her job! She reports on different resorts, hotels, holiday types etc. I used to think that Kathryn had my dream job (it's true, most Lawyers don't want to be lawyers any more!) until I watched her last night in a canoe on the Orinoco and trekking through the jungle to Angel Falls. Yes, it was absolutely amazing when she got there, but the poor girl was covered in mozzie bites and I'd say you wouldn't have a nail on your fingers. I'm sure there are spiders and snakes, too. Ugh!

I guess my point here is that the canoe sailing/mozzie bitten/ jungle trekking holiday is not my style and I prefer something a bit more refined at this stage in my life. That saying, I long to do a safari (high on my list of future trips) and will suffer the insects - liberally doused with repellant. Don't misunderstand me though - I'm no prima donna and can hit the dirt with the rest of the gang if needs be:-)

So anyway, back to my typical holiday. I'll be happy to cover and report on the luxury slot - give me a five star hotel, the perfect spa, a pristine white sandy beach, and some history or culture and there's my perfect trip.

Last year I did northern India staying in Oberois throughout - Oberoi are incredible. They couldn't accomodate me in Delhi but the Taj Mahal hotel there outdid themselves for service and everything else, and gave me the Presidential suite as an upgrade.

Speaking of Oberoi, the Oberoi in Cairo wasn't quite what I expected, not the usual Oberoi standards, but then I stayed out in the garden wing which was a mistake.

One of my favourite luxury hotels of all is the Choupana Hills in Madeira. Now there's a place to get lost, be entirely secluded, and pampered within an inch of your longest manicured fingernail.

Earlier this Summer I was delighted with the luxury of the Four Seasons in Las Vegas. I am still disappointed that the Regent Beverly Wishire in Beverly Hills is unavailable for my trip to LA and the Beverly Hilton was no substitute believe me, but as they say in Ireland "Beidh la eile" (there'll be another day).

I've already admitted to being the luxury travel kind of girl, which brings me to the topic of flying. These days it's a most uncomfortable experience, even if you're supermodel skinny (which I'm not). The ideal, therefore, is to fly first class if you can possibly afford it.

I've only managed to do this once so far, flying from New York to Dublin. I am lucky to have a good friend who arranged a free upgrade for me. Oh what an experience it was - and unfortunately not so good; but please.....read on.

The journey, any time you travel, starts the moment you leave home (or your hotel on the return trip) and when we arrived at JFK to pick up our flight we were met by horrific lines at checkin. It was Christmas week after all. It was delightful to be able to skip all of that and go right to the top of the checkin desk. There the checkin staff smiled, called me by name, and said "We've been expecting you." Oh the joy of it.

Similarly when we went through security there was a tiny line for first class, and a queue that wound round the entire terminal for what I now call baggage class (because I always feel like a bit of baggage when I fly economy - oh first class has me ruined for life!).

We wandered into the Aer Lingus first class lounge and I tried not to gape at the amazing sun loungers with umbrellas positioned to overlook the runways. We melted into comfy armchairs and sipped champagne, trying to be discrete in our star-spotting.

When our flight was called we were shown to luxurious leather seats - they felt almost like small sofas and could have seated two at a push. But there is no pushing in first class, just absolute luxury. We were handed crystal glasses of champagne and shown a menu of delectable in flight delicacies. I looked behind, into baggage class, and saw that the flight was choc-a-block full. I felt like a movie star. The stewardesses kept smiling at me and asking if I was ok, trying to insist I have more champagne, a pillow, another blanket.

The trouble started when the flight took off, but in fairness it was not the fault of the wonderful Aer Lingus. We hit a storm which was so bad that even the cabin staff were confined to their seats. This storm lasted almost all of the way to Dublin so, apart from the seats and the champagne on boarding, I missed all the other joys of first class flying.

Another time, another time. Sighhhh... :-)

**********

I wrote the above when I started my Homepage, but since then I have started thinking along the lines of paying for flight upgrades. In December 2007 I took my first "paid for" (i.e. not complimentary) flight upgrade, flying Alize Class with Air France. Oh my, but I was disappointed from start to finish. Again, this will be the subject of a Travelogue and I'll post a link soon:-)

Lately most of my travelling is done with my Mum. She was 70 this year and is a really fantastic travelling companion. To be honest, sometimes she up for more than I am :-) She nursed my Dad for eight years when he was really ill, and subsequently died of early onset Alzheimers, so it's lovely for her to have a few travel treats now.

We have a small little bit of conflict on what we like to do as she likes to be on the go all the time, whereas I'm always so delighted to get away from the office that I just want to collapse by the pool with a half dozen good books. We usually compromise by getting a hotel on the beach in a fairly large complex so she can explore while I lounge. We also regularly do the two-centre thing, or stay in a historical area, and book several day trips.

Mum loves markets and browsing,she's great at the bargaining and loves chatting to the locals. Give me a huge mall in Dubai and that's my kind of shopping. We get on great though.

At other times I travel with friends, or with my sister, her husband and kids. It's really important to travel with people that you're comfortable with.

Beautiful poetry reminds me of everything that is special in the world - including love and travel. This is one of my favourite poems and I find myself quoting the last line in relation to lots of things. I wanted to share it with you. The author is W B Yeats. The photograph is one of a series of pics I took of Tramore at sunset. It's amazing that the sunset is so different each evening that it makes the world look so amazingly varied, even in the same spot! Compare it with the first pic on this page taken the following night looking in the same direction. Amazing colours! Travel doesn't have to be to someplace thousands of miles away - sometimes the most spectacular sights are right on your doorstep.

HAD I the heavens embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

I've always wanted a convertible, even though we don't really get the weather for them here in Ireland. So last year I ditched the Beemer and bought myself a topless car at long last. It's my pride and joy right now, typically red with cream leather.

My cousin Laura got married in october and a number of elderly Aunts came to town for the wedding. My Mum promised them all a drive in the cool car.

The day after the wedding I picked up my Mum and two of my Aunts. The elderly ladies were delighted with themselves, scarves wound around their heads a la Truly Scrumptious (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). I felt I was giving them a great treat and, promising to bring them anywhere, I asked where they wanted to go - without hesitation, and in one voice they said "The Graveyard." Poor old ladies, they're all widows, and they wanted to visit their Husband's graves.

In the graveyard I took a couple of pics with my camera phone as I didn't have the camera with me. One of my Aunts asked me to email them to her Daughter in Seattle. As a joke I titled the email "Topless Graveyard Girls" - but it never got to my cousin! Obviously some porn filter caught it.

They had great fun though.

NOTE:- Time has passed since I first wrote this car piece, and sadly the red convertible is mine no more. It's been replaced by a very gorgeous black lexus jeep, but that's another tale..... I still like this pic!!

I'm posting a pic of me taken back in 1989 during my biker phase. I'm the taller of the two girls in the pic. To look at me now you'd never think I was once I biker girl. Actually to be fair I dated a Harley Davidson riding biker for ten years, although he'd seldom take me out on the bike. he was a true biker, a member of a well known Irish bikers group called The Freewheelers (similar in nature to Hells Angels, though not exactly).

That pic was taken at a bikers show in Co. Waterford where I met several of the members of U2 - at that time they were great pals with some of the local Freewheelers (maybe they still are, I don't know).

To this day I'd love to get a Harley myself. There's such a sense of freedom with the wind blowing through your hair.

My brother went about buying one just before Christmas but his Wife nearly had a fit, lol.