Travel In Your Pocket

Ep. 11 - Dracula’s Whitby & haunted tourist spots

It's a scream! We start our spine-tinglingly special Halloween episode with a warning that Andrea plays a prank on Heidi during our Where in the World game and Heidi (literally) jumps out of her chair. If you don't like screams fast-forward but it is very, very funny.   Then we make our way to Whitby - the isolated harbour town on England's north east coast that was the inspiration for Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula. While the ruins of the 7th century Whitby Abbey loom large over the town, Whitby is also famous for fish & chips; a Captain Cook museum; a fascinating Victorian library and ghoulish ghost and vampire walking tours. Andrea gives the low down on her recent trip there her stay at the fabulously kitsch and antique-filled La Rosa hotel.  We round off the episode with the Top 5 Lesser Known Haunted Places Around the World according to Lonely Planet. A magnetic hill though - really guys? Here's the full list - Magnetic Hill, Moldova; Daksa island, Croatia; Ross Castle, Co. Meath, Ireland; LaLaurie Mansion, New Orleans and Fort Garry, Winnipeg.  SUBSCRIBE to our podcast - it would absolutely make our day!  And please do follow us here: Instagram Twitter  Facebook Thanks, as always, to our good friends from the band 3D Shark, who provide our theme tune. If we plug them enough, we hope that one day they'll get into the charts and buy us a pint.  Thanks for listening!     

Ep. 10 - Pittsburgh - steel, sports, space & Ulster-Scots

Go Yinzers! We devote this episode to Pittsburgh, PA, a.k.a. Steel City Pennsylvania. 
After Andrea's fab visit there in Spring 2022 we knew we had to deep dive into this fantastic place, with our usual Where In The World brain-teaser (clue: the answer is not Pittsburgh) and a departure lounge chat with the fact- and fun-filled Corrie from Walk The Burgh Tours. 
Our Top 5 this episode is devoted to Only in Pittsburgh attractions - its 446 bridges; the Moonshot Museum; Wigle Whisky; the Andy Warhol Museum and the famous Primanti Bros. sandwiches. And we do all this while sipping on two of the city's famous libations, Engine House 25 wine and the aforementioned Wigle Whisky, because, well, who wouldn't? 
We learn that Andrew Carnegie seems to have named many of Pittsburgh's attractions after himself (well, he did pay for them, after all) and we discover the fascinating Ulster-Scots / Scots-Irish history and language of the city, and wider Pennsylvania area in general.  
Andrea also keeps up the TIYP podcast tradition of totally mis-pronouncing proper nouns and so, apologies the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers! 
Thank you to everyone at Visit Pittsburgh - do visit them online to find out exactly why your next trip should be there: www.visitpittsburgh.com. And finally, thank you to all the Yinzers Andrea met on her trip - you are the friendliest, most helpful and fun bunch of people!  
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Thanks, as always, to our good friends from the band 3D Shark, who provide our theme tune. If we plug them enough, we hope that one day they'll get into the charts and buy us a pint. 
Thanks for listening! 
 
 
 

Ep. 9 - ABBA, quirky museums & postcards (who still ends them?)

Calling all Dancing Queens, we think you'll love our fABBAulous chat with ABBA The Museum's Creative Director and Curator, Ingmarie Halling (she also used to tour with ABBA overseeing their costumes, make-up and hair). Ingmarie knows more about the Swedish supergroup than anyone else (apart from Agnetha, Benny, Bjorn and Anna-Frid of course) and our chat with her comes just as ABBA Voyage arrives in London. Find out all about the museum, its history and how you can chat to a member of ABBA there, as well as getting Ingmarie's lowdown on Stockholm itself. 
Continuing the museum theme, this month's Top 5 takes a look at travel website wanderlust.so.uk's choice of the world's strangest and quirkiest museums - the Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum in Tennessee, USA; the British Lawnmower Museum in Southport, England; The Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb, Croatia; New Delhi's Museum of Toilets in India and Japan's Cup Noodles Museum in Osaka. But what about Iceland's Phallological Museum dedicated to penises - has Wanderlust cocked-up by not including it, we ask? 
We've also got our regular Where in the World feature - does Andrea outwit Heidi for the third month in a row? 
And we kick off the show by asking if anyone sends postcards anymore (Andrea certainly does, from far flung places including the Falkland Islands and North Korea) and we look through Heidi's box of cards from years gone by as well as the custom and practice of what to write - weather here, wish you were lovely! 
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Find ABBA The Museum online here. 
Thanks, as always, to our good friends from Northern Ireland band 3D Shark, who provide our theme tune. If we plug them enough one day they'll get into the charts and they'll buy us a pint! 
Thanks for listening and see you next month.  
 
 
 
 
 

Ep 8 - Titanic - the ill-fated liner for tourists

We mark the 110th anniversary of the sinking of RMS Titanic with a tour of Titanic Belfast, the £multi-million visitor attraction built on the launch site of the ill-fated ship. The maritime theme continues with our ever-present segments designed to test even the hardiest of Titanoraks. Can Andrea guess Heidi's particularly abstract Where In The World destination? And which of the other Top Five Titanic-linked locations has Andrea explored? We discuss The Titanic Graveyard in Halifax, Nova Scotia; the Titanic Museum, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee; Titanic – the Artefact Exhibition in Las Vegas, Nevada; our very own Titanic Belfast and the Sea City Museum in Southampton, England.    SUBSCRIBE to our podcast for lots more travel insights and musings:  Instagram - @travelinyourpocketpodcast Twitter - @Travel_IYP Facebook - @TravelInYourPocketPodcast    Near, far, whereeeeever they are, our hearts will go on for our good friends at Northern Ireland band 3D Shark, who provide our theme tune.   Thanks for listening and see you next month! 

Ep. 7 - Castles, musical holidays & Krakow, Poland (from an insider!)

In episode 7, the queens of travel chat castles. The ones we've been to and the ones we want to visit. We also ponder what exactly makes a castle anyway (it may be something to do with turrets). We  take in everywhere from Glenapp Castle in Scotland and Portmerion's Castell Deudraeth in Wales, along with Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany, the inspiration for Disney's classic castle and Bran Castle in Romania, famous for both Dracula and Vlad The Impaler. 
Then we discuss the Top 5 musical must-sees according to Trips to Discover - Ireland (all of it), Havana, Berlin, Liverpool and Seattle. But no J-pop or K-pop, and Andrea spots something that might be a bit wrong about Heidi's choice of list.
Our fantasy VIP departure lounge interview this episode is with Garrett Van Reed, Editor in Chief of Poland In Your Pocket. He gives is the insider guide to his how city, Krakow, where he's lived for 16 years and publishes, among other Poland city guides, Krakow In Your Pocket. He tells us all about the city's medieval centre and Jewish quarter, its old town – ringed by Planty Park and the remnants of the city’s medieval walls, expansive Rynek Glówny (market square), the Cloth Hall, a Renaissance-era trading outpost, and St. Mary’s Basilica, a 14th-century Gothic church.
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Find Krakow In Your Pocket online here. For more tourist info on Poland, click here.
Thanks, as always, to our good friends from Northern Ireland band 3D Shark, who provide our theme tune.
Thanks for listening and see you next month! 

Ep 6 - George Best’s Belfast & the world’s top football stadiums

Football special! We celebrate the Beautiful Game in this episode with a tour of George Best's childhood home, now open as a short-term holiday let in Belfast. Tour guide Peter McCabe tells us about the house where George kicked his first ball before we settle down for the night in the boyhood bedroom of the World's Greatest Footballer.* We thoroughly recommend this unique visitor attraction for both tours and overnight stays (details of how to book it, below). 
Then we discuss the world's top 5 football stadiums to visit before you die, from the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia (which also hosts football matches, fact fans) via the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City; Wembley in London and Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain. 
Tell us about your favourite footie trips, tours and recommendations in the comments of our social media pages.
 
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Follow us on Instagram at @travelinyourpocketpodcast, on Twitter at @Travel_IYP, on Facebook at @TravelInYourPocketPodcast or email us at travel@inyourpocket.com
 
Special thanks to EastSide Partnership for our overnight stay and tour of the George Best house - www.eastsidepartnership.com. You can find out more about booking the George Best house for yourself here: www.georgebesthouse.com.  
 
Thanks, as always, to our good friends 3D Shark, who provide our theme tune. They also do football songs - check out We're Going to the Euros; Jackie Fullerton Says (I'm in Heaven When We Score) and the frankly brilliantly bonkers, My Name is Brian Clough. Listen at https://soundcloud.com/3d-shark. 
 
Our 7th episode will be out towards the end of next month.  See you then, wherever you are in the world! 
 

Ep 5 - 2022 travel trends, tourist-friendly graveyards & Bulgaria (top tourist tips)

What are the big travel trends for 2022? We're so glad you asked! We discuss them, along with a chat about the world's most beautiful graveyards (yes, really) and why you should see them before you, er, die. We then invite Bulgaria In Your Pocket publisher and editor, Paromita Sanatani, into our fantasy departure lounge to ask her all about her adopted home country and why you should go there. 
After kicking off the episode with our Where in the World quiz (answer at the end of the show), we chat about staycations, upgrading your vacay, slow travel and letting the train take the strain in our review of this year's predicted travel trends.
In our Top 5 slot we look into historyhit.com's list of the five most beautiful cemeteries in the world - Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, USA; La Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Prague’s Old Jewish Cemetery, Czech Republic; Highgate Cemetery, London and Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. But who is buried there, why should you go, have you ever been, what do Heidi and Andrea think of these picks and have either of them ever scribed Smiths lyrics on Oscar Wilde's tomb? 
And who do we meet in our fantasy VIP departure lounge? Why, it's travel guru and Bulgaria expert, Paromita Sanatani, who tells us about her journey from India via the UK to her adopted home in Bulgaria, where she's lived for almost 30 years. So she's perfectly placed to tell us all about Bulgaria's major attractions, why it's the perfect location for skiers as well as sun-seekers, and what she likes, and doesn't like, about cities including Sophia, Plovdiv and Veliko Tarnovo. Don't book your trip without listening to Paromita's advice first. 
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Follow us on Instagram at @travelinyourpocketpodcast, on Twitter at @Travel_IYP, on Facebook at @TravelInYourPocketPodcast or email us at travel@inyourpocket.com
 
Find Bulgaria In Your Pocket on Instagram at @bulgariainyourpocket and online at https://www.inyourpocket.com/bulgaria.
 
Thanks, as always, to our good friends from Northern Ireland band 3D Shark, who provide our theme tune. Listen to more at https://soundcloud.com/3d-shark. 
 
Our 6th episode will be out towards the end of next month. See you then, wherever you are in the world! 
 
 

Ep 4 - World’s rudest place names & we drink our Top 5 global cocktails (and get quite drunk!)

Listeners of a delicate disposition, cover your ears now, because in our final episode of 2021, we discuss the world's rudest, funniest place names, including the village of Muff in Donegal, Ireland and Twatt in the Scottish Orkney islands. Inspired by the Rude Road Trip around the UK, undertaken by brothers Andy and Magnus Tait in 2019, we chat about naughty nomenclature, including Sandy Balls holiday resort in England, Pig Turd Alley in Sacramento, USA and Shag Point, South Australia, among others. 
In our Top 5 we drink 5 famous cocktails named after, or invented in, different global destinations, and rank them in order. As you'd image, we get increasingly tipsy as we drink our way through the list. What would be your favourite - a Bellini from Harry's Bar, Venice; a Pisco Sour from Peru or Chile; A Singapore Sling from the Long Bar in Raffles, Singapore; a Mojito from Cuba or an Irish coffee? We try them all so you don't have to. 
We finish the episode with the answer to the Where In The World clues Heidi gave Andrea at the start of the show. 
There's no interview this episode (because, alcohol) but we'll be back in January with more chats, another Where in the World, a top 5 and an interview with an influential travel expert.
SUBSCRIBE to our podcast, and follow us on Instagram at @travelinyourpocketpodcast, on Twitter at @Travel_IYP or email us at travel@inyourpocket.com
 
Thanks, as always, to our good friends from Northern Ireland band 3D Shark, who provide our theme tune. 
Our 5th episode will be out towards the end of January. See you then, wherever you are in the world! 
 
 
 
  
 

Ep 3 - Ireland, top 5 beaches & Johannesburg (from an expert)

Welcome to Episode 3. We play another Where In The World guessing game - answer at the end of the episode - and this time Heidi doesn't cheat (that we know of!) We chat about Andrea's jaunt to the most northerly place in Ireland, Malin Head - which, in Irish geo-political terms, despite being the most northerly place in Ireland, is officially in the South. Of course, she had the most northerly pint in Ireland while there! Fun fact - scenes from Star Wars The Last Jedi were filmed in Malin Head.  Listen up beaches! We chat about money.co.uk's list of the top 5 most Instagrammed beaches in the world. What do our intrepid adventurers Heidi & Andrea think of the list? Do they agree?  In our fantasy departure lounge, we chat with Laurice Taitz, publisher of Johannesburg In Your Pocket, about how the city has evolved over the decades to become one of the most vibrant and interesting African cities. She's got the low-down on where to go and when, so if you're interested in a trip to South Africa, don't miss this interview.    As always, you can get follow us on Instagram at @travelinyourpocketpodcast, on Twitter at @Travel_IYP or email us at travel@inyourpocket.com   We bet you're wondering where our fab intro music comes from, right? Wonder no longer, it's by our very good friends, Northern Ireland band 3D Shark, and you can find their top tuneage on YouTube.  Our 4th episode will be out towards the end of December (in the meantime, you can get in touch with us by email or on social media). Till the next time...

Ep 2 - Black Travel with World Wide Nate, plus cruises & road trips

Buckle up for episode 2 in which we have another Where in the World destination for you to guess. We reveal the location at the end of the show. 
We chat about cruises and Andrea's summer 2021 jaunt on Celebrity APEX, and we discuss the Top 5 road trips as chosen by National Geographic - but what do Heidi & Andrea think of Nat Geo's choices? Did they stall or hit top gear? 
Then we invite the fantastic adventure ambassador Nathan Fluellen - a.k.a. World Wide Nate @WorldWideNate - into our fantasy departure lounge to ask him about his travels, his love of surfing and being a leading figure in the Black travel movement. 
Tell us what you think of the show and and the places you'd like us to cover next - write to us at: travel@inyourpocket.com and follow us on Instagram @travelinyourpocketpodcast. 
And thanks as always to brilliant Northern Ireland band, 3D Shark, for providing us with our title music. We highly recommend check out their YouTube channel.