Maisie Adam

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1:28Hello and welcome to the Travel Diaries podcast. I'm your host Holly Rubenstein and here each week I'll be speaking to a very special guest about the seven chapters in their life's travel diaries. From the first place they fell in love with and their all-time favourite destination to their hidden gem and what's at the top of their travel bucket list, we'll be uncovering their adventures around the world and the travel experiences and destinations that have shaped their lives. Today I'm joined by one of the funniest women in British comedy, Maisie Adam. Since winning the prestigious So You Think You're Funny competition at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017, Maisie's become a familiar face on shows like Mock the Week, Taskmaster and Last One Laughing, as well as selling out her own stand-up tours across the UK and beyond.

2:19Born and raised in North Yorkshire. Maisie's career has taken her all over the world and as you'll discover she's an incredibly enthusiastic traveller. Today we're heading from her childhood holidays in Blackpool and Tenerife to the cobbled streets of Prague, a solo interrailing adventure through Italy. We discover her love affair with New Orleans and a rather unfortunate case of mistaken identity in Norway. That and much much more. So let's buckle up and get started. Here is Maisie.

2:51Maisie, welcome to The Travel Diaries. It's so great to see you. How are you doing? Yeah, thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be on. I'm excited. Do you know, I was just flying home from a trip yesterday and who did I see on the cover of EasyJet magazine? Have you just had so many messages about that? Yeah, I've had a lot of people sending me their pictures of it. and then selfie yeah literally day before yesterday I was flying back from Belfast and I was on the easy jet flight and there was this really weird moment of like the person next to me reading the magazine and like she clocked it and I could feel her clock that the person next to her is the person on the cover and I was just like oh god like just keep staring straight ahead keep staring straight ahead couldn't look left the whole flight yeah I mean it's amazing I mean it's the the absolute peak time to be to be on that magazine cover and you were of course in Slovenia yeah which my listeners will know I harp on the whole time about being desperate to go there so what was it like what a gem yeah I hadn't been before and it was it was somewhere that I deliberately kind of didn't know too much about before going so that we had plenty to discuss in the in the interview you know discovering it in real time um but it was it was gorgeous we went to Ljubljana and like 45 minute drive from there is Lake Bled and I think I said it in the interview but it I've always seen pictures of Lake Bled and of course that little island in the middle with the with the church on it and the water being so blue I think I just always thought those photos were kind of filtered or touched up or whatever but it really was like quite breathtaking turning up there and seeing just so much natural beauty.

4:40I was glad I picked it. I was glad I picked that as the place to go because it's somewhere that I maybe wouldn't have naturally been drawn to just through not knowing much about it and having not heard much about it. So it was cool to go somewhere that I didn't know anything about and then be so pleasantly surprised and just so naturally beautiful. I think that's always the kind of places that I'm really drawn to as if they're naturally stunning and and and seeing kind of different landscapes is always always a highlight for me yeah so did you have time while you were out there to actually kind of get out into nature when you're down at late bed yeah so so um flew out there and just had like the evening in Ljubljana going along the river which was really beautiful and it was really hot as well I didn't expect it to be so hot that's 38 degrees wow really hot and then yeah the next day we went kind of more further out into the countryside and and and that was really beautiful because I didn't realize as well like up near Lake Blair that used to be a ski resort so all of the architecture like all of the buildings are kind of very alpine ski resort and in their very sort of like little chocolate box kind of beautiful chalets yeah but it's now it doesn't get the snow like it used to so it aesthetically looks still like a ski village in terms of its its structure um but it's now green grass and blue skies and and and beautiful lakes so I guess it's it's more like what what the ski resorts have in the summer but they've got that more all the year round now um it was really really cool awesome okay I've got to get out there this next year so on my on my bucket list on my bucket list and I imagine now a lot of other people who've been reading your interview on the magazine well yeah that was it I've like I was I I was a little bit worried because obviously you're aware you're going for a magazine where you've got to be like, oh, it's lovely here.

6:38But it was nice. I didn't have to ham it up. I didn't have to pretend I thought somewhere was nicer than it was. But the first thing I said when I got back to my husband, I said, like, we've got to go. We've got to go together. Definitely. That is the best endorsement when you have to go when you're going somewhere for work and then you're saying, right, we want to come back here at our free time. Totally. Totally. Yeah. Do you have that with, obviously, when you're touring as well, you're discovering places the entire time and going to, I mean, I guess that's like a real privilege of being a comedian and being able to go around the country and discover, like, so many places that the average person who lives in England wouldn't have the chance to see.

7:19Yeah, yeah, totally. And getting to read, if you find a really good restaurant somewhere, then sometimes it's just nice to have something in the diary where you're like oh when we get to there we can go to that nice Italian that we went to last time like just stuff like that is is always lovely and um yeah especially when you get to go to other countries with that job as well and like I've been lucky enough to get to go to Australia and Switzerland and um it's all over Scandinavia as well with my tour and and and it's amazing kind of discovering what feels like places on a holiday but you're there for work and and and I think as well an audience appreciates it if you've got a little reference point that you've discovered or um or found quite amusing and and you can have them fill you in on it more and it's a nice little experience what's been the kind of biggest unexpected surprise in that respect would you I think Norway, I think from the, I know quite a few Norwegian people and by their own admission, they've said, you know, they're quite direct and quite blunt, almost quite Dutch or Germanic in that way.

8:32Like they've got a sense, they've definitely got a sense of humour, but it's different in terms of its rhythm and cadence to us. and so I was perhaps a little bit nervous of how of how the gig would go and the reference points and stuff and you know I've gigged before in places like Amsterdam where there's you know huge huge swathes of very good English speakers and I know Norway are very good at English as well but but I just I don't know I just thought that they'd be a harder room but they were so fun really up for it really up for a laugh um and yeah I I loved it it was one of my favorite gigs of my last tour so we're gonna go on a journey today Vasey through the seven chapters of your life's travel diaries and we will start at the very beginning with chapter one which is your earliest childhood travel memory what was the like first real taste of travel outside of Yorkshire for you would you say I think it was a holiday to Tenerife when I was really really young I'm maybe five six years old and the the the strip of kind of all-inclusive resorts um down down on that side um it would have been I just remember it feeling like most kids kind of amazing to have access to a pool every day and the kids clubs and stuff have just been like oh my god this is it's like it's like summer camp but it's hot and I get to wear my swim cossey every day and all I'm gonna do all day is is get better at jumping into a pool that's that's amazing practice your cannonballs yeah then I'm gonna have chicken and chips again for tea it was just like yeah I remember I remember really um really just thinking it was the best thing ever because we used to go on holiday every summer to um Blackpool that was like always our our big holiday so and I loved Blackpool and still do but I was always like you know you couldn't go swimming out in the sea or swimming outdoors like all the time in Blackpool um you brave it sometimes yeah exactly so like it just was a real novelty I guess would have been maybe in a half term then because we would have still gone to Blackpool in the summer because we timed it with all my family like extended family there's a big like 30 odd of us that would go oh my god how fun yeah Whereas this Tenerife one must have been like, I guess, an October half term or a May half term and and just feeling very like.

11:07Like getting a swimming costume for it, like a holiday swimming cosy and making friends with somebody. I remember like making friends with these two sisters who were from Luton and I had no idea where that was. And they said it's near London and I'd heard of London, but I didn't. I knew it was where the Queen lived. So in my head, these girls lived near the Queen. Like it was very kind of, yeah. Idyllic really in a way. Yeah, I think so. I think when you're a kid as well, like all you want is a pool and some mates to splash about with. And I thought it was the best holiday ever. Yeah. It was. That's so lovely.

11:47Did it give you a taste for travel? I think it definitely gave me a taste for being by the pool in the sun. that is definitely still what I kind of seek out like when people ask do you want a cold holiday or a hot holiday I do I do love I've been to the colder countries I've been to um uh Finland and um I've gone Norway in the in in the winter and and ski holidays I'm I absolutely love it but I for me nothing can beat just sitting with a good book by the pool and having a having a having a nice little drink in the sun I think also when you have like such a busy life that's it you just need that time to you don't want to be on the go no I was having this chat actually with a friend because she she loves nothing more than those quick two-day city breaks like she'll just fly to a European city and just see everything there is to see and she loves that and I think I like that as well but going back to what you said earlier about my job it affords me that opportunity sometimes to be in somewhere for 36 hours and I'll cram it in and see it then so if I then get and I'm grateful for that and I love it I feel really lucky that I get to do that and just go right Zurich what can I see but it means that then when I've got a week and it's a holiday I just want to switch off I don't want to be tearing around the city trying to tick everything enough um I want to be horizontal for 80 % of the week recharging those batteries yeah yeah when you're in when you're touring and you're in say like a city like Zurich how do you I guess how do you decide what you're going to do do you feel a sense of pressure because you've got a show that night that you kind of have to do you have to kind of compartmentalize the fact that there's something really big happening later a little bit a little bit but then as well you're almost kind of conducting your own little research thing as well walking around I mean Mark Steele's made an incredible feat of it of going to a town and then creating a show about what he's seen in that town that day but that I think that's what every comedian is doing in some small way of of when they're on tour is is going around and just picking up little uh if there's a sign for a funny place I mean I've just come back from gigging in the Peak District and I was put in a cottage in a village called Chaton so you can imagine that that provided more than enough material for at least the first five ten minutes yeah um with a chat with with those guys so yeah just little local references if you can find a good place to eat a little delicacy that you know people love to I mean I grew up just in a little village outside Harrogate um going to see stand-up when I was a kid and people being like right so bet is is it worth it and just the little kind of debate that would that would spark up in the audience I think it's um it's nice for the audience to have some common ground and feel like this person's in town and they want they want to find everything about where we live so let's let's share let's share what we're proud of and what we're embarrassed of and what we're moaning about I think I think that's quite um a universal thing that we can all bond over so let's let's go back to Betty's so first of all for people who don't know Betty's can you tell us what it is it's um it's a tea rooms it's uh there's one in harrogate one in i think ilkley and one in york and it's it's tea rooms where the the the staff seem to dress sort of like they're in a jane austen novel there's a lot of broaches going on yeah yeah um and they they really really want you to know that they make something called a fat rascal which is essentially a massive scone um I'll be honest I've I've lived there my whole life I don't think I've ever been I've had a fat rascal in in in in hampers that have been put in green rooms in in various Yorkshire comedy venues or whatever I I think it's got personally personally and I'm happy to be proven wrong but I think a scone is a scone is a scone I think teas and scones can only be so good and i this isn't against betty's i say this of like when people get their tea from from in fortnum and mason or whatever oh yeah i think i like well you grew up in yorkshire tea like you can't top that so why why why i'm gonna pay 10 quid to sit and have it out of some posh china with something that proclaims to be an incredible scone but it's just it is a scone um one thing i do like they do they do do a lovely easter display they always have a massive egg like a huge chocolate egg like the the size of my entire torso and that's i mean anybody who can create that i've got to take my house off today and uh you grew up in a beautiful part of the world yeah um recommend any recommendations for people planning a trip up to North Yorkshire because obviously it's you know fabulous place for a UK holiday yeah I grew up in a little village called Pano and and um was so lucky to have so much like natural beauty on my doorstep I think Ilkley Moor is always a a favorite just to have a little walk around there and finish up at the Caroncalf pub and then sort of burn it off by walking downhill of course back into into Ilkley village is is really nice Ilkley town I should say I really really really like um Bolton Abbey we always do that on Boxing Day do a big walk around Bolton Abbey Fountains Abbey is also very beautiful and all of that bit up into the into the Dales is got if you carry on up there um really really lovely and then over on the on the Moors side I think if you can kind of go over towards like Goatland where um the beautiful railway uh station is and carry on to Whitby I've got such a love for Whitby I think it's um I think it's one of those few seaside towns that still has a real sense of identity maybe just from being going to Blackpool as a kid loads I just it still feels like you're on holiday just seeing a seaside or a PO or whatever but but but Whitby's unlike any other seaside town I think of it's got such a strong a strong sense of identity with its connections of course to like gothic culture of both like the goth weekend of course it's links to dracula and that incredible sort of silhouette of the of the abbey against the sky at night up on that um hill is is it never fails kind of take my breath away a little bit and i think it's um i think it's a really really cool cool place and i've gone there in the summer in the winter and just going through those cobbled streets and the the brilliant little shops that it's got i hope i I hope, really hope that it never loses that because...

18:39That charm. Yeah, that is exactly it. It's charming and it feels really special when you're there. You feel like you're in a little novel. Yeah, exactly. Stepping into a book. How would you spend your perfect day out there? Oh, okay. So I would, again, I'm really sounding like I'm going after the big posh ones here. But the Magpie Fish and Chip Shop, I'm sure is very good. But I personally prefer to go over the bridge and it's the first one on the left for the best chips, I think. There's a big polar bear just next to him. But I wouldn't actually like stock up on fish and chips because I would go to Humble Pie and Mash, which is go over that bridge and turn right.

19:25It's like a really gorgeous sort of 1940s themed pie and mash shop. um it's it's really like low ceilings the door is is is tight I mean you feel like you're in the hobbit and it's it's really gorgeous with kind of like wartime themed vintage um crockery memorabilia um the music there's an open fire I just love it and they've always got banging pies like they do specialities all the time but you can have really really cool ones like is there one that you always order they do um they do a yorkshire sausage and black pudding one which is really good but you can't go wrong with any of them and they're really good with the gravy as well because i always that always annoys me when they're when they're tight with the gravy but yeah humble pie and mash definitely and then carry on like through the the the back streets there with all the whitby jet like jewelry shops and um there's always that little market on as well uh obviously go up and count the steps it's uh always a nice debate with my um family of how many steps there actually are what the steps where because i've not been the steps up to whitby abbey i think you've got a you've always got to count them um and uh like we always have an argument um of of how many there actually are um i think because there are loads yeah it's one nine nine and they're like no it's one nine three but it is it is one nine nine and then there's a really lovely walk you can do from from the top there of the Whitby Abbey across to um Robin Hood's Bay which is really beautiful really really nice we did that on New Year's Day last year um and then you can catch the bus back which is amazing on New Year's Day big fan of that uh and then oh my god I have to say this as a as a five foot eleven girl with with 36 leg length uh like uh going on there is a really great vintage shop on the new side of what I would call the new town side of Whitby that uh just has like walls of Levi jeans and they're so well organized in their size I mean I don't I can't tell you how much that means as a long-legged long-legged lady to just go and find some because I can't get jeans in my leg length so to get vintage Levi's for like 30 quid and they fit like a glove I only buy my jeans from this vintage shop in Whitby it's amazing amazing yeah yeah that would be how I'd spend my perfect day pie mash and long leg jeans awesome well we move on to chapter two and that is the first place you fell in love with where would that be yeah I mean it's it's a soppy answer but I think your question of falling in love like I fell in love with the place but I think it's always going to hold such a special place in my heart because it's where I got engaged um to my now husband but it was it was Prague and a bit like what we're saying about Ljubljana earlier actually of like first of all I'm I'm a sucker for any city with a river in but if it's an old city I love river I'm like obsessed with rivers I just love them I love everything about I get all deep and in my feels about about a river I'm just watching it being like you know where this water's come from it's all about being on a journey it doesn't make sound very very hippie which I'm really not actually I'm incredibly sort of cynical as a person but something very calming about a river and so if it's in a very traditional beautiful town as well it even it just relaxes me even more and it's just beautiful I think as well, when you're surrounded by such an old architecture and setting, you think of like the river is the constant there.

23:18Like that river has always been there and that river has always been flowing. So what did this place look like? Who was crossing this river all those years ago? And I just love it. But we went to Prague in 2021. It was obviously just off the back of the pandemic and travel had opened up again. And we went to Berlin for the Christmas markets, which was really nice. Loved Berlin. And then we took the train to Prague. And that was amazing. It's a gorgeous train journey. Would massively recommend it. Like, I've never felt like I was on one of those BBC travel shows. It was really beautiful, really special.

23:57How long did it take? About, I want to say, like three hours. Oh, yeah. So it's quite doable, like, as a dual centre trip. It doesn't take up your whole day. Never thought of that. Yeah. um or it felt like three you know it it passed and it was a it was i'm gonna sound really old now but like it was a really nice train you're in like a nice little compartment like you sort of feel like you're on european trains are so sophisticated yeah yeah i mean i'm constantly baffled when i go to uh other countries of how badly we do trains in this i'm so embarrassed like even even the modern ones i'm like oh cool you've got double decker trains that that makes oh and they run on time and really smoothly that's great and the seats recline yeah yeah totally um but yeah we got the train to Prague and it was just beautiful like I just loved everything about it again that very old historical feel of little cobbled back streets and we would go into these dimly lit sort of not pubs that's so like awful to call them that but like inns almost and have these you know hearty stews in a big bread roll and it felt almost like you know in in in those movies where somebody sort of arrives on horseback and it's a freezing cold night out there and you get in and it's like all candle lit and it was just really really beautiful and and on one side you've got all of that side with the the beautiful back streets and the cobbles and stuff and then on the other you've got this big castle on the hill and we'd gone we'd gone up there and and had these beautiful views of of all of Prague and then we were walking back down again gorgeous shops and just really really beautiful really stunning city and then we were working our way back across the Charles Bridge and I mean I look back on it now and it's so blatantly obvious he was going to propose because it was he was he was being so weird he was being so we kept stopping to look at the river because I like that and then he kept moving us along and I was like what's and it's because there was a school trip near there and he didn't want that to be the memory but I wasn't I wasn't even clocking the school trip and then apparently there was a busker that wasn't very good and he didn't want that to be around so he kept nudging us along and then sort of making awkward conversation and and now of course I look back and I'm like all right that's why but um yeah so you weren't seeing it coming at the time no not not the time I just thought he was being fussy about where he wanted to stand on the bridge but it was really lovely and and and we got engaged then and then when we went we went um back over to the the side we're staying on and and we just wanted to like celebrate straight away so we went into this into this bar pub type thing they had this open mic dude and he was he was there to sing and he he uh that we'd got engaged and he was like oh congratulations is there is there any song that you'd like me to play and we said oh yeah like i think we we gave that elvis song can't help falling in love with you and he just immediately went no I don't know that one I can do Ed Sheeran though and then just burst into like quite upbeat Ed Sheeran of like not really like romantic Ed Sheeran even it was just sort of like shape of you or something I was like oh right cheers yeah but it didn't matter because we're just so so blooming happy and excited so I'll always like have really beautiful memories of of Prague and and also this was in first week of December so it was quite cold it was quite rainy and it's still really beautiful and we thought that before I got proposed to it wasn't just like the the the rose tinted glasses of love it was really gorgeous and then we went to bed that night woke up the next morning and we'd had this balcony room we opened the doors and it was just a blanket of snow across all of the the the rooftops and all of the trees we went we went back over the bridge where we got engaged and went to this park on the other side and it was just it was just white everywhere and it was like being in a movie and I just of course I kept staring at my ring and it was glistening in this like winter light it was just amazing I just couldn't believe that you could get the weather turning so beautifully and so suddenly and you know we don't get snow like that in this country anymore of like a blanket and a you know where you're trudging through it and it's and it's crunching under your feet and it was it was just really gorgeous really beautiful and um there's people sledging down the down the hills in this park little kids just you know sledging and then running back up and squealing and again it was like you think oh I always do I think of like god people will have been sled kids will have been sledging here since you know hundreds of years and and squealing in the snow.

28:35So it was just a beautiful, beautiful place. And we've always said we need to go back for a little anniversary trip. But you don't need to be proposed to to fall in love in Prague, is I think what I would say. I was already in love with it anyway. Today's episode is supported by Una Italian Hospitality. You know how much I love Italy. And it's somewhere I'm always happy to return to once summer is over. An autumn weekend in Rome, a winter city break, a few days tucked away in the Tuscan countryside. There's so much to enjoy throughout the year. Una Italian Hospitality is a collection of hotels, resorts and retreats across Italy, with local food, culture and a real sense of place at its heart.

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30:25and welcomes those who may be newly eligible to donate blood. There's a place for everyone in the mission of the Red Cross, including you. The Red Cross is committed to achieving a blood donation process that treats all potential donors with equality and respect while maintaining the safety of the blood supply. Join us and help save lives. To learn more and make your appointment to donate blood, visit redcrossblood.org slash LGBTQ. That's redcrossblood.org slash LGBTQ.

30:56well we move on to chapter three and that is the place where you learned the most about yourself where comes to mind for that it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's um i've always loved travel and i know that sounds like such a vague thing to say and what everybody puts in their dating profile but um what i mean by it is is i really do like if you think of those scratch maps that people get I just want to see as much in in whatever time I've got I want to see as much as I can as fast as I can and I want to really really take it all in and when I was a kid we were quite creatures of habit my family of going back to the same places quite a lot maybe that's part of why I was like right I want to go on I want to go on holiday somewhere different this year my family have quite a tendency to go that place was great we'll go back there next year and listen we had lovely times in these places but like we would go to the same place in France every year or we would go to Blackpool every year we're pretty sticklers for tradition and that can be a lovely thing but it can also mean that you miss out on the unknown and so I found that like the moment I had my own money and my own kind of like independence um I really wanted to travel as much as possible and I'd done I'd done a Camp America when I when I'd left school um for a summer but that was work and then I'd done um me and my brother had saved up over the course of like three years to go like traveling around the world together we did quite a few countries on that but it was just us together and it and it was great and I still to this day think your sibling is one of the best travel partners to go with because yeah you can argue with your sibling and it'd be cool the next day and you just can't have that with your best mate sometimes or even your partner it requires a sit-down conversation and an apology on both sides of what you said and why you felt that way and your sibling you just have this kind of unspoken understanding of of how the other person works and you just get over it and that was really good but it also made me go I really at least once in my life and I was I was you know single as well and I thought I really want to travel somewhere totally on my own and on my own terms and on my own itinerary I want to see the things I want to see um which makes it sound like I was sort of doing an eat pray love type thing but I just I'd never been to Italy I knew I loved the food I knew I loved the football culture um I didn't have too much of an idea about the places to go um and it was still when interrailing was a really cheap viable option and it was a and also it was I felt at the time as well and I felt when I was there quite a safe place to go as a woman on their own um on quite a budget as well so as opposed to saying maybe somewhere further afield so um I booked this interrailing trip and just went basically in a downward line, starting in Milan and did Venice and Pisa and Florence and Naples and Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast and ended up down there.

34:17and it was it was really um it was really like again I don't I'm I'm very I'll never get like this on podcast but here I am talking about how much I love the serenity of rivers and how affirming solo travel was but but it really was I think it's something that you know if I ever had kids I'd encourage them to to to at least once in their life go somewhere and and be and I don't I don't speak any Italian so to put yourself in that out of your comfort zone and Italians they're not like the Dutch where they're like well we're just really good English so we'll just speak to you in English or the French where they just tut at you and speak to you back in English Italians will tut at you but they'll speak back to you in Italian and I think that's really great and I think that's really cool to be experiencing and and and be pushed to to to to go and um sit and have dinner on your own at a lovely table and eat great food and not feel self-conscious about sitting on your own and and choose what choose choose however much you want to eat because you don't have to worry about if somebody's having a starter if you want to start around the main you go for it if you want to sit and have a coffee afterwards you go for it have an afro spritz you go for it there was loads of times as well where like there would be a really great seat out on the front and I my instinct as a Brit is to be like oh no I'm only one I think they'll probably want a couple and they were just always just like absolutely and often actually it was very kind of like I sort of felt like a an elder rich divorcee or widow somebody that I was just like I was inventing all these little characters for myself just sitting there sipping alcohol spritz it was great but I really loved it and I loved it was not you know I was staying in hostels and that was quite a good push as well because you you you you get nudged into to chatting to people which I think is really special and remember like I was I was in this hostel that you know there was about 10 people in our room and me and the only other English girl she was about my age and she was from Manchester so we kind of got chatting and then she was like oh my plan was just to go in to the city and have a little walk around what was yours I was like yeah mine too and we just had this great day together and um she'd been she'd been to Lake Como and then she was she had other things that were on her list so she was we were sharing tips we're going to be in different places at different times but swapping tips and um it was really great and like you know still still friends with her on Facebook and I think like it was really cool to just meet somebody and and go for a stroll around a city that neither of you know about and and have a little like you know dinner together and and just chat about your lives and then completely just disappear into the world and never see each other again it's quite that's quite a cool thing and and yeah and it not be a romance and a swirling thing it's like it's two mates just having two girls having a chat about you know where they went to uni if they liked it if what they want to do um how annoying it is living with your parents that kind of thing and and and then um off we went i really loved the chaos as well like Italy was a very cool chaotic place to go to because you can't stop and worry you just have to get on board with it and go with it they are exactly like how the sort of portrayed I found of like very warm but very chaotic and very expressive but I think it's a really special and important thing to to travel at least once anywhere on your own um and I you know I don't I wouldn't say I learned anything particularly profound about myself but I learned lots of little things I learned that it's okay to go and sit and have a meal on your own and now as somebody who's on tour all the time I love going for a dinner on my own I love going for a solo trip around the park um and and and I I think I can I think it probably has helped with me being able to do crowd work and be chatting to any stranger and find any common ground because I've done it with people who I don't speak the same language or I've done it for 24 hours with somebody I'll never see again but we've managed to bond over the fact we're both English we're both girls we're both from the north of England we're both on our own that's that's as much as we had in common me and this this cat girl and she was strike up a bit of banter yeah yeah you just basically have a day with a mate for a day and that's it we'll be back with Maisie in a moment, but first a little island escape in partnership with Visit Isle of White.

38:56We spend a lot of time on this podcast dreaming about the other sides of the world, but sometimes all you want is a change of scene, a glimpse of the sea, a few days away from the usual routine. And you don't always need to get on a plane to find it. Just a short ferry ride off England's south coast, the Isle of White gives you that lovely feeling of leaving the mainland and everyday life behind. No airport queues, no flights, no passport required. When the actress Celia Imry joined me on The Travel Diaries a few weeks ago, she actually shared some very fond memories of the island. Her connection to it goes right back to childhood, so I thought it'd be nice to listen.

39:33And I can remember one day going to the Isle of Wight on the train with my mother and absolutely loving it. And this is when I was a child. And then I bought my first house in the Isle of Wight. which... Your very first house. My very first house. Wow, so it captured your heart really quickly. My son was born there. So where in the Isle of Wight did you live? Cows. And what made you choose it? Because I didn't have to have a car. It took about an hour and a quarter, let's say, to Southampton Central. Yeah. Jump on the little bus that will take you to the Red Jet and then 25 minutes on the red jet get off and walk about two minutes to my house oh so you never oh how easy and how lovely I do think there's something well I mean you're a big fan of ocean liners but I mean I guess even then was it did you enjoy going on the ferry and kind of that feeling of departing on the water suddenly your your shoulders go down you start to breathe and also only people that really love you come and visit you.

40:38So it separates the wheat from the chaff. It is rather magical because it's got so many different facets. Yes. You know, cows is famous for sailing. Then on the other side, you've got the cliffs. And when you watch around the island racing, you know, in their ships, in their yachts, there's Sandown and Ventnor and each part of the island has got a different sort of feel. Yes, and a different geography. How would you spend your kind of perfect day off there? Well, having an ice cream is the first thing to do, whether it's breakfast, lunch or tea. Having a swim, if you can, is always heaven. I think, you know, there are various places where to watch the sunset is magnificent.

41:25I used to bike a lot, actually. I realized how up and down the Isle of Wight is. I mean, it is one of the hidden gems, which is why I don't talk about it too often. And there are places where you think you've gone back in time. Yes. You know, it's quite unspoilt. An ice cream for breakfast and a swim in the sea. That sounds like a pretty good start. And I think that's what's so appealing about an island break. You've crossed the water, you're somewhere different, and suddenly the day can revolve around the simplest things. Which beach shall we try? Shall we walk a little further? Where shall we stop for lunch?

42:00There's plenty to explore on the Isle of Wight Around 60 miles of coastline With beaches, chalk cliffs and coastal walks Somewhere you can get a taste of over a weekend Then come back and discover a little more You might go with the children and spend an entire afternoon on the beach Building sandcastles and looking into rock pools Or go as a couple, take a long walk Find somewhere lovely for lunch and leave the rest of the day completely unplanned Those are often the moments you remember the most The whole island is a UNESCO biosphere reserve and around half is protected as a national landscape.

42:36So there's every reason to pack your walking shoes, get outside and take your time. With ferries from Portsmouth, Southampton and Livington and options for foot passengers and cars, that escape could be closer than you think. And there's something lovely about starting your holiday on the water, watching the mainland slip away before you've even arrived. For inspiration and to start planning your trip, head to visitisleofwhite.co.uk. Now back to Maisie. So when you're sightseeing when you're on tour, are you typically doing that on your own? Yeah, I mean, I'm now at a point, the last tour was the first time where I could have a tour manager.

43:15And in fact, it was really funny, they were like, my management company, we were like oh we'll get you a tour manager and um we can try and you know get somebody who's like around your age and you can go for drinks afterwards and I said no I don't want to go for drinks afterwards because you're on tour for 60 days and yeah let's be honest at least one or two a week you are in a town where you've got friends or you've got family and they will meet you in the pub afterwards for a drink so you're already drinking pretty much every week so you don't need to be drinking every night no and so I said oh no no no I don't want that and they got me this girl beck who is about my mum's age and she is brilliant because she has done touring for years and so she whatever every city that we turn up to she knows a great little italian place or she knows amazing a great little mexican restaurant or she knows even just like the really boring stuff of like the most direct route from the from the station to the theater like really good stuff that you just need a person like that in your corner but until then I've always been doing it on my own whether that's touring whether that's gigging you spend so much time on your own you spend so much time on a train you spend a lot of time in hotels and it's and you spend a lot of time going for dinner on your own there's so many times where you know you have to leave your own house at three o 'clock because you need to be in a certain town or city for a gig so you're like like well I don't I don't want to have yet another meal deal on the Thames link I'll get there and have a quick a quick bite to eat and you you try and find a great little local and you sit and have your your dinner on your own and and hope that no one spots you off the EasyJet magazine it's so true is there is there anything that you is do you have any traditions or kind of things that you'd always try and order or favorites on the Thames link yeah I mean I learned really early on when when you um when you're like working up through the clubs things like the glee clubs which are in quite a few cities in the UK and and and commedia here in Brighton but these big comedy clubs it feels a real moment when you get booked by them and you they put you backstage and they go and if you want any food just let just let us know and you look at this menu and you're thinking first of all like you've come up through the circuit where you're paid no money and then you might be paid five pounds or a free pint um so suddenly when you're being paid and they go and let us know if you want anything off the menu i can remember looking at this menu and being like oh my god i get my food for free as well and of course i now know it's a comedy club so the food that they're serving is some of the saltiest food in the world because they want the more people eat salty food the more they'll need a drink so it increases their but their yeah their beer sales so no way oh it's it's pizzas it's burgers it's chips it's anything fried it's popcorn chicken so I can remember it's halloumi fries so I can remember onion rings god yeah it's all that stuff um and I can remember getting booked at these places and and for the first few being like oh oh god yeah if I could have some popcorn chicken that'd be amazing you know with like this barbecue sauce or whatever and of course it's to dry out your mouth so that you eat so you order loads of beer but if you're an act it means you're going out on stage and suddenly you're like oh my god I've got such a dry mouth and I've got to speak for 20 minutes uninterrupted oh my god so I've learned over the years avoid anything too salty in advance of um in advance of a gig yeah and and keep the keep the pizzas or you know the the hearty italian food for maybe your day off and treat yourself um and and actually but you know and as well you've got you have got to try and sustain a degree of health whilst you're on tour i'm not yeah that must be hard i mean i have to say ollie i'm i'm i'm not a member of a gym i find gyms unbearable yeah and i try and run but i hate it so the least you need to be doing is eating well so um yeah it sounds incredibly boring and mundane but if you can find somewhere that does a really good Caesar salad or something I mean that was in Caesar salad that is pretty salty isn't it but like something something a bit nice and moist um uh and healthy and green speaks the difference is uh is good yeah it's interesting you're talking about kind of like the gig circuit and rising up because kind of on paper it looks as though everything happened for you super quickly like you did your first if tell me if I'm wrong that you performed your first stand-up set in 2016 and by 2017 you'd won the so you think you're funny newcomer competition at Edinburgh Fringe which by the way is the most intimidating name of a competition ever yeah I know I know so you think you're funny all right then yeah um yeah it didn't feel quick at the time but um everybody around me was telling me it was really quick so But if you don't know anything different, you're just rolling with the punches.

48:30And it didn't feel too quick either. It felt always at a pace that was matching the work I was putting in. Do you know what I mean? It didn't feel at any point like I was like, oh, God, this is all happening too fast. And I'm a bit in over my head here. I was grafting on this open mic circuit. And then it was like the door opened. And, you know, I finally got through. um and and of course everything the first time is terrifying the first time you do a panel show or the first time um you play to a big crowd of hundreds rather than tens it's it's terrifying but then it it's it's it's sort of like the first time you go for dinner on your own it feels uncomfortable for a bit and then you start to realize what you like about it and you go I can do that again that's fine yeah yeah I guess that's why the your ascent has been rapid because you've taken it in your stride I hope so I hope that's why yeah yeah well our big chapter is chapter four and that is your all-time favorite destination Maisie the big the big question where comes to mind for that today um it's it's gonna have to be New Orleans I absolutely love it as a city um I'd been before on that trip that I mentioned with my brother um when we went traveling part of it was taking the Amtrak from one side of the states to the other and we went we went to New Orleans then but again we were we were 18 and 22 at the time and we were on a budget is putting it lightly but I loved it and I I've always loved my my sort of music and and the genres there of blues and soul and jazz was was just incredible to be around all the time mixed with the food mixed with the architecture mixed with this this sort of um my favorite play ever which we learned at school had a really great English teacher and we studied the play A Streetcar Named Desire and um my teacher was was fantastic and he he really drummed in about what made that play so dramatic is this sense of tension that comes with the heat of the city and this um sort of the the sexual tension that the music is underlying all the time of this everybody's very hot everybody's very sweaty everybody's trying their best to get by in life they're not you know it's not a particularly glamorous life but it's it's a sexy life and it's it's um it's an it's a it's a sensual life and it's and it's full of passion and expression like jazz music and blues music it's it's it's um it's not got it's it's not about how much you've got it's about how much you're feeling and I don't think I've really been to many cities where you can feel that in the in the bones of a of a place and um and and again you know for the third time I'm gonna be saying on your podcast I hope it doesn't lose it because it's so cool to be in a city in 2026 but feel like you could be at any point in time and and um we we went you know but bourbon street is getting a bit like that it's it's sort of getting a lot of vape shops on the ground floor and a lot of kind of like places that are serving bright colored cocktails you think no i've come to new orleans to feel the authentic experience but if you move further up to frenchman street where where there's there's some fantastic um bars and and and you just you just mooch from from one to the next with some of the best musicians you'll ever hear and it just it it's it's just um you feel like you're in a movie the whole time we went to preservation hall which is one of the oldest music venues it's completely remained the same since it first happened it's doors I mean it looks you'd walk past it if you didn't know it was there when we when we when we got the recommendations and it was like you know preservation hall I was expecting like radio city hall you know a big big concert venue it's like a garage essentially and you go in you just sit on these little benches no phones allowed and we just watched these musicians be utterly incredible incredible and um it was definitely something that will just stay with me for a long time I think you know yeah oh totally did you get out to any of the swamps yes we did a swamp tour yeah and that was amazing as well because that was something that we missed when I went with my brother is it was just really really just the city that we took in whereas this time we did of course the river you know I'm like we went on the the steamboat down the river but then yeah we went on a swamp tour and and just seeing that side of it of of the sort of the bayou side of it of a very like deep south hot humid weather and it being quite untouched in those parts as well and there's there's obviously there's the alligators and obviously there's the the sort of um snakes and stuff but there was like hogs and there was like uh all sorts actually there was there was we saw all these um like um were they baboons mike raccoons there we go like it was just um Yeah, all of that lifestyle living together and these spiders that were just sort of like setting up camp in the trees.

54:04It was it was amazing. Yeah, I loved it. It is an incredible place. Actually, your episode is coming out a couple of weeks after I released a Louisiana destination special. Oh, really? Yeah, coincidentally. So it's been really interesting just getting to know how, you know, that the Cajun culture and the Cajun language as well. I mean, it really is. They say it's not the south of the US. It's the north, north of the Caribbean, because they feel so much more of an affinity in a way with the culture. Yeah. And I think it's it's always just so special when you can go somewhere where they're so proud of their their their history and their their food and their soul music is, you know, that Creole food is absolutely phenomenal.

54:50I also think as well like it's it owns the the darker sides of its history um quite quite openly and quite there's um obviously the the great big houses in like the garden district yeah we all know what those houses you know they were plantation homes and they were owned by slave owners and and I remember like walking by and and all of these houses now have to have like plaques sort of saying that that's where where they where they where they started and and it's it's yeah it's just um kind of goes back to like what my teacher was saying about it as a city of like there's an air of tension there for sure and there's an air of like there's a there's a tension and there's there's an air of kind of like a a sense I suppose a sense of injustice over cumulative years and cumulative reasons for that and and it but but out of that a togetherness as well of of and I think I guess as well a huge part of it is post-Katrina as well isn't it of like what that city gone through yeah together and and come up from together and and I say like I didn't really realize it was like 20 years you know I didn't realize it had been that long and there's still whole communities that have been completely wiped out but there was there's a stoicism that I think can only come from a community that has gone through something as collective and as horrifying as that.

56:10You're totally right, yeah. And still rise above and be acknowledging that and acknowledging the ways that they've been let down and the ways that it's caused, you know, unfathomable problems and difficulties. It's also a city that has remained very tightly glued by its core sense of identity. Yeah, I think it's a city that everybody should try and go to completely completely agree and some of those places in Louisiana for sure hidden gems you've also shared quite a few that have come up on on your tour but uh chapter five is your your favorite hidden gem a place that you love that maybe my listeners wouldn't know so much about I'm very very lucky in that my friend married a very lovely Norwegian bloke a couple of years ago and they went over to Norway for the wedding celebration.

57:01And it was right at the bottom of Norway, a place called Kristiansand. I mean, I had an absolute shocker because we flew out there and I'd hired the car because it was like the celebration was literally on this lake house out in the middle of nowhere. And we got to the car hire place and I was like, oh, hi, can we get our car, please? And they were like, we don't have any booking. I was like, are you joking? Got it up, I'm not kidding. and this is just a lovely little tip for anybody listening, do make sure it's Christian Sand, not Christian Sund. As it turns out, there's a Christian Sund, but that is 11 hours in the car, 903 kilometres away.

57:42So they went, oh, yeah, no, you've booked for Christian Sund, not Christian Sand, to which I would say, maybe just name places a bit more differently, Norway, but that's my opinion. um it's uh it yeah I was I mean saying that we've got London and Luton haven't we and it got me then when I was a kid so um I feel like you I feel that Norway's made it a tougher a little bit tougher yeah Christian Sand was gorgeous really beautiful and I think if you can ever get into just rural Norway I bet there's so much to discover I felt we were there for this long weekend for the wedding celebration and we we both were like god we could have done two weeks here just driving through these gorgeous I mean it's like being in a Scandi crime novel with the the tree-lined roads and beautiful little lake houses and just just an amazing country and really again different to anywhere else loved it loved it oh amazing but save up save up it's blooming pricey did you stay in a hotel or did you stay in a yeah yeah we stayed in a hotel in Christian Sand and then we stayed at the lake house for the actual celebration.

58:50Yeah. No.

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1:00:38That's Q-U-O dot com slash tech. well our penultimate chapter very much in contrast is chapter six and that is your worst travel experience or the place that you just never go back to um yeah this this was um yeah i mean my my opinion of this place has obviously like really um evolved over the last few years but it would be dubai there was a bit 10 years ago where do you remember i mean maybe it's more longer than 10 years ago but suddenly Dubai was the place every celebrity was in Dubai every kind of I guess kind of like what Bali's recently had and the Maldives of like it's the new place that everybody's posting about and um Dubai was was that it was like oh god it's this place that's got you know the palm the palm it looks amazing it's this made thing in the in the sea and um when my brother and I did that trip we went so we we did uh east west coast USA we did New Zealand we did Australia we did um a little bit of Asia and then um and and then on the way back you had a stopover in Dubai and it was this was 2016 so 10 years ago and me and my brother were just like oh my god Dubai is gonna be amazing like it's the glamorous place and um uh we were only there for like a night so we would we would and I don't think well maybe they do hostels but we weren't doing that so we were like we'll get a hotel and the hotel even in our budget looked gorgeous so we were like oh god every time we were staying in these horrible hostels all around the world we were like just wait till we get to Dubai though yeah had a pool all of this and then we got there and it's just like a big construction site it's hot but it's not sunny I know New Orleans isn't but New Orleans has got all of the charm of the city it's everything is is is man-made and and and new it's it's had no sort of like connection to its or you know it's it's its roots or its culture or unless you go over the water to the souks and then it's then it's then it's sort of more what what it feels like it used to be but they're they they're quite a small area isn't quite a small area and that's not really the bit they're shouting about they want you on Jameera Beach and and and the thing I found honestly the the most just awful being around was the constant display of wealth and that that was what the currency was of how who you are and how what you're driving and how much money you own and everything was about the watches that you wear I mean I remember we got we walked out to go for dinner along that jameer a bit and this um like diamond encrusted rolls royce drove past us to which of course we were both like whoa look at that and the this it pulled up outside this posh restaurant and this couple got out and the man threw money at the valet place and obviously like you know you can't you can't blame one awful person's behavior on on the whole nation but it it felt like everywhere we were in Dubai was about money you could argue Las Vegas is like that but I think it's tongue-in-cheek and it's deliberately tacky and it's deliberately gauche and sort of um seen as as quite a like come on you've got one night let's just let's just throw caution to the wind whereas Dubai is is it's just about excess wealth and displaying that and so everything feels very fake everything feels both in terms of like and and the Brits that go there I found to be quite fake and money orientated and status orientated I don't find that it has a culture that is is particularly endearing to to go and explore and also you know the elephant in the room is it's got an absolutely abhorrent human rights record and all of these buildings that people are showing off of how tall they are and how gorgeous they are and what luxury restaurant it contains have been made by people not protected by any sort of labor laws there's people that have been dying on these construction sites um there's people who've had their passports taken off them until they finish this construction site so it doesn't see it well with you it was icky when i was there yeah and that was you know in my own ignorance that was before i even knew about all this side of it and and you know I was a 22 year old kind of just hoping to see what I saw on Instagram and I didn't even feel like I saw that side of it and then over the last 10 years as I've sort of like you know taken it upon myself to try and just educate myself a little bit more on places that uh you know are still very behind in in in what I would call quite basic human rights I just don't it doesn't sit well with me putting my money into places like that and yeah it was not what it cracked up to be at the time and it's only ever sort of got into a worse light for me So it's not on your bucket list to return to?

1:05:54No, no, even if you're listening here going come on it's different cultures or come on like you know it's not what it looks like on Instagram Not for you Well, you're not going back there but there are some places that are still on your bucket list. Chapter seven is our final chapter. And I love to always hear where is at the top of my guess. So what's at the top of yours? The absolute number one top of the list is Brazil. I'm a huge, huge football fan. So to go to such a footballing nation is absolutely, the Women's World Cup is there next year. Oh, no way. So you probably might be able to go.

1:06:34I'm really hoping so Holly I'd just love to go and and um I've I mean similar to New Orleans anywhere that how New Orleans has got the Mardi Gras and and Rio has the carnival I'd love to go and experience that sort of all-encompassing um sort of sensory overload yeah with with food and music and culture and dancing and and a sense of togetherness from everybody celebrating their culture is is always something that I'd love to go and just witness it'll be wild as well yeah and I'd quite like to see other parts of Brazil you know I obviously want to go to Rio obviously would like to see Sao Paulo and the Copacabana beach and Ipanema beach I want to do all of these but I'd also like to go to somewhere I've never heard of in Brazil and be totally kind of at its at its uh at its mercy of what it wants to show me so I think I think I'd really like to go and see a football game there I think fingers crossed if I get to go as part of the women's world cup coverage or in any capacity that that should happen um but I I really really it just it's such a and it's so massive as well I want to I want to see all the different sides of it and yeah the rainforest I've not been to anywhere in South America so I would really really love to to start that bit of the scratch map with Brazil awesome oh I really hope that you you get there next year Maisie we'll be we'll be following along oh thank you so much Maisie Adam those for your travel diaries it's been so much fun chatting thank you thank you Holly that was really fun a massive thank you to the lovely Maisie if you'd like to see her live she's currently touring the UK with her brand new stand-up show, What's Her Face, with dates running through to March 2027.

1:08:32You can find all the dates and book tickets at maizyadam.com. Thanks so much for listening today. If you've enjoyed today's episode, please do subscribe to The Travel Diaries and leave us a rating or review. It really does make such a difference in helping other people to discover the podcast. If you'd like to find out who's joining me next Tuesday, come and follow me on Instagram and TikTok. I'm at Tolly Rubenstein. I'd love to hear from you. I'll be back on Sunday with another episode of The Travel Diaries Unpacked. In the meantime, wishing you guys all very safe travels.

1:09:24Blood donation is now more inclusive. More LGBTQ plus individuals are able to donate blood with the American Red Cross due to FDA guidelines that eliminate eligibility questions based on sexual orientation. The Red Cross celebrates this historic change and welcomes those who may be newly eligible to donate blood. There's a place for everyone in the mission of the Red Cross, including you. The Red Cross is committed to achieving a blood donation process that treats all potential donors with equality and respect while maintaining the safety of the blood supply. Join us and help save lives. To learn more and make your appointment to donate blood, visit redcrossblood.org slash LGBTQ.

1:10:03That's redcrossblood.org slash LGBTQ.