By Áine Leech
KINNEGAD man Kymann Power has arrived home from another trip of a lifetime after travelling to seven countries in just seven days. While many dream of one sunny holiday a year, Kymann decided to start his year with greater ambitions, and all for just over €100. With over twenty flights ticked off his travel bucket list in 2016 it’s clear that Mr. Power is an avid traveller, which explains his ability to find such an incredible trip for so cheap; “I’m always searching the Ryanair website, out of curiosity more than anything else, and came across a discounted section on the website. Once you can be flexible with dates you can find flights for less than twenty euro. I managed to book eight flights for €124.54.”
The idea for the trip was sparked once Kymann saw the range of cheap flights, and from listening to many friends and family claiming they couldn’t afford to travel, Kymann wanted to prove them all wrong. “The reason behind the project wasn’t to gloat about being in seven countries in seven days, anyone with a credit card can do that. It was to send a message proving to people that think they can’t afford to travel, that they really can.”
With a bag on his back and boarding pass in hand the Kinnegad man set out last Tuesday morning with the realisation that this trip would no doubt be a challenge, “I don’t have the best track record with flights” he joked “so trying to make eight flights in just seven days was definitely going to be a record for me.”
Getting to all of the flights on time was not going to be the only challenge for Mr Power, who used the trip as inspiration for a YouTube vlog (video blog). With a daily vlog every day about each city, one would wonder if the recent graduate had any time for sleep at all, “I explained in one of my videos the general schedule for each day. Each night I got back to my hostel at around eight in the evening and it could take me until midnight or one in the morning to complete. Then I’m up again anytime between three and seven depending on my flight.”
Video Blogging, or “vlogging” as it’s more popularly known, has taken the Youtube scene by storm, and is something that Kymann had become familiar with after his trip last year to Washington D.C. “The editing of that White House video was all done when I came home. This time I wanted to set myself a tougher challenge by aiming to upload everyday as I went along. It seems a bit mad now that I’m saying it out loud but it’s a challenge that I was keen to try. Looking back on this week, I now have a huge amount of respect for anyone that daily vlogs for a living.”
Although less than 24 hours in a city may not seem like enough time to most people, Kymann has managed to squeeze in an enviable amount of sight-seeing in a very short space of time, “The highs have been the Madrid match, managing to get to most of Paris’ major attractions in just two hours and the sense of accomplishment as each video was edited and uploaded each day without fail.”
Once Kymann’s feet have had a chance to settle back on Irish soil he plans to upload a video explaining in depth how he found such a bargain.
To see his journey across Europe and to learn how to do it yourself visit Kymann’s channel “Kymann Power” on YouTube.