The chart-topping Irish lads cast their minds back to reveal some of their travelling tales

MARK: The first time I went abroad was on a ferry to the Isle of Man. I was five and kicked up an absolute stink because I’d seen a stopwatch, you know the ones you wear round your neck? I cried, kicked and screamed until I got it.

SHANE: My first flight was to Manchester, on Ryanair from Knock airport. I would have been 10 or 11. The flight was an absolute novelty but I wanted a pair of Reebok pumps which were about £70. Back then, that was like buying a car for your child. I had to have them, I got them and I was cool for a week!

NICKY: I remember going to Spain on holiday. I dived into our hotel’s pool and my armbands fell off. I was only about six. Out of nowhere these arms lifted me up and it was my dad. He’d been keeping an eye on us.

KIAN: My first foreign holiday was to Mauritius after I joined the band. Now I’ve turned into a bit of a surfer so I go to places like Hawaii all the time.

NICKY: Back in the early days of the band we didn’t have time for holidays

SHANE: Yeah it was probably a couple of years before we could have more than a Christmas holiday.

MARK: Still we’ve travelled with the band

NICKY: When we tried to break America the first time around we’d do a few cities in a day.

MARK: We’d start off in one city, do our promotional stuff and a gig, then go straight to the airport, fly to another city, do the same and then get going on to another city.

SHANE: We recorded some of this latest album, Back Home, in Stockholm, which I think is the nicest city in the world, after Sydney.

NICKY: I think I prefer Sweden - its so fresh, the air, the water…

SHANE: It's like it has come out of an Evian bottle.

MARK: Vodka is very expensive.

SHANE: Yeah you wouldn’t go over there for a weekend with the lads, but if you want to find some good looking women there are handfuls of them on every street corner.

NICKY: Even the average looking women are absolutely amazing

SHANE: Even the men are - I’m not gay but Mark is obviously, but…

MARK: Obviously? (laughs)

SHANE: ...But all the men are models. You know Freddie Ljungberg is from there. Honestly its embarrassing, those cheek bones

MARK: Freddie Lungberg’s cheek bones are so sharp they could be used as a weapon. You can’t take him on the plane.

SHANE: Hmm that’s kinda funny.

Interview: Alex Rayner

Back Home by Westlife is out now. Visit www.westlife.com for details

Credit/Source: Ryanair Magazine / Thanx Vix for typing it up

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