To Voyage Without Fear
The city of Belfast is a bustling metropolis, with a blossoming tourist economy existing side-by-side with an undercurrent of social tensions. Many of you who read this will full well remember the years of violence known euphemistically as “The Troubles”. Although those are technically over, there are still strong feelings on either side of the... Continue Reading →
When I told people that we would be WWOOFing during our year abroad, I got a lot of different reactions. “That’s really cool!” “You’ll be in the middle of nowhere.” “What a neat idea to travel cheaply!” “You’ll be exploited as slave labor.” “I bet you’ll learn a ton!” “It was nice knowing you.” “WWOOF”... Continue Reading →
The train ride to Glasgow from Edinburgh is just under an hour, so even if you don’t plan on going to Glasgow while in Scotland, there really is no excuse not to fit it in. Glasgow has a very different vibe from Edinburgh, making it well worth the visit. It’s a city known for its... Continue Reading →
Just as Edinburgh Castle looms over the Royal Mile, the same can be said of the hills Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Crags over Edinburgh. Arthur’s Seat is the largest of a set of peaks in Holyrood Park, Salisbury Crags being its smaller sibling. Bereft of tall trees, they look majestic any way the sun hits... Continue Reading →
We left London on September 27, boarding a train at King’s Cross Station. Trains in Europe will never cease to amaze me because - get this - they’re on time. To the minute. Again, maybe this is the jaded DC metro rider talking, but I can’t get enough of it. Our train took us across... Continue Reading →
We arrived into London Thursday night in the thick of rush hour. My first sight of London streets were the congested roads - cars and mopeds going every which way, pedestrians and cyclists dodging in between. We alighted at Victoria Coach Station, then clumsily made our way to Euston station where Clayton’s cousin would pick... Continue Reading →
London is busy. Large. Historic. Complicated. Expensive. London is… impossible to capture in one word. Strangely, it is also the overseas city I have felt the most foreign in, despite understanding the language. Clayton and I spent three days in Central London, seeing all that we could in a shorter amount of time. Although we... Continue Reading →
The morning of September 20 found Clayton and I dragging our luggage across Montreuil, clambering onto buses, and making our way to the International Coach Station at Gallieni. We would be taking a bus from Paris to London. Originally assuming that we would take the train, we quickly changed our minds when we saw the... Continue Reading →
The first twenty four hours in a foreign country is a steep learning curve, and I have learned to never judge a place until you’ve spent more than a day there. Given a bit of time, you will learn how to get around, what to eat, what to say and do, etc. That being said,... Continue Reading →
