The night before I went to Stockholm, I stayed in a purple pod in Gatwick. It’s called Yotel (and I’m not sponsored; I’m just surprised more people don’t know about it). It’s a chain, with hotels in Gatwick, Heathrow, Paris CDG, Amsterdam Schiphol, Singapore, Boston & New York. I’ve only stayed in the Gatwick one.… More Staying in Gatwick’s purple pods
I’ve wanted to write this post for years. It makes a relatively big impact on my life – and definitely on my relationships with people. Hi. I’m Juliet and I have an eating disorder. It’s not anorexia or bulimia or one of the ones with names. If it had a name, life would be so… More How to travel with an eating disorder
Judging by the number of times I’ve been ill in Iceland, I can only conclude they spray you with the Pathogen of the Month as you walk through passport control at Kef. This year it was only a cold, albeit of the variety that stuck around for eight weeks. I’ve had worse and more aggressive… More When travel goes wrong: the trip to Iceland I didn’t enjoy
Today’s Useful Travel Item is one of my smallest items of clothing and the one lost most often – well, second most often. First place goes to my merino liner gloves. As I write this, I don’t know where either windshirt or gloves are. Oh yes, this small and easily-lost item of clothing is my… More Useful Travel Items: my windshirt
Since I’m walking the Laugavegur trail in July, it’s time to talk about the time I sampled it. In the summer of 2012 I did a day trip to Landmannalaugar. Just long enough to visit the hot spring and then run across the floodplain to see what else this little oasis had to offer. I… More Walking the Grænagil-Laugavegur loop
Last November I went to Latvia and because I’m using it for the Explore My World section of my Silver Voyage Award I made a little scrapbook of it which I showed you late last year. I enjoyed it so much that I thought I’d go back to September and make one for my trip… More Meet my Iceland scrapbook
This week I decided to do something I’ve wanted to do for a long time: I’m going to walk Iceland’s Laugavegur Trail and I’m going to keep a diary of the preparation and the real thing, partly to keep track of everything and partly to make sure I have no choice but to do it.… More The Laugavegur (Prep) Diaries: part 1
In 2015 I went to Svalbard because it was cheaper and logistically easier to go to the High Arctic than northern mainland Norway. Obviously. It was November. Svalbard in November has twenty-four hour darkness and it’s cold. Very cold. This is a huge frozen archipelago where the polar bear reigns supreme. On my first full… More I nearly died on a dog sled
Last month I went to Paris! I’ve already covered the Eiffel Tower and today I’m going up the Arc de Triomphe. I first went up there when I was fourteen. I have photos and in case there’s any doubt, the photos are in an album with captions like “roofs from Arc”. But I don’t remember… More On top of the Arc de Triomphe
I’m very much behind the times here but let’s go for it anyway. I’m talking about Kindles, as if you haven’t guessed. We were arguing ten years ago about paper books vs electronic books and by now, everyone’s settled on their side of the argument. I was on the paper side. I still am, broadly.… More Useful Travel Items: the Kindle