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I Am A Polar Bear

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Category: Travel Toolkit

Travel Toolkit: my latest first aid course | iamapolarbear.com

Travel Toolkit: my latest first aid course

June 11, 2026

Welcome to the first of a new series, hopefully monthly, covering all the tools you should have in your travel toolkit. I don’t mean literal tools – no penknives or hammers to be taken away at security here! – but your skills and abilities toolkit to be able to make the most of your travels. … More Travel Toolkit: my latest first aid course

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Who am I?
I'm Julie, a travel, adventure and wellness blogger. I love Iceland, I love jumping into hot water and I do love a bit of snow.

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Today I took the train over the bridge to Malmö - not out of any desperate desire to see Malmö but because I liked the idea of the journey. But I didn’t get the train back across the bridge to Copenhagen afterwards… Today’s reel experiment is talking and it turns out I can’t breathe and talk at the same time so if I sound like I’m suffocating, that’s why. Anyway, this is a trip out to Roskilde, the capital of Viking-era Denmark, where I visited the Viking ship museum and, of course, the cathedral, the alleged last resting place of Harald Bluetooth, the one Danish king whose name is still in everyday use around the world. I always say “this is the trip where I’m going to try to make reels!” and for once, here’s an attempt. Fly with me from Bristol to Copenhagen, minus most of the hour and a half it took to cover the 14-minute train trip from the airport to the city centre. Normally by this time of year, I’d have paddled myself out to Old Harry Rocks and back at least twice but it’s not been that kind of year. Between being busy and it being too hot (too hot to get in the car but also hot enough to bring grockles to fill up the beachside car parks all day), I just haven’t made it. I’ve been canoeing once, back in April, I’ve taken my paddleboard out once but I did get to the boathouse six times, which is two less than last year. But last year featured two shore evenings and two nights when we had to resort to raft building, so six kayak evenings is an improvement on last year’s four and I saw the boat club girls enough to figure out most of their names this year. Didn’t see enough of them last year to realise three were returnees, though. The Scarborough film photos aren’t bad! It’s the same roll as the Málaga pictures and yet everything just looks better - I did not have high hopes for this picture inside the tunnel at the Spa and it’s my favourite of the lot! Now, this is where film comes into its own! Or maybe I should say that the pictures from the beach aren’t as bad as the pictures in town. Massive blue sky + massive blue Mediterranean reflecting the sky, lots of light = pretty pictures! I finally got my Malaga film photos back! I was going to save the roll and send it off with the one I took in Iceland but as usual, I didn’t finish it and I didn’t want to wait another month, so here they are! And let’s finish up the Iceland pictures with the “this trip was cursed” post (full version coming on the blog on Monday). Reykjavik has three landmark buildings: Hallgrímskirkja, Perlan and Harpa. Harpa is the concert hall and conference venue on the seafront; because of the 2008 crash, it nearly got abandoned half-finished but now it stands on the corner of the city like a weird lighthouse.

About Julie

I'm a blogger, adventurer, lover of hot water, amateur paddler and polar bear who wilts in hot weather. Time (by day, I'm a researcher) and funds keep me within Europe and I make regular trips up to the north, especially to Iceland. I like the occasional adventure across Europe by train and I'm starting to make use of my weekends for 48-hour adventures. This isn't my only creative outlet - I've written two travelogues (one on a winter adventure across the Arctic Circle and one on exploring volcanoes during a warm summer road trip around Iceland) plus a little book of Icelandic pools and I have a fourth book in progress right now.

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