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I Am A Polar Bear

Travel, adventure & wellness with plenty of snow

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Category: Travel

York 2019: Is Jorvik exciting or underwhelming | iamapolarbear.com

Jorvik Viking Centre: underwhelming or fascinating?

March 16, 2020

Is Jorvik Viking Centre underwhelming or fascinating? Or is it both? Jorvik is the main reason I wanted to go to York and the fact that it flooded a couple of years ago is why it’s taken until late 2019 to get there. The Minster only came to my attention in April, as I said … More Jorvik Viking Centre: underwhelming or fascinating?

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Inside and under York Minster | iamapolarbear.com

#BeforeItBurnsDown: York Minster

March 12, 2020

My first stop on my long weekend in York was York Minster. Well, my actual first stop, on the evening I arrived, was next door to my apartment, at the Barbican Theatre to see Rob Beckett. What kind of comedy fan, living next door to a theatre, isn’t going to pop round the corner for … More #BeforeItBurnsDown: York Minster

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Paris: taking the Batobus to the Eiffel Tower | iamapolarbear.com

Paris: taking the Batobus to the Eiffel Tower

March 9, 2020

You know I love a boat ride and on this weekend, the Batobus did just the job. In Paris, the big name in tourist boats is Bateaux Mouches but they depart from Pont de l’Alma and that RER station was closed that particular weekend, to keep the gilets-jaunes from rioting in tourist areas. I rode … More Paris: taking the Batobus to the Eiffel Tower

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Sainte-Chapelle has a rock-hard floor | iamapolarbear.com

Sainte-Chapelle has a rock-hard floor

March 5, 2020

How have I never been to Sainte-Chapelle? For various reasons (language student, living on the south coast etc), I’ve been to Paris quite a few times. In fact, to be brutally honest, I’ve been too many times. Many an August day I’ve spent there, breaking up a three day drive home from wherever we’d been … More Sainte-Chapelle has a rock-hard floor

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The romance of the Eurostar | iamapolarbear.com

The romance of the Eurostar

March 2, 2020

In blog-time, it’s been months since I went to Paris. That’s because there’s been so much other stuff I needed to post first. In real life, I haven’t actually left London yet. I’m sitting on the Eurostar at St Pancras and there’s still seven minutes until we depart. I’ve never been a mad lover of … More The romance of the Eurostar

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Gdansk and making videos: my first travel vlog! | iamapolarbear.com

Gdansk and making videos (I made a Gdansk vlog!)

February 27, 2020

I enjoyed my weekend in Gdansk in November but I’ve felt like I haven’t written enough about it, while simultaneously feeling like I don’t know what on Earth to say. One day I’ll write another blog or two on the subject. But does it even it out a little that this post is about Gdansk, … More Gdansk and making videos (I made a Gdansk vlog!)

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Russia 2019: Murmansk Vs Ekaterinburg apartments | iamapolarbear.com

Murmansk Vs Ekaterinburg apartments

February 13, 2020

For peace of mind, when I arrived in Russia I went for an unexciting but predictable & safe international chain hotel. My room in Moscow was a mirror of but otherwise identical copy of my room in St Petersburg, an edible and plentiful breakfast was available every morning and there were English-speaking staff on hand … More Murmansk Vs Ekaterinburg apartments

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Russia 2019: Red Square by night | iamapolarbear.com

Red Square by night

February 10, 2020

Quite possibly the best thing I did in Russia was go to Red Square by night. So, the way the trip worked was that I started in Moscow, journeyed to four other cities and then flew home again from Moscow. I gave myself a couple of days there. If something messed up my plane from … More Red Square by night

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New Year at Our Chalet: Completing the Our Chalet Challenge badge | iamapolarbear.com

The Our Chalet Challenge

January 30, 2020

When I went to Pax Lodge for the Thinking Day weekend a few years ago – 2016? 2017? – I completed their challenge and the receptionist who signed it off said they’d never seen a challenge completed so thoroughly. I might do a blog post about it later in the year. It’s partly about Pax … More The Our Chalet Challenge

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New Year at Our Chalet: Friday in Switzerland with a suitcase | iamapolarbear.com

Our Chalet: Friday in Switzerland with a suitcase

January 27, 2020

Friday was more or less a free day. All we had to do was pack and leave Our Chalet and then my flight didn’t leave Geneva until gone 9pm. It takes a while to get to Geneva from Adelboden but not that long so I intended to have a day out to play in Switzerland. … More Our Chalet: Friday in Switzerland with a suitcase

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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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Postcards from London the weekend before last. I am an onion: last weekend I was swimming a mile in the Olympic pool and then climbing Tower Bridge, then I spent Wednesday teaching my Rangers to break codes, Wednesday having a Norwegian lesson, Thursday doing Brownie Promises and on Saturday I was at the opera (when I say that out loud, I over-emphasise every syllable: op-air-AAAAAH!). I tell myself I’m an Elsa (I’m actually more of an Anna) but sometimes, like when it’s -15° and I didn’t bother to put the furry leggings on under my lined trousers and I have a 15-minute scurry back to the bus before hypothermia gets me, the cold does bother me anyway. It’s not that 2026 has been so bad but it seems to have been busy and harder than normal. One of my Brownies gave me the cold from hell and that dragged on for *thirty-five days*, culminating in pulled back muscles and such incredible pain for ten days that at one point I was stranded upside down like a turtle who can’t physically turn over. I’ve also done three weeks with someone else’s Brownies as well as my own and my Rangers and I’ve got one more week of a Norwegian course that’s taken out my Wednesday evenings since late January, which feels like just one too many nights on. And work hasn’t helped - certain bits of research have been either difficult or hellish in certain countries but my boss and I have agreed a timeline for the current stuff that seems realistic to me and acceptable to him! A few pictures from Suomenlinna on a very cold February day. Helsinki was very cold, averaging about -10°C during the day but it’s also very beautiful. Today’s blog post is about my icy trip over Helsinki’s harbour to Suomenlinna and meant I had to figure out whether or not the ferry is an icebreaker. I have learned a lot about ice classes and propulsion and protection along the way, realised that the answer depends on your definition of icebreaker, picked up @horatiowrites’s Icebreaker again for bath reading and even (accidentally! I didn’t ask!) learned the word in Norwegian during my lesson yesterday. Why, yes, jeg går på nurskkurs. More on that later in the month! I didn’t have a lot booked or planned for my trip to Helsinki but I did book a sunrise swim at Allas Sea Pool, a geothermal pool floating in the harbour. Or, as I discovered when I got there, frozen into eighteen or so inches of solid ice. Did getting up at 7am to walk 1.5km at minus several degrees feel offputting? Yes! Did the run from the showers to the pool in nothing but a thin towel feel offputting? Yes! Did I then discover that my lungs attempted to close up after swimming a few lengths in the relatively warm water? Yes! I’ve spent the last nearly a week in Helsinki, where it’s averaged about -10°C during the day. I’ve tried out four different saunas & pools, discovered aqua jogging, had cloudberry juice with my breakfast, had a successful train adventure to Finland’s old capital and right now I’m in the longest queue for passport control that I’ve ever seen (taking back control, yay! /s) with a bag of korvapuusti, Finnish cinnamon rolls, in my carry on. Blogs will be coming next week - I think I’ve got four or five planned at the moment.

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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