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I Am A Polar Bear

Travel, adventure & wellness with plenty of snow

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Greek vs Swiss chocolate | iamapolarbear.com

Chocolate Wars: Greek vs Swiss chocolate

April 25, 2024

It’s been ages since I last did a Chocolate Wars! I wanted to do Cypriot chocolate vs Georgian chocolate but it turns out neither have a particularly noticeable national brand. I got some Greek Lacta in Larnaca but my options in Tbilisi were Milka or Russian Alpen and so today, obviously, I’m going Swiss. Yes, … More Chocolate Wars: Greek vs Swiss chocolate

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What I wore in Georgia | iamapolarbear.com

What I wore in Georgia in February

March 25, 2024

What do you wear when you go to Georgia in winter? What’s the weather like and what do you need to take? Well, I think I got it kind of completely wrong but that’s ok because now you’ll know. I started with finding out the weather in February. January too – I titled this Georgia … More What I wore in Georgia in February

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A reintroduction to me! | iamapolarbear.com

A reintroduction to me!

February 8, 2024

This was going to be the first blog post about Georgia & Traverse but it’s going to be a reintroduction instead. I don’t know how many people went off with my Instagram and my blog but in case there are any new people coming this way, I thought I’d start by telling you who I … More A reintroduction to me!

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How to manage school trips with ARFID | iamapolarbear.com

How to manage school trips with ARFID

January 8, 2024

I got an email from a reader back in September. That’s not a common thing for me. It was about coping with ARFID on a school trip and I thought that might be a useful thing to pop up on the blog. Apart from the fact that it’s my blog and I can talk about what … More How to manage school trips with ARFID

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Christmas Adventure at West Bay | iamapolarbear.com

Christmas Adventure at West Bay

January 4, 2024

I have many Christmas traditions (these three decorations must go here, here and here on the Christmas tree, making mince pies with Dad, putting out the boots, eating my body weight in After Eights) and one of them is that on the day after Boxing Day (or the day after that, depending on whether there’s a … More Christmas Adventure at West Bay

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A reintroduction for 2024 | iamapolarbear.com

A reintroduction for 2024

January 1, 2024

Well, 2024 on the blog started well! In everything else that was going on, I forgot to finish today’s post and I let Thursday’s sneak out early (and when it was still only a paragraph long too!). Idiot. That’s because I’ve not been properly at my desk recently. I’m back now! Going to get everything … More A reintroduction for 2024

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What I carry on a day hike on Dartmoor | iamapolarbear.com

What I carry on a day hike on Dartmoor

November 23, 2023

As I was walking on Dartmoor yesterday (two months ago in real time!), I began to think about my bag, which meant I began to think about what I carry on a day hike on Dartmoor and I thought that might be quite a good subject for a blog post. Note it’s “what I carry” … More What I carry on a day hike on Dartmoor

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you should pack this: my charging kit | iamapolarbear.com

My charging kit | you should pack this

August 3, 2023

The oldest series on this blog is Useful Travel Items but I’ve decided it needs a bit of an overhaul so among other things, it’s now called you should pack this and the first thing to pack in the new format is my charging kit. Packing electronics has always been a thorny issue. Have you … More My charging kit | you should pack this

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I'm walking the Laugavegur Trail again next year | iamapolarbear.com

I’m walking the Laugavegur Trail again next year

July 6, 2023

Yep, it really is just what it says on the tin. I’m walking the Laugavegur Trail again next year. I meant to do it in 2020 but we know what happened. 21 wasn’t much better. 22 was all about the volcano. 23… well, life got busy. By the time you see this, I’ll have done … More I’m walking the Laugavegur Trail again next year

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Travelling with ARFID | iamapolarbear.com

Travelling with ARFID

May 25, 2023

Well, here we go, I guess. Time to talk about the one weirdness I try to keep quiet. I have ARFID, Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder. It’s an eating disorder, not one of the famous ones and it does impact my life, although mostly not in the way you might expect. What is ARFID? It … More Travelling with ARFID

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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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Most popular posts

  • Zedwell Capsule Hotel review: what's it like to sleep in a coffin?
  • Which is the best geothermal lagoon to visit in Iceland while the Blue Lagoon is closed?
  • Is the biggest spa in Europe overrated? My day at Therme București
  • The Guide Camp Kit List part two: the camp blanket
  • A night bath at Rudas
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. Time to talk about The Bath Book, which is the book I’m really struggling to write about hot water, baths, steam, bathing culture and all that good stuff (and the excuse for a few trips I’ve done over the last 18 months). It tends to slide down my priority list but if it’s here on Instagram every month, I have to have an update every month, so I have to sit down and write occasionally. I started this because so many people went skiing in January and now we’re finishing off with my attempts at snowboarding. I started far too old - if I can’t manage one plank, how am I meant to manage two? Luckily, there’s a whole world of other fun you can have in the snow. This week, a storm basically washed away Reynisfjara, one of Iceland’s most popular tourist attractions and most beautiful beaches. It’s like a giant hand reached out and just clawed away the beach, leaving a miniature cliff up by the path. Such is coastal erosion. But does it solve the problem of it being one of Iceland’s most dangerous places or make it worse?

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 with a third and fourth being (not to much) written simultaneously right now.

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