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I Am A Polar Bear

Travel, adventure & wellness with plenty of snow

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An Iceland Itinerary: The South West | iamapolarbear.com

An Iceland Itinerary: the South West

October 24, 2022

The majority of visitors to Iceland stick around the south-west corner of the country. There’s a lot to see but you need a week or two at the very least to cross off a lot of Iceland’s sights and spectacles. This itinerary is for a first-timer who doesn’t want to venture too far from Reykjavik … More An Iceland Itinerary: the South West

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I met the Rebel Badge Club! | iamapolarbear.com

I met the Rebel Badge Club!

October 20, 2022

I suppose this doesn’t strictly come under the headings of “travel”, “outdoors” or “adventure” but I’ve done so much that does come under one of those labels thanks to the Rebel Badge Book that I think you should see the inaugural Big Rebel Meet Up of the Rebel Badge Club. There are 3,884 members in the … More I met the Rebel Badge Club!

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A scenic train ride to Arosa | iamapolarbear.com

A scenic train ride to Arosa

October 17, 2022

We’re going to talk about my year abroad again! Specifically, the beautiful summer day in – well, I’d tell you but my photos are tagged Jan 1st 2001 and I didn’t write a diary. Anyway, it was the summer of 2005 – when I took a very scenic train ride to Arosa, a former health … More A scenic train ride to Arosa

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How did my garden grow in 2022? | iamapolarbear.com

How did my garden grow in 2022?

October 13, 2022

I think it’s time for a garden update, to be a bit less sweary than Joe Lycett’s Instagram garden updates. We’re going outside, as we often do on this blog, but we’re only going as far as the garden. I’ve become a keen veg grower in the last couple of years and I think it’s … More How did my garden grow in 2022?

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I did the Pawprint Volcanoes badge | iamapolarbear.com

I did my Pawprint Volcanoes badge!

October 10, 2022

I know, you frequently see “I did [this or that] Rebel Badge but I do other badges as well. I spied that Pawprint Badges had a Volcanoes badge and as they’re big and beautiful and I was going to Iceland, I thought I’d do that one. To be honest, I find Pawprint badges work better … More I did my Pawprint Volcanoes badge!

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A shorter walk up tors and across downs | iamapolarbear.com

A shorter walk up tors and across downs

October 6, 2022

Welcome to part two of my Dartmoor weekend! Today we’re off on a different route, in the hope of getting another logbook walk. But today we’re setting off in two groups rather than splitting up. In theory, that’s because there are now eight of us and that’s a tiny bit big for a walking group. … More A shorter walk up tors and across downs

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A tor-bagging walk around Haytor | iamapolarbear.com

A tor-bagging walk around Haytor

October 3, 2022

Last weekend I went to Dartmoor and this is the first of two posts on the walks I did. It was a joint Girlguiding Region walking weekend, the aim of which is to run a level 2 walking training but there’s room at the centre for a few extra so it’s open to leisure walkers … More A tor-bagging walk around Haytor

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Meet my one-man tent! | iamapolarbear.com

Meet my little yellow tent

September 29, 2022

It’s occurred to me that I’ve taken a one-man tent to Iceland five times now and I’ve never introduced you! Meet my one-man tent! It’s a Blacks Octane 1 and while it wasn’t the budgetiest of budget one-man tents, it’s probably the second or third budgetiest. If I’d realised I’d still be carting it around … More Meet my little yellow tent

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What were the campsites in Iceland like? | iamapolarbear.com

What were the campsites in Iceland like?

September 26, 2022

I stayed on four campsites in Iceland this summer and I thought I’d do you a little review of each of them. I spent two nights at Hveragerði because I wanted to see the volcano but also have options beyond Reykjanes when the weather was bad, moved up to Laugarvatn, stayed in the hobbit house … More What were the campsites in Iceland like?

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An Iceland Itinerary for volcano fans | iamapolarbear.com

An Iceland Itinerary for Volcano Fans

September 22, 2022

Now that I’ve been to an actual live eruption, I realised it was time I did an Iceland Itinerary for Volcano Fans. Why haven’t I done this before? It’s not like there aren’t enough volcanic delights to get a book out of (and I know; I’ve been trying to write it for five years). This … More An Iceland Itinerary for Volcano Fans

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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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🇳🇴 I just finished my Norwegian course and I won’t be sad to get my Wednesday evenings back! I’ve been learning Norwegian on and off, by myself, for the best part of a decade so I wasn’t sure if beginners module 1 was the best place to start. But a real human native-speaker teacher is invaluable and I’ve acquired a very unexpected vocabulary from it. 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!

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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