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I Am A Polar Bear

Travel, adventure & wellness with plenty of snow

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Tag: Train to York (2019)

York 2019: When it 50 metres not 50 metres? | iamapolarbear.com

When a 50m pool isn’t a 50m pool

March 26, 2020

In 2019, I did a virtual swimming challenge every month. 2.5km or 100 lengths of a standard pool every month and double that in June and October. December was going ok. I’d done 40 lengths before I went to York and I wanted to do another chunk while I was there because I like to … More When a 50m pool isn’t a 50m pool

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York 2019: selfies at the National Railway Museum | iamapolarbear.com

Selfies at the National Railway Museum

March 23, 2020

Hi from social distancing/semi-isolation and working from home! Blogging continues as normal even though I can’t travel so today’s blog is from my trip to York in December – which is what I’ve been writing about throughout March anyway. My primary objectives in York were Jorvik and the Minster. With them crossed off, I set … More Selfies at the National Railway Museum

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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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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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The first blog of the Denmark trip is up! It’s my birthday trip to @aireancientbathsdk which isn’t necessarily a great subject for a blog and Instagram because in the pursuit of serenity and relaxation (which it achieves!) you can’t take cameras in. And I made it to the end! A reel every day! Today’s features a weird otherworldly metro station and a very nice beach (this is where you come kayaking in Copenhagen!) and then a lovely flight home (with two episodes of Farscape). Last proper day in Denmark and I finally made it to Christiania which has got the odd vibe of being free and artsy (and yeah, a bit illegally leafy) but also like there are Rules. Then I detoured slowly through Copenhagen (got lost on the way to the metro) and finished up the day with an extended session at AIRE Ancient Baths, a spa with Latin names for all its pools hiding away in the raw brickwork of the old Carlsberg factory. Oh, I needed some time in hot water! Turns out I’ve been missing that all week! Who’d have thought a graveyard would be a nice place to spend some time on an intolerably hot day in Copenhagen? The Hans Christian Andersen Experience was perhaps not something I’ll rush back to but the National Museum is quite something. Three and a half years ago, I was sitting in a bar in Denmark with an Irishman, a Norwegian and three Icelandic lawyers while they gave us a potted history of the Vikings and the relationship between Iceland and Denmark that included the phrases “Viking is a verb, not a noun” and “Denmark is our colonist”. Chunks of that conversation made it into my second book, Lava Land (look out for it in the autumn!). Today I kayaked around Copenhagen with #GreenKayak collecting litter from the canals. Oh, that one’s getting a blog post! And then I walked around Copenhagen a bit in the afternoon and the evening and filmed very little of it. This is the reason I’m in Denmark this week - not out of a desire to see Copenhagen but a desire to see a 5cm layer of fossils, sticky clay and iridium, the geological evidence of an asteroid that hit Mexico 66m years ago and caused the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. Today I went to Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens - and I went on two rollercoasters (and was only terrified of one). My main “home” on the internet is my blog, I Am A Polar Bear (link in bio) and I always say that I make the effort to keep up with Instagram partly to promote it and partly to get my face out there as a travel blogger - which I guess is one and the same thing. So why has it taken this long to occur to me that grid posts should match up with blog posts? So that’s what I’m doing from now on.

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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