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I Am A Polar Bear

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Tag: Wroclaw

24 unscheduled hours in Poland | iamapolarbear.com

24 unscheduled hours in Poland

September 29, 2025

This is one that could do with a keyboard and a desk rather than a phone on a train but let’s start it anyway. I’ve written most of my Kraków stuff but I definitely need an entire post for the 24 extra hours I spent in Poland – at one point believing I was trapped … More 24 unscheduled hours in Poland

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The Eras Train Tour on film | iamapolarbear.com

The Eras Train Tour on film

May 26, 2025

I’ve discovered that I’ve missed quite a few sets of film photos but I like them and I think they show a slightly different perspective on places and on travel, especially with the fact that you don’t get to find out whether they even worked until a good few weeks later. They’ll never replace the … More The Eras Train Tour on film

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Eras Train Tour: Wrocław to Łódź | iamapolarbear.com

Eras Train Tour: Wroclaw to Lodz

September 16, 2024

It’s now Thursday and I’m about to move on to my penultimate city! I woke up in Wrocław to find the water was off in my apartment. I had a day and a half of plates and glasses to wash, which is no problem – ten minutes in the sink, except there’s no water! That’s … More Eras Train Tour: Wroclaw to Lodz

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Eras Train Tour: Wednesday in Wrocław | iamapolarbear.com

Eras Train Tour: Wednesday in Wroclaw

September 12, 2024

Wednesday was another day of staying put after two days on the move in a row – Berlin to Poznań on Monday and Poznań to Wrocław on Tuesday. It was also my birthday, which was the main reason for it – I didn’t fancy hauling my luggage around a city, onto a train and then … More Eras Train Tour: Wednesday in Wroclaw

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Eras Train Tour: Poznań to Wrocław | iamapolarbear.com

Eras Train Tour: Poznan to Wroclaw

September 9, 2024

I didn’t at all want to leave my nice light cool apartment with the incredible view but I’d only allocated one night in Poznań. On the other hand, my train to Wrocław, my next destination, was at 15:44 so I’d actually get a little over 24 hours in Poznań. Did I want to spend the … More Eras Train Tour: Poznan to Wroclaw

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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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On the blog today, a quest for the Midnight Sun in Tromsø, which turned out to be a half-decent Ten To Midnight Sun and a couple of Midnight Glows in the Sky. I’m looking back at my 2011 trip to Norway this week and come across these pictures from Tromsø. It was my first trip to the Arctic and although it’s warm enough for sandals, the landscape wants us all to know how far north we are. The two pictures outside the Arctic Cathedral were taken 24 hours apart, from sunshine to heavy rain. There are also a couple of pictures from around Tromsø on the sunny day. On the blog today, a trip that probably hasn't seen the light of day on Instagram before because it's from 2011: the Trondheim part of my first ever visit to Norway. Today’s new blog post is the 8 things I don’t travel without - I don’t think there’s anything very revolutionary but after making shampoo bars in Reading on Saturday, it seemed like a good opportunity to show you my travel solid hair wash kit, the Julie Book of Everything and the Sacred Charging Kit. Since I’m doing snowy wintery pictures, this is actual Tromsø from two trips I did in 2016 and 2017. Looking at the pictures, I definitely had better weather in 2017 but I did have a glorious and beautiful day sailing up from Harstad on the Hurtigruten in 2016. On today’s blogs, the polar bear is being a polar bear because as winter approaches, I’m thinking about the Northern Lights. I have a Northern Lights success rate of three in eleven - three times I’ve seen something worth seeing for eleven long nights of standing in the cold (plus one accidental at a campsite in Akranes one September when I was expecting no such thing and wearing sandals). But I do have a 100% success rate at Tromsø - well, two out of two. It’s blog time again (link in bio, you know how this works) and today’s is “my favourite travel watch is my twelve-year-old self’s dream”, aka a Baby G. It’s waterproof, indestructible, it lights up, it has a world clock mode that saves me having to reset it every time I leave the country… and occasionally the strap might fall apart. I like the idea of a smartwatch but I also like a) not worrying about charging my watch every few days b) being able to swap it for different occasions without feeling like I’m wasting its smartness. Watches that aren’t mini supercomputers have kind of fallen out of favour but I like them and I think you should too. Today was the Big Gig, which is exactly what it sounds like with the additional fact that it’s a Girlguiding-only event - 10,000 Guides, Rangers, Young Leaders and adult volunteers packed into Wembley Arena. It was headlined by Girlguiding’s beloved Scouting for Girls and JLS, who starred in my very first Big Gig in 2008. The star for me was Kerry Ellis - now, that’s a trained voice and she had two of maybe half a dozen songs I actually knew across the whole thing. I didn’t have such a strong opinion on this a year ago but so many people on the Iceland Facebook group are desperate to tell you they’re a Better Tourist because they prefer the Sky Lagoon to the Blue Lagoon that I had to write a blog post detailing why they’re wrong.

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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