It’s Shakespeare’s birthday weekend and I’m celebrating in his birthplace of Stratford-upon-Avon (Will, you don’t look a day over 400). So, in the spirit of all things literary and wanderlustful, I have compiled a list of Shakespeare quotes about travel from the bard’s most famous plays; to inspire you to either pick up a pen or get on a plane (or both).
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Updated May 2024
My passport may be bursting at the seams, but I’m definitely guilty of ignoring what’s in my own back yard. So, since I’ve been back in Birmingham (UK, not US), I’m making it my mission to explore my home city a little more, starting with my favourite places to visit – bookstores! Here’s my list of the best Birmingham bookshops for new and secondhand books, from comic book stores to independent bookshops selling used books; where you can find your next Brummy read:
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Hey guys. So, I recently participated in the World Nomads Travel Writer Scholarship programme, where I wrote a piece on the theme ‘a place that is unfamiliar to me’. Devastatingly, I didn’t win the scholarship (next year, perhaps?), so here is my entry published here instead, entitled Chasing Home: Read more
Dictionary: A book or electronic resource that lists the words of a language (typically in alphabetical order) and gives their meaning.
Inspired by a long (and sunny!) weekend in the home of Oxford University, here is a day in Oxford city as told through Oxford Dictionary definitions… Read more
I feel as if spring has really snuck up on us this year. It’s officially time for people living in Britain (or anywhere temperate in the Northern Hemisphere) to come out of hibernation and start enjoying the extra hours of sunshine. And so, I have written this spring foraging guide to edible wild plants you can find in the UK.
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I’ve been back in the UK now for four months. I’m still reluctant to say ‘back home’, but I’ll admit that it’s slipped off my tongue more than once. Like travel writer Pico Iyer says in his TED talk, ‘Where are you from?’ and ‘Where is home?’ are more complex questions now than they once were. Read more
So, I’ve put on a lot of weight since I’ve moved back to the UK and with very good reason. British food is not an internationally beloved cuisine. In most large cities around the world, you may be able to find a decent pizzeria, Chinese takeaway or Irish pub.
But, you will never ever find a good chippy or a proper British pub outside the British Isles.
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Updated May 2024
London has a reputation for being expensive and often with good reason. A standard cup of coffee will cost you a cheeky £3-4, one stop on the tube can go for as much as a fiver and a trip to St. Paul’s Cathedral will set you back eighteen of your English pounds! However, one redeeming factor is that there are hundreds of free museums in London.
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Yep, I’ve turned into that girl who starts all her sentences with, ‘When I lived in Hong Kong…’ My room is filled with knick-knacks from places I can’t pronounce. I can give advice on jet lag, fear of flying, travelling with only a carry-on and finding cheap flights online. I can speak in different tongues. If you know me, you’re probably bored of my travel anecdotes.
If you don’t know me, I should prefix this post by stating that, up until three months ago, I lived overseas. I spent five years in Hong Kong, with a few intervals in Italy (because I like to be complicated like that). I never planned to leave the UK or become an expat, especially for so long, but it just kind of happened. Read more
‘Europe should be a dream.’
He was a professor at the University of Padua. He had lived all over the world. He brewed his own prosecco, and it tasted delicious. He was Italian. He had the words ‘Will you marry me?’ tattooed onto his chest. That was how he proposed to his now-fiancé. Read more