The Woman Who Taught Me How to Walk (Again)

“One Euro one, six for six. Very, very tasty, very, very good!” So went the song of the samosa salesman. He was a youngish guy of South-Asian origin, and I wondered why he sang in English rather than Catalan or – heaven forbid around these parts – Spanish. I normally find these hawkers irritating when...

Fun and Interesting Things that have Happened on Planes

I often find that planes and airports can be interesting places. I've long felt that I do some of my best writing while flying. Being removed from my everyday life, having the time to think and being faced with so many people from all over the world put me in a reflective mood. But apart...

Nature breathes sigh of relief as coronavirus grounds flights worldwide

Stakeholders and CEOs warn that benefits to the environment could severely damage quarterly profits Life forms around the world have expressed relief at the recent grounding of hundreds of international flights due to coronavirus. A statement from the International Committee of Non-Human Life Forms (ICNHLF), released Wednesday, said: “while we express our sympathies to the...

Watermelon for the Runner

You know those people you get in hostels who are by themselves and yet seem to be at the centre of everything? This guy seemed like that, firing off jokes to people who walked by or other people sitting around us, chatting amicably to the staff. Despite his age, he seemed to be in his element. He turned back to me and said, “well, are you gonna come and tell me about yourself or what?”

Flying: A Love/Hate Story

I was flying home for Christmas. It was icy and windy in Leeds and the plane was getting thrown about so much that at one point we seemed to be approaching the runway side-on

On Buses, Brexit and Bad English

Call me cynical, but I’m convinced that the people who work on trains and buses derive some sick pleasure from making people wait to board. I don’t know how many times I’ve stood on a platform with thirty other commuters, all of us glaring at a man in a reflective vest clutching a clipboard and...

Fahren, Fahren, Fahren: Meditations on the Autobahn

Did you know that on the autobahn, the German motorway, there’s technically no speed limit? There is an “advisory” speed limit of 130kph (around 80mph), but it seems that many people are happy to ignore it. Our car wobbles slightly as middle-aged men with Audis and a point to prove fizz past us. Makes me...

Barcelona, the Second Time

September 2016 I had first come to Barcelona three years earlier as a tourist. I’d waited for two hours to get into La Sagrada Familia, done the obligatory walk up and down Las Ramblas, shuffled through Parc Guell with hordes of other sun-baked camera-wielders, and dropped by Camp Nou, home of FC Barcelona, for a...

Getting Lost in the Polish Countryside

27.10.2018 My girlfriend, Emily, and I are barely two weeks into our six-week journey around Poland when our yearning for new and unique experiences, and the fact we have nowhere else to stay, brings us to a tiny village about one hour south of Wrocław that nobody — not even the locals — seems to have heard of. We...

Welcome to the Land of Harry Potter (Probably Not the One You’re Thinking of…)

J.K. Rowling moved to Porto, married a Portuguese man and gave birth to a baby girl. When she wasn't working her job as an English teacher, she liked to sit in the Majestic Café and write stories. After her marriage broke down, she packed up and returned to England with her child. Her stint in...