An unabashed tourist and her family explore the world one holiday at a time.
In June this year, I turned 30. I had vowed I would pass this milestone sitting on a tropical beach somewhere, basking in the sun and drinking something that had a little umbrella in it. So, a week before D-day, we whisked off to the island of Zanzibar, just off the coast of Tanzania. We stayed in a little 2-star...
For the past few months I’ve been working in an office adjacent to the airport. And every time I see a plane take off, a small thrill of excitement tingles down my spine and I can’t help but wish I were on it, even if it were headed for Harare. Why is this? What is this longing for unknown and...
Cape Town, South Africa The sun shimmers on the azure ocean waters at the V&A Waterfront. I feel like a Hollywood movie star, eating at a restaurant in the bay of this cosmopolitan city. It is a beautiful day, seagulls soar overhead, a cool breeze blows in off the sea and the mountain looms over us all, the very personification...
Cast your mind back to the dawn of civilization, to roughly 5200 BC if the archaeologists may be believed. A group of Sicilian settlers are the first to set foot on the tiny island of Malta. To these farmers and fishermen, the little archipelago in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea undoubtedly promised a new beginning, an abundance of food...
Salzburg, Austria With the sound of the church bells ringing throughout the square, I gaze up in rapt fascination at the fortress above me. I am only 18 years old and this is the first time I see a real medieval castle. We walk the steep path up to the gates, rather than taking the funicular. Inside the fortress itself, there...
Venice, Italy It’s a cold winter’s day in the Piazza San Marco. I am posing for a photograph with a pigeon sitting on my head. The square is filled with people, but the bustling crowds of summer are absent. My husband and I have just had a wonderful day exploring all the little alleys of this historic city and my...
“To be born in Wales, not with a silver spoon in your mouth, but, with music in your blood and with poetry in your soul, is a privilege indeed.” ~ Brian Harris, Welsh football player. The sky fades from a blustery blue to charcoal grey as the bus crosses the Severn bridge and a spray-painted sign proudly announces “Croeso Cymru”...
I love Paris in the Springtime, I love Paris in the Fall… The words of the famous song, made even more famous by the contradictory statement of a francophobic Meg Ryan in French Kiss, flit across my mind as I walk through the grey streets of this grey city. One of the first things I noticed the first time I...
