Deepest winter, which we are currently very much in the midst of, puts a limit on the amount of Norway’s great outdoors the casual tourist can reasonably engage with. The days are short, the roads are snowy, and all the country’s most popular fjord-based attractions are coated in several inches of solid ice. We kind of knew this when we booked our tickets, but we weren’t very … Continue reading Norway in a Nutshell
The one time I forgot to check the weather forecast was the time Chicago experienced its 5th heaviest snow-dump of all time. OF ALL TIME. It began snowing at about 8pm on Saturday. I was in a dive bar in Ukrainian Village on a date of the romantic sort, and was informed by the establishment’s owner, as he showered us with free cheese puffs, that blizzard-warning nights are always … Continue reading #Superbowl #Snowday
I remember watching Friends and other apartment-based American sitcoms as a youth and being slightly sceptical of the premise that there were all these apartment buildings in big cities filled with people that actually hung out with each other. I remember moving into my first landlord-rented apartment in 2010 and, in the two years I lived there, having a grand total of zero instances of communication with any of … Continue reading Tales from the Castle
At the end of my last post, I was somewhere in up-state Wisconsin on a coach that was 4 hours behind schedule with a US phone that had run out of battery and a UK phone that was about to follow suit, knowing that, even if everything from now on went to plan, I was going to be dropped at a bus station approximately 2 miles … Continue reading A Wausau Wedding
Prologue A series of odd circumstances converged this week, with the unexpected outcome that I’m spending the first ten days of 2014 in New York City! I’ve arranged to spend a few days with my good friends Holly and Syed at their apartment in Brooklyn, a few days with my good friend Tom DeGroot at his house in Wantagh, Long Island, and a couple of … Continue reading Race to Crown Heights
It’s my Birthday. Time to throw a party. Theme? 90s Eurodance. Naturally. In my 10 months in Maastricht so far, I seemed to have garnered quite a reputation for my frivolity skills. This was confirmed last week when I received the coveted “Party Animal” award at the final International dinner piss-up. Then, like it does every year, my birthday came around and, having a lot to prove … Continue reading Party to end all Parties.
Today’s travels are notable for two reasons. 1) I will no longer be flying solo, and 2) I will not be using public transport. That’s right people, I get to go in a car with a friend! What brings about such luxuries? It just so happens that a couple of hours down the lake from Niagara Falls, in Erie, Pennsylvania, lives the family of Colleen, … Continue reading Old Friends, Good Times
The final departure from Aberdeen was one of mixed emotions. I won’t miss the cold grey granite, the seagulls, or the smell of semi-rotten fish that follows you down a certain major thoroughfare. When asked, I said I’d miss the people, but even that’s not strictly true. Not the general population anyway, who sometimes appear to exist in an impenetrable bubble, oblivious to the rest … Continue reading Exodus
the lost scot 