This one time in Nicaragua I attended a pool party at a popular backpacking hostel in the beach town of Las Peñitas. Conversing with a bunch of young travellers over many cans of Toña, a pattern began to emerge that I couldn’t really comprehend. These people have been all over South America, they’ve been to Panama, Costa Rica, and they’re now in Nicaragua. Next they’re … Continue reading Don’t Skip El Salvador, Sillies
The inside cover of my guide book seemed to have a tough time finding a pleasant way to sell São Paulo to the common tourist. The opening paragraph was full of words like “polluted” and “ungainly”, “concrete” and “sprawling”. If I hadn’t booked the flights before doing the reading, I might have had second thoughts about spending the second part of my Brazilian trip here. … Continue reading São Paulo is a City
Day 1 It’s 10am and I’m standing on a bustling street looking at the sky, trying to work out if the sun looks discernibly different from usual. It doesn’t, but the fact that the sun is actually in the sky is more than enough change for me. There is a tropical atlantic breeze gently wafting hints of Cachaça and lime in my direction, and into my line of sight flies … Continue reading And She Dances on the Sand
Every now and then a person finds themselves roaming through southern Spain on a cloudless December day, doing nothing other than casually searching for their next Rioja and tapas fix, when they accidentally make eye contact with the horizon, which means they have to go to Africa. Accordingly, we boarded the boat in Tarifa, the small historic town in which we were doing our tapas-hunting, and a bumpy 57 minutes … Continue reading The Spontaneous Voyager’s Guide to Tangier
I’m in South Carolina, the sun is shining, and I have absolutely no commitments or plans of any kind. After a spot of musing over a nice hotel breakfast, I have come to the conclusion that today I quite fancy going to the beach. The interwebs tell me that there is a very pleasant beach at Sullivan’s Island not too far from my hotel, and this sounds to … Continue reading Road to Sullivan’s Island
I’m not a massive history buff. Ok, I’m not even a moderate history buff, but there is one particular historical period (and specific geographic location) that I’m pretty obsessed with: the first quarter of the 18th Century in the North Atlantic – The Golden Age of Piracy. I won’t lie… I’m pretty sure the fascination was sparked as a 5-year old on the Pirates of … Continue reading Plundering Charleston
New Orleans Day 3: I am never drinking again. I spent the morning reading Faulkner on my balcony and chugging coffee, because it was noon before my hangover finally dissipated sufficiently (fyi, here’s what I got up to last night) that I was able to venture out into the 30 degree heat and do some more exploring. I couldn’t start the day’s adventuring without some more classic … Continue reading NoLa SoLo
I’m nearing the end of my 54 weeks in Chicago and there’s somewhere on my Midwest Hotspots list I haven’t yet been. If i’m honest, I think I’ve been pretty good at scouting out the surrounding area. I’ve checked out multiple locations in Wisconsin, explored the tantalising Gary, Indiana not once, but twice, and been to more Chicago suburbs than you can shake a stick at. But one place managed to elude … Continue reading A Hot Second in St. Louis
Header photo sandwich board credit to Cup and Spoon – supplier of my commute coffee and morning wit. I’ve never been a staunch believer in wind chill. I like to think that when the thermometer says it’s -15 degrees, it’s going to feel like it’s -15 degrees. Why shouldn’t it, goddammit? Recently I changed my views. Because Chicago. I’m from Scotland. I spent 22 years of … Continue reading Weathering Chiberia
Our handy map has told us that not far from Vienna lies another European capital city just waiting to be explored. Bratislava, Slovakia lies just 50 miles east of here, which sounds to me like perfect day-trip material. Plus we get to go on an Austrian train, which I hear are quite efficient. Yaay! Disembarking at Bratislava Hlavná Stanica, the main train station, it was a short and scenic … Continue reading Let’s Go To Bratislava
the lost scot 