Alcobaça and the Dead Queen

Monastery of Alcobaça

There are two people buried in the monastery of Alcobaça and it was them who first brought me to Portugal. I was fifteen and had just won a writing competition organised by the Portuguese Ministry of Education. My entry was a re-telling of the story of Ines and Pedro, written in diary format from the point of view of Pedro. I called it “The Dead Queen”. Don Pedro and Ines...

Notes and Pictures from the Côte d’Azur (5) – Menton

Menton

This series finishes in the last town along the Côte d’Azur, just a few kilometres from the Italian border. Menton is mainly known for its lemons and this can already give you an idea that this is not going to be a party hotspot. So if you’re looking for a quiet place to spend a day or so along the Côte d’Azur and like places that feel like time has...

Notes and pictures from the Côte d’Azur: Nice

Mosaic at the top of Castle Hill, Nice

This is the start of a short series of posts on the week I spent along the Côte d’Azur. At first I wanted to pack it all into one post, then that got a bit long … plus, I think it will be more useful for those who are just interested in reading about specific places. In this post, I’ll write about what I saw and did when I wasn’t...

Give Way to Penguins: Five stories from five days in northern Patagonia.

penguins and a petrified tree

A cautionary tale for those who would whale watch I had never seen a whale before and I knew one of the highlights was going to be a boat trip from the Peninsula Valdes. The photos I would take! It would be an unforgettable experience! Well, as it turned out, it was, but not quite the way I had imagined it. It started out OK; we arrived in Puerto Piramides...

Nine reasons why you should visit Montevideo

Playa Ramírez

A fellow passenger on the ferry from Buenos Aires thought I was crazy for planning to stay for almost a week in Montevideo. True, if you want heaps of sights to check off your list and crazy nightlife, it might not be the right choice for you. But I soon found that I would have been happy to stay longer. Below are my top nine reasons for visiting Montevideo....

What to do in Singapore when you’re not dancing tango

My last stop of this trip where I have been trying to dance as much tango as possible along the way, was Singapore. My main reason for stopping here was to participate in my very first tango festival. As I was taking classes during the day, I mostly limited sightseeing to the area where I was staying and where the festival events were taking place (central Singapore). Here’s what I...