Getting Out of the Bubble

When I had the opportunity to go to Paris with my colleagues I (obviously) jumped at the opportunity. Who wouldn't want a weekend away in one of the most legendary cities in the world, and one which I still had never actually been to yet? When I found out that the travel costs were also going to be covered by the team the trip reached whole new levels of perfect. That's how one weekend in September I found myself waking up ridiculously early to spend 48 hours in Paris. I've already written about the first 24 hours here, and I recommend starting there if you want the full picture (find it here ), but the general gist is that we managed to see it all. It may not have been the most in depth visit, but it was the perfect introduction to Paris and everything it has to offer. In my last post I covered day one, or the red lines on the map at the bottom of both posts, and. Is it's time to turn to that purple line. It may be a lot shorter than the red line but we still manag

When booking a holiday or flights what do you look for? The nicest hotel, the maximum time to explore your destination, the cheapest trip? I think in this situation a lot of people will say that they want a cheap trip. After all, most of us have a budget that we're working with. Cheap sounds like exactly the way to do things and the saying "cheap and cheerful" springs to mind; but the saying that "you get what you pay for" also springs to mind. For every amazing budget-friendly trip I'm pretty sure almost everyone has that story about how that cheap and cheerful option wasn't quite so cheerful. So this leads me on to my main thread of thought... Maybe you think  that you want cheap flights, or a cheap holiday, but in fact what we are desperately searching for is a value holiday. Or at least that is what I've learnt at my new job as an international travel consultant with Flight Centre. During my month long training for Flight Centre we

The New Palace Day 4: Potsdam Going to Berlin it is easy to get caught up in the excitement and bustle of the city, but (if you have the time) it is well worth making the short trip out of Berlin to the small city of Potsdam. Potsdam is a complete antidote to Berlin, it is a quiet city with cobbled streets galore and the beautiful Sanssouci Park to explore.  The name Potsdam may ring a bell from history class because Potsdam was the location of a pivotal post-World War II conference between the various allies; but Potsdam was also the residence of Prussian Kings and Kaisers up until the early 1900's. This gives much of the city a distinctly regal feel and Sanssouci Park in particular was a splendid place complex reserved for royalty and dignitaries.  We decided to leave Potsdam for the last day of our trip before heading to the airport and arrived at Potsdam Hauptbanhof later than expected, due to U-bahn problems, but with plenty of time to explore. Since we

A couple weeks ago I post part one of this mini-series about Berlin ( here ), which covered much of the history and culture that Berlin has to offer, but today is a completely different side of the city. If I had to think of one word to describe Berlin it would be "cool". Berlin is a city which oozes cool from it's very pores and has something about it that makes you want to go back again and again. It is definitely a city that is very much shaped by its history, evident from the remains of the Berlin Wall throughout the city, but it is also an incredibly modern city with a flourishing culture of art, music, and sense of individuality. Like most cities, Berlin has a side that is slightly more hidden than the typical tourist traps that we all know (and love), but if you make the effort to dig a little deeper it's a rewarding insight into Germany's biggest city. Maybe that is why, when planning a reunion with some friends made in China, I didn't mind headi

Clearing out my room after coming back from China I stumbled upon an old travel journal from all the school trips I took. Although travel with school may not be considered the best type of travel, it was partly school trips that gave me the travel bug; and looking back it occurred to me that this travel journey was essentially the same thing as my blog, albeit a lot more awkward and full of teenage lingo. Since I recently started a new and very exciting job and won't have a lot of time for new adventures, I decided to share with the world some extracts of my teenage mind, think of it as an extreme Throwback Thursday. Throwback! Way back in 2008 I was lucky enough to go to Iceland on a school trip. It was a strange experience because Iceland itself is a pretty strange country. I remember going for days without seeing a person outside our group; but at the time that was okay, a bunch of over-excited school girls can survive in isolation. We saw some of the most amazing scene

When I say Berlin what do you think of? Do you think of its history? The legacy of the Third Reich and the Berlin Wall? Do you think of its reputation for crazy parties and nightclubs that stay open for days? Or do you think of currywurst and beer? All these things, and more, are part of Berlin and when I was there I managed to see how much variety the city really has to offer. My trip was (just about) four days long and a whirlwind mix of social, food and culture, the perfect weekend trip! I managed to cram a lot into four days and still didn't feel like I was rushing around manically trying to do everything in the time. My friend and I took a relaxed approach to our sightseeing and even scheduled in a morning to recover from Berlin's infamous night-life, but we still managed to hit most of the top sights. Overall we spent 3 days in Berlin and then spent the fourth day in Potsdam, about an hour outside of Berlin. Each of our 3 days in actual Berlin can be given a theme

When I went to Germany to volunteer on an Englischhausen English Camp (read about that here ) I decided to go a couple days early to get in a whirlwind tour of Frankfurt. Frankfurt is primarily a business city, think the square mile of London, so there isn't a huge amount of stuff to do in terms of tourism, but there is definitely enough to fill a few days! Here's my run down of what I did in the 2 days I spent in Frankfurt. Day 1 - Dom , Römer, and the Main River I arrived at Frankfurt airport at 1 pm, so decided to make the most of the time I had and head straight from the airport to the tourist hotspots of the city. After some brief confusion between the S-bahn and U-bahn I found my way onto a train and, with minimal effort, arrived at Dom/Römer U-bahn station to tick three of the big things off my Frankfurt check-list: the Dom (cathedral), the Römer and surrounding square, and the river Main. The Square where the R ömer sits The Römer is actually the town h

Last week I spent upwards of 12 hours a day talking to complete strangers in the middle of the German countryside. Have I gone insane and become a hermit? Nope, I just spent the week as a volunteering "Anglo" at a Diverbo full immersion English camp. I have wanted to do a Diverbo volunteering experience ever since I stumbled across the company some time after working in Spain on Summer camp way back in 2012, but for all of those who haven't come across Diverbo before I will give a quick run-down. The group The Idea Diverbo is a company based out of Madrid, Spain, and functions as a language school; but it also has two programmes for full immersion English learning. In Spain this is called Pueblo Ingles, and in Germany it is called Englischhausen. I participated in Englischhausen . The idea of he programme is that for one week non-native speakers live in a all-English environment to build their confidence and improve their language skills. Fluent English spe

Whether you've been in China for 2 weeks or 2 years I can guarantee you will have noticed the little things (and not such little things) that are completely different to at home. These differences aren't necessarily bad, but they are something that you need to take in your stride as someone living in a culturally opposite society. These are the things that you're going to remember in years to come, and these are the things that can start conversations with other foreigners your meet on your journey in China. In a way they are the make and break element of living abroad, because if you can't accept the culture for what it is, you're never going to be able to stay long term in the country. When I first first came to China I made a friend who helped me to start this list of the weird and wonderful differences of life in China. It started off as a bit of a joke, a silly back and forth of text messages, and at the time I wasn't thinking of encapsulating it on here

Being back the UK is nice. I've been able to spend time with friends and family, who I haven’t seen in years; and I've really enjoyed catching up with people. But although I am technically back , it doesn't feel like I am back and part of my mind is often on China. I have been re-jigging Getting Out of the Bubble and part of that has meant looking over old posts and trying to categorize them into some semblance of order. Reading over old writing has always been something I enjoyed, I've always liked going over old diaries and laughing at how much (and sometimes so little) has changed. Over the next few weeks I'm planning on going back in time to some of the parts of my time in China that I never posted blogs about; some will be posts I started but never quite got round to finishing, some will be completely new posts to fill gaps in the journey. For now I will just share this list I made before leaving China that documents my time in China in what I think

As some of you may know I am flying back to the UK on the 2 nd February after almost two years in China. The question of how long for is too hard to answer right now, but I will say it’s going to be for an extended period. I won’t go into too much detail as to why  I'm  coming back but I will say that the catalyst was graduate schemes. Everyone (in the UK) knows that a graduate scheme is the best way to get a leg up when starting a career; they have higher starting salaries, more responsibility and much faster progression than regular entry level jobs – not a bad deal overall. At university I lazily applied to whatever took my fancy and got through to a couple assessment centres but then that's where my grad scheme journey stopped as I changed tack and went to China. The plan was only ever to stay 6 months, but here I am 2 years later and still in China. It's not a terrible thing that I'm in China, it's actually great! I have a fantastic quality of life th