Getting Out of the Bubble

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. Sin...

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...