• Christmas,  Travel,  Winter

    The Holiday Season in London (Pandemic Edition)

    Like I’m sure many travelers before me, the idea to spend Christmas in England came to me years ago upon a re-watch of The Holiday. How perfect could it be to spend the holidays in a cottage somewhere in the foggy countryside? I shared this vision with my family and in summer 2019, my mother announced that we were doing it! We were going to spend Christmas 2020 in England! Of course that wasn’t exactly good timing, but having already booked a cottage in the Cotswolds (an “area of outstanding natural beauty” just northwest of Oxford full of picturesque villages to explore) in early 2020 before the pandemic and unable…

  • Summer

    a spring wander around brixton, london

    what is it about blogging, lately? i have a theory that other forms of social media is slowly killing off blogging (do you agree?) and i am taking staunch measures to prevent this, at least for myself. in the past, if i haven’t written, it meant i couldn’t think of anything to say. nowadays, over six and a half years into my life abroad, if i don’t write, i’m too busy with life or my personal studies (language or herbalism).  but! i can’t let spring fade sweetly into warm, sun-drenched summer without talking a little tiny bit more about our spring day out in brixton at the end of april.…

  • Summer

    walking london + the afternoon tea bus tour

    i don’t really ever go on those “weekend away” trips everyone talks about when they move to europe. well at least, not of the kind with an airplane. flying is a much bigger “to-do” than the ever-convenient train, and when you live in the center of europe, it’s easier to get almost everywhere by train… except great britain. but a couple weekends ago, i did! it felt really fancy!  i went to london, mainly with the intent of seeing a band i love so much i’d fly for– which i could write a whole post about in and of itself as it was incredible–  but all the other in-between stuff…

  • Autumn,  Travel

    rolling into london

    “picadilly circus? what a shitty circus.” — garth just rolled into paris from london on a nine hour bus journey!  (and remember kids, book your channel tunnel train tickets early!) it really wasn’t that bad since we were on a ferry for three hours of it. we were really lucky to be able to stay with one of our previous host’s sister, who lives in the pimlico district of london, so i felt right at home.  my favorite part of london was the first night we got in which happened to be warm and calm (before it starting gradually pouring down rain): walking along the opposite side of the river…