Glastonbury Festival 2019
This huge music festival has been evolving since its 1970 beginnings.
Tag: Europe
Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2018
Celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Fringe in 2017.
Off to the land of beech and honey
The former Yugoslavia. The evocative phrase attached to an enormously complex and fraught section of recent history. If you want to see beyond the forests and beautiful natural landscapes of Slovenia and to better understand its people, it’s useful to have a grasp on some of the forces that have shaped the country as it […]
Venice Carnevale 2018
Famous for its theatrical masks and costumes, the origins of Venice’s Carnevale can be traced back to the 14th century.
Sintra, Portugal
On a clear day it’s possible to see the mountains of Sintra from Lisbon and make out the brilliantly coloured Pena Palace glowing high on the mountain. While only 24 kilometres from the bustling capital, Sintra feels like a world away. Cool and lush with ferns, mosses and forests, the region has played host as […]
Lisbon, Portugal
I couldn’t believe my eyes when, a few days before I was planning to fly to Lisbon from Australia, I saw on Twitter that a freak hurricane was heading towards the Atlantic coast of Portugal and northern Spain, before heading to Ireland. Hurricane Ophelia was yet another in the series of devastating tropical storms […]
Apologies
I had grand plans of writing and publishing new travel stories while on the road in Portugal and Spain and it just didn’t happen. Sorry. The closer you are to something, the more the detail ebbs and swirls and masks the essence of a place, and I found it harder than expected to distil days’ worth […]
Preparing for Portugal
I despise packing and I loathe almost everything about air travel — the parched air, the smell of jet fuel, aeroplane food and air freshener, the cramped seats, and the hours that stretch into days as the animated plane on the screen flickers across the globe in tiny increments. What I don’t loathe is the […]
Oktoberfest 2017
The beer halls of Munich come alive during this annual autumn festival.
Sardinia, Italy
A mysterious letter arrived last week, redirected from the Embassy of Italy in Canberra. An elaborate typeface on cream parchment, and with no return address. It is unusual to receive a letter at all these days and I read the contents with increasing puzzlement. Dear Virtual Travellers, Your mission, should you choose to accept it: […]