The British are an eccentric lot, occasionally bordering on downright barmy. From chasing cheese down country hills to snorkelling bogs to catch some thrills, the British are as baffling as they are charming. Here are some of our most confounding traits, according to Reddit and the A&B audience on social media.
Kia
How I overcame my fear of spiders
A ripple of skepticism snakes through my body. I close my eyes and slow my breathing, determined to give John a fair chance. His voice is soft, lulling me into a state of calm. After a few minutes, he begins his chant: “From this point forward, you will be calm, relaxed and at ease in the presence of spiders.” I try to absorb his words, to internalise them, to really believe them.
Call me a diva but I’m done with camping
We all have a certain image of ourselves: a sense of who we are, what we like and dislike, our strengths and our flaws. If I asked you to name three good things and three bad things about yourself, chances are you could do it with ease.
Airbnb reviews: the importance of being honest
It’s natural to feel bad about leaving negative Airbnb reviews but if we’re all polite about everybody, the reviews lose their meaning
My first experience with Airbnb was a strange one. In 2012, I booked four nights in a beautiful two-storey house in San Francisco. It was straight out of the movies, all colourful panelling and pretty white trim, nestled among similarly immaculate houses on a gently undulating street.
The host was a young single male – let’s call him Steve. I carefully read his former guests’ Airbnb reviews, conscious about sharing a home with a man I’d never met. Everyone said Steve was a wonderful host – and he was.
Infographic: 6 months on the road in numbers
We left London in August 2014, making a 36-hour journey to Vanuatu to start a trip of a lifetime. 6 months on the road later, here’s what we’ve done
Visiting Alcatraz prison in San Francisco
Visiting Alcatraz prison in San Francisco should be up there with the Golden Gate Bridge
I often joke that if you label any old building a tourist attraction and put it in a guidebook, people will come. It might be a prosaic power station, a random rock formation, or even a tour of a sewage factory – with enough PR, people will come.
In theory, visiting Alcatraz prison could fit into this category of non-attractions. It’s a prison. It has cell blocks, cells, walls and bars. Each cell is indiscernible from the next and the entire building, at least from the inside, should be largely unremarkable.
9 literary places we wish were real
There are some books I read as a child that were frankly terrifying. The hallucinogenic madness of Alice in Wonderland, the crazy little people of Lilliput and the otherworldly qualities of Oz had me pitying the protagonists that walked those lands.
Other books, however, made me wish I could visit the places painted within. Here are my favourite literary places that I wish were real.
Round the world ticket pros and cons
I am at the Grand Canyon in Arizona, over 3,000 miles from anywhere I expected to be on our round-the-world trip for Atlas and Boots. In fact, Hawaii, California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah are all unplanned stops.
I expected to be in South America by December 2014, but instead spent an extra month in Tahiti – and then boarded a luxury cruise across the Pacific which most certainly wasn’t on the agenda. What I’m trying to say is that, for me, not buying a round-the-world (RTW) ticket has been a blessing.
Caught in the LA headlights
A bony limb elbows me in the back. It’s followed by a perfunctory apology, shouted loud just like everything else in the throbbing bar. The muted colours of black and purple are uncharacteristically harsh and the lights just a little too bright.
I look at Peter. He is wide eyed, just like me. We have the same question: what now? Our friends in LA who are showing us the city have stepped out for a cigarette, leaving us momentarily alone in the trendy bar.
Why everything we thought about cruising was wrong (but also sort of right)
Our Serbian waiter, Damir, introduces himself to our table. His eyes alight on me and a smile itches at the corner of his lips.
“I remember you from boarding. You had on a huge backpack. I was wondering if you were going to fall backwards or forwards.”
Busted.
The #1 thing I hate about travel
In some countries it’s not a problem, Switzerland, French Polynesia and South Korea among them. In others it’s practically impossible to get right. I am of course talking about the minefield of tipping. It is without a doubt the number one thing I hate about travelling.
What is the best language to learn?
We ask what is the best language to learn based on fact-driven criteria to help you choose the right one for you
Over the last two years, I’ve spent some time learning Spanish. Progress has been slow but steady.
I’ve taken a 10-week evening class at UCL’s Centre for Languages, completed levels 1-3 of Rosetta Stone and finished the Duolingo tree, meaning I can sort of carry a conversation, but always peppered with mistakes and pauses.
If I can become more comfortable with making mistakes, I’ll hopefully improve vastly over the next six months as we travel through South America.
5 highs and lows of our trip so far
It’s December 31st, so naturally we thought we’d add to the innumerable end-of-year lists floating around the social sphere.
We’ve been asked several times about our best experiences in the South Pacific; the absolute must-dos in this part of the world. After five months on the road, there are so many but if we had to choose, these would be our top five.
How to save for a year of travel
“What are your New Year’s resolutions?” I ask Peter.
“Erm… I don’t have any,” he replies.
“Slapdash,” I say, referring to the nickname I gave him early on in our relationship: Slapdash Watson.
I, unlike him, am one of those people who make lists (sometimes lists of lists) and do everything possible to cross everything off. I have even formalised failing: I allow myself to leave one thing unfinished each year. Worse still, I’ve been known to lobby list-making app Evernote to make their strikethrough thicker. Yes, I’m that person (it worked, okay, so whatevs).
Spending Christmas in Tahiti
Peter turns to me and smiles, feet dangling in the water. “We’re in Tahiti,” he says.
After 40 days in French Polynesia, this little fact still makes us smile, still makes us pause. In theory, Tahiti’s not for the likes of us. Peter is the son of two teachers. I am one of eight siblings raised in London’s worst area for child poverty, the point being: neither of us come from money – not the kind that lets you take a year off and spend Christmas in Tahiti.
And yet here we are.
What travelling with a man taught me about street harassment
I sat on the stairs of our Airbnb studio and laced up my trainers for my first run since leaving London four months ago. As I tied the bow I absentmindedly thought “I hope I don’t get harassed.”
And then it occurred to me: I hadn’t been harassed for four months and the only reason the thought had crossed my mind was because I automatically associated running with street harassment.
Meet the first man to visit every country in the world without flying
If you passed Graham Hughes on the street, you’d most likely mistake him for just another backpacker, or perhaps a student two weeks past a shave.
Behind the glasses and the unassuming smile, however, is a man that has achieved something extraordinary: Graham is the first person to visit every country in the world without boarding a plane.
He has used boats, cars, buses and trains to visit every corner of the planet, a journey that has taken him four years to complete. Even more extraordinary is the fact that he, originally from Liverpool in the UK, now lives on a private island in Panama, a prize he won through a gameshow. (Yes, we’re seething with jealousy too.)
The greatest myth in travel
The greatest myth in travel is that everyone should do it; that if you don’t, you’re somehow less interesting, less cultured than the masses
Farhan is 32. He is smart, funny and confident. He talks intelligently and entertainingly on a wide range of subjects from South African politics to Formula 1 championships.
He has a job that sends him all around the world, a lovely house in Richmond and a beautiful wife and child. He is, by all measures, a successful product of modern western society.
Bora Bora on a budget: 7 ways to save money
Backpacking in Bora Bora may not be the quintessential experience but for those unable to do it any other way, here’s how we did Bora Bora on a budget
This article featured on Lonely Planet as one of their top posts from December 2014
It’s Friday night and we’re seated in Bora Bora’s yacht club a few metres away from the capital of Vaitape. Next to me sits Tim, a yacht broker who’s in town to examine Noble House, a gorgeous two-storey yacht that’s been put up for sale by its Texan owner.
5 useful travel sites you probably don’t use – and 5 others you probably do
A year before we left for our travels, I considered hosting Couchsurfers in my flat. I saw it as a way of investing in the Couchsurfing community before tapping into some of the good karma on our travels abroad.
Alas, I was instead seduced by Airbnb with its clean design, intuitive user experience, useful reviewing system and, of course, the chance to make some extra money for our travels. Surprisingly, we haven’t used Couchsurfing on the road.
