Wanderthirst: camping on the Isle of Arran opened my eyes to the magic of our...
“Red squirrel!!” I shouted, pointing out of the window. We’d just pulled out of Brodick ferry port and already spotted our first bit of wildlife on the Isle of Arran – a poor pancake of a red squirrel...
View ArticleWanderthirst: solo-travelling around Lisbon unlocked a new sense of internal...
The urge to go on holiday had been on my mind since I last left England in 2018. In 2021, I finally garnered the strength to go on my first solo trip, travelling to Portugal’s capital city, Lisbon, for...
View ArticleWanderthirst: taking my first-generation dad to Rome was my way of thanking...
“I found roundtrip tickets to Rome for $340. Let’s go! I’ll buy them.” “Rome, Jessica?” My dad said the first time I mentioned the trip, as if I were talking about a trip to the moon. My dad always...
View ArticleWanderthirst: my first time in Nairobi felt like stepping through a looking...
Every time I stepped outside, the sight of it all pulled the air out of my lungs. Nairobi is enormous. The mind numbs and the eye waters. I simply could not fathom how any place could be so big. You...
View ArticleWanderthirst: ritualistic swims under the blood moon and healing heart-ache...
Nearly a year had gone by since a painful pandemic break-up, the aftermath of which had latched on like a permanent tattoo. During this time, I calendarised activities aimed at moving on – trying my...
View ArticleWanderthirst: how my accidental seven hour hike became a lasting memory
Our trip to Crete was a last minute plan, which has been a running theme within my circle of friends through university and beyond. Now in our late twenties, the holiday was less about impulsive...
View ArticleWanderthirst: how a coach trip to Italy’s Umbria reignited the flames of verse
Nervous doesn’t quite cut it. It was my first trip abroad since the wild two years of lockdown and coronavirus. I almost felt like a caged bird who had broken free, and was still being cautious with...
View ArticleWanderthirst: How six months in Albania made me slow down
Before visiting Tirana, Albania’s capital, I had lived in London and Paris; where I felt the spirit of these cities was restless, noisy and rushed. The hustle and bustle that I’d once enjoyed in the...
View ArticleWanderthirst: returning to Malaysia and my family, I remembered what...
I find that being met, or meeting someone, at the airport is always a special moment. The arrivals atriums are the best places to people-watch; to see reunions brimming with laughter and tears,...
View ArticleWanderthirst: bringing my whole self back home to Barbados
I’m a big fan of swimming outdoors. I love lidos, lakes, rivers, the ponds at Hampstead Heath and Beckenham, the tidal pool at Margate’s Walpole Bay. But the sea in Barbados is my original swim. I...
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