Travel
By Jolene Williams | 25 Sep, 2006
Some guy has been living in Charles de Gaulle airport for eighteen years. After six hours in Luton airport, curled up in a ridiculously uncomfortable seat, I felt sure I was at least halfway there. You see, airports are not made for sleeping. More
By Monica Evans | 11 Sep, 2006
My first day at the University of Valparaiso, all the new exchange students were sat down and shown a video: “Chile, en seis minutos” (Chile in Six Minutes, for those of you with absolutely no powers of deduction. More
By Monica Evans | 14 Aug, 2006
By way of introduction, I’m Monica Evans, your Valparaísian voice, your Chilean correspondent, your Latin American lovechild… I’m a strayed Vic student, and I’m just about to start a semester-long University-exchange in Valparaíso, Chile, and charmed-I’m-sure to have the chance to recount to you some of my experiences and observations of life on the opposite edge of the Pacific Ocean. More
By Jolene Williams | 17 Jul, 2006
It had taken me a good twenty minutes but I had figured it out: “Perdón, de dónde esta la oficina de informacion por favour?” Subtitle: “Excuse me, where is the information office? Please dude, check this out, I’m speaking Spanish”. More
By Nicola Gledhill | 27 May, 2006
Welcome to part two of my Costa Rica wrap up: the Adventure Tour! It was hard saying goodbye to our host families, but a fun-filled two weeks ahead eased any separation anxiety. After organising our adventure tour groups and meeting our guide (Diego) we were let out on the town for one night. Everyone ended up at the same bar by the end of it ($1 drinks) and we trundled off home in the early hours for a short sleep before having to repack and meet the buses at 7am. More
By Tania Sawicki Mead | 24 Apr, 2006
This was not the idyllic getaway I had envisaged. We had been on the road for five hours already (leering round a route so nauseating as to put the Rimutakas to shame), when we were stopped by a kid who kindly informed us the road was being rebuilt and we would have to wait. More
By Tania Sawicki Mead | 3 Apr, 2006
Amongst the many lofty ideas I had conceived for my year overseas, a road trip around Mexico was the one I approached with the most trepidation and excitement. It is hardly a country easily generalised; with a population of nearly 100 million and a cultural history reaching back two millennia before the birth of Jesus, it is more diverse than one can imagine. You can die from a scorpion bite at one end and a hurricane at the other – not that I’m suggesting that death is the only tourist attraction that Mexico offers. There are enough awe-inspiring vistas and hedonistic pursuits to make you want to commit a minor crime and hop on the next train to Tijuana. Overused guidebook adjectives aside, the home of tequila and sombreros is a pretty awesome place. And when you’ve got four sun-filled weeks, a set of wheels and stashes of hideously unhealthy snacks, Mexico is the place to be. More
By Jolene Williams |
“No darling, I’m off to Paris for the weekend, but it’s been an absolute pleasure”. More
By Monica Evans | 7 Mar, 2005
For two smaller-than-average, wide-eyed-and-trusting, farm-fresh, cheeky-as-fuck, highly vulnerable white girls travelling alone and cheap-cheap-cheap through the dodgier areas of Mexico and Guatemala, it was all going suspiciously well. My sister and I had not fallen ill with any glamorous yet incurable tropical diseases; no Columbian drug ring had held us hostage; we’d been impregnated by not one Seedy Sanchez; and we hadn’t even been classified as a threat to US Homeland Security. It was almost embarrassing. My guardian angel, I decided, possessed a highly impressive work ethic, and had clearly never done an arts degree. More
By Aaron Millar | 28 Feb, 2005
When I was a boy and I used to dig in our backyard, half mimicking my dog and half pretending to be an explorer, I used to say I was digging to China. I don’t really know why, except that “China” had a certain ring to it; it seemed to be the farthest and most mystical place I could imagine. And it wasn’t only me. China seemed to be the digging destination of choice in the neighbourhood - the magical far away place where sorcerers cast spells and men talked funny. Even today there’s something about China, though I cannot quite put my finger on it. More
By Geoff Brischke | 21 Feb, 2005
You need three people to take a road trip. One to drive, one to keep the driver awake and one to sleep off his hangover before it’s his turn at the wheel. The third person can also serve as an intermediary in the inevitable arguments over wrong turns and speeding tickets, or, God forbid, as bait when you need to make some gas money quickly in the wrong part of some strange town. More
