Travel Writing Library

Before our Kiev-bound sleeper train left Moscow, my boyfriend and I shared an impromptu picnic: heavy bread, pale cheese and half-litre bottles of dark ale, procured from a gold-toothed hawker at Kiyevsky Station.

There was a crunch, then the impact jolted me into the back of the seat in front. Paul, with faster reactions, braced himself as the coach slid forward on the greasy tarmac, stopping with its front wheel...

“When you go to jail tomorrow, do not be angry. Anger might work where you are from. In Serbia, you must laugh.” The cigarette salesman in the driver’s seat lets out a rumbling chuckle, giving a thumbs-up as he jumps a gear...

"I'm going downhill!" my sister yelled, as she grabbed her bike, hurled herself over the seat and vanished down a twist in the mountain road.

Everything is black. My suit wasn't weighted properly and I am having trouble with my descent. I can't see my dive buddies or the dive master. I am surrounded by murky waters and a bit of saltwater has gotten in my goggles.

They had seen my money belt, so I had to treat it as lost and with it my bank card and a fistful of Vietnamese Dong. SLR camera, notebook computer, iPhone, Kindle, sunglasses…but it was pointless to make an inventory.

I dropped my battered, dirty, mountain of a rucksack on the floor, said a weary hello to my family and dragged myself upstairs into my quiet, calm, clean bedroom. My head hit the pillow and I was happily unconscious...

I met Lester in Paddy’s, the world’s highest altitude Irish pub. Maybe it was the scanty oxygen, or maybe it was an excess of pisco sours, Peru’s national cocktail – either way, I inexplicably agreed to join him...

Looking back, it seems that my luck remained in Ireland the moment that the plane left the tarmac, because by the time I touched down in Edinburgh an hour later, I was about to have one of the unluckiest days of my life.

Many years ago, I went to Thailand for the first time. I had an amazing two weeks of adventure, shopping and new experiences.