Travel
While I was at university, I began trying out my travel wings. I lived in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and it was the perfect starting point for a variety of adventures because of the access I had to budget airlines to get around Europe. But one of the things I always dreamed of doing was of taking a ship from Ireland to Scotland and so I...
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Travel
The Citadelle de Besançon, or Citadel of Besançon, is a 17th century fortress designed by Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban. Perched at the top of Mount Saint-Etienne, the Citadel covers about 27 acres and it hosts an incredible view of the city below. The Citadel hosts several museums – the museum of the Resistance, a natural history museum (and zoo), a museum that showcases the traditions of Franche-Comté,...
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Travel
As a musician, I have a lot of little cables, adaptors, devices, make-up, and accessories that I carry around with me whenever I travel. I also have clothes and shoes that need to be neatly stored so that when I arrive, they’re in performance condition. In the past, I just tucked them into whichever pockets I could in my backpack, hoping they’d be protected, only...
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Travel
In the east of France lies an architectural complex known as Saline Royale or the Royal Saltworks. This project, conceived by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, was not only built to accommodate large-scale salt production but as an aesthetic masterpiece. Named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1982, the Royal Saltworks have since been restored and opened to the public. There are currently three main exhibits available: the Stories of...
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Travel
A short while back, I wrote about my trip to the Guinness Storehouse, and today I’d like to share a bit about a similar, yet entirely different, tour in Dublin, Ireland. The Bow Street Distillery in Dublin is one of two Jameson locations that are open to the public and it was one of the most informative tours that I’ve done. You start with a...
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Language Resources / Travel
One of the things many learners aim to do at some point along their language journey is immerse themselves abroad. But for those without much travel experience, it may be tough to figure out how to do that. Do you enroll in an immersion program? Simply travel to the country and hope for the best? How do you avoid expat bubbles or the prevalence of...
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Travel
I’m no stranger to food trucks – at music conferences and festivals, there is often plenty to choose from and I’ve had the chance to try out some excellent items. To be honest though, until recently, I’d never gone out of my way to try out a food truck. For me, food trucks were mostly a thing of convenience. If there was one nearby when...
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Travel
I probably told this story once before, but before I ever fell in love with either music or language, I wanted to be a marine biologist. From the time I first ever saw The Little Mermaid until my first year of university, I was certain that was what I was going to do. But then I received a music scholarship and everything changed. Including my...
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Travel
When M and I were in in Venice, Italy, we quickly learned a very important lesson. If we wanted to know where the good local restaurants were, we needed to ask the receptionist at our hotel. Her first recommendation to us was excellent and on our last night in the city, we knew she’d have an equally excellent suggestion for us. This lead us to...
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Travel
One of my favourite ways to get a bit of unexpected language practice in is by taking tours in one of my target languages. Or at the very least, picking up the guide in one or two languages. Since I love travel, and usually love the focus of the tours that I’m taking, there’s quite a lot of relevant vocabulary for me to collect from the...
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