I’ve not written about travel for a really long time. My last post on here was published at the end of January 2020. I was in the middle of writing up my Scandinavia trip. There were rumblings of a new flu-like disease in China. I had a bit of a flare of my colitis, and then the pandemic hit Europe. Writing fell away from me in all the chaos. I did not have the motivation to finish writing up my posts on that Scandinavian trip. It didn’t feel right to write about travel whilst I was in lockdown. Or even after. In Spain, we were not allowed to leave our homes for the first 40 days of lockdown e ..read more

Copenhagen is a very accessible city for a traveller with IBD. There are many public toilets in the centre, and near the main tourist sites. All of these are clean and well-stocked with toilet paper. Many of them are free. Further from the centre is a little less well serviced, and your best bet is often the ever-reliable cafe. I spent a couple of days wandering around Copenhagen and I really loved the city. At least part of that love was how easy and reliable it was to find a toilet. Free self-cleaning public toilets I love the design of the above toilet. This is one of the free self-cleanin ..read more

It was as the Moroccan man with the impressive eyebrows started dragging a plastic chair across the deck, so that he could be more comfortable as he interrogated me about my personal life, that I started to have misgivings about the 21 hour ferry crossing from Italy to Spain. I was taking the ferry as a way to get back to Barcelona from a blogging conference I had just attended in beautiful Trento. I bet he’s going to ask me if I’m married within 5 minutes of sitting down, I thought to myself. “So, are you married?” he asked me. In my head I awarded myself a trophy-of-prediction. “Yes”, I said ..read more

Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark, a Nordic country in Northern Europe. Before going there these are the things I knew about Denmark: Hamlet Bacon Pastries To be be honest, my knowledge hasn’t increased all that much. I think I mainly just cemented those three things into my brain along with some more facts and images of pretty buildings. The thing that surprised me (it really shouldn’t as I look at maps all the time) was how completely surrounded by water Denmark is. It’s basically a series of islands. The train I got there from Germany actually drove onto a ferry at one point to get us th ..read more

I currently have about ten blog posts in my drafts folder. At least ten. And then even more “ideas” scribbled around on pieces of paper, tucked into notebooks. I have lots of ideas, and lots of trips to share. But, I haven’t published anything for months now. Somehow, the time has sped past me. It’s not that I’ve been too busy, not really. It’s more that I’ve been hit by a deep lethargy that makes doing anything a momentous effort. I am so tired. All the time. And it’s hard to get my thoughts into any kind of order. Right now I’m at the beginning of a trip. I brought my iPad with me so that I ..read more

In June I went to my first blogging conference since starting The Chronic Traveller. I spotted that a British travel conference I’d been to once in the UK (years upon years ago) was having their yearly conference in Italy this year, so I eagerly signed up. This year has been a good time of recovery for me so I finally felt ready to start venturing out into public spheres again. Don’t let the title of this blog post make you think that the conference was a complete disaster. I did have a great time. But, the conference was bitterly disappointing in one very important area: it was not accessible ..read more

In the centre of Milan, within easy walking distance of the Duomo and the main train station there is a hidden wonder. There is a church decorated with human bones. When I heard of it, I knew I had to go and see it. I didn’t know what an ossuary was before visiting San Bernardino alle Ossa in Milan. All I knew, from reading this post on Stumble Safari, was that there was a church in Milan supposedly decorated with the skulls of medieval plague victims. It’s been refered to as a skull cathedral and a bone church. In reality it is a small chapel, within a church. As I have an interest in both hu ..read more

I love Italy. But, I do not love the toilets there. I’m going to rank it as one of the worst countries for toilets in Europe. And honestly, I’m not giving it a great ranking world-wise either. The public toilets are scarce, and expensive. It’s rare to find a toilet (including in restaurants!) that has a toilet seat, or toilet paper. They’re often broken, and dirty. They’re also puzzlingly difficult to get into at times. Italy – raise your toilet game. That said, sometimes you can be surprised. I was recently in Trentino (Northern Italy) for a travel blogging conference, and whilst the town of ..read more

Trento is a beautiful town in the North of Italy. It’s the capital of the province Trentino, known for it’s vineyards, the Dolomites (mountains) and lakes. I hadn’t heard of it until a couple of months ago. The travel blogging conference Traverse was taking place there and in a fit of impulsiveness I had bought a ticket. In a further fit of confused disorganisation I also accidentally booked too long in my hotel. So I was headed to Italy for two weeks. Best accident ever. I loved Trento. It’s a very lovely town. And there is lots to do there. Due to it’s history Trento is packed with extremely ..read more

I’m currently sitting on my hotel bed in Trento, Italy. I have my laptop balanced on a pillow on my lap, and I’ve used the other pillow, and my duvet to make a complicated support for my legs. I’m here in Trento to attend the Traverse travel blogging conference. The conference hasn’t started yet but a lot of the attendees have arrived a few days early because the organisers, along with the tourist board, have arranged lots of pre-conference trips and activities to let us explore what the town has to offer. There are also parties in different venues each night. There’s a party happening right n ..read more