Hiraeth

Recently I had a conversation with my mum about why my parents made me go to Chapel three times a week when I was at school. My parents aren't religious and I wasn't raised with faith. But until the age of 16 when I informed them I would no longer be attending whether they signed the permission slip or not I would not be attending Chapel on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.   My mother believes that this exposure to religion shaped my moral and ethical world view. I disagree.  Several years ago I developed the idea that there are people I call "openly religious". These are people who will usually say something like "I'm [Christian] therefore I believe that we should not help [the poor, the sick, refugees….] because they are unchristian and therefore undeserving". My £30,000 per year school and the teachings I received in Chapel was full of openly religious people. And I hated the hypocrisy. Here I was being forced to sit in a freezing cold ma...

  Starting from where I left off on the last post. Cruising out of New York Harbour is something I really really recommend. It was actually the first thing I booked for my trip and dictated most of my route. (*Squints at an early draft of a route which would have had me flying into Chicago and heading out to the Dakotas in MARCH*)  As we left Brooklyn and watched the Manhattan skyline disappear into the horizon I had this strange sense of finality. I’m planning another post about my feelings of the US and my trip there, but as I watched Manhattan disappear into the waves I really felt like I would be ok if I never went back.  The idea of spending 5 days on a floating hotel, with my own room and bathroom at the end of 9 weeks of travel honestly sounded like heaven. As you may have noticed that I enjoy travelling slowly, and found a Transatlantic crossing to be a really lovely way to do so. So began 5 days of attempting to eat as much as humanly possible. One of...

  Sorry this is super delayed, I’ve been struggling a lot with migraines since Boston but I figured that I would just post it and come back and add pictures later. Anyway, on with the regularly scheduled content:                                                                                                                                   ...

This will probably be a pretty short one because since I left Seattle I've spent a frankly ungodly amount of time on trains and then I got a migraine pretty much the day I arrived in Boston.  There's a special kind of frustration when a chronic illness flares while you're travelling.  To be honest There's a special kind of frustration that comes with chronic illness full stop.  I was so excited to go to Boston. My parents lived in the area for several years before they moved to the West Coast so I grew up hearing stories about it. I wanted to go to Salem, Sudbury, and Concord, and maybe Martha's Vineyard. It's the site of the Boston Tea Party and where much of the agitation for the American Revolution happened. I really wanted to try Chowder and Brown Bread.  Instead I woke up feeling severely hungover every day I was there. I really amused the housekeeping staff because they kept finding me lying on the floor with my legs on my bed so I could get my spine as st...

I am pleased to report that zero melt downs were had in the making of this post. I'm not sure whether it's the minimal driving or the fact that I was on the west coast, my home turf, or the fact that I slowed down a bit. But I am pleased to report that no meltdowns were had in the making of this week's post.  On my way into LA I stopped off at the Getty Center, free to enter but 20$ parking although also accessible by bus. I've mentioned a few times that art is not really my thing so I whipped around the galleries at a truly remarkable pace. Before strolling around the gardens much more sedately.  I stayed in the Venice Beach Hostel located about a 15 minute walk from the beach on a quiet suburban road. The beds are exactly as loud and squeaky as the reviews say and I found it to be a little bit of a boys club. But the atmosphere was extremely welcoming with several of the staff members saying that they'd previously stayed at the hostel and n...