Notes on a year abroad
a bit about what the heck I have been up to
Hello from London!
The last time I wrote to you, I was sitting on a couch in my favorite tea café in Mexico City.
Quite a lot has happened since then. In April, I took over a room in a big, old, East London terrace house quite literally overflowing with character. I love our garden, where we’ve been growing tomatoes, potatoes, onions, and herbs, and the way city foxes scamper along the top of our fence in the evenings. I love our wholesome neighborhood WhatsApp, where people ask to borrow garden chairs for parties, share community projects, take in each other’s parcels, and offer up flowers to brighten each other’s homes. I love the way I feel at home in this house, and the way the garden feels frozen in time, protected from the chaos of life, early in the mornings. I have even grown to love Herman, our ghost, who likes to turn off the electricity in protest when we bring over new guests. We think he likes the attention—this little ritual ensures we keep his memory alive by shouting about him once or twice a fortnight* and introducing him to all of our friends.
Since the move, life has been quite busy. I’ve enrolled in an MFA in creative nonfiction at City University of London, and I’ve started saying quite quite a lot more.
Here’s a taste of what I’ve been up to and what’s on the horizon. I’ll send you my polemic on the exasperation I have experienced over the phrase could do** some other time. Until then, please enjoy this very British SLIPPERY WHEN WET sign spotted in the wild at London’s Barbican Conservatory, and some field notes on spring, summer, and autumn in Europe.
Cheers!
*Fortnight: a period of two weeks. A thing people really do, actually, honestly, say here in the UK in the year of our Lord 2022, with absolute seriousness.
**A literal translation of the British “could do” into American English: “Absolutely not. No.”
Where I’ve been and what I’ve been writing
February: Scotland
I spent a year dreaming about the off-grid cabins at Inverlonan before I finally decided to treat myself. I spent three days wishing on shooting stars on midnight journeys to the outhouse, reading books I wish I’d written, and mangling pizzas on the outdoor oven so badly that the property’s chef could not contain his laughter. It was the best. I recently wrote a piece for HGTV.com about this idyllic place.
March: Mexico
After two years of planning and postponing, I spent two weeks road-tripping around Mexico with a few damn good friends. My favorite bits were San Miguel, a fairy tale of a town, and the brand-new Amatte Wellnest Resort, which has the best showers. Hands-down. Like massive, walk-in adobe rain rooms. Amazing. I also loved the gentle rapids of the Bacalar Lagoon in the Yucatán, a dazzling multi-colored lake with the world’s oldest living fossils. You can read my work about this trip at Pursuits, the blog for Enterprise Rent-a-Car.
April/May: Scotland, again
In April, my friend Corey came for a visit and I took her on a whirlwind tour of London. We visited, among many of my other favorite places, the Sky Garden, the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew, Petersham Nurseries, St. James’s Park, the Columbia Road Flower Market, and Hampstead Heath. I did such a good job on this tour that she has since moved to London and now lives in my house.
Corey and I also spent four days kayaking over 50 miles from Glasgow to Edinburgh. We brought folding Oru Kayaks on the Tube, which was hilarious. No fewer than 900 people asked us what the hell we were doing and proclaimed that we must be extremely strong (they weren’t wrong). The Scottish Canals Trust very kindly let us take our boats up the Falkirk Wheel, essentially a Ferris wheel for boats, and it was epic. I wrote about the trip for SOLO, and Corey wrote about it for Smithsonian. 11/10 recommend this adventure.
August: Sweden
In August, I hiked the 110 km (70 mile) Fjällräven Classic in Sweden, the trek of a lifetime. Over five days, we hiked and camped around glacial lakes and frigid rivers with water so clean it doesn’t need to be filtered. The trail passes by mountain huts with saunas for public use—my kind of trekking. The Swedish Classic happens once per year and costs $250 to participate, which includes shuttles and all your food. I highly endorse Classic tickets as a unique holiday gift. I also endorse the corresponding trail attire, the Abisko Trekking Tights, which have fantastic pockets.
September/October:
Switzerland
The Adventure Travel Trade Association recently hosted the Adventure Travel World Summit in Lugano, Switzerland—the first in-person Summit since before the pandemic. It is fascinating to see how the leaders of tourism boards, tour operators, and travel media around the world come together in a way that ultimately impacts how and where we, as individuals, decide to travel. There’s a lot of exciting movement on the sustainability front, which I’m excited to tell you more about in a future newsletter. Next summit is in Hokkaido, Japan, next autumn. See you there?
Scotland (again again… again)
Last but most certainly not least, I spent Halloween weekend hiking and cycling around the Scottish Highlands with Wilderness Scotland. I’ve never had so much fun in such bad weather. It’s a real testament to how a good crew and a little bit of laughter in the face of torrential rain can go quite a long way.
Business Stuff
Opportunities I’m looking for
Much of my work lately has consisted of content marketing and blog work for outdoor and adventure travel brands, which I really enjoy. I’ll have space to onboard new clients starting from January. Please reach out if you’re looking for writers and you’d like to chat!
What to pitch me / what I’m looking forward to
I’m planning a section hike of the England Coast Path, which will be the longest coastal trail in the world when it’s completed next year. I’d love to hear from operators, hotels, local tourism boards, etc., about public transit-accessible sections of the path that aren’t totally miserable to do in January. I’m hoping to do a few longer stretches May through September.
I’m also looking for adventures involving unique ways to travel from A to B (long-distance ice skating, anyone?) and, generally, urban-accessible outdoor adventure (see Glasgow to Edinburgh Canoe Trail). I’ll be living in England for at least the next two years and I’m aiming to get to know this green and pleasant land as well as I can while I’m here, so please also send local adventures and events my way. If you’re reading this and you work for an outdoor company in the United States that has a branch in the UK or Europe, feel free to pass my details along to your British/European counterparts—I want to be on their media lists!
What’s next:
Who really knows! Certainly not me. On paper, I’m spending the next year and a half writing a book about life on the road for my MFA program. I’ll probably go hiking instead and write the whole thing the night before it’s due.
Until next time,
Kassondra