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The Isle of Raasay, Scotland: Following Ancestry Bread Crumbs
We are born with an innate desire to know who we are and where we come from. Standing on the soil of your predecessors is a powerful feeling, and taking a trip to discover personal heritage brings new meaning to the travel experience. Setting foot on the Isle of Raasay with two Scottish Canadians is…
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The Great “Why?”
What makes a life great? Is it happiness? Is it really possible that we are just here to pursue our own happiness? Love. Sex. Adventure. Money. Friendship. It all sounds nice, but does it make a life great? Why does it feel like there is something more to it, that we are missing?
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Stories from Rome
By Frederick Wolstenholme Travel is Storytelling Travel is, if anything, about stories. Mostly. It’s about the stories we tell ourselves before and after our adventure. The stories we long to discover, and the ones we try to hide. It is the story of history and of the future. Of ingenious design and fatal error. Of…
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The Five Kilometer Adventure Radius
It is a mistake to think of adventures in terms of far off places and extreme activities, in terms of long plane rides and of thousands of dollars. While those kinds of excursions are inspiring and exciting to think about, I think they can also give us a mental block when it comes to adventure.…
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Art is Everywhere: A Newfound Appreciation for Florence
By Frederick Wolstenholme We arrived in Florence and slowly stepped outside into a plaza of construction and a light drizzle. We made our way, in a zigzag fashion to our place on Via degli Alfani. The sidewalks were large, rectangular and deep enough to host little pools of water from the evening rain. The asphalt-covered…
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Calatrava, Venice, and the Art of Learning the Hard Way
By Frederick Wolstenholme A Calatrava in Calgary As soon as I learned about Calgary’s new bridge, I liked it. It was new and fresh and had fancy glass. It looked like a Chinese finger trap and that, in my opinion, beat anything that existed elsewhere in the city. Calgary needed a new bridge, if not…
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Crash Landings, the Duc de Esseintes, and Bucket Lists
By Frederick Wolstenholme My Dad, the Almost Pilot My parents don’t vacation often. And when they do, they drive. The last time my father went to Europe was 10 years ago. The time before that was on his honeymoon in the early 70s. We could never figure out why he preferred driving to flying. Then…
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Bothy Life: A Beginner’s Guide to Scotland’s Outdoor Culture
Scotland is as accessible as it gets when it comes to exploring the great outdoors. Scotland has free backcountry lodging (known locally as bothies) and generous public access legislation. This makes it easy to get up close and personal with those gorgeous Scottish landscapes that have been dominating social media lately. Yes, bothies are as…
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Glasgow City Centre: A Quick and Easy Walking Tour
When I told people I was flying into Glasgow, the most common response I got was, “Yeah, but are you going to Edinburgh?” Sure, Edinburgh is beautiful, and most of it looks like a magical scene out of Harry Potter. Glasgow city centre, though, is urban and edgy in all the right ways, and is…
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A Scotland Road Trip: Inconveniences Will Happen
I just returned from a Scotland road trip with my wife and my father-in-law. Our aims were to explore their family history, enjoy good food and beverage, and, most importantly, take in one of the most beautiful countries on earth. Mission accomplished on all fronts. One night, over dinner in Uig, we talked about things…
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