Marion C. Ollivier

I had the chance to visit a small part of the Southern Highlands of Scotland thanks to my friend Mourad and his car. We left for this little road trip on January 26th, 2020 and decided to brave the cold to get to Fort William.  I have always been very attracted by the Highlands, its legends, its magnificent landscapes. Whether in the books I've read or the movies and series I've seen, I've always felt that this place was completely magical. And I wasn't disappointed. It's clearly one of the prettiest places I've seen since I arrived in Scotland last August (although overall Scotland is the most beautiful place I've seen in my life so far haha).  We could see beautiful waterfalls, a very wild nature and almost seeming to be totally abandoned by humans. But it's when, at a corner, you see a lonely little house, that you remember that people are lucky enough to live in this sublime and isolated place. After a short stop at a coffee shop, we hit...

London I spent 3 days in London (February 21-23) with a French friend. I chose to go there by bus because it was the cheapest solution. About £30 for a round trip. It is certainly not the most comfortable solution though. The journey takes between 8 and 10 hours depending on the path it takes and buses are really not made for long journeys. As far as accommodation is concerned, I booked in a youth hostel located near a subway station which was very convenient. We were at the "Wombats Hostel" which was very modern, very comfortable and very cheap.  We had not really planned any particular program, we just knew that we wanted to visit the most emblematic places (The London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Camden Town, Piccadilly Circus, The Tate Modern Museum ...).  However, we were very surprised to see that strikes were blocking the subway on February 22nd and 23rd, and London being so huge, it was a real problem.  Concerning the subway, it is possible to take the ...

Göteberg On Wednesday, February 5th, I decided to go away for the weekend somewhere in Europe.  Not knowing where to go, I used the Skyscanner website and chose Edinburgh as the airport of departure to "Everywhere". I found two destinations that I was interested in: Budapest in Hungary and Gothenburg in Sweden.  The budget needed to go to Sweden was much higher than to go to Hungary (10€ for a night in a youth hostel in Hungary versus 25€ for a night in Sweden) but, visiting Sweden was still one of my dreams and I decided to go there. It was a very important trip for me because it was the first time I went alone to a foreign country for tourism. To facilitate contacts, I booked my accommodation in a hostel with single rooms but also dormitories for 12 people (women and men separated). This was not my first experience in a hostel and I had observed in the past that this type of accommodation greatly facilitated the exchange.  So I stayed at the "Backpackers G...

The Isle of Arran We went to the Isle of Arran with 3 French friends in October. And it is still by far my favourite place in Scotland at the moment. The road we took from Glasgow: - Take the train from Glasgow Central to Ardrossan Harbour. - Take the ferry from Ardrossan Ferry Terminal to Brodick Isle of Arran Ferry. That costs about £25.  We had planned our picnic and knew what to do once we got there thanks to the advice of a friend who had visited the previous weekend. We were very lucky as the sun was shining and the autumn colours were beautiful. The totally wild landscape and the untouched nature really captivated me. The Isle of Arran is the largest island in the Firth of Clyde, Scotland, and, with an area of 432 km², the seventh largest island in Scotland. Arran is part of the unitary authority of North Ayrshire and has a population of about 5,000 (so much so that you don't step on each other). I don't know if it was because of the...