Around the world in 80 Mays

So, feeling more pride about being Irish than ever, it was time to embark on another trip; but this one wouldn’t take me as far away as usual. My aunt in London was going to Australia for almost two months and she needed someone to take care of her big, ideally located house. Since I love her so much, I decided to make the sacrifice and volunteer myself!
If it wasn’t for this house-sitting, I never would have took the time off my linguistic voyage through the world to spend two months speaking only in English, in England of all places, but I’m so glad that I did now! London really is an amazing city and I’m so glad I got to know it. I was living very close to Hampton Court, the palace used by Henry VIII, England’s most famous king; the one with 6 wives (divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, died) and the one who changed England from a Catholic country to a Protestant one… only so he could ignore the pope and legally divorce the first wife!
As you can see I’ve been getting into British history a lot and being surrounded by it all these physical remnants of it has been fascinating. Here’s a little video I did about why Oxford Street became such a popular shopping district.




I was thinking of using this website to link to other videos along my travels, for some kind of travel documentary of cities that I am currently living in. This one was just an experiment; I’ll be trying to make a few while in Brazil (and will translate to the languages indicated above) and any opinions/advice will be appreciated!
So a half an hour train ride and I was alighting at the London Eye and looking at Big Ben. Whenever work was slow I’d go into the city and explore. I’ve literally spent weeks of entire days in the city, going to museums, standing beside the queen’s guards, checking out the views,
going out and generally having fun! I did most of the site-seeing with Marlène, a friend from Québec. Since my brother lives in London I got to see him regularly too. See my London photos to get a better idea. Some of my favourites are the celebrity ones from Madame Tussauds wax museum, and my visit to Greenwhich to see exactly where the 0° meridian is that separates the Eastern and Western hemispheres, and from which all world time is compared to.
I ended my time in England getting the ultimate souvenir. Some people might get a novelty red telephone box or a teddy queen’s guard, and me…? I got a British passport!! Simply because I could (my dad is English) and because a second passport comes in hugely handy in travels for extending visas, if you lose one, or if one is preferred over another etc. Despite English family and the dual citizenship, I’ll always consider myself 100% Irish though. I’ll always use the Irish passport as the main one. My last weekend in London I took part in the free hugs campaign and made sure my sign included Irish (among other languages), and I even wore a leprechaun hat and an Irish flag as a cape, just in case anyone would doubt my Irishness!

So it’s been fun indeed!! But it’s time to continue the adventure elsewhere. In a few short hours I’ll be flying to Recife, in the north-east corner of Brazil. The current plan is to rent a room in a house for a month there, enjoy the Carnaval in one of its most famous cities for the party atmosphere (Olinda, 10 minute bus-ride away), and then travel around the north-east of Brazil until April! This time there will be hugely different to my previous one. Recife is almost 2,000 kilometers from Rio, in a poorer part of the country, where I will hugely stand out with my white untanned skin. It will be an entirely new experience. But that’s what makes it fun! All news, photos and videos will be linked to on this website over time, so stay tuned!!
Feel free to give me some advice about this website; I know it’s very cluttered right now, I’ll be working on that. Hopefully it’s not too hard to read! Thanks in advance for any constructive criticism!