Tradition Archives - Runaway Brit

Julbocken: the Swedish Tradition that Usually Goes up in Flames

Europe, Featured, History, Humour, Life in Sweden, Swedish History, Swedish Tourism, Tourist Attraction, Tradition gävle, gävlebocken, goat, julbocken, sweden, yule, yulegoat

“Runway ready! How do I look?” tweets Gävlebocken, the official social media account of Sweden’s famous Christmas goat. Indeed, he's not only famous in Sweden: according to the Guinness Book of Records, Gävle's Julbocken is the world’s

Čičmany: Slovakia’s Charming Gingerbread Houses

Bratislava, Europe, Expat, Featured, Tourist Attraction, Tradition cicmany, design, museum, Slovakia

Čičmany in central Slovakia comes straight from the pages of a fairy-tale book. The picturesque village sits in a verdant meadow surrounded by pine forests, but this is not what makes it so delightful. What's

Festivals, Food & Fun: Seven Weeks in Bratislava

Bratislava, Europe, Expat, Expat Life, Featured, Food and Drink, Tourist Attraction, Tradition Bratislava, burciak, cabbage festival, festivals, langos, Slovakia, stupava, white night

Having lived in Bratislava for only seven weeks I am still new to Slovak culture, particularly as I knew very little about either Slovakia or the city before I came here. It is true to say,

The Sound of Silence in Kerala’s Backwaters

Featured, Food and Drink, India, Life in India, Tourist Attraction, Tradition, Travelling backwaters, boat, india, kerala

Having lived in Asia for 6 years of my life, I am pretty immune to noise by now. I can sleep through the loudest thunderstorm, I like hearing early morning church bells or the Call to Prayer,

Kare Ayurveda Retreat: Eat, Stretch, Love

Advice, Asia, Featured, Food and Drink, Health & Fitness, India, Life in India, Nature, Tradition, Working Overseas ayurveda, health, iyengar, KARE, lifestyle, mulshi lake, pune, retreat, yoga

Life in Mumbai can get pretty chaotic: it’s a big city, filled with—literally—millions of people. Like Raj says in ‘Big Bang Theory’: ‘it’s hot, and it's loud, and there are so many people! You have

Stick Fishermen of Sri Lanka: Fishing for Dollars

Asia, Beaches, Featured, Tradition, Travelling culture, fishing, SriLanka, stick fishing, stilt fishing, tourism, travel

There are few things more exciting than seeing an iconic view of a place that you have travelled thousands of miles to visit, whether it’s the Eiffel Tower glittering in the night sky, a decorated

Sustainable Tourism in India: Redstone Eco Centre, Mahabaleshwa

Asia, Featured, Life in India, Nature, Tradition, Travelling ecotourism, farm, india, mahabaleshwar, organic, panchgani, redstone, self-sufficient, sustainable tourism

India is a country that forces travellers to question their lifestyle choices, which is why so many people come here looking for change; and in many cases sustainable tourism can offer a chance for the

Visby: Sweden’s Perfectly Preserved Medieval Town

Europe, Featured, History, Life in Sweden, Swedish History, Swedish Tourism, Tradition, Travelling gotland, scandinavia, st katarina, sweden, visby

Swedes are travellers: roaming foreign lands is in their blood. It is Viking blood, after all. Stone depicting seafaring Vikings. You’ll be hard pushed to travel far without running into a Swede or two. This

New Year’s Eve Celebrations in Cornwall

Europe, Partying, Tradition, Travelling, United Kingdom celebration, cornwall, costume, fancy dress, looe, new year, NYE, party

This year I decided that my NYE celebrations would be very low-key as my Iceland trip and the run-up to Christmas has been pretty expensive, so I decided to hold back for New Year. My

The Essential Elements of a British Christmas

Europe, Food and Drink, Tradition, Travelling, United Kingdom britain, christmas, mince pies, music, the snowman, tv, uk

"The Brits are pretty special in the way that they celebrate Christmas..."“How do you celebrate Christmas in the UK?” is a question that I have been asked a number of times during the six Christmases

The Jim Thompson House, Bangkok

Asia, Food and Drink, History, Nature, Tradition, Travelling bangkok, house, jim thompson, silk, thailand

When I was a student we used to visit a restaurant called Jim Thompson’s. It was an Asian fusion restaurant that was well known in my university town, not only for good food, but also

Warm or Cold Christmas?

Asia, Beaches, Blogging, Childhood Memories, Food and Drink, Partying, Tradition, Travelling christmas, climate, festive, party, snow, travelling, white christmas

Whether Christmas is best celebrated in a warm climate or cold climate is a topic often discussed by travellers. The opinions of most tend to depend heavily upon where that traveller was raised. It is

Lighting a Candle on All Saints’ Day, Sweden

Europe, Life in Sweden, Swedish Tourism, Tradition, Travelling all saints day, alla helgons dag, cemetery, Skogskyrkogården, stockholm, sweden tradition

All Saints' Day is an official holiday in Sweden that usually falls on the first Saturday in November. On this weekend, many businesses close early on Friday, remaining closed on Saturday. This means that people

Why I Want to go Back to Japan

Asia, Beaches, Food and Drink, Japan, Nature, Partying, Teaching, Tradition, Travelling, Working Overseas buddhism, festival, food, hiroshima, izu, japan, kyoto, landscape, okomiyaki, peninsula, shintoism, tokyo, travelling

I lived in Tokyo for a year between August 2002 and August 2003 and I can’t believe that it was ten years ago. I had barely used email before I left for Japan, and I

A Slice of Welsh Life at St Fagans National History Museum

Europe, Tradition, Travelling, United Kingdom museum, national history, st fagans, uk, wales, welsh life

Standing in the shadow of Cardiff’s Millenium stadium, and only a stone’s throw from the uber-trendy Mermaid Quay bay area, nestles St Fagans National History Museum—a gem of a museum chronicling the history of Welsh

Tenerife’s Good Friday Passion Play

Europe, Tradition, Travelling adeje, calle grande, christ, crucifixion, la pasion, spain, tenerife, the passion

Every year on Good Friday thousands gather at noon in Adeje to witness 'La Pasion', a 2-hour performance of the last few hours of the life of Christ. Performed by local amateur actors, the play

Colours of Carnival, Tenerife

Europe, Partying, Tradition, Travelling canaries, canary islands, carnaval, party, santa cruz, spain, tenerife

Everybody knows about the Rio Carnival, right? Even people who have no intention of ever visiting Brazil can tell you that every spring the streets of Rio de Janeiro come alive to the seductive sounds

Travel or Family, Do You Always Have to Choose?

Childhood Memories, Friends and Family, Relationships, Tradition, Travelling, United Kingdom family, guilt, society, travel, travelling

Today is my birthday. It is not a significant birthday, the last one of those was three years ago, and the next one is still way off in the future—although we all know that the

Christmas—The Season of the Heart

Japan, Partying, South America, Tradition, Travelling, United Kingdom celebration, christmas, family, festivities, julbord, tradition, travel

“It is the season of the heart, A special time of caring, The ways of love made clear” sings the Ghost of Christmas Past in ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’. And for me, that sums up

Machu Picchu—the City in the Clouds

Nature, South America, Tradition, Travelling aguas calientes, chaska tours, cusco, inca architecture, machu picchu, natural wonders, ollantaytambo, peru, peru rail

Day Two of our Machu Picchu tour began at the unearthly time of 5am. Without a guide to tell us what time to be there we had decided to take the advice of numerous friends