Travel

A Better Type of Buzz

Frank Sonderborg receives a phone call from an old work colleague who is currently in jail for robbing a string of post offices alongside a group of French thieves. Drink, drugs, and Euro-hijinks galore. Some buzz…

Somewhat More Than Zero

Leah Mueller, the voice of everyday America, returns to Talking Soup with a tale of love, music, and work from 1980s Chicago.

Tunnel Under Greenwich

Deptford native, George Aitch, takes us under the Thames through the largely unknown Greenwich Foot Tunnel. The soul of London lies in its hidden places.

Losing It: Four Cautionary Tales of Travel

In a series of ill goings-on across a life spent travelling the length and breadth of the world, Frank Sonderborg recounts a few cautionary travellers tales.

Time Your Blackouts Better

After a blackout leads to a serious car accident. Gary Hartley opens up on depression, Middle England, and perception in this introspective piece.

Land of Eternal Thirst

Bisbee, Arizona. Leah Mueller talks of family, loss and going back to what you have always known.

Stupidly, I Knowingly Broke Quarantine in Spain and was Instantly Apprehended by Police

Robert Locke, a temporarily unemployed travel company representative, woefully disregards government quarantine regulations and takes to the streets in his adopted home of Malaga, only to be arrested almost immediately.

In Search of 53 German Student Girls      

The dance that night was in a converted cinema. We sat in the front row seats and watched the natives giving it, like it was 1919. Country and western was big in the hinterlands back in the day. Sugary sweet songs of the poor emigrant Paddy in his bed-sit in London, pining for his golden haired girlfriend and his silver haired mother while he drank himself into a stupor.

Greece: There and Back on the Magic Bus. Part 1

Lesson learned. When dealing with the Island Greeks, they’re lovely people, but they’ll take you to the cleaners given half a chance. This deflated our egos for a few nanoseconds. We saw a family out back refilling plastic water bottles from a well. If the silly tourists want bottled water, we’ll sell them bottled water. This was the Greek idea of keeping the tourists happy.

Just Standing There in the Dark

The basic truth of long-distance public transport rest stops is that although you get the stop aspect, no-one rests. This is due to a potent mix of acute social awkwardness, muzak and bad colour schemes. An empty bladder, stretched legs and popped-up blood sugar at a premium price is the best combo you can hope for.

Zadusnice: The Serbian All Souls’ Day

There are four Zadusnice in a year, one for every season: summer, autumn, winter and spring, and they always fall on Saturday. Saturday is the day of week devoted to the dead in Serbian culture. And Serbs are funny people. They are outgoing and talkative, and they love to socialize with one another, laugh and make jokes anywhere, even in the cemetery.

Bidet: A Most European Experience

I had shat literally all I could possibly shit, but somewhere, deep down, I knew I would need to shit again imminently. Such are the joys of food poisoning, or in this case some dodgy Albanian tap water. In fairness, the foreign office advice had been fairly clear cut.

Inherent Sexism in the Spanish Language

It might sound strange for a non-native speaker, especially for an English one, that in addition to the common classifications we all use to distinguish substantives such as singular/plural or concrete/abstract, the Spanish language has one particularly problematic noun class that involves genre.