#wintertravel

Amsterdam 20 Years Later — It Wasn’t Quite Where I Left It
Amsterdam

Amsterdam 20 Years Later — It Wasn’t Quite Where I Left It

Sep 5, 2026 25 min read

Amsterdam 20 Years Later: Same Tracks, Tired Windows, Stronger Weed — and the Suspicion That the Party Moved to BerlinIn 2004, Amsterdam ended for me with a daytime train to Cologne. Twenty years later, Cologne was where Amsterdam began again. I was returning along the same railway corridor to a city I remembered well enough to miss, but perhaps no

Helsinki Between Night and Snow
Helsinki

Helsinki Between Night and Snow

Aug 11, 2026 16 min read

One winter evening, one quiet morning and a ferry waiting at the end Helsinki was never meant to be the main event. The journey had already taken me north to Lapland and then south to Tampere for an Erasmus programme, while Tallinn was waiting across the Gulf of Finland before the final return home. Helsinki entered the itinerary almost as a matt