Sampling local cuisines from all over the world is one of the great delights of international travel. You’ll often come across delicious foods that you’d never even heard about at home… although sometimes it’s not entirely clear exactly what you’re eating! In this tribute to foods of the world, I’ve…

QF63 from Sydney to Johannesburg is a daytime flight that, if you’re lucky enough, flies far enough south for a glimpse of the icebergs. — Antarctica is the most unique, yet difficult to reach, continent on earth. A place that very few people ever get to see. It’s possible to travel there in the summer, but this generally involves booking an expensive cruise that departs from the bottom of South America.

Many Germans have a love-hate relationship with their national railway operator. In my home country of Australia, long-distance train travel is a bit of a joke and high-speed rail is a fantasy confined mostly to election promises. With this in mind, I’ve always admired the excellent rail infrastructure in places…

I worked at McDonald’s stores on opposite sides of the world. My experiences could not have been more different. — In 2014, during my gap year, I happened to work in two different McDonald’s stores. One was in a regional town in Australia, while the other was in Berlin, the capital of Germany. There are a few obvious differences between the fast food outlets in Australia, compared to Germany. For…

At the time, it was awful. But the lessons learned during an unexpected five-week period of homelessness have helped me to prepare mentally for future crises. — Like most people, I never expected I would ever become homeless. I’m educated, have a stable income and don’t have drug problems. But for five weeks in 2018, through a series of unfortunate circumstances, I ended up in a foreign country with nowhere to live.

Travelling even within my own country during COVID-19 has been fraught with risk. I’ve often felt like a criminal despite following the rules. — In March 2020, I arrived in Portugal’s beautiful Azores Islands for a holiday. It was very early days in the coronavirus pandemic and there were no restrictions on entering the islands. But for the very first time on the morning of my arrival, flights were met by health officials. …

The Chinese food served in Australian restaurants is rarely authentic. I secretly love it anyway. — The first time I visited China, I was disappointed with the food. I loved eating “Chinese” food in my home country of Australia, but the meals served in the real China were totally different. I thought I knew what Chinese food was, but everything seemed unfamiliar in Beijing. What on…

Living in one country and studying in another may seem like a crazy idea, but it made perfect financial sense while I was at university. — After moving out of home at the age of 18, I decided to attend university in Sydney. I liked Australia’s largest city and the University of New South Wales (UNSW) had exactly the courses I was looking for. As a poor student, there was just one problem with living in…

Your daily coffee habit could be doing more harm than good. — For many people, a cup of coffee in the morning is a daily ritual. Around 1.4 billion cups are consumed every day, helping coffee drinkers to wake up and providing welcome energy boosts throughout the day. What could possibly be wrong with that, you may ask? Well, if coffee is…