All right. It’s time. We need to discuss coffee. It’s important to note before I go any further that I love this country. The landscape, the light, the relaxed atmosphere that would make even a crazy mother-in-law, awaiting to become a grandmother if only her daughter-in-law would stop working so darn much and just get … More Long Blacks and Dinky Cups: Coffee in Oz
One could automatically deduce that being in a country where everyone speaks English would be relatively simple for a foreigner who also happens to speak English. Most of my conversations with people, which have been in, well, English, have gone something like this: Person: Hello how are gobble dee goolly lah? Me: *Smiles* I’m sorry, … More Me Know English Good, I Thought
If you take a look at my Instagram (without reading the captions), it looks as if I have spent the last 3 months in a mystical fairyland where nothing could ever go wrong. The sun is always shining, the birds always chirping, and I wake up on a pink cloud surrounded by dancing palm trees … More Boredom Abroad: 3 Months Down Undah
This is my first post in a month, the last having been April’s Favorite Things list. My head has been in a million different directions, which I will share in time, but I couldn’t let May go by without sharing SOMETHING. So, from my Airbnb in Trinity Beach, Queensland, my new town of residence, here … More My Favorite Things May 2019
I awoke the morning of May 19th, 2017 groggy and sleep deprived. This didn’t matter though, because I was waking up with the sun in order to experience a dream of mine that was finally about to come to fruition. On this beautiful May morning, four out of five McFarlands headed out at the crack of … More The Scotland Series: Conquering Ben Arthur or Something Like That
I’ve been living in a foreign country now for 35 days. The language barrier, the stark cultural differences, my inability to blend into the crowd… all things I do not really deal with that much. I’m in Australia, our English-speaking neighbors who couldn’t live farther away if they tried. “Doesn’t that mean they’re not neighbors?” … More 1 Month Down (Under)
With our muscles nice and loose after climbing around Stirling, we were warmed up and ready to make a grand McFarland return to where it all began: Loch Lomond, located in southern Scotland, about an hour north of Glasgow. The MacFarlane clan claimed an island in the middle of the lake as their own and … More The Scotland Series: Return to the Loch Day 1
My 2014 excursion through Scotland came and went and left me with an unshakeable desire to return sooner rather than later, and hopefully with my family in toe. I don’t know about others with Scottish ancestry, but my family loves ours. Let’s take for example the Property Brothers, Jonathan and Drew Scott.“But they’re Canadian!” you say. … More The Scotland Series: Great Scot! We’ve Reached Stirling
North of Edinburgh, along the Water of Leith, sits an area by the name of, well, Leith. Although it is part of Edinburgh, Leith has a history all its own as a prominent port town that wasn’t incorporated into the big city until 1920, and it is oft ne’er discovered by the normal tourist. We, … More The Scotland Series: A Quick Hobble Through Leith
It is strange looking back to admit that we never intended on staying in Edinburgh. I honestly do not remember the reason; perhaps we had our sights set on the more rugged, outdoorsy side of Scotland—nothing says “rugged” like St. Andrews, home of the rich white man’s favorite sport— or we didn’t want to follow … More The Scotland Series: Bumbling through Edinburgh
The Wanderluster 