Globetrotters Writer Spotlight — Michelle Lawson

Nomadic at heart

Hi Globetrotters! My name is Michelle and I live in Devon, England. I can see a silver triangle of the sea from my desk, but that doesn’t stop me dreaming about stepping onto another shore…

I love to travel because I’m nomadic at heart. My father drove us to Poland when I was a child, and since then I’ve always longed to be on the road. It’s that sense of being somewhere else, combined with a feeling of being at home when you’ve ended up somewhere you love. I came of age reading Paul Theroux and Dervla Murphy and still enjoy reading travel literature.

My number one travel activity is joining free walking tours, or paying for a food walking tour. I’m not a foodie, to be honest, but I find people are more open to talking on the food tours.

I come from near Birmingham originally, with a Polish father. That allows me to have dual nationality, English and Polish. But I recently discovered I have Ukrainian blood (and family). I only located the family in 2019, in Western Ukraine, and what with Covid and then the Russian invasion, I haven’t been able to visit them since. That makes me very sad.

I work as a lecturer for a distance-learning university. That means I can work whenever I’m travelling. I always say, I’m not on holiday, just working in a different place…

Fun fact: I turned my PhD thesis into a travel memoir!

The best place I’ve been is probably in the villages of Western Ukraine, as people were very welcoming and unused to British people. That gave a wonderful sense of discovery.

In my spare time, I like to walk and cycle, and I love hiking in the mountains.

My top travel tip is to learn some of the language if you can, and don’t be afraid to use it. Or at least get used to the sounds of the language. I’ve invested in the Pimsleur app, which gives access to learning many, many languages. I’m currently learning Croatian, and Polish is next on the list.

If I could live somewhere else, I’d live in Croatia. I love swimming in the clean seas, and I’m keen to see if I could live out a winter there. My favourite place is a small town called Gradac that doesn’t even feature in the Lonely Planet.

My favorite way to travel is by train. I began Interrailing when I was 22 and recently started again, with a Senior pass! I still have all my travel diaries from Interrailing in the 1980s.

Three lessons I’ve learned from traveling are:

a) Pack what’s essential, not fanciful. Take the power bank, not the snorkel mask. b) Download things to watch on a tablet, for nights when you just want to curl up. c) Download a bus app, such as Flixbus, for when the trains let you down. Flixbus saved me when I got thrown off a Polish rail replacement bus for not having a seat reservation.

Thank you for accepting me into Globetrotters, and I’m looking forward to reading and writing along with you!