It was an unseasonably cold 3am somewhere along the Belorussian-Ukrainian border and I was under arrest in my pyjamas:
‘Your visa is not valid’ barked a magnificently Soviet border guard. Or at least I imagine he did. I spoke next to no Russian and his English was just as insufficient. A fellow traveler in my carriage – with whom I’d established Spanish as a common language as we left Minsk – had disembarked the train with me and was now attempting to fashion a dialogue between us on why I had requested a visa until 5th June when his watch showed VERY clearly it was now 6th June. Not my finest hour. Several phone calls and some cyrllic clucking later, I was allowed back onto the train, passport in hand with my Belorussian visa marked with a large ‘CANCELLED’ stamp.
That was sixteen years ago and I haven’t been deported since.
Hey there, I'm Phil and I’m the mind and pen behind Someone Else’s Country.
I know of no better feeling than waking up in a new city with the excitement of all that will unfold. Those first steps out into the unknown, be it the views, the aroma, the conversations you don’t follow but remain drawn to – it remains as exhilarating today as it was over two decades ago when I started travelling.
I’ve always loved travel – it was my topic of choice for GCSE French Oral, I badgered my Austrian uncle into doing work experience at his inn one summer and I selected my degree more or less purely on the basis that allowed me a year abroad (which I spun out for 15 months). ‘You’ll have a nasty shock when you start work’ I was constantly lectured. Well, bollocks to that. I became expert at which flight routes maximised your time in a weekend destination and how you could squeeze eight countries into an 11-day European backpacking odyssey. I became the office bore of offering thoughts and advice on many a destination.
IAfter 18 years in the corporate world and after a terrible year on several fronts, I took a 5-month sabbatical. This gave me the opportunity venturing to multiple destinations that I’d always wanted to visit – Patagonia, New Zealand, Fiji, Borneo, Palawan – and my perspective shifted. Fast-forwards a year and I am now chancing my arm as a freelance travel writer and blogger. If I’m not plotting something on Skyscanner, I live in Cambridge UK and have a lovely partner called Paul who accompanies and tolerates my wanderings in equal measure. I’m an avid sports watcher (of multiple teams in varying states of incompetence), history geek and unashamedly amateur photographer.
Someone Else’s Country exists for independent adventurers who want to are low on time but high and wanderlust – it’s great to say ‘drop everything and go’ but I’m well aware it’s not that easy with mortgages, bills, blah blah blah. Whether you want to unlock a destination you always thought off limits (hello Turkmenistan!), squeezing every last minute you have in a 24hr stopover or returning to a familiar city and making the second time infinitely better by doing what you want, not what you’re told to do, I’m here to help.
Follow my socials, drop me a line and enjoy every minute exploring someone else’s country!
Cheers,
Phil
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