One of our teachers sent us a painting she’d made over the summer — a blue sky, a lopsided sun, a red moon. It got us talking about Joan Miró, and about how learning a language works a lot like learning to read his pictures.

Travel & culture · 26 Aug 2026

Crush It First: The Rules of La Tomatina

At noon today in Buñol, a rocket went up and around 22,000 people started throwing tomatoes at each other. There is one rule everybody forgets — and a whole vocabulary hiding inside the fiesta.

Travel & culture · 26 Aug 2026

Why Going to VIPS Is the Most Spanish Thing Ever

It is a diner. It was invented in Mexico. It serves club sandwiches under strip lighting. And it might be the most authentically Spanish place you can possibly go.

Travel & culture · 24 Aug 2026

Andar por los Picos de Europa y practicar inglés sin salir de España

En agosto, en la cola del Cares, la mitad de las voces no son españolas. Holandeses, británicos, alemanes y polacos que se entienden entre ellos en inglés. Las tres vertientes, las rutas oficiales con distancia y desnivel, y dónde se dan de verdad esas conversaciones.

Travel & culture · 24 Aug 2026

Walking the Picos de Europa: Spain’s Best Place to Practise Your Spanish

Northern Spain’s limestone giants are the only national park in the country that people still live and work in — which makes them an unusually good place to actually open your mouth. The three sides of the range, the official routes with distances and ascent, and where the conversations really happen.

Travel & culture · 21 Aug 2026

Cooking a Full English on a Trangia: Camping Vocabulary for English Learners

A wet field, a small Swedish stove and a pan of sizzling bacon — one of the best English lessons you will ever have. Learn camping vocabulary, cooking verbs and the phrasal verbs that go with them.

Travel & culture · 17 Aug 2026

Learn English on Foot: A Walker’s Guide to the Scottish Highlands

The Scottish Highlands might be the most beautiful English classroom there is. Why walking is a brilliant, low-pressure way to practise — plus the hill vocabulary you’ll need and walks graded by your level, from an easy loch circuit to Ben Nevis.

Travel & culture · 14 Aug 2026

Sopocachi, La Paz: Where to Stay and Where to Drink Coffee

La Paz’s most liveable neighbourhood, decoded — the hotels and guesthouses worth booking, the cafés worth sitting in all afternoon, and what nobody tells you about caffeine at 3,600 metres.

Travel & culture · 13 Aug 2026

inDrive in La Paz: How to Haggle Your Way Around the World’s Steepest City

How to use inDrive in La Paz — the bid-your-own-fare app locals actually use. What to pay after Bolivia floated the boliviano, how to dodge the airport fare hustle, and the Spanish that makes it painless.

Travel & culture · 7 Aug 2026

English for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2026: What to Say, What to Expect and 15 Shows Worth Booking

The Fringe is the strangest, most rewarding English lesson you’ll ever buy — native-speed English for the price of a sandwich. The vocabulary you’ll actually need, the Scottish English you’ll actually hear, and 15+ shows sorted by how hard the English is.