Tag: history

• Looking Back IV: Forth trip of 2026 – Malta

  

  I’ve worked for the Maltese government since 2024, so you might assume I’d visited before. I hadn’t – at least not until this year. The irony is that I booked this trip entirely on my own dime after deciding I’d probably never get to Malta through my contractual work. About a month later, I was…

  martinjamesphd

  12th Jul 2026

  AWAY FROM THE DESK

  adventure, europe, history, life, love, malta, mental-health, personal-development, personal-growth, travel

• Looking back II: Second trip of 2026 – Kosovo

  

  Tiny Kosovo has played a greater role in history than many in the West can imagine. In 1389 King Lazar of Serbia halted the march of Islam into central Europe on Kosovo’s battlefields. Were it not for this, Western history may have been unimaginably different. More recently, the meltdown of the former Yugoslavia started with…

  martinjamesphd

  14th Jun 2026

  AWAY FROM THE DESK

  history, life, travel

• Unforgettable Winter Trip: Belfast and Carrickfergus Highlights

  

  I took a short, wintry escape to Northern Ireland, spending a couple of nights split between Belfast and Carrickfergus, and it turned out to be one of those trips that feels compact in time but rich in atmosphere and history. I based myself first in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter, a fitting place to begin any introduction…

  martinjamesphd

  26th Dec 2025

  AWAY FROM THE DESK

  europe, history, ireland, northern-ireland, travel