The pandemic has allowed me to explore places closer to home. It's easy to forget that I live in a city that ranks the second most popular in the world for international visitors and so I've spent this spring and summer walking around and exploring new parts of the city.

From my travels around the world, I've realised that London is a relatively 'green' city and that's largely thanks to the eight Royal Parks of London, as well as some of the non-royal ones (a Royal Park is one originally owned by the monarchy and is now preserved as an open access public park). In this article I review each park in order of size, from smallest to largest - with a ranking of my favourites at the end.

This is part of a series of posts where I look back at some of my favourite pictures from different cities that I have visited. You can read the rest of the series here.

It's another article and another positive review, I'm a big fan of Seoul. It's a nice middle ground between crazy busy old East Asian cities and more laidback modern cities. It's not the cheapest place in the world, but it's a large city and there's always something to do. If you want to check out my full review of Seoul, you can do here, and here are the 5 things I loved about Seoul (if you want a shorter read).

This is part of a series of posts where I look back at some of my favourite pictures from different cities that I have visited. You can read the rest of the series here.

​Kuala Lumpur ranks highly when I think back to all the cities that I've visited. It has all the positives that I love about cities in south-east Asia like good food, culture, it's relatively cheap and the people are friendly. It manages to do all that despite not having the history that cities in places like Thailand and Vietnam have. You can read my full review of Kuala Lumpur here, and the 5 things I loved about Kuala Lumpur here.

It's one of the greenest capital cities I've ever visited, with incredible food, friendly people and a lot to see and do during the day and at night. If you can get past the traffic, you have a city with a lot going for it.

I've tried to whittle down the list to the five things I loved most about Nairobi which isn't an easy thing to do. To read my in-depth review of Nairobi, follow this link, otherwise, read on for the five things I loved about Nairobi.

It's frequently called the capital city of Europe due to the presence of many EU institutions, Brussels is a city that punches above its weight. After all, it's a medium sized city in one of Europe's smaller nations.

I spent a few days in Brussels thanks to a work trip and I have mixed feelings. Rampant homelessness, a lack of greenery and some drab looking buildings are balanced by good food, and a central plaza that ranks among the best I have seen. You can read my details notes from Brussels here, but read on for the 5 things I loved Brussels.

Segregation, provocative marches and murals, relative deprivation and not a lot of brown people. You'd think I would have hated my time in Belfast, but I didn't. It's probably the most interesting city in the UK - and yes that includes London. Not for the landmarks it has, or the things you can do - but to study and understand the effects of two groups of people who live in close proximity but who couldn't be more different in their world views. You can read my in depth review of Belfast here, but below are the 5 things I loved about Belfast.