Preparing for a trip abroad can often feel like a gargantuan task. There are visas to organise, tours to book, long packing lists and a whole host of tasks you know you’ll forget. Among all of this, it can be easy to arrive on holiday and realise you actually know very little about the culture you’ve just arranged to visit. Sure, you’ve researched the ‘must-see’ tours, and you know which attractions are going to offer the best photo opportunities, but who are the people who live in this country? How has their history informed their current culture? What events shape their beliefs and why have you been asked to respect an unfamiliar custom which you don’t understand?
It’s to answer these questions that we like to make a point of doing a little research into the history and stories of the country we’re to visit before we arrive. While research has a reputation for tedium, we find that it can be just as worthwhile watching an engaging clip or documentary as it…