Skateboarding in Prague, July 2017

Skateboarding in Barcelona, July 2016

“Welcome to the world's happiest nation” read the walls of the baggage reclaim at Copenhagen Airport. A bold claim for a country whose most famous exports are Carlsberg and pickled herring.

We arrived in Valencia just before midday, and skated from the train station into the city centre through the Torres de Quart, a towering stone arch peppered with 400-year-old bullet holes from the Spanish War of Independence. 

Picking a destination for a skateboarding holiday is no easy task. Each person has their own idea of what they want from the trip, and the decision is further complicated by budgets, climates and (increasingly, as most involved have now reached our mid-twenties) work schedules.

Our final day in Barcelona was spent on the beach, where we found a few seconds to relax in between the plethora of locals selling mojitos, sun hats and hashish.

It’s a chilly 12°C outside. If I look over my shoulder, rain drops are racing down my window pane and a bitter wind shakes the trees in my dull, dreary English garden. The heating’s on now, and I’m wearing my warmest jumper as I sit here writing about a time just over a week ago, when I spent seven sun-drenched days skating around one of the most beautiful cities in the world.