24/7 Telephone Interpreting Travelling Adventure – Part 1

Meet John and Cait. They have embarked on a travelling adventure, starting in England and ending up (hopefully) in China. Over the course of their journey they will come into contact with people speaking different languages, so to assist them during their travels, Atlas Translations has provided them with a 24/7 telephone interpreting account.  We will be following their progress across Europe and Asia by posting a regular blog of updates.

Lille

We left England by Eurostar, and have arrived in the French city of Lille. Highlights so far have been the stained glass in the Maurice Cathedral, the wide variety of random animals in the free zoo (most of which seemed pretty much free to roam the park!) and the traditional French dinner of ‘lapin et vin rouge’!

Both of us know a bit of French from school (Cait more than John) so have been trying our hardest to converse with the locals. Despite our best efforts, in the end we went to the Atlas telephone interpreting service to confirm the booking of our train ticket to our next destination – Brussels. Next stop, Belgium!

Brussels

While still in France, we booked a hostel in Bruges for three nights over the phone, using the three- way call function of the Atlas telephone interpreting service. This was very helpful and meant we could relax for the rest of the journey in the knowledge that we didn’t have to worry about finding somewhere to stay upon arrival!

We met a Belgian couple in the Lille hostel who warned us to avoid Brussels due to its ‘ugliness’! But since we had already booked accommodation there we carried on anyway and were very glad we did!

After a solid morning of sightseeing the next day (including the EU Parliament buildings and the Brussels Arc de Triomphe) we decided to immerse ourselves in some Belgian beer culture by visiting the Lambic brewery!

Lambic is brewed using the ‘spontaneous yeasting’ method which is essentially not adding any yeast to the brew but letting it wallow in the attic of the brewery, allowing bacteria in the air to aid fermentation. The Lambic (beer) was pretty sour and definitely an acquired taste but we soldiered on through the tastings. We are here for just one more day before heading to Luxembourg City, so we’ll send our next update from there!

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