A little look back over the year.
The Daring Deeds of the Old Bird in 2019 (until now).
Links to pertinent subjects highlighted below if you want to click and see!
- January left for Russia on my Trans Siberian adventure starting in snowy St. Petersburg.
- February Arrived Moscow and boarded train going to Irkutsk and Lake Baikal on the way and stopped also in Mongolia for five days. Continued on train to Beijing.
- March (until Colombia all these blogs left to write!) went from Forbidden City to Great Wall of China down to Xian and the glorious Terracotta Army then shed my winter clothes, after staying in a chilly Hanoi, and snorkeled in Nha Trang Vietnam. Arrived in Thailand and travelled up to Ayyutera and Central Thai sites in vicinity. Had the best teak hotel there!
- April back in London in time for Climate Change demos, collating all my notes to start getting a shape for my blog and a lot of Private Views and catching up with friends. Reacquainting myself with yummy Sunday lunches!
- May hot in Soho so only working on blog: researching and editing, creating video and mastering WordPress. More Sunday roasts but all the time. A lot of pub and pies. Accident in gym big lump on head
- June first post on 18th!! A lot of failed attempts to get away. Chopped off a lot of hair and started to sulk that my plan of staying in London for the summer was pants and seriously flawed (thought I’d escape the children, crowds, and high prices. Did all that but at what cost to my sanity?)
- July and Soho Pride to cheer us all up. The seeds of my escape plan to South America forming and being secretly nurtured and fine honed. A lot of street parties. Trying to design and or find a logo for my site. A lot of Hyde park picnics and my first swim in the Serpentine. Goodbye lunches at Peruvian cuisine restaurants
- August getting my act together for my now earlier big trip to South and Central America. Injections and a mad dash for packing very light again! arriving in Colombia after a traumatic trip from London. Wonderful heady first encounters with the culture and surprisingly nippy climate that I hadn’t really expected, Starting to plan next bits after Bogota (where I was cramming in a ridiculous number of museums and art galleries). Tatacoa desert. San Augustin and Tierradentro that I so wanted to visit and were wonderful.
- September left lovely San Agustin for the fabulous Medellin by turboprop. Rocked it there with Escobar and Botero! Ate great food and really managed to soak up that vibe before flying to Lima freezing my tits off then flying to Cusco for a base to the bucket list Machu Picchu. Many high temples and museums later flew to lovely Trujillo via disappointing
- . Really magnificent time there with ceviche and archaeology to die for, more ancient stuff that’s right up my alley hung out there for a couple of extra days coz I loved it. Bus ride back to Lima along the vast strip of coastal desert I didn’t realize was there! Flew to ghastly Cartagena and moaned til it was time to leave.
- October flew via Cancun to Guatemala City to meet up with my pal. Went to all the museums and art galleries I could then while waiting for him. Bus to Coban with a crocodile in a pond en route to Semuc Champey. Flores where I got really bad food poisoning then Tikal and site with howler monkeys that scared me and made me fall over. Nipped over the border to Belize for some excellent snorkelling. Tortuous bus rides to Lake Atitlan and finally the much nicer Antigua, goodbye Guatemala hello Mexico (and broken foot) Merida,
- November, Villahermosa Parque Museo La Venta, (giant Olmec heads) Oaxaca (frozen waterfall and temple of the dead in Mitla) Pyramids .Temples Museums galleries and swimming in a temple cenote Puerto Escondido (for my beach and great food section) Mexico City was oh such a whirl of huge modern buildings so beautiful. Top quality everything, my lovely apartment there and another huge and rich archaeological site (Teotihuacan) just an hour out of town where I had to come down the steep narrow steps on my bum after climbing to the top of the pyramid of the feathered dragon. Return via Madrid (Prado, Thyssen-Bornemisza, Archaeological and Anthropological and Arte Decorativa museums and the Caixa Forum where.ironically they were showing stuff from the British Museum. Finally home like a whipped cur and a confirmation my foot was broken.
- December and having the dreaded Coming Home Malaise so…..
After days of lying on the sofa and mooching about at home due to the broken foot and/or a hangover, agoraphobia, laziness, post travelling blues and horror at the Xmas shoppers, I’m out.
There is no way to express the difficulty of sliding back into my Soho role after months of being on the road. It’s vile and disorienting. For the last two weeks I’ve woken up not really sure where I am half the time, and it’s not funny. When I was travelling it would happen, and be very funny as I was always somewhere new and exciting, it would be super funny, a hoot and all would be well when I realized I was still journeying and I would laugh at myself while preparing for another day full of surprises and wonder. Some gorgeous fabulous places and things! Some tasty new untried food. Some interesting facts at a unbelievably original gorgeous fabulous place. A fucking wonder of the buggery bollocky ancient world.
So the slowly dawning realization that I’m back in Soho each day is to say the least, A buzz kill.
This funk will stay with me until after Xmas. I’m ordering in organic delicacies and robust wines for my bunker, and only will be seen scurrying to the British Museums Private Members Room. I was blue like this when I wrote my FIRST POST. Please look at it to see how young and innocent I was! And I have kept all my promises, I’m even impressed by myself!
Then I brought you for the first time to the BRITISH MUSEUM AND MANGA on my third post still a happy camper.
Then by the fourth post the BIRTHDAY AND XMAS BLUES had set in and I started thinking about The Americas (which I changed and have only just come back from) but settled for the daring and audacious plan of the Trans Siberian Express! This was explained in HOW PLANS CHANGE
COME ON MY OLD BIRDS, FEEL THE WIND IN YOUR HAIR AND GET OUT OF THAT CHAIR!
Anyhoooooo. Until I get my mojo back I’ll come visit my dear old friend the museum most days. I’ll write to you all and fondly remember my mad ambitious trips and my smaller modest ones. I’ll recall my brilliant moments and recoil from my foolish dangerous ones all for you my dear old birds, all for you.
SO OVER AND OUT FROM YOUR SENTIMENTAL OLD BIRD REBECCA X
Afterthought… Exhibitions on currently at B.M.
Old Bird Travels Solo! 