Category: SOLO TRAVEL FOR WOMEN

All you want to know about mature solo travelling.

SOLO TRAVEL FOR WOMEN by oldbirdtravels

ESCAPING LONDON FOR MOUNTAINS AND MUSEUMS IN TURKIYE.

INLAND TURKEY IN SPRING, IN LIKE A LION AND OUT LIKE A LAMB.

Alert: Sorry for the big delay but my plans obviously changed after the ghastly events here with the earthquakes. On finally deciding to come I had a few other hiccups. My Turcel phone decided that it wasn’t working after me topping it up with a data package, well it worked but just for one day. It’s crazy we have spent literally hours on the phone trying to find out why they are insisting that I set up an account over three months ago the idiots! Also, yesterday, when I was writing this, Google decided something more had to be paid on my email so I had that drama too as I kinda need emails for tickets etc. Also, I was told my photo limit was full so I couldn’t store pics. I spent hours trying to resolve it all and had no luck. Other bits threw me off so I sulked a bit, drank beer and got nowhere. I’ll fix it on my return to London but as we know travel always throws a few curved balls to check your mettle!

Loving the fresh mountain air and bubbling streams of the spring water

Springtime in Turkiye is a beautiful thing, especially when you’re escaping a dreary down-in-the-mouth London. It’s full of little lambkins and alpine flowers, olive trees as far as you can see and the soft green fuzz of fresh grass. Water can be heard along the way gurgling in the mountain streams. The villages are stirring after the short but sharp winter and life starts new and fresh. This is the time most tourists don’t see and indeed it is a very different land from the parched land in the summertime.

Breakfast on my first morning

My usual preparations of cleaning and tidying my place in Soho left me clear-headed and ready to travel. I was heading for a village inland from Izmir, having managed to book a little chalet at an extensive lodge in the foot lands.

Continue reading ESCAPING LONDON FOR MOUNTAINS AND MUSEUMS IN TURKIYE.
SOLO TRAVEL FOR WOMEN by oldbirdtravels

THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD.

ARTEMIS AND HER TEMPLE IN EPHESUS AND EARLIER ‘MOTHER GODDESSES’

Women were revered in ancient times it’s a shame that now everything is muddied and sullied, but here we see a snapshot of our distant ancestors’ love and reverence for the ever-evolving mother goddess through millennia.

In a darkened hall, two representations of Artemis overwhelm the visitor

Blue skies and hot sun in January in Selcuk, aka the famous Ephesus, home of one of the world’s seven wonders, and a great day to look into mother goddesses and their impact across the globe. After going to the Efe Museum and having an eye-opening proper look at the history there, and getting it sorted in my brain chronologically I walked over to the sad broken and pillaged site of this previously magnificent temple.

A last pillar resurrected

I had been to the actual Ephesus site previously and had marvelled at it but never really studied the place, only looking later at documentaries about Cleopatra’s sister having a mausoleum and the sinister side of that particular woman pharaoh.

Continue reading THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD.
SOLO TRAVEL FOR WOMEN by oldbirdtravels
Read More

FINDING MY PARADISE IN EPHESUS TURKEY.

OR, HANGING OUT IN SELCUK (EPHESUS)

I’m in the middle of my trip and haven’t had a chance to report in! Been super busy since I got here and knackered for the most part so here’s where I’m at present.

Well my old birds, I’m stuck out here after we cocked up a bit! I have moved from Tire to Selcuk for the rest of my stay at a lovely pension which is a stone’s throw from the magnificent Ephesus. I now have a little breathing space to relax after over-partying on Friday! I was a little too exuberant celebrating on Friday night and rather suffered yesterday. I was a bad old bird.

14th century Hammam by restaurant and pension ISA BEY HAMAM
The bath consists of an elongated rectangular core structure with a central domed room, the hot bang room, which was surrounded by special bathing rooms. To the north are adjoined a lukewarm room without any bathing function, and side rooms with a toilet. To the south lay the warm water reservoir and the furnace room. The bath was entered from the north via a peristyle courtyard. To the east were shops, and in the west was a separate bathing area for women. Constructed in the 24 half of the 14th century A.D., the path was only operational for 60-80 years. Already by the mid-15th century, it served as a cemetery.

Today however I went out and did my favourite stuff, museums and archaeology. This is truly a magical place.

I visited the actual Ephesus ruins two years ago so today had a chance to see some of the artefacts removed and placed in their fine museum in town. As I am still weary I have returned to my Rebetika Pension and am on the top terrace in blazing sunshine writing this with my beer and in a much more relaxed state of mind.

Rebetika Pension and views
Continue reading FINDING MY PARADISE IN EPHESUS TURKEY.
SOLO TRAVEL FOR WOMEN by oldbirdtravels
Read More

NEW YEAR, FRESH HOPES.

OR, BEING THE BEST VERSION OF YOURSELF.

Sunset ride on the Ganges at Varanasi.

Happy fresh start my birdies, I’m hoping I find you all invigorated and full of hope for another year of new battles and victories. For wonderful awe-inspiring new sights and smells, sounds, tastes and sensations? Join me for a quick run down on why I’ve been so quiet and my new plans.

Horizens new. Rididing to the top of the volcano in the Philippines

GHASTLY DECEMBER.

I was sick for everything in December.

Art work in Jakarta gallery

I projectile-vomited my way through every planned festivity, sobbing quietly alone on my sofa. If anything was to prove to me I’m as hard as nails December 2022 was. I lost ten kilos in the month and went from lithe and fit to emaciated and terribly, terribly weak and fragile.

The long and winding path of life

What the hell was the matter I hear you say? I was mystified and cut out flour, eggs, dairy, and so forth. I finally have tracked it down to firstly stress, which triggered me not eating as well as usual due to lack of appetite, then more insidiously, one of my newly prescribed supplements.

Continue reading NEW YEAR, FRESH HOPES.
SOLO TRAVEL FOR WOMEN by oldbirdtravels
Read More

SO YOU THINK THIS IS COLD?…A REMINDER OF MY COLD TRIPS AROUND THE WORLD.

OR, LAKE BAIKAL WITH ITS -40 WIND CHILL IS REALLY NIPPY!

Alert: Just wanted to look back on my Trans Siberian Express adventure birdies. I can say it was a truly magnificent solo trip and very suitable for lone travellers. The beauty of seeing the huge terrain, art and culture keeps one busy and happy with no loneliness creeping in. Links of various places are available when underlined and in bold type.

Just because it’s cold and wintry we are all complaining, normally we would welcome this for the festive season but our heightened awareness of the rip-off bills that will ensue. Escape with me on trips when I thrilled at all bracing weather as I knew it would be toasty wherever I was staying.

Purple cheeks near frostbite!

I had left in February so knew it would be a winter viewing of the harshest time of the year but I loved every brutal minute. I know that Russia is being demonised at the moment but I was talking to a lovely lady the other day who was desperate to get on that magnificent choo-choo before she dies.

View of the frozen Lake Baikal at sunset.

So here I recall a previous reminder of those chilly trips until my next trip actual to Turkey in January. Enjoy the frostiness and the ride!

ARE YOU MAD REBECCA?!!!..COLD, COLD PLACES AND HOW TO PREPARE.

Siberian winter from train.

…NO I’M NOT. A LOT OF YOU WILL ONLY WANT AND FEEL SAFE TO TRAVEL MUCH LATER THIS YEAR AND YOU SHOULD PREPARE FOR YOUR….

River Neva in St. Petersburg… frozen

…….NIPPY TRIPS

Alert: This is from a page on my site with bits added. It’s to get you old girls prepped up for colder trips when the travelling will have become a lot laxer again hopefully. Until then get yourself ready and take note from this post the way to approach any cold trip. There are links all the way through to help a bit

My trusty boots that served me so well and didn’t cost a fortune

Hurry up! It’s soon time for your Nippy Trip……

Continue reading SO YOU THINK THIS IS COLD?…A REMINDER OF MY COLD TRIPS AROUND THE WORLD.
SOLO TRAVEL FOR WOMEN by oldbirdtravels
Read More

SIXTY-FIVE TOMORROW AND JUST STARTING WITH SOLO TRAVEL!

OR, SPRING CHICKEN NOT JUST A TOUGH OLD BIRD!

Loving art from the start.

I come to you just the day before a bit of a milestone birthday, it’s sixty-five. Boom. Well not really. I always say I’m a year older so I’ve been that for the last year. I lie about my age in a different way, sort of back to front, a year older every year.

This is a very apt video I made for my blog at the very beginning.

In love with life, I don’t really care how old I am I just love living it and that involves learning and exploring day by day. Without this, as I’ve said before, I am a shell of a person and no longer able to function. I think that’s how most people are but they aren’t lucky enough to pursue walking on the wild side and this eventually leads to going to seed mentally and physically and ultimately dying from lack of input and loneliness.

My son and I in Athens while I was filming
Continue reading SIXTY-FIVE TOMORROW AND JUST STARTING WITH SOLO TRAVEL!
SOLO TRAVEL FOR WOMEN by oldbirdtravels
Read More

THE WONDERFUL UNDERWATER KINGDOM.

OR SUNSTROKE HITS HARD AFTER OVER-ENJOYING BEING A MERMAID.

Up close and part of a magic kingdom

You had to be an old mad bird to end up with sunstroke from being too in love with a turtle.

Porcupine fish

I’m a dummy. That beautiful girl, my turtle, took me for such a ride that I hadn’t wet my head once in the half hour I was with her and returning to the boat. This was in the searing midday sun in Indonesia central! I would be more penitent later as the full horror of proper sunstroke waved over me. I should have known better I’d had it before, but this time it was horrendous. I was pretty much bed bound for the next couple of days before I left this island paradise.

Too many fish!
Continue reading THE WONDERFUL UNDERWATER KINGDOM.
SOLO TRAVEL FOR WOMEN by oldbirdtravels
Read More

DAY OF THE TURTLE. TELEPATHY.

OR, BEING ONE WITH ANOTHER CREATURE.

“Animal telepathy is mind-to-mind communication. It is feeling across a distance. We are all made of energy and connected by a vast web of energetic pathways. To speak to an animal telepathically, you just tune in to the right energy channel,” says animal communication expert and author Mary J. Getten.

My love, my companion my spiritual awakening.

Falling in Love with ‘my’ Turtle.

Her normal distance from me for twenty minutes.

A fresh morning at my new pad and a day that would change my life. I had slept well and had a lovely early breakfast before being picked up for another look at this amazing underwater environment. While there I went on seven snorkelling trips and upon returning, was constantly waiting for the next one. I never got bored and I never stopped having that lurching feeling in my stomach just before jumping in off the boat each time. The butterflies continue until you adjust to the alien underwater seascape and you adjust all your senses and become truly immersed. It’s an odd feeling, and if you’re like me you will not raise your head again above the waterline unless your goggles malfunction or you want to check where you are in relation to your boat. So basically you are very fishy for the half hour or so that they give you at each spot. Sometimes it’s at shipwrecks, sometimes it’s the main coral reef, sometimes it’s a spot near an island where they don’t have to fret over you too much.

Continue reading DAY OF THE TURTLE. TELEPATHY.