Hurricane-strength
winds and torrential downpours: I’m excited too, Europe! It’s the 29th
of October 2013, a dull spring day in Melbourne, and tonight I set out on a
three-month adventure across four continents.
Here’s the plan:
First, my
glorious return to London. With the brother in tow, I will finally celebrate
Bonfire Night, revisit old stomping ground (and brownies) in Borough Market, and make up for lost time with my much-missed London Family. There will be dinner making. There will be weather-inappropriate
picnics. There will be House of Lords visiting. I’ve already seen the Queen
(did I mention? did I?) so I'll have plenty of time for a wild assortment of walking tours. (I'll bring you back a hand-kiss from Bloomsbury, Zoe!)
Three weeks later,
I’ll somehow detach myself from London and plough on to Paris for the weekend. There,
somewhere in the Marais, Maddie and I will find and stick to Polly like une sangsue (a French leech). And I
will eat my weight in baguette + chevre. Et le vin...
Then Continent Hop: time for Beijing, where
Maddy and I plan to visit the Great Wall [singing I’ll Make A Man Out of You]. Time to resuscitate my high school Mandarin. Four days later, we’ll start a
three-week jaunt across Japan. This is where my inner manga world and the outer
‘real’ world will collide, and my mind will dissolve with happiness and wonder. There’ll also be temples and stuff.
Next up (18 Dec), Continent Hop: I’ll be
back in Melbourne for Christmas, during which time I plan to create a fully
furnished, fully turreted gingerbread castle with the sister while joy-weeping
over the latest Hobbit film and
bored-weeping over the Boxing Day cricket.
But wait: there’s
more. Russian Christmas equals Continent
Hop, this time bringing a tour of Peru accompanied by my two fellow intrepid
explorers [read: piranha distracters],
Niki and Kathy. It is at least likely that we will survive our travels to Lake Titicaca, an epic
four-day hike along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, a brief stay in the Amazon and, according to my lovely
GP, extreme diarrhoea.
If I make it back
to Melbourne on the 1st of February 2014, I’ll count this trip as a
success. If I make it back without malaria, I’ll be dancing in the streets.
Meanwhile,
Melbourne, please take care of my small-brained, leg-dislocating dog, and eat
at least five peaches a day in my honour. I’ll try to update this travel blog
whenever possible, or at least whenever I can stand to type stuff up on my
iPhone…
Time to dust off my duvet coat.
Time to dust off my duvet coat.
