Life List, Revisited (or: Happy 2014!)

I've noted this once or twice before: occasionally, travelling gets in the way of writing about travelling.  Just before Christmas, I added up all of the air miles I'd flown in 2013 and the total came to over 91,000 - almost four times the circumference of the Earth.  Lots of planes, lots of airports, a certain amount of travel fatigue.

But it's a new year and I'm not ready to say goodbye to Hints to Lady Travellers.  In an effort to kickstart my blogging (and reawaken the love of travel somewhat muffled by one too many delayed flights) I revisited the Life List I posted two years ago.  I wanted to see which of these I'd achieved, which no longer seem relevant, and consider what - two years on - I might add to the list.  So:

1. Stay overnight in a lighthouse
Still want to do this, still haven't done it.

2. Take drawing lessons
Ditto

3. Paint a room in my house yellow
Not yet, but I'm currently in the throes of house-hunting, figuring that actually having a house of my own would be a good first step in ticking this off the list.

4. Write a novel
One day ...

5. Go to Siena and see the allegories of good and bad government and Padua to see the Giotto frescoes in the Arena chapel
This is something I want to do SO MUCH - and yet I keep putting it off.  Does my subconscious worry that it (or I) will be disappointed?  

6. Go to St Kilda in the Outer Outer Hebrides
I've discovered that there's now a regular boat service from Stornaway, so at least this is now more achievable than it was two years ago.

7. Buy, collect or otherwise acquire one piece of art every year
This one I actually have managed.  Hooray!

8. Read every book in Granny’s bookshelf
Though this one is currently on hold as the bookshelf (and most of my books) are in storage, I have slowly being working my way through all of Granny's collection of Irish poetry and plays.  

9. Drink champagne in the Derry & Tom roof garden
Not yet.

10. Learn (properly) five new cooking skills: 1. Chopping vegetables 2. Jointing meat 3. Filleting fish 3. Tempering chocolate 5. Icing
In theory I still want to tick these off, but I'll be honest, they're fairly far down the list.

11. Look at the view from the verandah of Isak Dinesen’s house in Kenya
Oh, yes please.

12. Try indoor rock-climbing
I've investigated this and just need to find a date to do an introductory course.  So watch this space ...

13. Have a dress made for me
No.

14. Buy a leather bag in Buenos Aires
No.  (But I will.)

15. Learn to identify 12 constellations
I'm getting better.  By the time I left Australia I was really good at finding the Southern Cross and I also know Orion, Cassiopeia and the Plough/Bear/Dipper.  Hey - that means this task is 33.33% completed!

16. Walk some of the pilgrim’s route to Santiago de Compostela
I would still like to do this though I hear it's becoming ever more popular and, as a result, ever more crowded.  We'll see.

17. See a camera obscura
Not yet.

18. Spend a week every year doing a volunteer project
And no, I haven't; need to reconsider this one.

19. Take dance classes
Well, I tried a couple of ballet classes but they didn't really take, so I think I need to consider some other form of dance.

20. Go on a road trip with my sisters
I have been on several trips by road with my sisters, but I'm not sure that any of them count as proper, epic Road Trips.  But we have time.

21. Visit all of Ireland’s inhabited off-shore islands
This is a work in progress.  So far I've visited Cape Clear, Rathlin, Tory and Lambay.  

22. Read a book by every Nobel laureate for literature
This isn't a work in progress, but still an ambition.

23. Learn conversational Greek.  Spanish.  Japanese.  Latin.
Um, I have the ability to converse in Greek with a two year old, but I don't think this counts, so no. 23 remains, as yet, uncompleted.

24. Go back to Japan and go to a hot spring/bath
This one is on a back burner, but I would love to go back to Japan.

25. Visit Santorini (preferably with a lover.)
Not yet.

26. Have fresh flowers in my home every week
I have mostly been doing this.

27. Learn to identify 100 flowers
I have singularly failed even to begin this project.

28. Watch all of Hitchcock’s films
According to Wikipedia, Hitchcock had 60 film projects, of which 56 exist now.  Of these I have watched six, so I have a way to go ...

29. Post a parcel to someone every month
I was very assiduous about doing this for quite a while, but have got out of the habit recently.  I like doing it, though, so I should resume.

30. Curate an exhibition about a pet topic
Haven't done this yet, but would still like to.

31. Ski a black run with perfect confidence (and a little style would be nice too.)
No ...

32. Write a children’s book
No ...

33. Start managing my money like a grown up
Getting there ...

34. Go on an archaeological dig
Not yet, but it may well happen in 2014!

35. See all of Shakespeare’s plays
Not only have I not seen them all, I don't think I've seen any new-to-me Shakespeare plays since writing this list - at least not live on stage.  Of 37 plays, I've seen 14 in the theatre.  

36. Take a trip on a flying boat
I've watched a documentary about a flying boat, so that's a start.  Also reread Beyond the Blue Horizon by Alexander Frater, one of my favourite travel books of all time and source of much valuable information and inspiration about flying boats.  

37. Learn how to do my hair
I have acquired a quantity of hairpins and become a bit more adventurous in my styling, so - half a tick?

38. Learn how to apply liquid eyeliner
Actually, yes!  A tick!

39. Visit a South Pacific island and sing songs from the musical on the beach
I'm torn.  I visited New Zealand and subsequently discovered it was in the South Pacific, but it doesn't REALLY fit with what I had in mind when I wrote this item on my list.  So I think it must remain unticked.

40. Improve my knowledge of Geography by learning to identify countries in South America, Asia and Africa
This is a work in progress but it is (she says with some surprise) actually coming along.

41. Learn Adobe Illustrator (properly)
I've signed up to an online course and completed a whopping one assignment.  

42. Go to a music festival
Unticked.

43. Go to Rome
Yes!

44. Live in Paris for at least a month
No.

45. Live in NYC for at least a month
No.  (But really want to revisit New York and am making plans to go later this year.)

46. Buy a house
I'm trying...

47. Become a runner
Yes!  Although running activity does seem to fall off in the colder months.

48. Walk on the Great Wall
No.

49. Visit a new country every year
Actually, this is one I have succeeded with (so far).  Finland, the UAE and Oman were all new-to-me countries visited in the past two years.

50. Have a travel piece published
No.

51. Do a residency
No.

52. Facilitate someone else’s dream of becoming a (lady) traveller
I don't think I've done this yet - at least only in the smallest way.  But I'm always happy to help!

53. Attend the New Year’s Day Concert in Vienna
I will never not want to do this, but competition is FIERCE.  Still, if I entered the lottery every year, that probably would increase my chances.

54. Spend a night in a mountain hut
I have actually done quite a lot of hiking but for some reason no overnight stays in a hut.  But I would still like to.

55. Donate platelets
No.

56. Have lunch at La Colombe D’Or
No.

57. Stay in a super-deluxe, fancy pants, 5 star plus hotel – and drink champagne in the bath
No.

58. Relearn sewing and sew something for my home
Sort of.  In so far as a kind person helped me to sew some cushions, although I think it would be a stretch to say I had 'relearned' sewing.  

59. Learn how to change a tyre.  Jump start a car.  Other car things.
To my shame I have not yet done this.  Which will doubtlessly come back to bite me when the car breaks down.

60. Drive a convertible by the sea, top down, scarf in my hair
No.

61. Create a family recipe collection
No.

62. Print and frame my favourite HTLT photos
No - although like several other entries on the list, this one is on hold until I have a house of my own.

63. Go to the Venice Biennale
Not yet.

64. Go on an epic, continent-crossing train journey
Yes! Read about my adventure on the Ghan here.

65. Go on a yoga retreat (not as the cook!)
No.

66. Stay in a Landmark Trust property
No.

67. Do more reading/research/writing about my family history
Yes - although lots more to do.

68. Plant paperwhites in time for Christmas
Yes!

69. Read the Odyssey travelling around Greek islands
No.

70. Visit Istanbul (not Constantinople)
Not yet - but (fingers crossed) 2014 will be the year.

71. Attend religious services of other faiths than my own (respectfully)
I still haven't quite figured this one out, though I did visit a mosque for the first time last year.

72. Learn to play poker
Sadly, no.

73. Go glamping
No.

74. Go to Port Eliot and Flat Lake
No, but am making plans for 2014!

75. Dance till dawn in Rio
No.

76. Finish the Observer cryptic crossword by myself
I keep getting within a clue of finishing it.  Soon.

77. Finish the Alexandria Quartet
No.

78. Do some further study
Not yet.

79. Learn five great ways to tie a scarf
I've learnt a few - and found this video, so I think I can call this one a tick.

80. Fly first class
No.

81. Persuade Leon to open in Ireland
Not yet, though they have recently opened an outpost at London Bridge, near one of the offices where I am often to be found.  So that's something.

82. Welcome fellow travellers, whether friends or friends of friends or even strangers to my city and my home
Ongoing.

83. Tithe
Not quite.

84. Cook one thing from a cookbook every week
Epic fail.

85. Resurrect Jericho Tarts
No.

86. Go to a U2 concert
No.

87. Take singing lessons
No.

88. Become better informed about science
Ongoing.

89. Institute a regular weekend brunch party
Sporadic.

90. Attend TED
It's still a dream.

91. Learn how to do a two-finger whistle
No.

92. Master the art of packing a suitcase so I can always travel stylishly
If anything, I seem to be getting WORSE at packing.  Although I have developed some strategies which I'll blog about anon.

93. Make croissants from scratch
No.

94. Set up my own business and write a five year plan
Yes and no.  

95. Do a headstand in yoga
No.

96. Go on an internet date
No.

97. Volunteer to teach English
No.

98. Go to an Olympic event
No.

99. Make something special for each of my godchildren and nephews (+ any more I may acquire!)
No.

100. One day, completely spontaneously, pack my bags, go to the airport and fly somewhere on a whim.
No.

So, of a 100 items on my list, 7 1/2 are done (but that includes three half ticks) and 12 are ongoing.  Three of the things are proving to be great long-term projects: visiting a new country every year, collecting new art every year and visiting all of Ireland's offshore islands.  Several are related to my urge to create a nest for when I'm not travelling - so here's to 2014 being the Year of the House.  Some involve pilgrimages, of sorts (Isak Dinesen's house, the Arena Chapel frescoes) and I have a slightly fatalistic feeling about these: they will happen when they're meant to happen.  But I still think it's time to add a few new things to the list.

21a. Attend a course at the Firehouse bread school on Heir Island
23. Having considered it carefully, I've decided to ditch the plan to learn conversational Greek, Spanish or Japanese in favour of learning Arabic, inspired by Freya Stark.
38. Learn to play the ukelele (I got one for Christmas!)
43. Do more reading and research about lady travellers, starting with Beth Ellis, she of the incomparable An English Girl's First Impressions of Burmah
47a. Run a half marathon
64. Follow the golden road to Samarkand, see the tomb of Tamerlane

Reports to follow!

Happy 2014 from Hints to Lady Travellers xxx

Shake Shack, Covent Garden

I'm a fan of the high/low culture combination.  Well, I say that, but you should know that my tongue is really in my cheek (which, happily, doesn't impede typing).  What I like is combining forms of culture that might not be recognised as classic accompaniments but which, in practice, turn out to be delightful.

For example: ballet and burgers.  The Royal Opera House in London has a new neighbour, imported from the USA.  I had visited Shake Shack over the summer to check out their frozen custard (yummo) and agreed with my sister that it would make a perfect pre-ballet place to meet.  Shake Shack is a New York institution now going global - but as far as I'm concerned, if that means bringing their above-average burgers and the frozen fabulousness of their ice creams closer to home, all to the good.  The Covent Garden branch is conveniently located in the central piazza and has some (limited) inside seating, some undercover (but not really inside) seating and some outside seating with heat lamps.

First course:

Hamburger and fries

Second course:

Frozen custard

Third course:

Don Quixote

All round, grade-A, excellent evening.

LTLS modelling a burger

Freya Stark: Part the Second

I spent an eight-hour flight to the Arabian Peninsula becoming better acquainted with Freya Stark - this time through her biography Passionate Nomad by Jane Fletcher Geniesse.  What comes across most strongly is Freya Stark's determination to break down the walls of her life, constrained as she was by lack of money, family obligations and health problems.  Plus a world war and the inescapable fact of her femaleness.

Freya Stark was 34 before she embarked on her first true adventure: to spend months improving her Arabic (which she had insisted on learning, despite protests) in the Lebanon.  She wanted to live a big life, an important life.  Perhaps this thirst to keep pushing, to score exploration 'wins', had a negative impact on some of her relationships later on - perhaps.  It's a truism to say that fame changes people; of course it does, but then we all change anyway, regardless of fortune.

The point, she observes, and I have observed, is that travel seems to bring out one's essential self, for better or worse.  Accordingly, Miss Stark suggests that 'the pleasantness of being liked for oneself might ... be added to the five reasons for travel give me by Sayyid Abdulla, the watch-maker'.

You would of course like to know what the five are.

Sayyid Abdulla's Five Reasons for Travel:
To leave one's troubles behind one
To earn a living
To acquire learning
To practise good manners
To meet honourable men

Overseen: Oslo City Hall

I have a weakness for the socialist realist style of building adornment: all those stern, chiselled-jawed men and valiant, banner-wielding women.  So I was very appreciative of the decoration on Oslo City Hall - a mostly 1930s building, though some parts weren't completed until after World War II.

There is something of a gender bias in the sculptures, though.

These men are hard at work,

while these women seem altogether more frivolous.

Men build, women adorn?

Here at least is some equal-opportunity frolicking - 

while this stout fellow keeps watch below.

Messing About In Boats

Oslo is a lovely and interesting - if expensive - city.  But I think to truly appreciate it, you need to see it from the water.  After all, this is a city on and surrounded by water; the capital of a nation of sea-farers and explorers (since way back in the way back, when sea-faring and exploring were means to an end of looting and pillaging.)

The beautiful opera house is reflected in the harbour, its marble structure more than a little reminiscent of an iceberg.

Given my love of islands and ferries and museums, you can understand that I'd be charmed by a ferry to an island of museums.

For 50- krone you get wonderful views of Akershus Fortress,

the colourful boats belonging to local sailors,

the container port,

and the distinctive A-frame of the Fram Museum.  Though I didn't visit on this occasion, it is wonderful and the trip is well worth it to find out more about the great Norwegian Polar explorers.

In fact I was bound for the Viking Ship Museum, housed in a building that looks more than little bit like a church.

The viking ships are glorious: three of the best-preserved (if not 'the' best-preserved) Viking ships anywhere in the world.  The Oseberg ship was the burial place for two women.  I like thinking of these two early lady travellers, embarking on their voyage to - they hoped - Valhalla.  Perhaps they hoped to make some interesting detours on the way.

Here are some other adventurers - when I saw them out of the corner of my eye, I wondered what they were waiting for.  It took a while for the penny to drop that this was tribute to Roald Amundsen and his fellow explorers, looking, looking out to sea.

Under the Matterhorn

One fine day in mid-September, the Swiss Family Lady Traveller set off on the Hohbalmen walk from Zermatt.  The walk is about 19km, starting at a height of 1620m and climbing to 2741m at the highest point.  So: steep, but all the while you walk you get the most glorious views of the Matterhorn and the Alps bordering Switzerland and Italy.

The first stretch of the hike, up to the Trift Hotel, didn't leave much breath for photography, but every now and then I stopped to smell the Alpine flowers.

Ro lifting her eyes to the hills.

We arrived at the Trift Hotel around 9, just in time for second breakfast: Apfelkuchen and coffee.  For any would-be wanderers I'd just note that the food is brought in by helicopter and the prices reflect this.  (Though the cake was excellent.)

Soon, though, we left our picnic table behind and pulled up another steep slope.  Here's one last look at the Trift Hotel before we turned a corner and arrived at the Hohbalmen meadow.

And the views ...!

Please note that over the left-most peak in that photo, is what appears to be an alien spaceship hidden in cloud cover.  It stayed there ALL DAY.  Just saying.

We were grateful for the wooden benches placed at strategic intervals along the path, many of which bore humorous plaques.

And here she is: the Matterhorn, kindly pointed out by Lady Traveller's Little Sister.



Many photos were taken of us + Matterhorn.  (Matterhorn + us, that should probably be.)

From this point, the walk is mostly a gradual descent through alps and valleys.  LTLS spotted an edelweiss and I spent quite a long time lying on my belly on the path taking photos of it.

Mid-afternoon, we reached Zmutt, which is a hamlet of sorts - a collection of chalets and an inn about 45 minutes walk from Zermatt.

My family, striding purposefully towards Zmutt.

We decided a cheeky beer wouldn't be a bad idea and, indeed, it was good.  From a cold start, the day became very hot, which is why I'm wearing my scarf around my head.

A sign to point us to the last stretch of the way:

And a mountaineer to greet us back at Zermatt, eight hours after we'd left.

Geneva, Cite de Refuge

HTLT has been racking up the airmiles of late - even more than usual.  Switzerland, Norway, Sweden (briefly - running from one end of Stockholm airport to the other doesn't really count), the Netherlands plus my regular London commute.  The irony isn't lost on me: so much to blog about, so little time to blog.  Still, I'm trying to get through the backlog and I am taking notes as I go so at some point I hope to have caught up on myself.

First up is the beautiful sunny day we spent in Geneva - me, my sisters and my brother (family bonding + melted cheese = win).  One of the main sights of Geneva is the fountain on the lake, so that's where we headed first.

For the rest of the morning we wandered around the city and I photographed flags and signs, as is my wont.