Travels with Kathryn

It has been a week since I returned home (well, to my Mum’s) and was reunited with all of my stuff. How do I feel? Like I have an absolutely amazing experience that happened just yesterday, and also a long time ago…

Some statistics:

• Length of trip – 5 months. I left on 23rd August 2023 and finished on 22nd January 2024.
• Countries visited – 25 (only counting actual stops, and not those I also travelled through).
• Estimated Distance travelled – Bishkek to London is 4,084 miles overland, but obviously, I have done a little more than that…

I also started trying to do some of the best and worst of, however, you really cannot compare as an experience like staying in a yurt in the high steppes of Krygzystan, to a visiting a Transylvanian castle, meeting Santa Claus in Finland. However, in trying to do this, I did come up with a couple of things I think would be useful to share:

• Best way to walk down hill – believe me when I say this is a game changer, but when going down a too steep hill, particularly on a slippy surface, ski down i.e. zigzag at a 45-degree angle rather than going straight down. This is genuis!
• Walking Tours – I have been on many walking tours, and the guide really does make a difference. The good really stood out, particularly in Venice, Sofia, and Vilnius, whereas the less good (Serbia or Bologna) also do for the wrong reasons. It is luck of the draw as to who you get, and whilst I would still very much recommend them as an introduction to a city, it could go either way.
• Hairdryers in hotels – I feel that many of these have been designed by men/people with no hair in that they are attached to the wall with a short cord, need a button to be held down, waft warmish air and then cut off. A campaign for better hairdryers is needed globally #firstworldproblems.
• Temperatures on public transport – I am almost always way, way, way too hot (I recall a particular bus journey in Montenegro when I was down to rolled up tshirt and joggers) so my advice for everyone is layers, and for me, down to a vest and shorts!
• Plugs – for my whole trip, travelling more than 4,000 miles, I used one 2 pin plug until I got to London. Maybe as a world, once we have avoided World War 3, we could agree on a plug?

In terms of an update on what I have achieved since I returned: I have fully unpacked, given the bag a good clean and sorted its contents into the right boxes in the garage (of my stuff), worn only “new” clothes (ah, the joys of new knickers!), made plans to see friends and relations, and in most exciting news, had my nails and toes done, legs waxed and (finally) had my hair cut to a sensible length and coloured back to its natural blond:

As many of you know, my usual travel souvenir are magnets and this trip was no exception – particularly as I knew I had to carry everything I purchased (although a couple of other things may have slipped in) so when I finally move into somewhere new, and have my own fridge, I have many magnets to add:

In less fun activities of the past week, I have also applied for a number of jobs, and have 3 interviews lined up for this week so hopefully I will soon be back in London, doing what I like to do (when working, as one does have to work), and can start saving up for a house and, maybe, in a few years doing this all again – I am thinking the Americas from top to bottom! Maybe I should start planning now. After all, it did technically take me over 5 years to plan the last one… Oh, and I do also need to do the China section, and I was looking into getting to China by container ship. Then, there is also the whole unexplored middle of the African subcontinent. I am excited just thinking about it!

I would also like to thank you, all my readers, dedicated or otherwise. I have really enjoyed writing these posts and feel that it was a good way of keeping a record of my travels, but I am glad at least some of you have enjoyed them enough to stick with me over the last 5 months, a few blog statistics:

• 743 visitors have viewed (i.e., clicked on something) over 6,000 times.
• 179 comments.
• 124 likes.
• Most popular post – Stage 1.8 Samarkand.
• 23 followers.
• Read in 13 countries.