homeless

HOMELESS - because your home is where your heart is

And so it happened. Me and my dog have moved last night to Bristol. New home (or just new house) new beginning. Scared, full of anxiety and sad. And that mixed up with the feel of freedom and new opportunities. I don't think I am gonna do much today. Even unpacking bags seems too difficult. Deep inside I knew I won't stay here too long. Or maybe I don't wan to? Or that this is not my home? Maybe not yet - maybe it will become my new home. Even Missouri senses that something happened. She walks around the house and cries. She senses that we won't go back to old house, we called home . She's been with me there for some time, it was her first home after taking her from her doggie mummy. For me, our previous house was just another on my journey since I left my mum's house 15 years ago. First it was to go to university. I spent last 15 years living with strangers, friends, other families, different partners.. Growing older and hoping to create my own home one day. Last house I shared, I really hoped it will be like a real home. I was renting it, but I treated it like it was my home. Caring for it. Yet - when I came back from my journey around the Europe - it felt weird, and not mine. There was no one really waiting for me. (Except my friends ;) My travel companion was with me - my Missouri. My man-friend stop being my man-friend some time ago already. My journey was just confirmation of things that ended long time ago. It helped me clear up my mind, and confirm of what I am looking for in my life. Apart from answers of who I am, where I am going to and what I am looking for, I also know for sure one thing - and I am saying it now consciously - that I wan to have home. My own home. My place I could call home. Whatever that means ;) It could be anywhere in the world.

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Solo traveller

Solo woman, but travelling with a dog ;)


We travelled with Missouri for about 11 hours, from south of France Marseille to Nuremberg in Germany. What a trip! and some nice adventures too. I have so much to write:)
So first good thing was that, I couldn't get Missouri a ticket in my first interchange station - Avignon. Reason? I had only 500 euro note and they did not had change. By the time I found a shop that could break it, I had to rush for my next train. At the train, still in good mood from morning good-byes - I smiled nicely to the conductor explaining why I don't have ticket, and he sold me special discounted one, smiling back - eh, it's good to be a woman sometimes, especially if you are flushing red like me ;) I hate it, but sometimes it actually helps ;) 11 hours trip was very tiring so I decided to leave sightseeing for next day.

Next day I made few friends, found nice dog-friendly restaurant called Hans I'm Glück - they serve about 50 types of burgers, half of them vegetarians! (get an interview from one girl employed there, Also as I walk back I heard guy singing about girl walking the streets of London with country voice, so I had to stop and have a chat with him. I said that he sings about me, because I am from London;) As it appears he was from it too! And from Hackney like me (and so he switched his country accent to cockney :) And so I end up buying his CD. He said I can use his music for my movie;)

Nuremberg Old City Center is not too big, and can bee seen in one day with your dog.
I never go to any museums, first able, because they don't let the dogs in (and even if they would, they would be bored to death) and I also am not too big fan of them. So with no regrets I skip them on my travels. Good thing about this is that I save money on entry tickets;) The only annoying thing is, that they not allow dogs in some parks! Why?? I mean, leashed dogs can't make a mess, right? And even if they poo, what is the problem to put some poo dispensers on the entrance? Walking around the Nuremberg I went to see the castle. There was sign that dogs are not allowed, so I decided to go around it to take pictures from different angles from outside. So imagine how surprised I became, when I came across a guy telling me to go! It appeared I got lost and accidentally wandered inside the gardens! - well for me there was not much grass and no flowers... Anyway, I truly said that I am lost. So I have some nice pictures, and new friend from China - who took couple of pictures of me, and become big fan of Missouri. She gets so much attention wherever she goes - unbelievable!

outside the castle

bizzarre Fountain of the Virtues ;)

Lorenzer Kirche

Kunsthaus - mini medieval village, 5 min from train station, full of old traditional shops selling souvenirs and traditional food. And most sellers wear old traditional clothes!

me and Missouri in the Kusthaus

traditional bavarian clothes for sale

typical old buildings

woman-eagle can bee seen everywhere. This one was above police station

Mery Go Round Fountain

Albrecht Durer House

and himself above the entrance

Missouri met medieval dog guarding the entrance of his house ;)

Schonner Brunnen - Beautiful Fountain - detail

famous clock on top of the Frauen Kirche

... :)

But lets get to the point finally ;) The subject of this post is "Solo traveller" . I mention before that I made few friends, but most interesting was at the end of the day. When I came back to the hotel, there was issue with internet connection. Maybe I'm addict, but I really wanted to write this post earlier. I went to the reception hoping that somebody will help me. In meantime I got friendly with a woman working there. She couldn't help with Wi-Fi, but instead we start chatting about travels. She asked for my age, and then said that it means it was not too late for her too; as it happened, we were the same age! She had this unrealised dream about travelling, but which never become real, apart from short trips. She listen to my adventures with interest. I hope she can travel whenever she wants:)
I thought about this today eating solo. I remembered that I was sick of worries when I was leaving for my journey. But now?I am all relaxed and happy with my own company. I remember my friends going solo for similar adventures, and that they too were scared at first. And I also remember my first ever solo trip - I went 3 hours away by train to Krakow for a day. I think I was maybe 20. Old huh? :) But I remember I enjoyed it! I was sitting on the edge of a fountain and watched people passing by. I didn't have to talk to anyone. It felt a bit weird but also interesting this whole thing. I think I forgot about this experience until now. How weird is that as we grow older we fear more things that we shouldn't. I remember people telling me lately that solo travel is not scary. It's opposite. When we are alone we can do what ever we fell doing at the time. There is no one to blame, no one to support us, but at the same we become stronger, and more confident!!!!

yes - th is what I needed. This journey is about self discovery as well as making documentary.

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South France adventure :)

The amazing thing about travelling is that you meet a lot of new people. Making friends in different countries allows you to see their country in a way you would probably never had a chance to see. Or not even knew about certain amazing places. Few years ago I become friends with Tania, and now we are her guests. Yesterday she took us to see few amazing places around Aix en Provence.

Missouri on dog path in Aix en Provance

Meeting painted dog walker in Aix en Provence

We drove to 3 villages hiding their amazing secrets. The first one was called Fontaine du Vaucluse. It was famous from it's river which was coming out of nowhere! Well, almost. Obviously it was coming from underground, but no one ever found out where exactly from. To add to the mystery, few meters above place where the river has it's beginning there was super deep hole in the ground surrounded by cove shape cave. Apparently no one was able to measure depth of that hole. Water was crystal clear, and had dark blue colour, with black circle in the middle where the vertical tunnel was. Water was static, and kind of musty. Whats more, sometimes during the year level of that water rises dramatically few meters high and overflows huge rocks blocking the way between the cove and the river. River itself has almost fluorescent lime-emerald water colour. It looks almost unreal!

Fontaine du Vaucluse

The next place on our trip was Gordes. All streets in this place are cobbled and all houses are build with stones. There is special rules that if anything new is build, it has to be like everything else to match - absolutely brilliant idea! In this way this place will keep its unique atmosphere forever. Also,to live in tho splice must be amazing experience:)

Gordes - town build entirely from stones,  on top of the hill

After spending couple of hours in that place, walking up and down the streets, we headed to next place called Roussillion. It's is famous from it's absolutely stunning ochre colour peaks. This landscape looks little bit like Colorado Grand Canyon:) It was fun to walk around, and get dirty in yellow-orange sand, which make this landscape looks like alien orange planet :)

At the end of the adventure we went for well deserved ice-creams. Obvioulsy I decided to try something new and exciting. I choose to have local flavours which was lavender and something  which tasted like Amaretto, but was made not from almonds, but from local spice. As soon as I will find out what it was, I will update this information ;) Anyway - it was delicious!

ice-creams 

tricolour tired dog after visiting french "grand canyon"

Finished project - mosaic

OK, I know I haven't wrote much for last few day, but there was soooo much going on!
So, firstable - I worked hard, almost non stop to finished mosaic. It took longer than I thought, but mainly because it took few days to find desired colours of tiles, and then chop them to pieces. Then there was few days process of gluing them to the floor. The end effect was worth totally all the sweat ;)

Work was finished and it was time to move on. My next stop was Marseille...

Satisfaction

So, last few days I worked hard to make some progress with my project. I found out about myself, that when I am in the middle of hard wok which I truly enjoy doing, I just can't stop! And that's not all. Most important thing of all, is the absolutely amazing feeling of pure SATISFACTION, when I see my project growing! It's getting shapes with every hour and every day. I think with this speed, I am likely to finish tomorrow ;) Thank you to my lovely hosts who let me do it for them! They gave me space in their new build home and trusted that it will be something they will enjoy forever. Obviously I made project first so it wasn't total surprise ;)

mandala mosaic inspired with local flora

Satisfaction - is when I do what I love doing. And when I work this way, this is not work. Even though it is little bit repetitive (putting tiny tile after tiny tile) it's not the same, because overall picture is constantly changing. Mandala is getting it's shape and colours. If any work on earth was like that, and was bringing such a feeling to every workers, everyone would be happy!

And I am happy :)

It is probably mixture of this beautiful place, in the middle of nature, loads of sunshine, delicious food, and most important - fantastic people. And my dog - who is the reason for my trip, and my partner in adventures:)

Thank you Universe! And thank you to Myself! That I decided to do it for ME :) 

Dogs in shops - France

I want to share with you incredible fact from France. Well, firstable, my presence and experience of France is not finished yet, but nonetheless I need to say it now before I "forget" ;) As we went shopping for tiles, I took my dog - and you know?? No one said anything inside the shop! Apparently here it's normal. You can't take your dog to food store, but anywhere else it's ok. Obviously priority have small "handbag" dogs, but still! This is great! I wish this was the same everywhere in the world :)

shopping with dog

it took us almost all day, but here they are: 4 of 7 colours ready to be used for mosaic

Hot like in the oven

It's crazy that I've been craving so much for the sun, and now, where I am is so crazy hot, that I can't stand being in direct sun! But after living almost 9 years in UK, where sky is clouded 350 days in a year; suddenly being every day in over 30'C in the shade make me feel that all my insides are boiling!
Nevertheless, this morning just after 9am we went for a walk to nearby cascades. It was supposed to be 15-20 min walk, which happened to be 40...  but we finally got to the cascades. Lovely place only local people know about it. Missouri finally was in 7th heaven! She run up and down the stream and dive in toll grass.

This is her smiling face :)

and lovely cascades 

Day is almost done. I am so happy I left London behind. Being close to nature, with my dog, sun,  blue sky, beautiful weather, nice people around me - is that what I need, I like the way french people live. No rush. No anger. No cursing. Delicious food. Ripped sweet fruits, organic vegetables,  fantastic atmosphere ;) ...the only problem is; I have to admit, that I don't speak french :( I't feels so hard to remember words, and their pronunciation.... oh la la.. !

I arrived to live for a week with french family. I came across them during my search on Workaway website. I wanted to live with local people, breathe their normal life, help them out with their project, learn something new, experience unknown. Away from tourist route. I have designed a mosaic for their new house. Tomorrow we are going to get tiles and I can start braking and putting them together in a floral mandala. I hope it will be as beautiful as it is in my vision ;)

sunday roast in the sun

Yeah, it was baking hot!- It's been few days only and I already got a tan :) No wonder if you get walking around in this lovely weather. It was exciting to go around and enjoy beauty of french countryside, od Languedoc Rousillion.

There were hills, and vineyards on every "corner"

local beautiful fauna and flora

also, just by looking at the letter box you can tell, what this owner is into - wine making!

and yes, I did tried to learn some french as you can  see..

Also, As we got walking we came across this! Amazing! 

Such things should be installed on every corner in every city, London, Paris...  But what's great, this wasn't a large city, it was just a bigger village! I am not sure if you can see it on the picture, but from that round hole you can pick up a poo bag, and put it back in top bucket, (sorry not on the picture). At the end we had to look for a place to cool down, as Missouri just lied down on the side of the road and refused to keep walking in this heat. This summer is her first in her life, and so hot as well!!

We found a spot in Saint- Chinianais 

Good morning sunshine !

Good morning south France!!! It's beautiful sunshine, blue sky, and hot, hot, hot! That's what I needed! I hope my Missouri will handle heat as well as I do. But so far she is cooling on the cold tiles in our house.

This is where we stay

So we are in... ? Actually I am not sure yet exactly where?! Well, it all started with visiting website "workaway" where I found our hosts. We will stay here for a week, and I will help them to build their house. I have to admit, that when yesterday I was arriving to Beziers I was feeling sick of being nervous. (I even left my beautiful hat in TGV train out of this.. )That maybe it's some kind of dodgy thing, marocans wanting to kidnap me for sale in faraway lands? :P
Well - nothing bad happened. I was greeted by nice lady, who took as on the way home to another village for a local fete. It was amazing!! Omg! It was in this kind of atrium, a square inside of a building, (one of those you get in south Europe), where was set up small stage, on which was playing local jazz band. There was some food and wine. Local people chatting and having loads of fun! Warm night and stars above us. What else did we need ;)

Greeting for those travelling with dogs! And everyone else who read this blog!!! 

Last minute in Paris

So, we check out of our room in the hotel and are almost ready to head south the France. It's been raining this morning and air is heavy with low pressure. I think I need coffee or something else to keep me going. Missouri feels sleepy too, or maybe she is still tired after yesterday's marathon around tourist attractions.
Hotel Le Canal we stayed in was quite nice, obviously dog friendly and situated near Basin de la Vilette, part of a canal. There was plenty of space (as for Paris) to walk a dog, nice promenade along the canal and moored boats. It's like kind of french little venice. The hotel has been refurbished recently and made in movies theme, nice french atmosphere.

Rotonde de la Vilette

Nearby Casino (french supermarket) supplied me with french baguettes and cheese every morning for budget breakfast. Also, there is not far to go for a metro, the nearest is Riquet, just round the corner.

Taste of Paris

It was very busy day. Missouri bravely walked around the town with me, calmly letting me take picture of her on the background of famous buildings. To make things easy, we travelled by metro, even though, according to french law - dogs bigger than 45cm (not sure whether length or high) are not allowed on public transport! Hence, most Parisiennes I've met today, were walking small size dogs. I managed to get few interviews, pictures and movies. I had problem on only one station, but as I walked to next metro station ( to try my luck), I found another entrance, where I was helped with very friendly staff!!! They not mentioned my dog even once, and for about 10 minutes talked to me how to get to my destination and what tickets are the best for me! Amazing :)

My destination was Cemeteries for dogs, which lies in Paris suburbs, just after Pont de Clichy. The oldest grave I found was from 19th century! There were graves of dogs, cats, birds, and a horse! And even one famous dog - Rin Tin Tin!!!

Missouri's favorite dog - that statue was so real, that she was convinced for few minutes that he was real!! lol

Later we found out that BigBus company is dog friendly! Good stuff! :) With no problem I bought ticket for myself for all day, hop on- hop off. Missouri got in for free. We changed few times and we never had any problems. So I definitely recommend!
It's easy and convenient way of travel from one to the other point of attraction in Paris. I thought we might just walk around all the main attraction, but it's too much for 2 legs and 4 paws...

together at the Louvre

Big Bus