Painted Toes (EPUB First Edition)

By Catherine Van Humbeck

“Painted Toes” is a travel memoir about my experience travelling with my beloved, John, in the fall of 2004. We travelled in many European countries (England, Wales, Netherlands, Spain, France, Italy, Greece) and I traveled on my own to Egypt.

Join me as I travel with John for my first experience of extended travel, cooperating through three months of unplanned and spontaneous travel, mastering the maze of public transit across Europe, and always, always seeking out the perfect Chai latté at Starbucks whenever possible.

I’ll tell all about the frightening airplane landing in Crete, the scary twisty roads in Majorca, climbing the Eiffel Tower in Paris, swimming in the Mediterranean in Nice, getting high in Amsterdam, having breakfast in Provence, riding a camel by the Sphinx in Egypt, watching the tourists at the Leaning Tower in Pisa, being robbed in Granada, drinking sangria in Barcelona, and more!

• Language: English
• Publisher: C-Cubed Books
• Release date: Jul 21, 2015
• ISBN: 9781927902011

Book preview

Painted Toes (EPUB First Edition)

Painted Toes

ch0a - cover - painted toes drawing

A Travel Memoir

(first edition epub)

Catherine Van Humbeck

Copyright

Dedication

This book is dedicated to:

My beloved, John Kenyon Cornes, for his invitation to travel and his delightful companionship on the road.

My mother, for sharing her love of reading and books with me so that even at an early age I was traveling far and wide in my mind.

My friends, Brian and Wendy, who graciously opened their hearts and home to provide a warm and charming base from which to travel.

All my friends and family, who offered encouragement during the wondrous and scary time before departure, and who kept in touch during my adventure.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to my friend Graham Lloyd for his encouragement, editing of the book, and technical suggestions about the photographs.

And thanks to my friend David Brown for his enthusiastic and colourful copy editing of the final proof. I didn’t always take the proffered editing advice, so any errors are mine.

Special thanks to John for his unflagging encouragement throughout the creation of the book, and for willingly proofreading the text.

Preface

In the fall of 2004, I enjoyed a three month long travel adventure. I traveled with my beloved, John, for nine weeks in Europe and then I traveled on my own for almost two weeks in Egypt. Why do I call my journey an adventure? Let me set the stage for you, starting with the definition of adventure.

Adventure (noun):

a daring enterprise,

a bold undertaking,

an exciting or remarkable experience,

that which happens without design.

Before deciding to take some time off work to do some extended travel, I had never taken a vacation or trip that was longer than two weeks, and for twenty-four years, I had not left a job without having a new one arranged. So going away on holiday for several months and taking a leave of absence from work with no confirmed re-employment when I returned seemed to me like a daring enterprise.

Once John and I had agreed to 1) travel together, 2) go to Europe and maybe Egypt, and 3) stay in inexpensive hostels, several other challenges arose for me. Most of my recent holidays had been by myself, so travelling with another person would be a change. Most of my life, my holidays had been to the beach, many times in the Caribbean, so going to European cities would be a change. Staying in hostels (instead of four star hotels), and maybe even sharing a bathroom with strangers, was completely outside the realm of my experience, so that would be yet another change. Agreeing to these three fundamental changes to my usual way of vacationing seemed to me like a bold undertaking.

Friends moving to England offered to let us use their home as a base of operations, and John and I readily accepted. However, being a bit of a loner, I didn’t have much experience of staying with people in their homes, so that would be another change – it seemed to me that it would be an exciting and remarkable experience.

John and I eventually agreed to travel without a plan, with only an idea of the places that we’d like to see. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a planner, and like to know where I’m going and what I’m going to be doing when I’m away – so this would be an enormous change. (All sorts of questions instantly popped into my head. Where would we go? When would we be there? Where would we stay? What would we see? Where would we eat?) It seemed to me that our whole vacation would happen without design. 

Do you see how I’ve neatly covered all the aspects of adventure? In deciding and agreeing to so many things that were major changes for me I set the stage for a simple European holiday to be instead an amazing travel adventure.

The Journeys

During our travels together, John and I visited twenty-two cities in seven countries, and I visited five more cities in Egypt. We flew together from Victoria to London, and used London as a starting point for several journeys further afield. We were also able to see something of London – the city itself – and the magnificent site of Stonehenge while we were there.

Our first journey from London was about five weeks long, and we traveled to Crete, Piraeus and Patras (Greece), Ancona and Pisa (Italy), Nice and Marseille (France), Barcelona, Majorca, Malaga, Granada, and Madrid (Spain), and Paris (France).

The second journey was much shorter, just over a week, and John and I visited Chepstow and Tintern (Wales), and Hayle, Penzance, St. Ives, and Truro (in Cornwall, England).

The third journey was a very brief three day trip to Amsterdam (Netherlands). John returned home to Victoria after this trip and I carried on to Egypt, visiting Cairo, Aswan, Abu Simbel, Edfu, Luxor, ending again in Cairo.

When I recorded the general route for these four journeys on a map, I finally understood why it seemed we spent so much time on the move (and in trains, buses, planes, and cars) – because we logged a lot of miles!

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This story is based on the e-mail updates that I sent throughout my travels, notes from my journal, photographs and artefacts from the journey, and interesting information picked up along the way. I consider it to be a remembrance and a gift of thanks to the universe for the fabulous adventure.

I hope that you enjoy reading about my travel adventure as much as I enjoyed experiencing and writing about it.

Catherine Van Humbeck

Victoria, B.C.  July, 2005

Launching the Adventure

One Friday afternoon, in early June 2000, something finally crystallized for me – I could continue my life as is and likely suffer a stress-related breakdown, or I could do something else that would restore my balance. I decided on the second option, and the something else would be an extended leave from work to travel. For years, I had been dreaming about doing a long travel holiday, but I hadn’t felt that I could actually make it happen – but on that Friday, I didn’t care. I didn’t know how I would accomplish it, but I knew that I would.

On the following Monday, I started discussions at work to arrange a leave of absence. Then, miraculously, and as if in karmic alignment, the very next day, my beloved, John, suggested that we travel together for a few months – he was also interested in taking some time away from the ordinary daily grind. Thus the travel adventure was launched.

After a few conversations with John about how long we might be away, where we might go, and when we might depart, I submitted my official leave of absence request. Once this was done, events started falling into place. A friend agreed to stay at my home, to take care of it while I was away. I was notified that the leaky condo litigation was settled, providing some of the funds for the adventure. My projects at work were scheduled to wrap up at the end of August, leaving me free to go. A storage place was found and rented, providing an alternate home for my possessions.

Departure Day Minus 2 Months (July)

It was July. Time was passing. No further plans were formulated. Leave was not yet approved, but plane tickets had been purchased, travel insurance organized, empty packing boxes had been retrieved from storage, and packing had started. So, although I still didn’t know exactly how my dream would be realized, I was nevertheless, step by step, turning it into reality.

Early in July, John and I attended a party for friends who were going to live and work in England for a few years. They offered us the use of their home – a lovely four bedroom house they were renting in Slough – as a base for our travels in Europe. One more thing fell into place. 

At the end of July I went to Newfoundland to visit my friend Janet and her husband Brian to celebrate their recent marriage, and at the same time catch up with my friend Sharon (she worked in Vancouver so we hardly ever had a chance to visit). Janet had made all the arrangements (a superb job of organizing). She had arranged that I would stay at either her house or a friend’s house, sharing a room most nights with Sharon, while we were in St. John’s. She and Brian had devised a four-day sightseeing tour, and she had arranged and booked all the hotels for the entire group (thirteen including Sharon and me). In fact, she did such an excellent job, that I went blithely off to Europe not understanding how much work it was to plan and organize a route, hotels, and sights to see.

I was going to use the week-long trip as a trial run for my upcoming months-long travel adventure. I’d try using the one backpack approach to luggage, I’d try staying at friends’ homes, I’d test out sharing the bathroom, and I’d try touring in a group. Acck! I didn’t have experience of these things and was a little bit afraid – so I looked forward to a short test run to put my fears to rest (I hoped).

I flew to St. John’s on a Friday, arriving very late at night, and was collected at the airport by Janet and Brian. At their place, they introduced me to their children, parents, relatives and other friends. As usual, I almost immediately forgot most names and mixed up the ones I remembered. Soon after, mercifully, they dropped me off at my home away from home (a great old downtown row house that belonged to a friend of Brian’s who was away on his summer field trip) where I would be staying (with many others) for a few nights before we went off exploring Newfoundland.

Saturday brought very fine weather – sunny and hot – perfect for the outdoor celebration, which was wonderful. I met more people (including those I’d be touring with), ate wonderful food, guzzled my way through much drink, and took a few turns around the dance floor.  It was a wonderful evening of celebration for Janet and Brian.

On Sunday, the group left St. John’s about noon, under cloudy, dreary grey skies with a few sprinkles of rain. Not too bad, but then it got worse – a torrential downpour, thick fog, and bone-chilling temperatures. Fortunately, by the end of the day the sky was clear, the sun was shining and the temperature was warm. Surprisingly, the rest of the week was the same – almost unheard of in Newfoundland, so we were completely blessed by the weather gods.

Our first stop was in Twillingate. We arrived late at night, had dinner, watched the sunset and went to sleep – tired after a long day of driving. The next day we visited the lighthouse and peered out at the ocean searching for icebergs and whales. It was all in vain – neither were to be seen that day.

The next stop was the winery, where we learned that most of the fruit and berries for the wines were gathered from the surrounding areas by local residents, letting the whole town get involved in the wine-making. I tasted at least eight different types of wine – all wonderful – smooth, rich and like honey on the tongue. I remember tasting strawberry, cloudberry and blueberry, then things got a bit fuzzy (I wasn’t driving). They all tasted so yummy that I had difficulty limiting myself to two bottles that I could fit into my luggage (a big problem with the single-backpack approach to luggage).

In the late afternoon, we went to catch the ferry to the Change Islands, driving along a road that ended abruptly at a small dock with a thin wooden barrier (it wouldn’t have prevented anything from plunging over the edge of the dock into the water). We chatted in the sun until the ferry arrived. It was a very small ferry, a very brief ride, and a very short drive across the tiny island to our hotel for the night.

On the way we saw some old and some new stages and stores – shack-like structures on the water’s edge for storing fishing supplies (stores) and preparing the fish for market (stages) – which were very distinctive sights in all the fishing villages we saw.

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After checking in, we had a chance to break from the group for a while, so I went off for a walk to stretch my legs after so much sitting in the car, and to practice my drawing. I found a quaint old church bell tower and sat down on a rock and drew. It was an enchanting bit of quiet time on my own, and I returned refreshed and ready to rejoin in the group activities.

We filled up most of the sun-drenched dining room with our group, and enjoyed a well presented and delicious dinner, along with scintillating conversation. After dinner, many of us went for a boat tour around the Change Islands. It was exceedingly beautiful and picturesque. I contemplated life, love, friends and travelling as the sun set over the islands.

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The following day, back in St John’s, the large group dispersed, but Sharon and I had another day before we had to leave, so Janet and Brian took us to see the sights of the city.

Our first stop was Signal Hill – the reception point of the first transatlantic wireless signal by Marconi in 1901, received from Poldhu, England, 3425 km away (John and I later visited the originating site). We enjoyed a stroll from the top of the hill down to the harbour area, taking in the view of Deadman’s Lake (the Navy used to hang men over the lake so it’s full of the spirits of dead men), the St. John’s harbour and the city in general, all the while soaking up the glowing sunshine. (My only other experience of St. John’s was a few days in April in the early 1990’s when I landed in a white-out blizzard. It was freezing cold the entire time, with howling winds from across the Atlantic. This trip was a completely different experience, much to my delight.)

The four of us continued on to Cape Spear – the most easterly point in North America (John and I later visited the most westerly point in the UK – the closest point in Europe across the Atlantic), where we viewed the oldest surviving lighthouse in Newfoundland. That day we were fortunate to see whales passing, so I whipped out my camera to get some photos – unfortunately the whales were a bit too far out to sea and all I have is a bunch of photos of very small black dots in the midst of a lot of water.

Back in St. John’s, Sharon and I were Screeched In – gulping down a full shot of Newfoundland Screech (80 proof, dark Jamaican rum) in one go. To end the day we enjoyed a fantastic meal at a delightful restaurant in downtown St. John’s.

Early the next morning, I was up before the before the crack of dawn to catch my 5:30am flight home. Both Janet and Brian went with me to the airport and we chatted and visited until