Globe Trotting - A list
New York 1989 ♥♥♥♥♥+
I’ve already scribed dozens of times about NYC in various articles and journals so the love affair is public knowledge. The reason could possibly date back to my Mum giving me a full colour Children’s encyclopaedia before I hit my teens which had a USA – England dictionary and I leant what diapers and sidewalks were. I don’t know when or how my fascination of America was fine-tuned just to this highly inhabited, small island of craziness. Possibly via my interest in the disco era of Studio 54 or Cagney & Lacy but no doubt it was heightened by the 100’s of films based there that infiltrated my mind. In my teens I became a big fan of Rosa Guy novels, with her young characters based in Harlem.
By the time I first became independently wealthy i.e. when I had my first junior pay cheque, I had no interest in going to any anonymous beach in Spain for £199, as it would have been then. I was saving myself for New York, New York.
Vancouver 1998 ♥♥♥1/2
The next biggie introduced to me by Bryan Adams via an interview was my first solo holiday. It’s ‘where you can stand on top of a snow topped mountain but the sun is still shining’. I did just that and there was a hot tub up there as an additional crazy windfall.
Still the best holiday ever for the breathtaking scenery.
I went for a day during my first trip to New York – I have no idea where, probably Jersey City – and wondered if the Boss may have walked down the same street I did? I returned to live in Hoboken for a few months 19 years later, birth place of Sinatra and apparently baseball, not to mention the best view of NYC, some 20 years later.
It’s on the border of USA & Canada and a pure Honeymoon destination so I spent 1 day out of my honeymoon there. I can't imagine doing that next time.....
Italy 1999 ♥♥♥♥+
My second solo jaunt covering an amazing 7 cities in 8 glorious October days. The influence here was my coming from ‘Little Italy’ or Bedford as we call it, which has the biggest percentage Italian population in the UK (14,000) hence I have always supported the Italian football team in the big games. The best holiday I have ever been on for the people, the scenery and best of all, the food.
Barcelona 2001 ♥♥♥
It all ended here.
Not the very pretty and gothic city itself but the Nou Camp, the second best football stadium in the world. Sitting in the 6th row watching Barca up close in technicolour glory, every inch of my soul awash and wallowing with barely controllable emotion. No-one could be this fortunate.
After Barcelona, my circle was complete and I had to really think about what else I wanted to see.
B list to follow