Gordon Barlow

That brought back a happy reminiscence about my travels in 1964! My travel companion at the time had gotten herself locked out of the whole Arab world by telling the Syrian embassy in London that she intended to visit Israel as well as Syria. I wrote about it in my online journal nine years ago. It will give you a smile, I think. To find the report you will have to go to the journal's Archives. There's an index on the right-hand side of each page, and this report is at the bottom of the August 2012 batch. It's called "Permission to travel - T11". The T identifies most of the travel incidents I wrote about for my grandchildren - in the best tradition of all old codgers, surely! Oh, and the piece starts off with an unrelated incident in the USSR; don't be put off by that. All my travel "reports" were undisciplined, I'm sorry. It probably irritates the grandkids, too. Sigh...

Gordon Barlow

Fascinating stuff, Grenada. Your posts are always good value. I'm very glad you've joined the thread - although I have to ask: are you really old enough to qualify?

uk_grenada

63?

Gordon Barlow

O.K. Fair enough. You've had a hard life! We'll waive the joining fee...

scrubbedexpat142

Spring chicken!

Gordon Barlow

Any idea where behind the Iron Curtain, and what years? And where, too, in the Middle and Far East? That's quite a chunk of territory. I think in the spirit of this thread you should dredge your memory a bit more vigorously! I have fond memories of the lifestyle in Russia during my ten-day visit in 1965, but as a tourist I only scratched the surface of it. We (my travel companion and I) drove in my Beetle from Finland to Moscow, and thence through Minsk to Poland and East Germany; and before that drove north from Turkey to CZ, behind that same Iron Curtain. As tourists we posed no danger to the security of the USSR or its satrapies, but as a spy your father would have had minimal or no protection. (The travel companion was an Australian girl I picked up at a Youth Hostel in Greece and later married; but that's another story.)

Gordon Barlow

I had to Google-Maps for Ancona and Patras. I've never stopped at either place - and I don't think I've ever been to Ancona. I see it's a big ferry-port these days. We (wife and one-year-old son) spent a month in Vasto, which is down the coast from Ancona, in a flat owned by my wife's brother-in-law. Quite close to the beach, although the map says Vasto isn't actually on the beach. When we left Italy, we took the ferry from Bari to Corfu. This was in 1976, in a Kombi van. We lived in the van for three months in a camping ground in Corfu, and a lovely time was had by all. I got a few games of cricket in Corfu Town, just off the town square - playing for The British Casuals against all-Greek teams. The British occupied Corfu for fifty years or so after the Napoleonic Wars; that's where the cricket came from.)

scrubbedexpat142

Travels between 1960 & 1970. As I recall they started with frequent short trips to Istanbul, followed by trips to Berlin, Warsaw, Moscow & Leningrad, between, I guess '63 & 66. Subsequently to Tel Aviv, Damascus, Cairo, Jeddah & Riyadh. I think all or most of these fairly short assignments (weeks, or maybe a month or two). Finally, longer assignments in Hong Kong & Singapore.

Don't forget I only spent a few weeks each year with my Father so wasn't always aware of his activities!

scrubbedexpat142

Just a few hours in Ancona before catching a train (with wooden seats) to Milan. From there night train through the Alps, to Strasbourg and then across France to Calais. We had a young man from Nigeria with us who was hauled off the train by French border authorities (with a teacher for Company!) and held for 24 hours, until they were satisfied that his parents were in Nigeria and not en route for La Belle France!

scrubbedexpat142

Flower moon rising over the ruins at Corinth last night

Gordon Barlow

Grenada. We know everything about you except how you got to live where you live. So would you please tell us a) what took you to Grenada, and b) why you stayed. Thanks. (I do realise that I haven't written my own answers to those two questions, but I'll get to them one day. Don't rush me!)

uk_grenada

As a friend here says occasionally, he is a good man but has an enduring liking for saltfish. This is an intimate and not negative term for part of a womans body..

In my case i love island girls, they are the friendliest sexiest and most uninhibited women i have ever come across. I wouldnt put details here, but lets just say i enjoy a varied life in their company. I was brought here by one decades ago, and we enjoy an open relationship.

Gordon Barlow

Ah, mine was much less exciting, and more mundane! I came to Cayman through an employment agency in London. When things went south for my hopes of a lazy retirement in the caves of Crete, and after a year's cogitation in England (Bath), I registered for a job in the tax-haven field and landed one here. Our usual stint was three years, but at this time we had a young son, and Cayman was just too wonderful a life for a boy of his age (six, at moving-on time). So I gave up my job and became a house-father for the next seven years, before finding another job locally. That brought me some grief and I had to battle the entire political establishment to be allowed to stay here. When my wife died I had to choose between staying in the place I had made my home, and moving to where my son and his children were - Norway. And that's it. Here I am, still.

uk_grenada

And i think your decision is valid!

Should you ever wish to visit here, do say so - post covid here might be fun for a visit?

uk_grenada

NB I have visited Norway a number of times in my IT career. Mainly for the mericans who inhabit your north - listening to your neighbours to the east.Cant really recommend a norwegian winter, but i have a Norwegian girlfriend too! Brit is a lovely woman - bisexual, i am one of a few guys she likes and actually visits me here.