travelling with a disability
Zoe is 39, divorced with three teenagers living at home and thanks to a generous insurance payout for chronic work-related back injuries she no longer has to face the grind of work - or the humiliation of welfare and poverty - and is now enjoying the luxury of being a financially independent woman, but a disabled one nevertheless. Despite constant pain, Zoe decided to do some travelling and although it was difficult, she derived additional strength from the experience.
"The nicest thing about having teenaged children," says Zoe, "is being able to get out and about without the kids in tow. Being the first born I more or less raised my kid brother - and then I raised my own three kids - and now that my payout is through it's my time! And I mean my time. I'm not interested in dating or relationships. I'm going to devote the rest of my life to being selfishly single and getting as much out of life as my disability allows me to!"
"Previously, I had never got further than the local beach with my kids because of the pain," explains Zoe, "but I had always yearned to travel and experience life in the 'raw'. You know, do something a bit dangerous in keeping with being a Scorpio woman."
What Zoe did, in fact, was reinvent herself. Not physically, but mentally.
"All those years I'd spent working and raising the kids had dulled my brain as well as injuring my back," confides Zoe. "I wanted to reinvent myself as a global woman, a true cosmopolitan, with the amazing ability to blend in everywhere I went - and when I took a train trip through Italy and stopped at Pisa my new reinvented persona was confirmed."
"An Italian asked me for directions - in Italian, of course," laughs Zoe, "and that's why Pisa will always have a special place in my heart."
"I chose to travel by train, alone, rather than go on a packaged bus tour for various reasons," explains Zoe. "For one thing, train travel wouldn't be as hard on my back as a bus, and when you travel alone you get in touch with your feelings - and that's what I wanted to do."
"Also, Italy is so easy to visit by train and the service is fantastic," says Zoe. "You just have to make sure that you don't get on a rapid train if you want to get off at every city!"
"I bought a rail pass - for the convenience rather than the savings," says Zoe. "Had I been traveling on a budget, though, I think I'd pay as I go as it's too easy to lose the rail pass."
A typical tourist Zoe is not - which is probably why she blends in so easily wherever she goes. She carries neither camera slung around her neck nor garish airline bags proclaiming where she came from. She dresses in the international gear of blue jeans and white shirt, and wears joggers and carries a light shoulder bag. With her back injury, she cannot carry too much so traveling light is very important for her.
Zoe claims that having brown hair and brown eyes is a great asset in being accepted as a global woman - even in Scandinavian countries. A blue-eyed blonde, on the other hand, would stand out like a sore thumb south of Switzerland and would never be mistaken for an Italian in Italy, and if she were stopped in the street it would not be directions that were asked of her but her telephone number!
Actually, when the businessman stopped Zoe as she was walking from the tower back to the railway station, she hesitated to pay attention to him as she was a pretty lady and this was, after all, Italy - a land renowned as much for its Casanovas and gigolos as its cassava and pizza.
When she heard him ask, in Italian, for directions to a street that not even a native Pisan would probably be able to assist him with, Zoe was really amused but pleased that she had been mistaken for a local.
"In my halting Italian, I answered that I didn't have a clue where the street he wanted was," says Zoe, "but I did know where the railway station was if that could assist him - and he looked slightly surprised, thanked me, smiled and walked off."
"Usually, I don't buy souvenirs," explains Zoe. "It's not just because I travel light and can't carry too much because of my back. It's because I prefer to carry memories in my heart. For some reason, though, I couldn't resist buying a little Tower of Pisa while I was there."
"As I waited at the railway station for the train that would take me to the next city, I unwrapped the little statue of the Tower of Pisa that would be my only tangible memory of my visit to the city, and remembered that man," smiled Zoe. "Not because he was a man, and an attractive one at that, but because he saw me as I wanted people to see me - as a normal person."
"Yes, the tower was amazing - slightly bent, like me - but still standing and strong," says Zoe. "but it wasn't the tower that stuck so much in my memory of Pisa as being asked directions in that city by a native Italian."
When Zoe returned home, happy and renewed, full of wonderful memories to share, her children jokingly suggested that her next trip should be to Afghanistan.
"Bet you wouldn't get asked directions there, they laughed at me," says Zoe, "but it's a challenge I'm seriously considering. Why not? How many single moms do you know who have the money and opportunity to do such things? Even with my disability I like to think that I'm making the most of my life for all single moms, not just for myself."
"The nicest thing about having teenaged children," says Zoe, "is being able to get out and about without the kids in tow. Being the first born I more or less raised my kid brother - and then I raised my own three kids - and now that my payout is through it's my time! And I mean my time. I'm not interested in dating or relationships. I'm going to devote the rest of my life to being selfishly single and getting as much out of life as my disability allows me to!"
"Previously, I had never got further than the local beach with my kids because of the pain," explains Zoe, "but I had always yearned to travel and experience life in the 'raw'. You know, do something a bit dangerous in keeping with being a Scorpio woman."
What Zoe did, in fact, was reinvent herself. Not physically, but mentally.
"All those years I'd spent working and raising the kids had dulled my brain as well as injuring my back," confides Zoe. "I wanted to reinvent myself as a global woman, a true cosmopolitan, with the amazing ability to blend in everywhere I went - and when I took a train trip through Italy and stopped at Pisa my new reinvented persona was confirmed."
"An Italian asked me for directions - in Italian, of course," laughs Zoe, "and that's why Pisa will always have a special place in my heart."
"I chose to travel by train, alone, rather than go on a packaged bus tour for various reasons," explains Zoe. "For one thing, train travel wouldn't be as hard on my back as a bus, and when you travel alone you get in touch with your feelings - and that's what I wanted to do."
"Also, Italy is so easy to visit by train and the service is fantastic," says Zoe. "You just have to make sure that you don't get on a rapid train if you want to get off at every city!"
"I bought a rail pass - for the convenience rather than the savings," says Zoe. "Had I been traveling on a budget, though, I think I'd pay as I go as it's too easy to lose the rail pass."
A typical tourist Zoe is not - which is probably why she blends in so easily wherever she goes. She carries neither camera slung around her neck nor garish airline bags proclaiming where she came from. She dresses in the international gear of blue jeans and white shirt, and wears joggers and carries a light shoulder bag. With her back injury, she cannot carry too much so traveling light is very important for her.
Zoe claims that having brown hair and brown eyes is a great asset in being accepted as a global woman - even in Scandinavian countries. A blue-eyed blonde, on the other hand, would stand out like a sore thumb south of Switzerland and would never be mistaken for an Italian in Italy, and if she were stopped in the street it would not be directions that were asked of her but her telephone number!
Actually, when the businessman stopped Zoe as she was walking from the tower back to the railway station, she hesitated to pay attention to him as she was a pretty lady and this was, after all, Italy - a land renowned as much for its Casanovas and gigolos as its cassava and pizza.
When she heard him ask, in Italian, for directions to a street that not even a native Pisan would probably be able to assist him with, Zoe was really amused but pleased that she had been mistaken for a local.
"In my halting Italian, I answered that I didn't have a clue where the street he wanted was," says Zoe, "but I did know where the railway station was if that could assist him - and he looked slightly surprised, thanked me, smiled and walked off."
"Usually, I don't buy souvenirs," explains Zoe. "It's not just because I travel light and can't carry too much because of my back. It's because I prefer to carry memories in my heart. For some reason, though, I couldn't resist buying a little Tower of Pisa while I was there."
"As I waited at the railway station for the train that would take me to the next city, I unwrapped the little statue of the Tower of Pisa that would be my only tangible memory of my visit to the city, and remembered that man," smiled Zoe. "Not because he was a man, and an attractive one at that, but because he saw me as I wanted people to see me - as a normal person."
"Yes, the tower was amazing - slightly bent, like me - but still standing and strong," says Zoe. "but it wasn't the tower that stuck so much in my memory of Pisa as being asked directions in that city by a native Italian."
When Zoe returned home, happy and renewed, full of wonderful memories to share, her children jokingly suggested that her next trip should be to Afghanistan.
"Bet you wouldn't get asked directions there, they laughed at me," says Zoe, "but it's a challenge I'm seriously considering. Why not? How many single moms do you know who have the money and opportunity to do such things? Even with my disability I like to think that I'm making the most of my life for all single moms, not just for myself."
Labels: back injury, chronic pain, constant pain, disability, travelling
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