Upfront, I have to say that I am absolutely not recommending hitch-hiking or any of the other things my mum got up to when she was younger. However, this wonderful tale of a solo female travel adventure deserves to be documented in tribute to life before smartphones, Whatsapp, hostel booking sites and internet banking!
From teaching in Finland to bus tours in Russia, I love hearing my mum’s travel stories. They remind me of our similarities and her individual nature – before she became a wife and my mum. Here is what she had to say about some of her adventures at 23. So many questions: You slept where? By yourself?! Who were these boys at customs? …
“I can remember going to North Cape in a mini bus with two others I found in a small ad in the local paper; a teacher and a tourist Australian. I left after North Cape and hitchhiked back to Stockholm by myself.
At one stage I slept in a sleeping bag in a ditch at the side of the road. I had to leave the reindeer horns I'd found behind because no-one would give me a lift with them.
It was a bit nerve racking standing there with your thumb out but lots of young people were doing it and it was generally considered to be OK. I got a lift all the way to Stockholm with a young German, who rather unnervingly went skinny dipping at every river (whilst I struggled into my costume behind a tree!), and then somehow hitched to Göteborg and got the ferry home to Hull. I took something through customs for two boys. How stupid was that?! I guess I thought it was a bit of a lark at the time and hope it was just cigarettes and booze - there was a limit as to what you could take through on entering the country from the Continent.
People were generally very friendly, lots spoke English.
There were lots of hitchhikers as it was the only way for most of us to travel, there was no inter-rail then. Travel was very cheap and very slow really - ferry, train, car... There was little idea of flying very much in 1971. I'd only flown once to the Costa Brava for a week about two years before.
There were hostels in every big town but if you wanted to book a hostel you had to send a letter before you left home.
It was difficult to get in touch with home too. I would never have thought of trying to use international numbers and phones for a casual chat or an update on how and where I was. There were only landlines and we didn't even have a phone at the time! Instead, I had the neighbour’s number in case of dire emergency.
There was no way for home to get in touch with you either. I suppose in an emergency the police could maybe find you through check in details at hostels but only the proper ones – I don't remember cheap boarding houses taking details, so I was effectively out of touch with home for the 6 weeks I was away.
In terms of money, I think traveller’s cheques were the only way and currency from Thomas Cook beforehand. You generally had to go to a proper bank.
Another adventure was to Greece and Turkey which I financed with the sale of a car to your Dad's friend. I got either £50 or £60 for it and the money lasted at least a month, maybe longer, including some if not all of the travel!!
I flew to Athens (1975) and stayed in a very cheap hotel for the first night because the plane was very late and the hostel had closed. This was when I saw cockroaches for the first time! In Athens I got tear gassed! There was a strike, the police used tear gas and it leaked into the underground where I was which was rather scary.
After that, I went to Istanbul by train. The train to Turkey was ok if a bit primitive. I was in a carriage with some young people who were fun and wandering around was fine, with no hassle generally. Every now and then someone would encroach - I was safe but stared at a lot. I didn't have a watch (how stupid was that?) and really had to rely on the call to prayer in the morning to tell me the time, as I was in a room by myself some of the time.
People took your photo but then they went back to develop their pictures in Holland or wherever and you never saw them again, because the only way really was by letter and who was going to do that?”
Isn’t that just amazing? It’s so far removed from our current experience – social media, instant hostel bookings, selfies, bank cards and 24-hour contact with home. One thing that strikes me most though is the mention of her lost reindeer horns. Even now, 47 years later, she remembers them. They are such a vivid and relevant depiction of the beautiful, fleeting nature of travelling; discovering things, places and people to cherish, and moving on from them with time – sometimes by choice and sometimes with reluctance.
What will you cherish most from your solo female travel adventures? Let us know via the get in touch form!
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