Vagabond Shoes, by Jean Burnett
Confessions of a Dromomaniac
After a year of personal and financial catastrophes the author, a repressed dromomaniac (someone addicted to travel), decides to run away for a year, “A course not often open to middle aged women.”
Inspired by the memoirs of Victorian women travellers who took off to escape from their restricted lives, she sets off for South West France, continuing through Eastern Europe-Prague, Budapest, Romania and the Caucasus, followed by India, the USA, Mexico, Cuba and finally, San Francisco. She stays at various times in a haunted museum in France, a Dracula themed hotel overlooking the Borgo Pass, a maharajah’s palace in India, several eccentric private homes in Prague, Budapest and Havana, deserted hotels in Mexico and a writers’ retreat in France. In the Republic of Georgia she ventures in to the isolated province of Svaneti where the locals still wage vendettas and have a mixed attitude to visitors.
Her adventures include an encounter with a witch in Mexico, tap dancing in a haunted Cathar building in Languedoc, hiding in an illegal taxi in Havana, a memorable camel safari in Rajahsthan, surreal coach journeys across Europe, a taste of luxury on the Orient Express, and taking Spanish lessons from a woman who keeps a wolf and a dingo at home (Mexico).
The author contrasts her experiences with quotations from bygone female travellers which are often hilarious, moving and frequently mind boggling.
Vagabond Shoes offers a wry look at humanity from a woman who has been there, done that and usually couldn’t afford to buy the T-shirt.
Read an extract About the Author Follow in Vagabond Footsteps
