Pink Sneakers on the Go

Now that I’m back on track with scribbling and creating, the term “ back on track” unleashed a flood off flashbacks – from boarding the wrong train on my way from Brussels to Amsterdam (which requires an entire blog post all of its own!) – to mistakenly disembarking in the wrong town on my way from Antwerp to Ghent.  Like, WHO does that?  Apparently, moi - so-called seasoned traveller and all.  Yikes!!

It’s not like I was some clued-out tourist who hadn’t dared venture past the confines of her back yard out on a middle-aged lark around the globe nor a wide-eyed teenage back-packer out to conquer the world for the very first time.  Heck, no!  I had well over 35 years of schlepping and traipsing under my belt and was more than well versed in train schedules and lingo pertaining to overseas journeying and then some.  Or, so I thought.

So, it baffles me beyond belief as to how I ended up on the wrong side of the tracks, stranded in the outskirts of a Belgian hamlet, miles away from my scheduled stop?  It’s not like I couldn’t read or distinguish clearly labelled signage indicating upcoming stations but when the conductor unexpectedly yelled “Gent-Dampoort”, all that resonated was “Quick!!  Get off train immediately! Jump now or you’ll miss your stop!” 

Marvelling at the seamless efficiency of European trains, I was ecstatic at having arrived at our desired destination a whopping 10 to 15 minutes earlier than originally scheduled, leaving plenty of time in which to wander and meander.  My high pitched screech no doubt jolting not only my snoring companion awake but likely the entire car of slumbering passengers, perplexed as to what the brouhaha was all about. 

Gams flailing, parcels tumbling and luggage cascading, I scrambled to exit said carriage, my pink sneakers tripping their way down the aisle on a marathon sprint to freedom.  With nary seconds to spare, I jumped, or should I say, stumbled, in a free-fall dive of quite the un-elegant and messy sidewalk sprawl of the yicky yucky splatter kind.  Ouch.  Double ouch!!

And with a whoosh, the caboose sped on by, en route to the next scheduled stop, Gent -St. Pieters, which, in retrospect was where we should have exited the train had one of us been bright enough to actually pay attention to where we were going.  Oblivious to our gaffe, Travel Bud and I had more pressing concerns at hand, such as orienting our proximity to the hotel and negotiating on whether or not we hoof, bus or cab it.  Being the frugal one of the bunch, I rationalized that it would be a shame to squander hard earned Euros on transit when one could just as easily walk to our destination – the clinking of coins jangling in my pocket that much closer to nirvana as I visualized the sales clerk reluctantly handing over an orange carrier bag containing the mother of all acquisitions - my long coveted for Birkin - with change to boot!  A hallelujah moment like none other!

Like, how far could our accomodations possibly be?  After all, Ghent was not the hugest of towns, with the brochure assuring that the hotel was just a hop, skip and a jump away.

That is, IF you’re in Gent-St. Pieters!

And.  WHERE were we?   The journey continues…

Come traipse, schlepp and lug with the best of us, as we meander around the globe in search of trains, planes, hotels, deals, steals and tabloid magazine worthy selfies and a whole lot more. 

Next post – In three weeks!! – Wed, Oct 7^th!!  Catch up with the adventures of Nora Miss Pink Sneakers in Belgium and the Netherlands.  Stay tuned!!

As some of you may have been wondering, Miss Pink Sneakers has not fallen off the edge of the earth (all the more difficult considering that the world is not flat), nor has she run away and joined the circus or packed up her highly prized satchel collection to jet across the pond to start life anew as an expat handbag expert in Paris.  Neither has she inadvertently tumbled down a rabbit hole and has not joined forces with Alice in her topsy-turvy Wonderland in a make-believe world where basically anything goes.  Would surely be a party for a diversion of time but having to be subjected to an onslaught of riddles by the Mad Hatter and March Hare, most definitely not her cuppa tea. 

Non.  Nada.  Nope.  Nilch.  Or, was that zilch?  Whatever.  It rhymes.  Nora’s New and Improved English Language Dictionary (The Nictionary) could always use a couple of new words. 

After all, there was a travel blog to scribble and National Geographic worthy pictures to post.

Whilst I would love to regale you with tales of travel and traipsing, lugging and schlepping, all the while recounting with oozing glee, how my bandaged and blistered pink sneaker clad tootsies once again withstood the test of grime as they trudged for hours on end along cobble-stone rues of the lost and confused kind.  Map-less and most definitely clue-less as how best to hobble from Point A to Point B, hopelessly stranded amongst a maze of undecipherable signage and incomprehensible dialects, I, as per the norm, was just around the corner from that deceptively elusive hotel.

But alas, my almost four month disappearance from the blog-sphere does require an explanation of sorts, if not a reasonably believable rationale as to where and why Pink Sneakers on the Go was nowhere to be found.  

My pencils were not broken nor had my quill run dry.  Stacks upon stacks of pristine journals lay untouched.  Abandoned.  Home to cobwebs and dust bunnies eager to leave their mark and taint a trail of sullied stories, all with a much darker imprint of the world than mine.

Annoyed and exasperated with a life of slack and/or lack of adventure, Inspiration packed up its bags and flew the coop.  Creativity soon followed and jumped ship, desperate to mingle with the F. Scott Fitzgerald’s and hang with the likes of Van Gogh and Da Vinci, hot on the trail of the next best thing.  Envisioning star-studded glory and riches galore, none of which could possibly be attained by collaborating with a middle-aged pillowcase of a rag doll, the duo abdicated, and set off in quest of more lucrative pastures. 

Like, seriously?  How far could the two of them possibly get? 

To make matters even worse, Mr. Dictionary and companion Thesaurus languished forlornly on the shelf, estranged from all 26 of their offspring, at a loss as how to open up the lines of communication between the alpha and the betas and get the ball-pen rolling.

Nothing.  Nada.  Zero.  Zilch.  The well had run dry. 

Until.  The.  Unexpected.  Happened.  One.  Random.  Monday. 

My Inbox pinged with a message from Georgina (of Honeycutt fame) an author and blogger whose prose I admired, perplexed as to why I had not written nor posted nary a syllable or sentence since roughly mid-May.  The subject, appropriately titled:  “Where is Miss Pink Sneakers?????????” spelled out the blatantly obvious.

Yikes!  Yikes!!  Yikes!!!

My summer of languishing in indulgent idleness, sipping bubbly and gorging on endless episodes of The Real Housewives of the Rich and Famous in Beverly Hills had finally caught up with me.

Flustered, spewing out all sorts of reasons – from work obligations to chores to utter exhaustion (all, incidentally, true) - I sputtered, racking my brain for a myriad of excuses, as to why I was more than entitled to continue to plod on the road of non-productivity.  But, alas, I had now been cornered, jolted out from quite the stubborn writer’s block and shaken into Back to School action.  Time to get back on track, sharpen those pencils and start scribbling again.

And, guess who – apologetic and sheep-faced – came knocking at my door?

Yup.  You guessed it.  Inspiration and Creativity, returning home from their not so lucrative global adventures.

So, that basically sums it all up in a nutshell.  Looking forward to re-acquainting myself with the blog again (And to think, I seriously contemplated abandoning it – can you believe it?????) and sharing my entertaining travel tales with you.  There’s still last October’s Belgium adventures to write about, as well as gallivanting about Amsterdam and lodging in the outskirts of the outskirts in Overveen, located, where else, but in the outskirts of the outskirts of Amsterdam.  And, so much more…

Thank you, dear readers, for reading the blog and catching up with my pink sneaker escapades of getting hopelessly lost as I meander my way around the world.

Next blog post – In two weeks!!  Wednesday, September 16^th!!  Stay tuned!!

And don't forget to catch up with Georgina Honeycutt's fabulous life at:

 georginahoneycutts.blogspot.ca

It was the dreariest of Monday mornings.  A forecast of dank and drizzle loomed gloomily on the horizon heralding the start to another gruelling workweek ahead.  It didn’t help matters much that I was severely under the weather, hesitant to place a pink sneaker tootsie out from under my warm and snuggly covers, my schnozzle an unsightly faucet of waterworks of the oh so blotched and Rudolf inspired kind. 

Bleary-eyed, sneezing and coughing, in the foulest of moods, I reluctantly dragged myself to work, ruminating on how I would ever make it through the day.

And then…. the unthinkable…

My Inbox pinged with a notification from EatSleepLoveTravel  eatsleeplovetravel that I’ve been nominated for a Liebster Award!  ME?  Pink Sneakers on the Go?  Like, seriously?

It goes without saying that sunshine, rainbows and smiles followed me for the remainder of the day.

And so this week’s blog post is devoted to the Liebster Awards.  Pay it forward.

First and foremost, I owe a huge heart-felt thanks to Vicky at EatSleepLoveTravel for nominating me for a Liebster Award.  You have no idea how much I appreciate this nomination. 

Liebster is a German word and translates into dearest, cherished, sweetest, kindest and beloved, just to name a few of the smattering of adjectives that fit the bill.

The Liebster Award is a recognition from fellow bloggers to up and coming bloggers, encouraging and supporting them for a job well done - to keep on writing and contributing and that their efforts are not futile.  Keep on scribbling!!

The rules for the awards are as follows:

THANK the person who nominated you and link back to their blog website.

Answer their 10 questions and link your answers back to their blog website.  My answers to Vicky's questions are posted below and I will be linking them back to her blog website later today. 
The 10 questions that I've asked my nominees to answer should be linked back to my blog website by posting the link to the comments section of my blog so that everyone can see your answers to my questions.  

Make up 10 of your own questions to ask your 10 nominees and have them link back their answers to your blog website. 

List 10 random things about yourself.

Nominate 10 blogs with 0 to 1000 followers.

Tweet the nominees informing them about their award.

I posted this extremely late last night so I will be tweeting the nominees sometime later today.  I will also link my answers back to Vicky's website at EatSleepLoveTravel sometime later today. (Just need to catch up on a few zzzzzz's first!)

I hope I haven’t forgotten anything!!

May the Liebster awards carry on! 

My nominees for the Liebster Award are the following exceptional bloggers extraordinaire:

Becs at Explorily Live a little broader - Explorily
John and Heather at Roaming Around the World
Becca and Jeff at aredletterlife.com
Claire and Scott at postcardtohome.com
Todd at Visit50.com
Jess at icecreamandpermafrost.com
Angele at TheRedSpoonDiaries.wordpress.com
Miguel and Yvonne at tripbitten.com
Patricia at curvysexyconfident.wordpress.com
Georgina at georginahoneycutts.blogspot.ca
Nancy at Love, Loki

With so many exceptional blogs to choose from, it was difficult to narrow down my choices to just 11 fantastic bloggers.  Had I been able to, I would have added at least 10 more to my list.

I look forward to getting to know all of you better and reading your answers to my questions.

10 questions from Vicky at EatSleepLoveTravel:

What is the country you most want to visit and why?

So many countries, so little vacation time.  There are only so many countries that one is able to to set a pink sneaker footprint upon within an allotted five week time frame, so it will take that extra long to traipse around the world.  Next on my list is Portugal, Croatia or the Czech Republic.  Or then again I just might end up back in Paris.  Most of my choices are based upon which airline is offering the best deal to any destination across the pond, so once I secure my flight to wherever is cheapest then the planning begins.

City, mountains or beach and why?

As much as I love the countryside and getting out of the big city for a long weekend, I’m more of a city gal, as I love to wander and traipse along the rues and avenues of foreign locales, off the beaten track, discovering hidden gems and one of a kind shops, along the way.

What made you start blogging?

I’ve been gallivanting around the globe for the past 30 or so odd years and have always had entertaining travel stories to share with my work colleagues and friends, so when a co-worker casually suggested that I start a travel blog, my first question to her was “What’s a blog?”  (Yikes!!  I’m THAT old!!)

I’ve dabbled in creative writing, have written poetry and am currently working on a book, and so the logical next step was to create a blog and mesh my love of scribbling with travelling and the rest, as we shall say, is history.  Pink Sneakers on the Go was launched in September 2012 and I’ve never looked back.

What’s the one thing you never go travelling without, and why?

My laptop and a truckload of paper.  Seriously.  I’ll never forget one not so memorable trip when I over-packed my carry-on bag, filled to the brim with pens, paper, blank journals and picturesque travel books, which I carted with me on my overseas journey from Canada to Spain, miserably schlepping fifty pounds of paper all over Europe.

Note to self:  They sell paper and travel guides over there also, so no need to over-pack and break your back.

What’s the most satisfying thing about blogging?

Sharing my entertaining travel tales with fellow would-be adventurists, inspiring both young and old to see the world. 

What camera do you use and why would / why wouldn’t you recommend it?

My camera is an old Sony snap and shoot digital that has seen better days but it still works fine so no need for a new one.  I did purchase a brand spanking new Nikon fancy smancy camera to take with me on my trip to the Netherlands this past October but never used it because I was too lazy to read the super complicated and incomprehensible instructions.  Yet another bulky item to have to lug around in my carry-on.  That, and paper.  Seems to be somewhat of a pattern here, don’t you think? 

What’s the most relaxing place you’ve visited?

Ahhhh…anytime I’m parked in a café or bistro indulging in a vino or two, scribbling in my journal and watching the world go by pretty much sums it up. 

What’s the most dangerous situation you’ve been in whilst travelling?

Several years ago, a friend and I were staying in Sorrento in Italy and we thought that it would be a great idea to incorporate exercise with sightseeing (as well as work off those extra pizza laden calories) by walking to our destination.  Map in hand, comfy sneakers on foot we set out to Positano, laughing at all of the couch potatoes who opted to instead laze it out on the bus – well, the last laugh was on us, as the road morphed into a twisting, curving superhighway from hell, with cars and tourist buses whizzing on by at breakneck speed, mere inches from sideswiping us over the edge of the cliff, road prey targets of the utterly clue-less kind. 

Lesson learned  - next time relax, put your feet up and enjoy the scenery whilst languishing on the tourist bus!

Tell me about one of the best meals you’ve ever had and where you ate it?

Moule et frites in Paris at one of the quaintest of bistros nestled somewhere along the winding rues to Montmartre.  Of course I neglected to write down the address and I’ve since spent the past couple of years traipsing around the arrondissements in search of said eatery. 

What’s your biggest travelling regret?

Not having enough vacation time or money to quit my job and devote the remainder of my life to gallivanting around the globe.

My 10 questions to my 11 nominees are as follows:

1. What motivated you to start blogging?
2. Who inspires you and why?
3. How do you occupy your time when not blogging?
4. Which country is next on your vacation travel list?
5. What is the one thing that you never leave home without?
6. Where do you see yourself five years from now?
7. City, mountains or beach?
8. Describe your most delectable meal and why you’re still salivating?
9. List the one quality you most admire in a person and why?
10. Favourite book and author?

10 Random thing you might not know about Nora Miss Pink Sneakers

•  I fear absolutely everything but forge on ahead nevertheless.
• I’m a middle-aged shopaholic older “bag” whose secret addiction is acquiring designer satchels at preferably discounted prices.  Yikes!
• Whatever leisure time I have is spent working on my novel and sleeping.
•  My favourite food group is pizza washed down with some vino tinto.  Yum!  Hic!
• When not scribbling in my journal, I am either walking outdoors or languishing in front of the television indulging in endless episodes of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills or New York.  Or, just catching up on my zzzzz’s.
• I still can’t quite figure out how to properly use Twitter or Blogger or anything else social media related.  It took me several hours just to figure out on how to attach these blog links.  Sad, but true!  Next challenge is attaching the blog links to Twitter which is at least  another two day project.  Yikes!!
• Am quite technologically challenged.  No need to further elaborate.
• I’m always planning or at least dreaming of my next vacation.  Even whilst on vacation!
•  I actually own 2 pairs of pink sneakers and 1 pair of blue floral ones.
• Hoping to retire soon so that I can devote more of my leisure time to traipsing around the globe.

NEXT BLOG POST  - WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 2ND!!!!  STAY TUNED!!!!!!!

Addendum:  Tried so hard to get my blog up and running again and really wanted to post something in either July or August but my work obligations squandered what little free time I had.  

Pink Sneakers on the Go will be taking a bit of a time out to concentrate on long over-due projects and deadlines.  Next post will be on a random Wednesday sometime in July.   My work obligations have temporarily overstayed their welcome,  allowing me nary a spare second in which to scribble and create.  Looking forward to once again sharing my entertaining travel tales with you very soon...

Stay tuned for more of my crazy ol' adventures in Belgium!!  Like, boarding the wrong train, getting lost in Ghent and just trying to figure out how to phone home.  Stay tuned!!