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MariaLV's bio
I'm a traveler who basically can't sit still when it comes to living somewhere. I move often so that I can live in a place to truly experience the country/city and its culture, food, wine, language, people. I'm a writer at heart, an editor, and have published a book about my middle-aged (at age 44), leave it all behind, everyone and everything, up-and-go-with-nothing travels, and am working on a sequel because there have been three new countries since publication! Ten total now in the span of 20 years. When Every Road Whispers My Name is the title. I do everything as cheaply as possible because I'm on a very small retirement pension, but still find a way to indulge my travel passion. My bucket list is long, but I'm slowly working my way through it as best I can. The future is now...someday is now...and all who wander are not lost :-) -
MariaLV's latest comments
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16th Jun 2023MariaLV commented on:
TRAVELING SOLO AND LOOKING FOR A COMPANION?Hi! I've already made a couple response posts about a Nile cruise I went on, but wanted to find a place to introduce myself. I'm cross-posting from an introduction board to here on travel companions, because I'm always up for travel, and traveling with someone else always reduces costs! I'm a dual US-Italian citizen, with 27 EU countries as my own personal playground; though I'm originally from the US, I've lived in the EU for 25 years now (some of those years being as a teen). I lived in Italy as a teenager and, after going back to the US and living there for 25 years, I took off at 44 years old with nothing to my name, no money and just a couple suitcases, to chase a dream of living back in Italy. Over the following 21 years, I continued traveling solo and have so far lived in 10 countries and at least a couple cities in each. No, I'm not some rich retired person! I was an editor by trade, now retired, and still do some editing and proofing to help supplement my crazy passion for travel. Well, and life and putting food on the table and affording rent, etc. LOL Having usually kept a type of blog or notebook, friends told me I needed to put it all together into a book. I told them they were nuts, even though writing is also a passion of mine (as you can tell by the fact that I cannot physicall write short posts!). a few years later, When Every Road Whispers My Name was published :-) I'm now working on a sequel as I chalked up another couple countries after the final chapter. Though I'm usually a solo traveler, I don't mind traveling with a couple others, especially because cruising (yep, another major passion and my absolute preferred mode of travel) is crazy expensive with solo supplements. Very few lines (but thankfully some!) have zero single supplement. Anyway, I'm getting ready to move from Calabria to Puglia (Bari area) in a couple weeks and will settle for the summer and maybe stay a year or so, not sure yet. But it has a port!! And an excellent high-speed train station and a really good airport with local EU flights. I still have so many places on my bucket list! I'll stop talking now :-)ViewDate:
16th Jun 2023MariaLV commented on:
TRAVELING SOLO AND LOOKING FOR A COMPANION?We saw faluccas! I don't know really how to reply to all, or reply to one, as I'm new (considering my "el nour" comment got posted as a whole new comment instead of an edit!), but yeah while I was responding to your comment, I hope the entire Nile cruise info helps everyone :-) Don't smoke, but seeing as how I also write about wine, I do a lot of wine...tasting LOL That's my main expense. Being an EU citizen, I'm covered health-wise in 27 countries so I don't need to really worry much about paying for health insurance. I haven't had to try to use it outside of the EU so I don't know how it actually would work. But most times there is at least some sort of medical coverage either through flight insurance or something akin. When I was living in Morocco, I wanted to zip down to Cape Verde because it looks so incredibly gorgeous. Didn't get to though :-( (pandemic lockdown). Sort of the same thing as I lived in London for three years and Ireland was so so so close, but did I get over to it?? *sigh*ViewDate:
11th Jun 2023MariaLV commented on:
TRAVELING SOLO AND LOOKING FOR A COMPANION?Dahabiya, that's the name of the type of boat -- it's not too far off from a dhow but obviously bigger. Same sail concept, I think. The dahabiya trip goes Luxor to Aswan also. I lived in Morocco (El Jadida) for two years (got there three months before the pandemic and lockdown, so my "one year with visa border hopping every three months" turned into two years with an actual yearly residency, since no one was going anywhere! I was pretty bummed because I would've liked to have visited other parts of Africa, but that was out of the question. Maybe one day :-) There are still so many places I want to see, but I don't have the money to be a jet-setter traveler LOL But I do know that I'll be able to hop a ferry over to Croatia and Montenegro....Albania maybe....and taste some wines that I haven't had a chance to yet! My favorite mode of travel is first by ship of any kind, then trains.ViewDate:
10th Jun 2023MariaLV commented on:
TRAVELING SOLO AND LOOKING FOR A COMPANION?(sorry, "Nour El Nile", not "El Nour")ViewDate:
10th Jun 2023MariaLV commented on:
TRAVELING SOLO AND LOOKING FOR A COMPANION?Hi -- I just joined and was looking through this forum, and "Nile cruise" caught my eye. I just wanted to add my two cents that if you're looking for the best, most awesome cruise down the Nile, check El Nour. Sailboat/river boat -- all open deck, no "cruise closed windows" (well all open except the 10 cabins obviously!); you're able to dive into the Nile and swim with the crew; they are able to moor up, pound a hole in the ground, stick the wood thingie in it and tie up the boat there! None of the "cruises" can do this. The trip is just amazing, and I so recommend it to anyone wanting to "cruise the Nile". The crew are all Egyptians, the food is amazing, and there is even some nightly "dancing" parties going on with them! (which, in september, was certainly an experience dancing and sweating in 900 degree heat LOL But the ceiling fans helped!) They perform traditional and with the drums and tambourines, etc. It was my number one bucket list to see Egypt and I couldn't have done it in any better way. OH -- by mooring up along the coasts where the cruise ships can't, they take you on a traditional farming island, and off to see old tombs that the others can't get to, etc. The ship is sail-powered, and if there's no wind, you're pulled by a cute little tugboat. (I'm 64, have solo traveled for 25 years now, beginning at 44, lived in 10 countries solo and many cities within those countries -- I'm a dual citizen so the EU is my playground. I'm moving to Puglia in a month and will be there for a few months deciding where to live next, and am always up for trips! (cheap ones, I'm so not a rich person!) I wrote a book too, about solo female travel :-) Working on the sequel. Sorry for the loooooong post!!) -
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