Saying goodbye: An older person starts a trip around the world.
Steev Allan, interviewed by Svetlana Mosenthal – trainee journalist.
Steev Allan is a blogger and traveller, who gave up his regular routine, in his 60s to travel around the world. Sadly, he is currently stuck in the UK because of the virus – but I was in awe of his decision to make such a drastic change to his way of living so late in life. I felt we needed to talk.
Svetlana: It is good to meet up with you at last. I believe that you were travelling for about a year before the virus and you sold up your home and possessions in order to make this happen. How easy was this to do?
Steev: Well I thought it would be a lot more difficult than it was. I had been planning to do this for so long – I think I was discussing it on my 50th birthday and I was past 60 when it was confirmed that the house was sold. There was a bit of a scramble to get everything out and I wouldn’t have made it without the help of a couple of close friends. However, since the sale, I haven’t really missed the house at all. I did find the constant search for suitable places to live on my travels a bit grating and I feel I got it about right most of the time, but there were one or two places where I thought “oh no, what have I done!” and I guess there will be more in the future.
Svetlana: That’s interesting because I have often wondered if the thought of giving up everything and travelling is more frightening than actually doing it. You seem to be confirming that.
Steev: Yes, I think I let the worry of what it would be like and also if I was capable of doing it, get in the way of my leaving for several years. I could have gone much sooner! But in the end, some of my stuff went into storage and I just took the minimum with me that I could fit into the car for Ireland – my first destination – and then another purge to get things down to three bags for my trip to the continent by rail and bus. Lugging stuff around with me is quite hard at my age, but I also have a fear of driving on the continent as well. I guess that is something that I need to get over when I start travelling there again.
Svetlana: So you didn’t give up everything! But you did give up your house ownership … wasn’t that painful for you? You told me earlier that you had been there for a number of years.
Steev: Yes, nearly 30. But I only missed it for a short time. I had been taking lots of time off from it for a couple of years beforehand – mainly weekends when I would go walking and stay in bed and breakfasts. At the beginning the journey felt a bit like that, especially in Ireland as it is an English-speaking country. So I guess I eased myself into the life-style. Saying goodbye to some of the places where I was living was nearly as hard as saying goodbye to Sheffield in the end. Harder in some ways because I know that I will never go back, whereas I have friends and my storage in Sheffield, which means that I will always have a tie to the place.
Svetlana: I guess it is good to have somewhere to call home. Do you have any regrets at all?
Steev: Only that I didn’t do this earlier. I had been thinking about it for years, but it was a double-whammy of Brexit and a new neighbour that really pushed me into sorting things out and I was so relieved when it actually happened.
Svetlana: So, you told me earlier that you decided to stay fairly local in terms of countries because of worries about your health. How is that working out for you?
Steev: Yeah – I have had diverticular disease for over 30 years now, which has been manageable but has been getting progressively worse. So, I decided to stay reasonably local so that I could fly back to the UK at short notice if I needed to. I felt that I couldn’t risk going straight to the other end of the world and having the need for urgent treatment, as I may be in a country where I don’t know the medical system or even the language.
As it turned out, I did get ill in France and when I went back to the UK for a short, planned visit, the doctors there wanted to do tests which kept me in the UK for longer than I had anticipated. I returned to France for a few months, but now I am back in the UK.
Things are not improving as I would have wished and I am concerned that my travels might be curtailed for a while. I am now considering a move to Scotland to see if the health care I think I need, is more accessible.
Svetlana: So travelling in later life has not been easy for you?
Steev: I wish I had set off earlier. But that is easy to say in hindsight. It has not been easy, but I think my mode of travelling (e.g. overland and on public transport) has made it more difficult. I need to bite the bullet, and end my reluctance to drive on the continent (another thing I feel I am too old to learn.) I think that will make things a lot more manageable.
Svetlana: So of all the places that you have visited so far – is there one that stands out for you?
Steev: That is a difficult question. I have enjoyed most of my travels, but if you were to push me, I think my favourite would have to be Donegal in terms of the beauty of the scenery and being so different to what I know in Sheffield. There is such a gorgeous wild beauty there and I really enjoyed the local craic. But there was also the city of Brest in France, which I liked because it was so familiar, it reminded me so much of Sheffield – not just because of the tram system, but because of the friendliness of the people and the access to good local pubs!
Svetlana: And dare I ask if there was anywhere that you wouldn’t go back to?
Steev: Again difficult – more because I don’t know who might read this and I don’t want to offend anybody, but I had a bad experience at an Airbnb in Rouen, France. I had very poor WiFi in my space and the landlord didn’t want to know. Luckily, this was before I was teaching English on-line as I just could not have done it there – it was difficult enough even to get onto the Airbnb site to book my next place. I became ill as well, probably because of the stress of the situation – so when I had to come back to the UK for treatment I left the place in a bit of a mess (I’d had a bad night and was too ill to clean up.) The landlord was NOT happy and it was a bit testy when I came back.
Rouen itself was okay, though there was a big industrial fire whilst I was in England, so I came back to a rather smelly city! I was pleased to leave – especially as my next stop was Brest.
Svetlana: So no problems in leaving there then. I feel as if I could talk to you for ages – but I guess we need to wrap up soon. So, could you say something about what you hope you will do in the future and where you see your journey taking you?
Steev: Well, in a few weeks, I hope (restrictions permitting) to be in Scotland. I then hope to move onto Ireland for a few months. Once a vaccine is found and things are more under control, I would like to go to either Spain or Portugal but spend some time in both countries.
Svetlana: And long term – what are your plans?
Steev: Plan A – was to go right the way around the world – but I feel I am running out of time now. But certainly I hope to visit Morocco and Egypt and then travel back into Europe via Italy and Austria – After that, work my way down through the Balkans to Greece and Turkey. A little unsure of where to go from there because of the security issues in that area, but I will try and travel through India, South East Asia to Australia / New Zealand and up and down the Americas to Brazil.
Svetlana: So Brazil would be your finish point?
Steev: Yes, Brazil was where I first had the idea for the trip, so it seems appropriate – and I would take a flight from there to the UK as there is not much in-between.
Svetlana: But it sounds like you are missing out my country, Belarus, and several others.
Steev: Yes – my route misses out the north of Europe, Russia and China – also most of Africa … but I can’t go everywhere, I have to be realistic. Maybe if I get through this first trip with my bowels intact, I could do a second trip through Scandinavia, Russia and China and I would certainly include Belarus on that journey.
Svetlana: Well my hope would be that things are easier in my country for you to travel there. Final question for you: Of all the places you have yet to see, which ones are you most looking forward to?
Steev: The obvious answer is Venice. I have been to Italy once before; to Tuscany, so I know how beautiful the country is – but Venice looks really special. Actually, what I am really looking forward to is finding another place like Brest. Somewhere which unexpectedly feels like home – and you never know I might like it that much that my travels will end there.
Svetlana: And this interview will end here! Steev – thank you so much for your time and I hope all goes well when you start your journey again.
Steev: Thank you for taking the time to interview me.
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Bilbao
That is on the list!
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