General Stuff

Two years ago this week, governments around the world were scrambling around trying to stop the spread of COVID, in the UK, old Boris finally announced a nationwide lockdown on the 23rd March and then…silence! The world was able to take a breath as we all hid, nature was able to reclaim it’s habitat and cities such as Delhi were clearly visible due to the pollution levels hitting record lows…pity that we haven’t learnt from that period of tranquillity.

Anyway, as the world is very slowly emerging from the depths of the pandemic and learning to live with COVID, it seems the right time for me to travel once more and explore more of what the world has to offer. However, as the war on Ukraine seems to have no sign of stopping any time soon, the plans for this year will be in reverse in the vein hope that peace will be restored by the Winter months (we can live in hope but who knows with the horrific scenes currently playing out).

Bar the Madrid trip, you will note that I have yet to visit the entirety of southern Europe thus I will be doing exactly that this year. To begin with, I have planned a few days in Lisbon (Portugal) between the 14th and 17th June followed in July by a few days in Zagreb (Croatia). However, let’s face it, I can’t visit Europe with some kind of train excursion thus I will be taking the 2.5 hour train whilst in Zagreb to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. According to many sources, Slovenia is the only country in Central Europe that I haven’t visited but that fact seems to be a little controversial with some saying that Romania and Serbia should be included.

Regarding accessibility for Superbunny, it seems that Lisbon is pretty much there (which one would expect from a popular tourist destination) in terms of rolling around the city, just perhaps a little bumpy! Less is known about Zagreb and Ljubljana, however, from a quick scoot around on trusty Google Maps, it doesn’t look too bad but we will see…(and hopefully Superbunny won’t leak this year!)

Amidst the chaos that the Coronavirus is bringing to the world i.e. a quarter of the Earths population is now in isolation, there are some positive aspects that are being missed by many. One that is of particular interest to me is how the impact of isolation is affecting our environment. Besides the reduction of emissions in our cities, wildlife is having a rare chance to thrive, for example, the clearer waters of Venice is allowing hundreds of fish to enter, even dolphins can be seen at Italian ports! It’s such a shame that this glimpse of what the world could be will most likely be short lived when daily life returns to normal…

Anyway, travelling this year, yes, well that has completely gone out the window hasn’t it? I had booked a 2 week excursion to the USA at the end of May to Seattle and San Francisco (with day trips to Vancouver and Sacramento) but, let’s face it, that isn’t going to happen! Even if the travel restrictions are lifted by then, I don’t know how I would feel about spending 8+ hours on a plane with the same people spreading their illnesses around (Although, airplane cabins are thought to be the safest containment areas currently…fun fact for you!).

So what is the plan now you may ask? Well, first we have to ‘send this virus packing’ (in the words of good old Boris!) and then wait for the travel restrictions to be lifted which is unknown at the moment. Once lifted and a few months have passed, the plan for this year and next is to remain in Europe (or the crossroads between it and Asia) mainly because you know where you stand with your own continent plus I need time to rebuild Dynamic Play after all of this!

I was in the process of planning Turkmenistan for September before Corona hit the UK. Of course, that plan has now changed and I now plan to explore even more of Europe for the next two years hence it seems fitting to begin by finishing up northern Europe and the remaining Baltic states namely Latvia and Norway before I start on the south and the rest of the east. Now the two countries have completely opposite views on accessibility. As with other Scandinavian countries i.e. Denmark and Sweden, Norway seems to be ‘up there’ with catering for the disabled so doesn’t require much forward planning. Now, you would of thought with Latvia, especially Riga being a tourist hotspot coupled with being a ‘stag’ destination, it would have some kind of accessibility, it appears not! The only publicly known ‘accessible’ taxi company only caters for manual wheelchairs. All is not lost though as the majority of buses (especially to and from the airport) are wheelchair friendly, good news for Superbunny!

The plan for next year is to see how Superbunny fairs with both some of Europes more accessible countries i.e. Portugal and Croatia and perhaps some of the more ‘out there’ countries i.e. Georgia and Azerbaijan!

Nonetheless, let’s focus upon Riga and Oslo for now…