The ability to laugh at yourself doesn’t just come in handy when you are travelling, it is a necessity. Tina never knew she would become a perpetual traveller when she first left Australia, nor that she would land herself in so many predicaments overseas.
In the seven and a half years that she travelled around the world, she was sued in Japan, robbed in Italy, disguised as a man in Spain, nearly arrested in India, followed under suspicion of being on drugs by her work colleagues in France, kicked out of England for suspected drug trafficking, and had a head on collision on her scooter in Japan.
A Fashion Designer by trade, she did everything from cleaning toilets in France, teaching English in Japan, and snowboard instructing in Canada, to getting paid to sunbathe in the Greek islands. She was nicknamed by many, ‘The Gypsy.’
In the love department there was a love triangle, an affair, a penchant for kissing women, a few Scandinavian toy boys, lonely moments and heartbreaks in between.
Tina learnt a newfound respect for maps, to speak a few languages, play guitar, juggle, fire dance, sang in a band in Japan and at one stage was down to her last $10.
Written with such humour, you can’t help but laugh at her travel tales and translation goof ups as she tells her gypsy stories. Tina liked to take her time in countries and wait for the winds of change to indicate when it was time to move on. Most of the time, she never knew where she would be in a month or even two.
After visiting 37 countries and hundreds of plane trips over 7 and a half years though, she still can’t tell you where North is!
Find out why travel is the best education in, ‘The Laughing Gypsy.’