About
Your host for this woman’s travel website is Carolyn Gregov, Ph.D., mother and grandmother, avid traveler, retired at age 72 from university life, and now launching this website on her 85th birthday. Her intent for this website is to help make traveling to other countries less intimidating for single women who have lost their travel mates.
“When my husband died, I was 63 years old and resigned myself sadly to the fact that I would not again experience the enrichment of international travel. My husband, a Croatian immigrant to the United States, was the expert, speaking five languages and moving with comfortable ease through European
and Balkan cultures while I tagged along feeling privileged and pampered and never needing to learn how to navigate the world of travel. The thought of trying to navigate that world on my own was overwhelming. My biggest fear was a silly one, but real: the protocol for tipping. I felt I would never be comfortable about that or get it right.
Fortunately, two years after his death, a work colleague said to me simply and sternly one day, ‘Nonsense. You can travel again. Let’s you and I take a trip right now.’
We took a week-long cruise on the Inside Passage of Alaska, and I discovered that I could, after all, learn how to navigate the world of travel. Five months later another work colleague convinced me to accompany her to Russia for a week in Vladimir and Suzdal to support a university partnership. There I made some blunders that were embarrassing but not serious enough to cause any international incidents, a low barometer, I agree, for applying brakes to my energetic immersion in a culture. I fell in love with Russia, and I was firmly hooked on international travel.
From there my travel journeys came as fast as time and money would allow, with the continuing need to juggle the demands of work and family. The journeys were not always comfortable or easy but the journeys were so intensely engaging and enriching that there was never a thought to cease or change my methods of travel.
Some secrets I learned are the following: Don’t be ashamed to ask for help. Most people you meet will be glad to try to help you. A discreet exchange of coins or small bills will usually open doors, or at least change a frowning face into a smiling one. Expect to make mistakes. Don’t let your embarrassment and shame about your mistakes stop you. Remember that this is not about you, it is about interacting with other cultures. Get over yourself. Even today, after traveling to over 100 countries, I am still not altogether comfortable about that tipping protocol, but I learned that I could manage.
If you are a woman who has lost her traveling companion or a woman who wants to venture out on her own and could use a little moral support to reengage in the world of travel, I hope this website might help you find that. And no matter where you are in your life’s journey, I hope you will have fun with Myrtle and JoJo. Welcome!
Your host for this website is Carolyn Gregov, Ph.D., mother and grandmother, avid traveler , retired at age 72 from university life, and now launching this website on her 85th birthday. Her intent for this website is to help make traveling to other countries less intimidating for single women.
“When my husband died, I was 63 years old and resigned myself sadly to the fact that I would not again experience the enrichment of international travel. My husband, a Croatian immigrant to the United States, was the expert, speaking five languages and moving with comfortable ease through European and Balkan cultures while I tagged along feeling privileged and pampered and never needing to learn how to navigate the world of travel. The thought of trying to navigate that world on my own was overwhelming. My biggest fear was a silly one, but real: the protocol for tipping. I felt I would never be comfortable about that or get it right.
Fortunately, two years after his death, a work colleague said to me simply and sternly one day, ‘Nonsense. You can travel again. Let’s you and I take a trip right now.’
We took a week-long cruise on the Inside Passage of Alaska, and I discovered that I could, after all, learn how to navigate the world of travel. Five months later another work colleague convinced me to accompany her to Russia for a week in Vladimir and Suzdal to support a university partnership. There I made some blunders that were embarrassing but not serious enough to cause any international incidents, a low barometer, I agree, for applying brakes to my energetic immersion in a culture. I fell in love with Russia, and I was firmly hooked on international travel.
From there my travel journeys came as fast as time and money would allow, with the continuing need to juggle the demands of work and family. The journeys were not always comfortable or easy but the journeys were so intensely engaging and enriching that there was never a thought to cease or change my methods of travel.
Some secrets I learned are the following: Don’t be ashamed to ask for help. Most people you meet will be glad to try to help you. A discreet exchange of coins or small bills will usually open doors, or at least change a frowning face into a smiling one. Expect to make mistakes. Don’t let your embarrassment and shame about your mistakes stop you. Remember that this is not about you, it is about interacting with other cultures. Get over yourself. Even today, after traveling to over 100 countries, I am still not altogether comfortable about that tipping protocol, but I learned that I could manage.
If you are a woman who has lost her traveling companion or a woman who wants to venture out on her own and could use a little moral support to reengage in the world of travel, I hope this website might help you find that. And no matter where you are in your life’s journey, I hope you will have fun with Myrtle and JoJo. Welcome!