Vagabond Shoes - Confessions of a Dromomaniac* After a series of personal and financial catastrophes Jean Burnett, a repressed dromomaniac, decided to run away for a year; “A solution not often open to middle-aged women.” Inspiration came from the memoirs of Victorian women travellers who took off to escape from their restricted lives. The author quotes from various writers so that past and present experiences can be compared and contrasted. The travels began in South West France, continued through Eastern Europe into the Caucasus, followed by India, the USA, Central America and Cuba. She stayed at various times in a haunted museum in France, a Dracula themed hotel in Romania, a maharajah’s palace in India, several eccentric private homes, deserted hotels in Mexico and a writers’ retreat in France. Her adventures included an encounter with a witch in Mexico, tap dancing in the haunted museum, hiding in an illegal taxi in Cuba “where the beds never get cold,” sampling a taste of luxury on the Orient Express and taking Spanish lessons with a woman who kept a wolf and a dingo as house pets. She ventured into the isolated mountain province of Svaneti in Georgia where the people still practice vendettas and have mixed attitudes to visitors. These memoirs join those of intrepid women, past and present past who threw caution to the winds and travelled for its own sake. Vagabond Shoes offers a wry look at life on the road from a woman who has been there, done that, and usually couldn’t afford to buy the T-shirt. * Someone addicted to traveling.