Travel Tales: Christine Retschlag

Name: Christine Retschlag AKA The Global Goddess

Age: 48

Current job?: Freelance Travel Writer and Blogger  – The Global Goddess.

Favourite travel destinations and why?: I love living in and working in the South Pacific. Having said that, some of my best travel experiences have been in sub-arctic locations!

Best sunrise/sunset?: You’re much more likely to catch me enjoying sunset than sunrise. Fiji and Samoa do a pretty mean sunset as does Outback Australia.

Enjoying sunset in Jordan

Best museum or gallery?: I loved the Picasso Museum in Barcelona and more recently, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. I first fell in love with the Impressionists in the National Gallery in London, many years ago. 

Best meal you’ve had while travelling?: Years ago as a backpacker I was travelling in Florence looking for dinner. I wanted to avoid the tourist traps. I saw this group of men down a side street, looking like they were placing bets at the TAB. It turned out they were lined up for a traditional Trattoria. I was with my boyfriend at the time, we went in, were treated like royalty, ate whatever they served up, drank from a huge vat of red wine, and left, having paid $15 each. I loved the experience so much, I still have the receipt for 15,000 lire. 

One food/drink people should avoid at all costs?: Never drink the tap water in south-east Asia … unless you want to lose weight/your life rapidly. 

Best/scariest/funniest drive?: Up in Finnish Lapland about two years ago. I got to drive a husky sleigh on a remote property at which I was the only guest. I became a ‘musher’. It was minus 25 degrees and simply divine.

Best/weirdest/worst place you’ve stayed?: I once stayed in a youth hostel in Italy and all night long the owners screamed at each other and slapped each other. Hard. In retrospect, it may have been a sign of affection. 

Rugged up for the Artic conditions

Biggest ‘wow’ moment in your travelling life?: On a walking safari with the polar bears up in Arctic Canada with Churchill Wild. A 400kg male bear came within 10 metres of us and I should have been frightened, but I was so smitten by what a beautiful, peaceful, endangered animal this was, it brought tears to my eyes.

Number one travel tip?: It always works out in the end, and even if it doesn’t, you have the best dinner party tales. And hey, it’s better to die living, than live dying.

One thing you’d never leave home without?: My notebook and pen. Critical tools of my trade that have never failed me. And my curiosity. I tend to ask a lot of questions about the world.

Next destination?: Kenya. I’m going on a safari with G Adventures and cannot wait. It also has a huge social component looking at projects which can improve the lives of African women. Women’s issues have always been a major passion of mine, so to explore the lives of women around the world is always a huge privilege. (ED’S NOTE TO GODDESS: Beware the sunset cruise).

Follow Christine Retschlag’s adventures on Instagram here.

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