For a girl who is largely entrenched in the late 19th century much of the time, the thought of it being the year 2020 in a few days is quite astounding! It truly sounds like something from a sci-fi novel.

For me personally, this past decade has been one of amazing contrasts encompassing both ends of life’s spectrum.

I have made soooooo many new friends, many of whom I call ‘family’ and are so very, very dear to me… I love the work I do and the people with whom I work…

I spent time exploring fourteen countries (America, Great Britain (England, Scotland, Isle of Man, Wales) Ireland, Romania, Italy, Slovakia, Austria, Bulgaria, Switzerland, France, Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany, Canada… and managed to take a wrong turn on one road trip and ended up crossing the Mexico border! But I won’t count that)…

In this past decade, I have essentially lived in 7 different countries (America, England, Scotland, Ireland, Romania, Italy, Austria); published 6 books (three non-fiction, and three short historical fiction); gone through 5 laptops; constantly navigate 4 currencies; owned 3 cars; had 2 relationships… and while I don’t have a partridge in a pear tree, I do have a wooden carved eagle in Scotland I am in the process of saving!

It’s funny, while I acknowledge I now live a very blessed life in spite of my physical challenges, at times I honestly don’t think I am achieving or experiencing all that much…

So, I decided to do a ‘decade retrospective’ of some of my highlights since 2010… and the more I thought about it, the more I kept adding to the list…

(oh, and while I think of it, I took the photo above on a beach at Pawley’s Island – under the full moon, the waves could be mistaken for silvery clouds in the sky…)

Among other things:

I rode in a husky sled in the Scottish Highlands; spent time down in a Romanian salt mine; cruised Loch Ness on the Winter Solstice; travelled overnight by rail from Vienna to Rome; chatted with Daisy Godwin (writer of the ‘Victoria’ television series); explored Vienna in a horse-drawn carriage; attended the Winter Olympics in Whistler; cruised the River Danube; and visited the town with the longest place name in the world – Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch…

I stayed overnight by myself in a ghost town in the middle of the Nevada Desert; attended an opera and a ballet in the Royal Box at the Vienna Opera House; spent a weekend sailing on a Victorian-era sailing ship; and visited the tiny fishing village made famous by the series, ‘Doc Martin’, as well as many of the filming locations of the ‘Outlander’ series, and those of ‘Foyle’s War’…

I explored and stayed in countless castles and historic inns; wandered around Stonehenge and the Roman Baths at Bath; visited the mysterious Georgia Guidestones; marvelled at the White Cliffs of Dover from the deck of a boat; slept in King Edward VII’s bed; rode on the world’s steepest incline railway; visited the grave of my great-grandfather’s great-grandparents!; visited the Spanish Dancing Horses’ Lipizzaner Stud Farm in the Viennese countryside; explored Hannibal, Missouri where Mark Twain grew up, and I stayed in a haunted house there that has been featured in several documentaries…

I bought a Victorian horse-drawn carriage (as one does!); road-tripped across, around, and through America multiple, multiple times in a classic Jaguar convertible; took a vintage five-star fine-dining rail journey from Wales to Scotland and return; cruised the Mississippi river on a paddle steamer; studied artificial intelligence at Stanford for a semester for fun; and attended a steampunk festival, the Goodwood Revival, the Mille Miglia, the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, a Royal Russian Ball, the Royal Enclosure at Ascot, the Concours of Elegance at Hampton Court Palace, a medieval jousting tournament, and the Braemar Gathering Highland Games…

I explored parts of Great Britain by steam train, including the Jacobite Railway (aka Harry Potter train); managed to find myself in the middle of a Ku Klux Klan family BBQ (although memorable, an adventure I do not wish to have again); travelled by Jeep through underground caverns in the Ozarks; spent a week camping by myself beside a stunning lake in Georgia, complete with nightly skinny-dipping under the stars; visited the Altaussee salt mine in the mountains of Austria where WWII art treasures stolen by the Nazis were found by the ‘Monuments Men’ – and had also previously this decade attended a reception and met the author of the book about this incredible true story that was then turned into a movie…

I practiced what little Italian I speak in little local markets full of cheeses, and all the sights and smells of a glorious Italian market town; traversed the extraordinary Transfăgărășan Road; visited where Agatha Christie lived and wrote; flew internationally by private plane; rode on one of the world’s oldest surviving Ferris Wheels; visited Cadillac Ranch (the place in the middle of the desert where are buried old Cadillacs standing up); road-tripped around the Amalfi Coast; toured castles in Transylvania; visited the home of outlaw Jesse James; and experienced the decadence of a seaweed bath (if you haven’t done it, I thoroughly recommend it!)…

I took a leisurely trip on a horse-drawn canal boat; listened to Strauss being played in the same room where Strauss first played Strauss; visited every significantly historic antebellum home/mansion in the American South; lived in a four-star ski resort; road tripped around the Scottish Highlands; flew in a helicopter; went horseback riding through an antebellum plantation; attended a private champagne reception at Highclere Castle (aka Downton Abbey); and took one of the most visually stunning trips of all by rail from Zurich to Budapest through the snow-covered Swiss Alps…

I spent an entire week without spending any money; a week without technology; a whole week without speaking to another living soul; and a week without any modern conveniences (except the refrigerator), reading and dining by candlelight…

I invited strangers home for dinner; took people who are homeless out for a meal; and volunteered at soup kitchens…

In this decade, I learned to lasso a fence post, throw a clay pot, develop a smart-phone app, make paper by hand, shoot a gun, build a voice-activated skill program command for Alexa, make moonshine, be appreciative of my blessings each and every day, interpret scientific analysis of organic fertilizer (yes, there is a story behind that), shuck an oyster, spin wool, and do more of what makes me happy…

I drank Irish Whiskey in Ireland, Scottish Whisky in Scotland, and Bordeaux in Bordeaux; ate a California Roll in California, a Cornish Pasty in Cornwall, Canadian Bacon in Canada, Hungarian Goulash in Hungary, Irish Stew in Ireland, New England Clam Chowder in New England, Philly Cheesesteak in Philadelphia, Sacher Torte at the Sacher Hotel, Weiner Schnitzel and Weiner Sausage in Vienna… and ate a Milky Way in the Milky Way! (ok, so no points for the last one)…

…and I sat beside Walt Disney’s original “Dreaming Tree” on the farm where he grew up – while the original tree has fallen over, the trunk is still there, a sapling from the tree is growing next to it – and the entire field is awe-inspiringly beautiful! Wild flowers that grow as high as your waist in some places…

All this in a decade that has seen among other things, the very first iPad (seriously, it’s hard to imagine that the first iPad was launched this decade), the continued impact of the crash of 2007/08, 3D printing, world’s first synthetic organ transplant, two British royal weddings and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II becoming Britain’s longest serving monarch, autonomous cars, the self-destruction of a $1.4Million Banksy painting, and the end of the world in December of 2012.

Here’s to seeing what amazing things we experience in this coming decade… May it be everything wonderful you would wish for yourself, and more…

Much love…

~ Bella