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Jo Lunn

@isitmonsoon

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Producing nerd stuff for @spidermindgames & leading tours around Latin America with @journeylatinamerica

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Bucharest, Romania
We settled into our lovely new apartment in central Bucharest and now are laughing about our crazy first day. We caught up with English Jo and her friend English Amanda for lunch before they headed off on their new adventures.
We also caught up with Canadians Alex & DiShan for dinner in one of Bucharest’s most beautiful restaurants - noisy, busy and pricey, but in a beautiful old building with beautiful live music. We met up with the very beautiful Romanian Yoli, one of Jenny’s friends - and she walked through the streets with us telling us about life in Romania.
Bucharest is a wonderful city of old and new and rows and rows of concrete block apartments built during the Communist rule of Ceausescu. The story of the rise and fall of Ceausescu is really interesting. He ruled as a totalitarian dictator from 1965 to 1989 with brutal secret police, extreme censorship of media and warped anti abortion and anti contraception laws. He did wipe out Romania’s national debt but to do this he put the whole country on rations of all their resources so many of his own people froze and starved to death. His wife was no better and in 1989 they were overthrown in a military coup and executed- on Christmas Day. The city has a different feel to some of the relaxed cities I’ve been to. People seem very ‘structured’. There is definitely no crossing roads on a red signal or not crossing at a crosswalk. And many people look very serious. So very different to the chaos of Italy.
We spent our days wandering the streets (along with thousands of JWs), met up with lots of wonderful people, tried lots of delicious food and listened to world class buskers. We visited the hot pools at Bucharest Therme , watched Australia get annihilated by the US in the football and saw the world’s second largest and heaviest building- the Palace of Parliament.
Bucharest, an interesting city with a turbulent history and a mix of cultures and influences.
Really worth a visit. #bucharest #romania

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Thursday June 18th
Plovdiv, Bulgaria - Part 2
We decided to find out a bit of the history of Plovdiv and so we went on a free city tour with the lovely Tsveta - which means flower in Bulgarian. A very turbulent history with many rulers and many earthquakes. Once known as the City of 7 Hills, Plovdiv is now surrounded by 6 hills after the rocks were removed from one hill for building in the 1930s. We climbed up into the old town to the top of Puldin Fortress. Not much left of the fortress but amazing views across Plovdiv.
We had dinner with English Jo at our favourite little restaurant Complice with the wonderful chef Elena, and then watched a bit of the opera in the ancient amphitheater.
We’ve really enjoyed Plovdiv and tomorrow we’re off to our last (for this time) Bulgarian town of Veliko Tarnovo. #Plovdiv #plovdivbulgaria #bulgaria #freeplovdivtour

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Bachkovo Monastery, Bulgaria
Not far from our new town of Plovdiv is the 2nd largest monastery in Bulgaria, the Bachovo Monastery. About 30km south of Plovdiv we managed to get there by a jam packed minibus with a driver that was not amused that we only
wanted to go half his journey so only wanted to pay half his price. But he let us on, got us there safely and turned out not to be such a grump after all. We spent the day there with English Jo who we’d briefly met in Sofia and mother and daughter duo Polish Grace and Agata, who Jo had met on the train. The monastery is located in a beautiful forested area in the valley of the Chepelarska River in the Western Rhodope Mountains. It’s an amazing working Monastery with beautiful architecture and painted frescoes throughout - all with a mix of influences, Byzantine, Georgian and Bulgarian.
The main central church has an icon of the Virgin Mary believed to have healing powers and is visited by pilgrims from all over the world. I was sure to leave my prayers for some of my friends and family that I’m sure could use a small dose of a miracle right now.
We wandered about the grounds, passed many small shopping stalls full of local crafts and jams and wine and pickles - I wanted to buy everything- but as per usual I left empty handed. We caught another jammed packed mini bus, with a lovely driver, back to Plovdiv.
A great day out with beautiful new friends. #bachovomonastery #plovdiv #bulgaria

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#2025

Gracias por todo 2025, pero también….. FUCK OFF!!

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Oh my God reels are annoying
F8: Primavera Sound

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Happy new year peeps, we made it!
I won't lie, it's been a right rollercoaster of a year, one of my wheels fell off in November and I've been in standby/ghost mode ever since.
I feel so fortunate to have an amazing partner, wonderful friends and a great therapist! If you're one of the handful of people I've felt comfortable enough to snot-cry at lately, then please know you are a keeper! 🤣💚
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I've been creatively stretched in the best way this year and thank you to all the folk who've trusted me with their creative projects. Without you I'd still be working in some stressy fashion studio or another and I feel so grateful and liberated to be able to create magical things with magical humans. Here's to more weird, shiny and fabulous in 2023.
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Whatever you're up to tonight, whoever it's with, I wish you all the happiness, warmth and snuggles for the coming year.
💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
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#nye #roaring20s #gratitude #cabaret #burlesque #drag #currentmood

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Espressooo self @isitmonsoon @ginakplummer @laura_battersby

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It’s only been 2.5 years since I last saw this little treasure thanks to covid and being locked down in South America. Soooo good to see you @isitmonsoon we have missed you! X

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Este tatuaje lineal fue para @isitmonsoon
Una zona diferente pero que luce genial 😁

#tattoo #quito #linework

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So 70s rocket lamps have been built 💡

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Remembering the Good people we meet on the road. .
#laos #vangvieng #travel #backpacking #tubing #southeastasia #river #aroundtheworld #instatravel #viagem #passportcollective

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