Hello! I’m Giulia Lamarca, I’m 27 years old and I’m a psychologist. I live in Turin, Italy, and I have a wild passion for travelling.
I am an outgoing and positive girl, with lots of dreams and hopes. Oh, I forgot … I’ve been in a wheelchair for 7 years.
Can you tell us more about that bad day?
It was October 6, 2011, I was transported on a motorbike and we slipped, even today I don’t know exactly how it happened.
The only thing I know is that I hurt my back falling and I suffered a spinal injury. From there I was transported to the hospital and I immediately had surgery: they put screws and plates on me.
Immediately afterwards I took the first week of hospitalization and subsequently they moved me to start rehabilitation.
In total it lasted 9 months. The first day after surgery, when I opened my eyes, I immediately understood that something serious happened because I no longer felt anything from the navel down. It’s very strange, you know you have something, but you can no longer feel your legs.
I do not know how to explain it exactly, you have control on half of your body, but you can only see the other half, although you don’t feel it. I remember that my parents were quite shocked and I was too… but I was like: “Ok, I need to laugh. Otherwise, I do not go any further here!”.
And so I remember doing a joke and I said: “Well, come on, parking in busy places will no longer be a problem with a handicap placard!” and my father got angry, telling me: “What are you saying? Do you realize the gravity of the situation?”
And I swear to you that I was realizing it, but I wanted to try to joke about it right away … and from then on rehabilitation.
How was the recovery and how has your life changed since then?
It was hard!
I held a torso for three months that helped me to keep my back straight to stabilize the plates and when I removed it, I remember being very scared because I was afraid to feel that feeling again, as if I was not a whole, the same I had felt the day of the accident.
But no, I had already reacquired enough sensitivity, which has now returned completely, but I was very worried! I remember that my physiotherapist looked at me like a mother hen, and told me: “Come on Julia, you’ll see that it will not be the same feeling”.
I was still very scared. During the rehabilitation, I met Andrea, a young physiotherapy student. We started talking very often, first in the hospital, then, after finishing his internship, we started to go out as friends. Slowly I realized that he meant more than a friendship to me.
Have you always been a traveller? How was your passion for travel born?
No, I didn’t travel a lot before my injury.
My parents used to travel in a campervan and we have always travelled around Italy, but we have not been abroad except for a few destinations.
This is actually how I started travelling. I was in the hospital, Andrea looked at me and he said:
“How about going to Australia together, after I graduate and you get out from the hospital?”
I looked at him saying: “Are you serious? “and he answered:” Yes, of course!”
We started laughing and I couldn’t believe he was for real until we found ourselves on a 20-hour flight to the land of kangaroos.
I have to tell you: those 20 hours next to him for me was almost like a proposal.
From that day on we started travelling frequently because travelling made me feel free.
That feeling of being able to do it, of being able to take a plane and going to the other side of the world discovering more accessible places than Italy or people more sensitive to disabilities for me it was like a breath of fresh air.
At the beginning our urge to travel was satisfied with a trip a year, then they became a big trip and a small trip until we get to the point that if we are able to leave for two big journeys every year I am the happiest person in the world. I guess I found my mental balance through travelling.
And actually, the marriage proposal really came a few years later. Andrea was and still is my physiotherapist, my best friend, my travel companion, my boyfriend and now he is also my husband.
How was your first trip like? What were the first challenges you had to face travelling in a wheelchair?
The first trip was in Australia and the first difficulties came with the plane, in the sense of I was completely ignorant about every aspect of a journey by plane on a wheelchair, so I blindly trusted everything I was told to do.
Afterwards, it was one of the easiest and most peaceful trips for the wheelchair. I consider Australia to be at the forefront.
For them, people who travel and move in a wheelchair are considered really normal and therefore I felt good right away. Perhaps this very positive first approach prompted me to continue to travel and discover new places.
What does taking a plane in a wheelchair entail?
BOOKING A FLIGHT TICKET:
So, let’s start by booking online air travels: when you make a reservation, you can select the tickets like everyone else, but you must report you are in a wheelchair.
Some websites have a convenient drop-down menù with a series of questions to specify what kind of assistance you require, the type of wheelchair you need to carry and the type of disability.
In other cases, you have to contact the airline afterwards and they will ask you the same questions by email or phone.
The first scam is that you have to make these reports at least 48 hours before departure because you have to book the assistance, otherwise they may not guarantee the possibility of getting on board, or so they say …
The second rip-off is that you can not choose the seats, or at least it is very likely that you are assigned new ones for convenience or security on board, so if the service is charged I do not recommend it to anyone!
CHECK-IN & BOARDING:
Arriving at check-in, unfortunately, it is almost always necessary to repeat everything because some information is lost in time.
A special label will be provided for the wheelchair (if it is not, do not move from there and demand it, because otherwise, no one will know where and whose your wheelchair is, a nightmare!).
As soon as you finish the check-in, you must go to “Sala Amica” (abroad, of course, they have different names) because there you find the ones who will take care of the assistance.
You can choose to stay with them and take you to the plane or meet them at the gate just before boarding. Obviously, we always go alone, duty-free is waiting for us!
A few minutes before boarding we meet at the gate with the assistance staff and get on board. I arrive at the doors of the plane with my own wheelchair and from there I move on a special wheelchair which is even more narrow to pass between the corridors on board.
This is always a moment of terror and anxiety because I have to leave my wheelchair in the hands of distracted strangers, aware that, due to their mistake, my wheelchair could end up in the wrong part of the world. So I would say that this is the number three scam.
LANDING
The same procedure will have to be repeated once you have landed at your destination and, if everyone has done their job well, my wheelchair will be outside the door waiting for me, otherwise you are ready to unleash hell, in addition to a shower of tears
If you’ve never seen anyone in a wheelchair trip by plane and you’ve wondered why, now you know that they actually travel, but they get in before the others and they get out after everyone left. Once seated, we’re all the same. Perhaps the passenger right next to you was also in a wheelchair…
Let’s talk about your travels, what countries have you visited so far?
Here I could talk for hours, so I start with a list because I would not know where to start.
We have been in Perù, Bolivia, Japan, China, Australia, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Cyprus, Interrailing around Europe (backpackers style), Canada, Spain and New York City.
Some of the most beautiful things I’ve seen have surely been the Taj Mahal, Machu Picchu, which was something magical, Sigiriya which is essentially a large sacred rock in the centre of Sri Lanka, the Great Wall and Bali, which has really magnificent temples, like Tanah Lot.
The whole of Japan is full of temples, one more beautiful than the other and I am completely in love with it; even Lake Louise in Canada was magnificent. The world is full of wonders for those who love to travel and I love falling in love with new places every time.
Speaking of remote places like Sigiriya and Machu Picchu, how did you manage to reach them?
A flight, a very light luggage and my h24 Sherpa, which would be my husband!
So, this is how it actually works: I am a very stubborn and courageous woman and so I start with the idea that “nothing is impossible”, then we get to a certain point where the goal starts to be viewable, as in Machu Picchu, and I turn to Andrea saying, “Ok, let’s start” while he looks at me with those eyes as if to say: “Who made me follow your crazy ideas?”
The truth is that he never gives up, in the sense of he takes me on his shoulders and he really never gives me up! At that point, we focus on one step at the time and in the end, we always reach the top, we always get what we want.
What does it mean to you to be a backpacker?
I believe being a backpacker is a lifestyle, it is natural, it is an “innate gift” that has always been inside me.
I woke up with the accident and I am convinced that you have to be really good at adapting very quickly. For example, we often book hotels the day before because we usually want to get caught up in what we like, but this also means that you have to be aware of the risks you run.
In the sense that we happen to want to stay two more days in a place that has stolen our hearts, but if we do not find a place to sleep anywhere it might mean that we will sleep in the train, maybe on the seats with suitcases under the legs. You must enjoy Spartan-like life a little and above all be ready to improvise and adapt.
The only big problem in my case is medical supplies that I need sometimes. So when we prepare the suitcase, we pay close attention to everything we cannot buy around the world. The rest? It does not matter much!
We always start with essential clothes, at most we come back with a Peruvian alpaca sweater or an extra Bali shirt. This is our way of travelling and a little bit of seeing life.
You told us that Andrea often carries you on his back, so what is it like to be the “backpack”?
More than a backpack I’ve always seen myself more like a little koala.
Every time Andrea takes me on his shoulders I hold his back as hard as I can like a koala and actually it happens that I also have his backpack on my shoulders. So I stay a backpack and backpacker at the same time.
But I’m happy you asked me because people often think that Andrea is the only one who has to work hard. Instead, I assure you that to hang only with the strength of my arms for hours and hours in a row is not at all easy!
Honestly, I like being a “backpack” and it’s fun. Sometimes we also have fun inventing new “jacks” and loading more and more stuff on us.
What are the difficulties that a person with disabilities encounters during a trip?
The first difficulty is that the world is really full of architectural barriers.
The second one is that sometimes it is difficult to relate to people, trying to explain what you can do and what you can not really do.
I’ll give you an example: once in Australia we wanted to go on the jet ski and I had to convince everyone that I was able, despite not walking, to keep my balance on the saddle while jumping on the ocean. So it’s always a bit of a constant struggle because people look at you and always ask themselves: “Can you or not?”.
For some reasons, the plane is the biggest trouble. Let me explain: there is no international regulation to safeguard and protect wheelchairs during the flights. Or at least, it’s never really respected.
Once in Singapore, they told me that they did not know where my wheelchair was and maybe it was left in Bali and everyone kept saying it was just like every other baggage, so it could happen.
In my opinion, it is time to take a big step forward: it is not a piece of baggage like the others! Imagine for a moment not having your legs anymore and that you are told that they do not know where your prostheses are. How do you walk? How can you answer “it is a piece of baggage like the others”?
What plans do you have for the future? Are there any trips on your agenda?
So, we have got many plans for the future. I want to work a lot on my Instagram page also because I’ve just launched my personal blog.
My biggest project is to visit all the wonders of the world, ancient and modern because I believe I can do it and I am also lucky in having someone by my side who wants to do this with me.
My goal is to make people understand how the wonders of nature and the historical beauties are for the soul and that everyone has the right to see them, to want to live again and understand how beautiful life is; It helps me and I believe that it could really help a lot of people.
What I dream is to make these wonders accessible, eliminating physical and mental barriers. If we worked together and people really started to follow me, I believe we could achieve this goal.
The other projects concern the “social-media world”, I’m starting to explore it and a lot of opportunities and possible collaborations are emerging.
One of the closest projects is to develop an app for reduced mobility and I would be very happy to talk about it very soon and to make it known worldwide. In addition, there are many other collaborations with various channels dealing with disabilities, which we hope will bring important messages for a change.
The next scheduled trips, however, will certainly be Thailand which we are organizing and we hope to go very soon, and I would gladly return to Japan, perhaps for the fall of the leaves in Autumn, another magical moment.
What are you going to talk about on your blog?
So, my blog will mainly talk about travels, but not only. It will remain an open part for psychology but in a much wider way.
I would like to dedicate small articles to talk about the psychology of well-being, what is the mentality, in my opinion, of people who live disability and give space to projects that I consider important and maybe do not have the right visibility.
For now, it will be only in Italian, but who knows … as soon as the blog will start to have an important audience we think to translate everything into English so that everyone can read it. So I recommend you to go and read it!
I think it’s fun and it’s just the beginning of a long journey and program that I hope I can do! You can find the link to my blog here and on my Instagram page.
What would you like to say to our readers?
For me travelling is a new way of walking.
I do not know if it could be for everyone, but it worked for me and I also believe that everyone, especially those who have had a long hospitalization, just need to rediscover how much beauty there is in the world.
This is because, during everyday life, for us (people with disabilities) it is easy to clash with a difficult and sometimes negative world, not being able to understand or relate with us in a “normal” way, and I believe that during journeys broaden your horizons and the possibilities of meeting new and different people.
Travelling in freedom also means that people approaching, are curious people, proactive people and that’s why I recommend it. Guys, get involved! I also want to give an alternative, it is said that sport is the healthiest thing, the one that helps you in the most difficult moments.
I have not yet managed to throw myself into the sports world, but this does not mean that I am not a person who has regained her freedom or her mental balance. For me it was travel, and I think it can be an alternative and an incentive to tell people: “Find your way”.
I intend any trips as leaving home and going anywhere! Whether it is your city, whether it is going out to eat a pizza, whether it is getting a coffee or going around the world. Get in the game, come back and try to do the “normal” things you used to do before because sometimes it is more our mental block of not being able to do something than a real condition.
At first, I thought I would not go on a ski-bob anymore, but I tried, I rolled over and laughed like an idiot, I was very happy, just like always.
So this is my piece of advice: get involved, do not be timid, do not be afraid because fear sometimes blocks us! Do not let anything stop you, keep thinking, keep dreaming big and above all keep dreaming of yourself as you would like to be.
I have never dreamed of myself in a wheelchair in my dream life and I’m not going to start doing it now, because I’m sure it’s a beautiful delirium to keep dreaming on my feet.