“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.”
Egypt has more to offer than just exquisite buildings filling your mind with wonder and ancient fantasy. It also has gorgeous scenery, a sort of famous river, an expansive desert, and mouth watering food that is so fresh and garlicked to perfection.
What would you like to do in Egypt? Ride an ATV around the Giza Pyramids and weave in and out of the streets, eat a street vendor falafel that will change the way you think about falafels? How about spending two days in the desert exploring a volcano, collecting crystals …
Uruguay is right next to Argentina, and many people living abroad in Buenos Aires get their tourist visas renewed by popping over to Uruguay via one hour ferry ride. Turns out, it’s a lovely day trip to this little port city, and worth the space in your itinerary.
The air here, it really does taste good. It tastes like tango music and far away memories of when the economy wasn’t as volatile, like the Malbec that we drank every single night with dinner, like the dulce de leche that exists in every single sweet thing here. For five days I walked the city with my flight attendant travel gals, Val and Alex, falling in love with the subtle beauty that lingers when you reluctantly leave it.
I encourage anyone wanting to visit Paris to take a look at Montparnasse Cemetery; some of the tombs here are phenomenal pieces of artwork, carvings of longing and reluctance to leave the Earth, of romantic attachment, of family bonds that were broken too soon. It’s nice to be undistracted by the hustle of the city without having to leave it.
Cuba was a place I didn’t think I’d ever get to go, a forbidden destination when in school, this world trapped in time, a secret that Americans weren’t allowed to be privy to. When we were able to go, I jumped at the chance to visit.
Havana is beautiful and sad, a city of color and despair, with decaying buildings right in front of you and a gorgeous art museum next to you. It’s a city in repair, time paused for half a decade, restricted from tourism. It’s also a joyful place, with gorgeous beaches and an authenticity that isolation can bring.
Do you have those friends who you all share a specific kind of weirdness that nobody else quite understands? That is how I feel about the three of us; originally sharing our awkward adventures as expats in Seoul back in 2012, we slid back into our similar roles of quirky antics easily enough. Its magic to find friends who fall into place like a comforting hammock chair.
Italia! La mia amore! I and have fallen helplessly in love with you and your many personalities sequestered into cities and regions. You’ve shown me hot, flashy Roma, romantic yet admittedly decaying Venezia, and you even let me experience the magical Sardinia by the sea, but you have been keeping a well guarded secret from me. I have only recently been introduced to your quiet but somehow irresistibly handsome brother Bologna...
The art museums here are world class and filled with treasures, but sometimes you need a museum to give you a little more than beautiful paintings and ancient mummies. Sometimes you need to dive into a fantasty world with you as the star of your very own spy movie. What is your alias? Where are you going? Who are you fighting for? What are you going to wear?
Staying healthy while traveling is not easy; for anyone who regularly and routinely exercises at their gym after work, or wakes up at 5:30 every morning to run a quick 5K, travel can mess with your body if you're unable to exercise the way you are accustomed to. Even if it's just a weekend trip somewhere, it's a time to try new foods, go ahead and get that dessert, and relax, skip the run because you're on vacation and deserve a break.
What is a smooth landing you might be wondering? One that is perfectly in the middle of on the runway’s centerline, approaching final with a speed of 65 (or whatever your plane’s speed should be), bleeding out the energy on the runway until the plane gently touches down back wheels first with the nose falling into place like a graceful ballerina if she were 2300 pounds and made of metal.
Keep telling yourself that you are made for this, tell yourself you deserve this, tell yourself anything you need to hear to keep going and push through the difficult days. There will be difficult days, but they will be rewarded with that “click” of an epiphany when you physically understand why your altitude keeps dropping, when you intellectually understand that the plane always wants to stay in the air and you don’t need to worry so much about crashing, even when the engine stops working.
My first lesson I’ve learned while four years as a cabin crew member is this : people are comforted with the stories and fantasies they have of others whose lifestyles they either don’t agree with or understand. There will be so many weird questions, so many strange assumptions about your life.
But it literally doesn’t matter. At all. It doesn’t matter that someone has an impression of you as a directionless gypsy, all that matters is that you are doing whatever it is that makes you happy to be alive.
Aviators are always in motion, planning for their next traveling adventure, getting ready for a working trip, moving in between gates at the airport, hustling to prepare for service, getting ready to meet the crew for dinner on a layover, attempting to get to the airport on time
I never dreamed of becoming a pilot. Then I grew up, and I still didn't want to do it. It sounded like something old white men did, which is statistically fairly accurate. This Forbes Article from April 2018 cites the International Society of Female Airline Pilots and reports that there are 7,409 female pilots worldwide, or about 5% total.
As professions go, flight attendants can be as alluring as a hummingbird, her iridescent charm catching your eye and then.... she's gone! Wherever did you go, beautiful little cloud princess bird?
I would love to reach out to fellow travelers to share stories, thoughts, and ideas! Email me if you’re looking for guest writers for your travel blog, looking for travel advice, seeking a travel writing partner for a collaboration, or if you have general comments you’d like to share with me! I have a flexible schedule and am able to travel very easily through my job as a princess of the clouds (flight attendant).
The moment I landed in Cairo, I knew I had landed somewhere very special. The dusty streets lined with various shades of browns and grays had managed to hypnotize me into a state of awe and out of place wonder. Was that really a camel on the side of the road? Are those sheep going to be okay walking into traffic like that? Speaking of traffic, where are the traffic lights and stop signs?