Though headphones have become an extension of the body, I try to leave them at the bottom of my bag when traveling. Getting lost in the rhythm of traffic and deciphering languages my tongue is not accustomed to takes priority. Nevertheless, transits are liminals where pre-prepped playlists are crucial. I can’t imagine spending my time doing anything else but…
Food: A Crash Course in Culture for Travelers
My advice to anyone wanting to learn more about a culture through travel is simple: eat. My inner gym fiend hates me for saying this but we all know I only workout to binge on calories the size of Kanye’s ego. Traveling on a budget has oftentimes caused me to suppress food as last…
How I Lost My Phone, Job, and BFF in the First 40 hrs of 2018
Long story short, I went to a party on NYE and lost my phone. And everything just sort of went downhill from there. Now let’s rewind to catch you up. December 29, 2017. My friends and I went to Montreal to celebrate New Years because we thought Toronto was too mainstream. Anyways, we packed our…
Love Letters to Cities Every Brown Girl Dates
Traveling is like flirting with life. It’s like saying, “I would stay and love you, but I have to go; this is my station.” – Lisa St. Aubin de Teran I’ll admit it. I’m a bit promiscuous when it comes to dating cities. Spending the day with one and waking up with another has become a…
22 Things I’ve UNLearned About Traveling at 22
This is my official adult birthday since graduation and I celebrated by getting my eyebrows done, putting the $50 mom gifted me into my savings, and doing leg day after a 9 hour shift. With that said, I’m still sort of satisfied. I felt the love coming all the way from Vancouver to Hong Kong. This entire…
Travel Bucket List Inspired by My Favorite Travel Instagram Accounts
Despite feeling inferior compared to the galaxy on starry nights, I really don’t believe the world is a small place. The more I travel, the more I want to keep traveling. Wanderlust has consumed me and I have no intention of stopping anytime soon. Ever since Instagram developed the post saving feature, this infection has only…
Ideas For Gifts That Travelers Actually Want
Christmas (and my birthday) are around the corner and I’m reminded of it every living breathing minute as a mall girl. Yes, I’ve taken up retail now. What can I say? I’m just a sucker for corporate holidays that I don’t even celebrate. Personalizing gifts for individuals is something really important to me and watching…
How to Convince Your Brown Parents to Let You Travel the World
Convincing parents to let you travel alone is generally hard, but asking as a brown girl is even worse. I was triggered to write this post because my Pakistani/Muslim co-worker recently told me that her 19-year-old twin brother got to travel across Europe with his friends but she could never imagine her parents letting her…
Privilege Check: Let’s Stop Saying “Anyone” Can Travel
I often ask myself what it is about travel I love so much. Initially, I thought it was all the new places and experiences. Though this is true, there’s more to it. I’ve only recently put the pieces together. The real reason I love to travel so much is because I get to indulge in…
The Art of Asking Someone to Take a Picture of You While Traveling Solo
You may laugh now but this is a serious question I’ve gotten several times in my DMs: “Zahra, how do you travel alone and still have full-body pictures of yourself?” My selfies are super awkward so I have no option but to ask people to take pictures for me. Here’s how: Who to ask? An…
How to Hammam: Debunking Oriental Myths in a Traditional Tunisian Hammam
I always had an idea of what a hammam (better known as a Turkish bath) was: an old Ottoman tradition of communal bathing. After moving to Canada, the idea morphed into a capitalistic luxury for the “real housewives of x, y, z”. Do you smell cultural appropriation or is that just me…? I’d seen many…
A 5 Day Template to Date Any City Ft. Istanbul, Turkey
Sometimes even the most anticipated cities are the most difficult to plan. I’ve been to Istanbul at least four times due to layovers but I never had the time or budget to leave the airport. I used to watch uncountable hours of Turkish dramas that rocketed my excitement and gave me a ton of ideas…
