Ideas, Opinions, Travel

The Best and Worst of Travel in 2018

Posted by Zahra Khozema on

With a full-time job in the first chunk of the year and grad school for the last bit of it, traveling in 2018 seemed grim. But the universe is a magical system and somehow always finds a way to align you with your goals if want them bad enough. This year I managed to take 7 trips between 6 countries (3 new ones!) in over 15 cities.

Month Country City
January Canada Montreal
February Canada Quebec City
April and May England

France

Spain

 London

Paris

Marbella and Granada
July Canada Montreal
August Pakistan Karachi, Lahore, and the Northern Areas
September Canada London, On.
October USA NYC
December Canada Calgary and Banff

Heres a rundown of 2018’s best and worst:

Best: Unknowingly wearing matching #ootds with bae on NYE 2018 in Montreal

Worst: Losing my iPhone 7 at the NYE party and thinking my friend Fakiha was dead

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Best: Meeting some lovely high school students while managing my first travel tour to Quebec City

Worst: Having a drunk 16-year-old throw up on me

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Best: Reuniting with my friend Maria from Cario in London, UK

Worst: Getting pick-pocketed in Paris

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Best: Eating squid ink infused paella in Granada

Worst: Realizing I forgot all my Spanish when the bus from Marbella to Granada dropped me in the middle of nowhere and I didn’t know how to ask for help

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Best: Having my friend Suleman show us around the Walled City of Lahore

Worst: Using the hole-in-the-ground toilets in the mountains of Northern Pakistan and loosing my favourite sunnies in them!

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Best: Moving out for grad school to London, ON and getting through the first semester without malnutrition

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Angry brown woman rant: We often see whitewashing of characters and race-bending in Hollywood but let’s talk about this scope in academics. I’m so done with white profs telling me what racism is and only using the diversity card in academic corporations like universities to cash in on social points. I’m really tired of some white people appropriating minority narratives for personal gain and completely negating the reality that people of colour experience in academic settings. Whats more offensive is lack of action when problematic issues are identified to admin which further marginalize systematically oppressed communities. This is not a passive aggressive post. This is me calling BS. I will not sit down. I will not chill. #letstalkrace #systematicracism

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Worst: Eating pasta and hot sauce for dinner 3/7 nights a week

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Best: Riding our bikes from Manhattan to Brooklyn to Jackson Heights in one go

Worst: The vaginal pain that lasted a week because we rode our bikes from Manhattan to Brooklyn to Jackson Heights in one go

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Best: Exploring the Canadian Rockies with other fellow hitch-hikers

Worst: The feeling when you step outside and cringe at yourself for not wearing 3 extra layers of socks

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Heres to more stories to come in 2019!
Happy New Year,
xoxo

Published by Zahra Khozema

Zahra is a Pakistani-Canadian journalist currently based in Toronto.

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