All posts tagged: experience

Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Gilad Goren

Published by Confessions of a Jetsetter

“About a year ago, about 8 of us set out for the first Sustain The Stoke session, a new take on the ‘traditional surf trip’. Usually people learn about an amazing wave out in some far-flung beach, make their way out there with as little damage to their boards as possible, and settle in for several days of waves, some beers, and little else. Thing is, surfers are a unique kind of traveler. Those far-flung beaches mentioned can easily be in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, or any other standard, and frankly easy, destination. But those beaches can also be in Haiti, Sierra Leone, and even Iran. Surfers are unique in that all they need is a wave. The modern comforts of the standard tourist are, well, nice to haves at best. In other words, those beach bums that come to mind as you read these very words, and there are 35 million of them around the world, can serve as the first wave of tourists upon which any developing nation (with a beach and a wave) …

Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Sarah Brodsky

Published by Confessions of a Jetsetter

“I was traveling to motorcycle rallies with a high wire motorcycle trapeze act. We went to Sturgis, South Dakota for the big two-week long rally and met all sorts of characters. Being from New York City, I wasn’t used to cowboys, country living and motorcycle culture. There was a guy my troupe and I had met in West Virginia who was also on his way to Sturgis. We helped him transport his bike because we had extra room in our trailer. His name was Bubba and he was from Alabama. Bubba was such a great guy! He offered to help us with anything we needed. He was hilarious and just really kind. Although my mother is from Alabama, I had never been there and wasn’t accustomed to such Southern Hospitality.  Bubba told us all sorts of stories about his business- he sold lights to put on motorcycles and set up his booth at the rallies. He then went on to describe a person who was trying to cheat his coworker out of money and used …

Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Nishad Avari

Published by Confessions of a Jetsetter

“One of my most memorable adventures this year was trying to get off the island of Zanzibar! Not the worst place to be stuck, but still a mad, mad morning! It had been the most relaxing holiday, and I was sunburned and happy. We had booked ferry tickets the night before we had to leave, and even treated ourselves to ‘business class’. The next morning, we left the hotel to walk 15 minutes to the ferry terminal to pick up and pay for our tickets well in advance. Imagine our panic when we were told tickets booked online had to be picked up more than three hours in advance or they got cancelled! So, after wasting 40 minutes in line, we had no tickets and all the ferries were full. If we didn’t get on a ferry that morning, we would miss our flight to Nairobi and the connecting flight home from there, which really wasn’t an option. Sent from one counter to another, running around the whole terminal, we finally found someone who looked …

Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Andrea Wien

Published by Confessions of a Jetsetter

“Stepping off the plane in a new city, I inhale, searching already for the closest food stalls or local markets. In the same way people travel to gawk at the Great Pyramids or to climb the tallest mountains, I travel for the cuisine. A city can lie its way into a traveler’s heart, but in back alleys down winding, brick-laid roads, the bubbling curries or crispy delicacies are beacons of pure honesty.   Food teaches me about the mundane, the beautiful, the oppression, the squalor and the extravagance of a place in a way that nothing else can. A people’s history lives on my fork, dances across my taste buds and nourishes my soul as it warms its way through my body.  For me, inspiration comes in the form of turmeric and paprika, galangal and ginger. It weaves a path past city squares, ducks behind bright doorways, moves to the rhythms of a tea kettle and explodes in color over the rice paddies, bringing me back to where it all started, and gathering strength for where it has …

How To Have #Jetsetterproblems

Published by Khadijat Oseni

I often get asked the question, “How do you get to travel so much?” It’s inevitable but also one I have a hard time responding to. Why? Because I’ve made a conscious decision to see the world and committed to going. I do not come from a place of privilege where I hit a magic button and, “Voila!” I’m transported into the sky…a misperception many assume based on my experiences. I’m a middle class girl from Brooklyn who had a dream early on in life to see the world and wanted to make this dream a reality. I took this fiery passion and found ways to manifest this dream through various mediums. One way was working hard in school and getting a scholarship that would place me at a university (NYU – Go Violets!) that supported experiential learning and global exchange via study abroad options. Another way was making sure that I remained open to connecting with people from all different walks of life. In maintaining these relationships and being open, I have had the …

24 Hours: Luxembourg City

Published by Khadijat Oseni

“Where are you headed next?” “Luxembourg!” “Oh cool…silly question, where is that again? Switzerland?” “No, but close, there’s a “Little Switzerland” in Luxembourg!” “Wait, I thought Luxembourg was a capital city in another country?” “Yeah, Luxembourg City IS the capital of Luxembourg!” “Oh jeez, get out of here before you drive me nuts!” “Haha, love ya!” Typical conversations that surrounded my recent trip to Luxembourg always seemed to either begin and end in a cloud of confusion as to where Luxembourg is, or garner disbelief as to how I spent an entire weekend there without electing to hop over to popular neighboring cities like Brussels, Paris and Cologne. However, during my summer in London, I decided to zip over and find out what the local sensibility of this city full of drifters is, with 60% of its population being expats and having 170,000 people commute back and forth each day. Outside of having well-paid jobs particularly in the EU and financial sectors, what is the draw to life in Luxembourg City? Upon arrival, I quickly …

Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Matthew Rodriguez

Published by Confessions of a Jetsetter

“Here’s a thought experiment: Imagine someone putting a plate of food in front of you. You don’t recognize what it is. You swear you’ve never seen anything like it before in your life. You take a bite with slight trepidation. A tingling occurs. Your pupils dilate. It’s delicious. You register a shock: You’ve eaten this before at one point in your life. You don’t remember when you ate it, but with equal certainty that you expressed about not having ever seen anything like this prior to the first bite, you now are unequivocally certain you’ve had this before. The taste triggers vague, nebulous recollections of your childhood from the quiet corners of your mind and then just as quickly they disappear. No other documentation exists that validate those memories other than your own conviction of your thoughts. This plate of unfamiliar food is suddenly the only thing that tells you, “Yes, those memories exist.”  This occurred to me on one of my most memorable trips and experiences when I returned to a place that was …

Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Lotta Zachrisson

Published by Confessions of a Jetsetter

“I’ve had so many incredible travel experiences, but I’ve noticed that the stories I come back to over and over again, are usually the ones when things don’t go according to plan… One of those was when I arrived at Cochin Airport in India after a month-long yoga retreat in Kerala and was told I could not leave the country without a specific police stamp in my visa (a fine print I had managed to overlook). After finding out that I could not get the stamp that day as it was Sunday, and that I actually couldn’t get it at Cochin at all since I had entered India through Trivandrum (6 hours away) and needed to go back there to probably spend another day in umpteenth different lines in order to get that necessary stamp of approval, I decided that as long as my flight had not left, I would do everything in my power to get on it! The security staff said “no”, the check-in personnel said “not possible”, the airline representatives said “no …