Tag: whenin

February 13, 2018

Hot Air Ballooning in Teotihuacán

Ever flown in a hot air balloon? I hadn’t until a few days ago. I can only describe it as extremely practical and incredible. Practible? Incredactical? Seriously, take a look at this footage. It’s the feeling of floating effortlessly in the sky, the rhythmic throttle of hot flames slightly heating the back of your neck and pulsating in your ears. It’s the intermittent calm when the throttle is let up and an abrupt return to a hot neck and buzzing ears. But it’s also the understanding that you’re basically in a wicker basket propelled by tightly woven nylon and fire ...

November 3, 2017

How I Navigate My Way Through Anywhere (No Service or Wi-Fi Needed)

Adding an international phone service plan when traveling abroad is just one more expense to budget for when planning a trip. It is worth the expense if you plan on using it to the fullest: making calls, sending texts, and using data to search for things on the fly while in a foreign country. I’ve noticed during my travels that the only thing I really need to stay in communication with my friends and family is WIFI and even that has been hard not to come by while traveling abroad in Europe and South America. Thus I’ve found other ways to ...

June 3, 2017

Morocco

I’ll be completely honest, I was afraid to travel to Morocco. Call it irrational, call it ignorance, call it “American media syndrome”, etc. I didn’t know how an Islamic country (even in Africa) would receive me – an African-American, Christian, Female. I had a very uncomfortable experience on a crowded train in Istanbul and was haggled and hassled way more than anyone would want on that 8-hour layover and automatically associated Islamic culture with that experience. I was absolutely blown away by how incorrect my assumptions were – the people were hospitable, good-spirited and friendly, welcoming us with open arms, ...

March 6, 2017

Lisbon

We stepped off of the plane and were happy to see the sun out (guns out?) after a few dreary, overcast days in Barcelona for a work conference. We made our way to the Airbnb by way of Uber, which was an extremely cheap option for getting around. The place was wild! Shout out to Pedro and Thiago for their quirky sense of style. The Casa da Padaria was the perfect Alice in Wonderland/Little Shop of Horror/Victorian play-place that we were searching hoping (?) for. Nothing prepared us for that or for the amount of time it would take to search for ...

February 5, 2017

Minneapolis

After completing a successful layover in Istanbul in April 2016, I was all for spending a few extra hours in a new city. On my way to Los Angeles over Memorial Day Weekend, I made a quick stop in Minneapolis on Sun Country Airlines. The train connecting the airport to the city is extremely easy to navigate and I ultimately had two options based on timing, go right and to the Mall of America to spend my time window shopping and eating or go left and venture into the Twin City. I chose left. I had never thought of Minneapolis ...

December 27, 2016

Ghana

I’m always proud to say that I’m Ghanaian, well Ghanaian-American. If you can believe it there was a time when I didn’t feel that way. Up to age 13, I wasn’t fed healthy images of Africa from the media (surprise, surprise) and that one day in black history month each year when we talked about Africans being brought to America? Why would anyone want to go there and re-experience that? I was young, naive and scared when my parents told me we were going to Ghana for my first trip in 2003. Good thing they eased my worries (although arguably it ...