The People You Meet Along The Way...

One of the most exciting things about travelling or moving somewhere new is the people you meet. Some may be a little strange, some even creepy, like the boys that wait like vultures for the foreign girls to come to town so they can offer strong helping hand because of course, every female with a passport and the desire to travel is a brainless damsel in distress! But aside from the creeps, dickheads and weirdos there are some genuinely amazing people from all over the world waiting to meet you!

Since I’ve been in Lisbon I’ve met so many people from so many different places that I’ve lost track. But then there are always the ones that stick with you, like the bubbly landlord who gave me the best welcome ever on my first day. I’d barley even checked in and before I knew it we out the door and on our way to an art exhibition, a fresh juice bar and an outdoor book fair. We talked about the how amazing life, yoga and the universe are and of course boys... duh! But what was even more amazing is that 2 weeks prior leaving the UK I’d started to think about how difficult it was going to be and how lonely I would be in my first few days when I arrived, but as soon as I met my landlord all those feelings disappeared. We talked about so many things that without realising it, we were helping each other make sense of our current life situations, so we decided there and then while chowing down on some sort of green veg chocolate cake (I swear is was scrumptious), that we would write a book titled, ‘Everything happens for a reason’. And just like that a new friendship was born.

Then there’s the lovely enthusiastic Brazilian lady I met at a language exchange. We agreed to meet one afternoon to practice our language skills and I am so glad that we did because she reminded me of how excited and in love with Lisbon I was the first time I visited which helped me to remember what brought me back. It wasn’t long before I felt like I’d been reconnected with a long lost friend and again, that was the beginning of a new inspiring friendship.

When I had my weeks of weakness of feeling homesick I met an amazing group of people who have no idea how much they cheered me up! From that group of people I met a lovely free spirited, kite surfing French girl. It had almost been a month since we’d initially met but randomly one day I was on Facebook and saw her name pop up, so I took it as a sign and said hi. Little did I know she was leaving the next day so we spontaneously met up for the afternoon and as we began talking we realised that we had a lot in common. We talked about how much we love Lisbon, our travelling experiences and some of the things that we want from life. And just like that, in one afternoon, I went from being in limbo about what to do next with my life, to feeling like I had found the next piece to my puzzle!

And then there’s the 67 year old American lady who is just dying for me to meet her cat, Squeak! This fiery lady left home at the age of 18, found herself some European loving and hasn’t looked back since.

When we first met, I asked her where she was from, she replied “now that’s an interesting question”, to which she gave an interesting answer. I suppose when you’ve travelled and lived in as many places as she has it can become a bit difficult to say that you’re from one specific country, town or city, when your life has been shaped by so many different places.

After sitting next to this lady at an outdoor documentary movie while she decided to become a personal quirky commentator, mainly commentating on how shite she thought the documentary was, I knew I liked her. 

On the train back into the city we talked and talked and I realised that this woman has the most amazing spirit and I loved being around her because she honestly reminds me of what life is all about! Despite going against what society told her she should be as an 18 year old girl in the 70’s, she had the balls to go against the grain and follow her heart which has taken her on so many memorable adventures.

For me there is nothing like meeting a complete stranger and discovering you have a connection with them, even if it’s just for a moment or it lasts an entire lifetime. I live for moments like these because these random people I meet from all over the world have helped and continue to help shape the person I am and the person I will become!

Although most of us were raised on a strict ‘Stranger Danger’ policy, I highly recommend you trust your gut combined with weirdo raider and get to know a stranger every once in a while, you never know what will happen.

Love Sara. xxx

Heeding The Signs

Hello there love bugs!

I hope you’re all well and happy?

It has been a long time since I have posted anything on here and my, my, my, has a lot changed since my last post on 29 November 2014! (What a shameful time gap!)

If you are a regular reader of For The Love of Moi, you would’ve noticed that in the posts leading up to the last one in November last year, FTLOM took a turn in the type of content that was being shared. I assure you that this was not planned but was merely a reflection of what was going on in my life at that time.

So to give you the short version, here’s the skinny on what led to the changes in the content and my life.

Now as some of you may remember in 2013 I managed to get the job of my dreams that I had been working so hard for! Don’t get me wrong it was no high flying job with the salary to match, but was that foot in the door that I had wanted and was enough for me. However the more involved I became in my job the more my body was trying to tell me to slow down, but as much as I was learning about heeding the signs of life, I sure as hell wasn’t heeding these signs until one day at our busiest time of the year on my way to work I was involved in a car crash which should have been more than enough to make me or anyone for that matter stop and say, “Ok universe, I’ve heard you loud and clear! From this day forth I vow to put my health first”, but no that wasn’t enough for little ol’ me now was it, as the very next day I was back at my laptop, (even if it was from my living room whilst propped up by ever cushion in the room.)

It wasn’t until I had a full blown panic attack in the canteen whilst at work with embarrassing visions flashing through my mind of being airlifted out of the campus and taken to the nearest hospital that I realised that I was suffering from anxiety which the doctors failed to pick up on when I told them I was having breathing problems to which their solution was to put me on steroid based medication!!!

So after going back to the doctor and telling them that the problem was not asthma, but was in fact anxiety (imagine having to tell your doctor what they should have told you! A rant for another day) they told me the best thing anyone could have ever told me at that stage of my anxiety, even if it wasn’t what I wanted to hear … which went something like this; ‘Sara, you have two options, you can either find a way of coping or you can find a new job’!

Fast forward one year and this is where I’m at; I worked through a lot of my anxiety with the support of my family, friends, colleagues who have become friends and an amazing yoga teacher and realised that there were a lot of things that needed to change in my life which started with the way that I was treating myself and the way that I approached life.

I found ways of managing my workload as well as more time for myself, I realised that there were other factors that contributed to my anxiety which I am still learning how to deal with, but the most important thing that I have learned so far, is the importance of the connection with myself which I somehow managed to lose along the way. However since this realisation I have managed to restore and continue to build this connection every single day, and yes, even on the shit days, because we all have them no matter how zen we deem ourselves to be.

As for the job, I called it a day and followed my heart to rekindle an old flame. I packed my bags, left on jet plane and to be honest, I’m not too sure when I’ll be back again!

But in mean time I plan to keep sharing my experiences and discoveries with you all, which will include the good, the bad and the hella ugly, as I know I’m not alone on this amazing rollercoaster we call life and what’s an experience if you’re not able to share it? Even if it’s only through a blog.

Love Sara. xxx 

Travel Is My First Love

This is the first year in a while that I haven’t made plans for long term travel and if I’m honest I think that my nearest and dearest are quite shocked that I haven’t yet packed my bags and headed off to some new and exciting hot country to contemplate life on a beach.

Last year when I returned home for living in the Caribbean I told myself that moving away or travelling long term simply would not be an option for the next two years as it was time that I worked on building a career.

So here I am, over a year later and to everyone’s surprise still happily living in UK which means that I can proudly say that I’ve proven everyone wrong who thought I wouldn’t last… besides I said that I couldn’t leave the country long term, I didn’t say anything about not leaving the country at all!

If someone told me tomorrow that I would never be able to travel again I think the paramedics would have to come and scrape me off the floor! Travelling is in my blood and literally makes my spirit come alive and has been a huge part of the person I am today!

This year I have had some amazing adventures which have taught me a lot about myself, others and the world. But now that my last international adventure of the year is over and I don’t have anything else lined up (for now) I have to get my fix online.

I came across an amazing site called Travel Noire, and let me tell you that this site is my newest and bestest friend! “Travel Noire is a blogging platform featuring cultivated insights from a global community of black travellers”.

Image sourced from Travel Noire

 

Some of you may be saying “what’s the big deal?” But this is a huge deal? This website is an amazing breath of fresh air because people often act like black people don’t travel or that we don’t know how to travel or we only visit the countries and Islands that we’re from. These MIS-perceptions work my nerves like something you would never believe. And let me tell you why… black people are travellers, have always been travellers and always will be travellers. The first time that we set sail as a people were not on slave ships and it’s past time people stopped acting like it was. How the hell else do you think that the Moors and various tribes ended up all over the world?

Travel Noire is everything and more to a young black female like moi, because is challenges the misperceptions and misrepresentations out there.

There have been times and will be plenty more times when I have been travelling and have been the only black face for miles, but this has never stopped me from going anywhere that my heart has desired and this site is a testament of those who feel the same.
 

Image sourced from Travel Noire courtesy of Street Etiquette

Travel Noire provides and fresh and cultured platform for the black community who love to travel, learn and explore, despite all that society has to say. This site literally has me hooked and of course planning my next holiday from all their amazing tips and information.

I would highly recommend you check out Travel Noire to get inspired and get travelling! There are some truly amazing reads on there that I can relate to all too well as well as some amazing reads that inspire the life out of me.

Image sourced from www.yourdailylifeguide.com

Love Sara. (A little lady who just loves, loves, loves to travel). xxx

Stockholm Weekend

Hey Lovers!!

Last weekend my bestie and I decided to get away from the UK and its bad weather and experience a new part of Europe, but I was pretty pissed when we landed back in the UK to discover that it was and had been warmer here the whole weekend than in our chosen destination. Gutted!

 

So where did we go? Stockholm, Sweden, where the people are tall, gorgeous and life is like a never ending catwalk show!

So what was it like? Clean, stylish, calm and nowhere near as expensive as people made out it would be. Before we left people kept telling us to brace ourselves because it was going to be hella expensive, but in all honesty, financially it just felt like a weekend in London (she says without checking out her bank statement).

 

So what did we do? Landed on the Friday (into the cheaper airport with the shortest runway I have ever landed on in my life) only for our bus that was to transport us into the city to breakdown! Typical! Once the bus got going again we finally made it into Stockholm late afternoon and met up with my besties amiga who was our host for the weekend and went for something to eat at Vapiano in GamlaStan and had a great girly chat!

Later that night we met up with my amiga who has been living in Stockholm for 4 months now but it honestly felt like she had lived there her whole life! We went out for some dessert and then to dance the night away at the Hotspot Fasching until 5 in the morning! It’s been a while and half since I’ve had a night like that but with a DJ that drops a few Prince tunes into his set, how oh how could I ever resist!

 

On the Saturday we slept way longer than we’d intended but eventually found our way out and about exploring Stokholm City by day and by night ended up in a random Thai bar compliment of Swedens Thai wives.

On the Sunday morning we visited Tenstakonsthall an Art gallery in a neighbourhood on the outskirts of the city which my friend liked to refer to as the Ghetto, well if that was their Ghetto it was the cleanest Ghetto I have seen in my life.
In the afternoon we took a boat from the city centre that stopped at a bunch of little islands and hopped off at the last stopped and walked around a town with some very beautiful Scandinavian looking homes. By night we went to eat at a North African Restaurant called Habibi’s which sadly was closed so if you ever go you’ll have to tell me how it was. Instead we went to a Turkish Restaurant across the street Aya Sofya which was quite nice.

On Monday which was our last day we started out with a walk in the woods and Tea and cake at a Castle tea house. Then we met up with my friend for a lunch after visiting the InternationalLibrary which I have to say was such a nice place for a book worm like moi to sit for a while. We ate lunch at an enchanting little café nearby that had every kind of fresh tea imaginable but unfortunately we were cutting it fine and had to rush off to get out flight home, but I we did manage to squeeze in an apple tea.

 

Overall Stockholm is a great place if you love fashion and you love to socialise in cafes by day and restaurants and bars by night. But if you’re the type of person who loves a city with a bit of edge or rebellion of some sort then Stockholm probably isn’t for you. As much as their architecture was easy on the eye, it was also lacking in uniqueness, as for me there was nothing strikingly beautiful about the buildings there that intrigued me in the slightest I'm afraid. But that’s not to say it’s not a great place to visit because I had a fab time, however had me or my friend not known people that live there we definitely would have had a completely different experience to the one we had. Either way we had a great time as we had great company. Would I go again? Despite no being completely wowed... Yes I’ll probably go later this year to visit my friend again as it is the perfect place to hang out and catch up due to it’s calm and socialising culture.

 

Have you been to Stockholm? What did you think?

*Images are a combination of my own and sourced from Google