Finding a New Path

Can you believe that my first month in Lisbon has already gone?

So how did it go? – Well to be completely honest the first 2 weeks were pretty bad as I experienced the worst homesickness I’ve ever experienced in my life. I’ve always been one to get homesick but this time it felt like it was never going end which made it even worse. Immediately I stated making plans for my return home to England and how I would just carry on with my life as it was. For a while this was comforting but then after returning home for a week for a family event and spending time talking really openly with my family and two besties about what I was feeling, I began to remember all the reasons why I made the choice to move to Lisbon and give myself a break and live life in a new place for a while.

Taking myself out of my comfort zone and starting over the way I did was such huge thing to do and I clearly underestimated the impact that it would have on me, as I had gone from having a super busy job, friends, family, and social life, to having no job, plenty of time and just me myself and I to keep myself company. But as awful as those few weeks were, I got over them (thank God) and was able to start putting things into perspective, like the fact I am living the my favourite city in the world with endless possibilities!

Now a full month in I can say that moving here for the summer (or maybe longer who knows) was definitely the right thing for me to do because although I change my mind as often as Rihanna changes her hair, being here and having time alone has given me the chance to start thinking more about what I want from this new blank chapter of life, what’s most important and how I can achieve it. And yes, it’s likely that I will change my mind a gazillion times before I get to the place that I’m supposed to be, but I’m happy to say that this is a start, and for the first time in a while, I think I may be on the path that was designed just for me.

Love Sara. xx

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