The Beautiful Existence that is Sintra, Portugal

I had the opportunity to visit the beautiful little town of Sintra while in Portugal and was charmed by every corner. Full of color, texture, patterns, plant life, and long narrow staircases, how could I not fall in love with this place? You will also find the locals filling their jugs of water at this gorgeous fountain.

Sintra is home to many castles and palaces. The day I went was rather cloudy, but I began my long accent up the mountain. As I climbed higher, it got harder to see, but the fog was beautiful in it’s own way. Everything was so green, and at some moments you couldn’t see 3 feet in front of you.

As you got closer to the top, you would find secret little fountains with tiny tiles and see roads of hand-placed stones. Portugal is famous for their tile work that you will find on the sides of many buildings. The patterns are stunning.

Once I made it to the top, the Palace of Pena took my breath away. It looks like a colorful castle from a fairy tale. I promise this place exists. I touched it.

     

Inside was really cool too… I don’t know what else to say about it… except for that the line was really long to get in… like maybe an hour wait when we only had a couple of hours left to visit. We shamelessly said we were a part of the group that was currently entering so that we wouldn’t have to wait. It worked like a charm… shhh.

  

Overall, I’d highly recommend. You cannot go to Portugal and skip Sintra.

  

Like Mother Like Daughter

I’ve been away for 3 weeks now, and was very happy to be able to Skype with my mom today.

I told her about how it feels to be in a completely foreign place, full of people you don’t know, so far away from your family and close friends, lost in a sea of accents and unfamiliar languages… knowing that this isn’t just for today, just for this week, that you live here now.

She smiled as I told her about how difficult this experience has been for me. Then I realized…

When she was my age, she did the same thing….

(Only she had an arranged marriage and baby on the way).

My mom and I virtually hugging.

I admire my mom so much, and it really has just now hit me that when she was only 20 years old… she moved from Egypt to the foreign land of Denver, Colorado… and not only that, but she was with a strange man whom she now called her husband. I’m turning 20 in 2 months, and here I am.

It’s just really crazy to think about.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Being a Young Female Traveler

As I approach the few months left until I’ve made my 20th lap around the sun, I am 19 years old, I’m a female, and I’m traveling alone. I have been thinking about and experiencing things that I can’t deny have been advantages or disadvantages due to those facts.

Barcelona, Spain

As a woman, let alone young woman, you are not threatening.  This can be an advantage when it comes to Couchsurfing. For the most part, any person — male or female — would not be threatened by a young woman as much as they would be threatened by a strange man. As I stand a new couchsurfer, I don’t currently have any references on my profile, meaning there is nothing to back me up saying I’m a good or trustworthy person. Disregarding this, I’ve still been receiving offers of couches that people would be happy to let me sleep on while I’m roaming around Europe.

** Protip: The majority of people on couchsurfers offer spaces in their homes for free because they are also travelers. In exchange for their accommodation, they are typically very happy to share life stories, experiences, talents, and memories with you. So if you have similar interests, it seems relatively easy to find a host. 

People genuinely want to help you. This might go hand in hand with the couchsurfing advantage, but as a young woman, people have actually come up to me to ask if I needed help finding my way or whatever else without me having to ask someone. That’s not to say that these are just nice people who would do it for anybody, but I’ve found it to occur more often for me than for my male traveling friends. Also, being young adds to the mix. Traveling is such a privilege and romanticized activity, to do it when you are young is what people — young and old — have dreams of. People of all ages admire your courageous and adventurous spirit that they tend to be willing to help you along your journey.

It’s really easy to drink for free.  As I’m under the legal age to drink in my home country, I tend to only prefer wine/sangria and I’m not really into the nightlife…but when I do want to go out on the weekends with my au pair friends, I’ve found that it’s rather easy to drink for free if you know how to do it. For example, when standing in the main center of Madrid with a group of your girlfriends, people come up to you left and right asking if you want to join their bar crawl or giving you other drink/dance offers. If you are friendly, they will often lower the prices for you or give free entry.

However, if you don’t want to pay a low price to go on a bar crawl with free drinks at each bar, you can wait for the guys who work for smaller clubs/bars to approach you and offer you free entry + one free drink. This is seriously the way to go if you want to drink for free. You can follow these guys back to their clubs and get vouchers for drinks. Have your drink. Leave. Repeat with different club. All night. That’s how you take advantage of the system, at least. The idea is to get more girls into their clubs and once they are in, they will buy more drinks. You just leave before that.

Porto, Portugal

Hand in hand with all of these advantages, inevitably comes disadvantages, and one of them is safety.  I can’t go visit islamic countries on my own. I cant be by myself alone at night in some places. I’m at a greater risk of harassment simply because I am a woman, and there’s really nothing I can do about it. (except of course avoid these situations).

But what happens if these situations are unavoidable? 

Just a few weeks ago I was stuck walking 45 minutes alone in the dark through Madrid at 2 in the morning. Lucky for me, Madrid is a very safe city. I actually feel safer walking in Madrid at night than I do in my own hometown of Denver, Colorado, USA. The metro in Madrid stops running at the random time of 1:30am, so naturally I would get on one bus, halfway to where I need to go, then my transfer bus wouldn’t be running. I had to walk all the way back past my starting point and then catch a different night bus. What if this happened in a less safe city? What could I have done to feel safer because I am a solo, young, female traveler?

1. Walk in well lit areas, and closer to the street than to the alleys. Nuff said.

2. Carry pepper spray… but be careful because there are a handful of European countries where this is illegal.

3. Only kindddaaa trust people. If you don’t have cell service (like I didn’t) it’s very possible that you might need someone’s help to google map you a new route. Use your judgement to find who is the most trustworthy looking (again, also tends to be women as they are less threatening).

4. Pray about it. For real, having a hopeful attitude only helps you in a scary, dangerous, or foreign situation.

Chefchaouen, Morocco

These are just a few tips to get you by from my own experiences. Of course you could have been smart and checked the time of the last metro before hand rather than assuming they run all night. You could have not been traveling alone… etc. etc. But where is the spontaneity in that. This blog post is about solo female travelers 😉

I’m a “Local Tourist”

I find that the phrase “local tourist” is mildly fitting for me. While I am new to this area of Madrid, the city is kind of like any other big city in that it is full of tourist attractions and a big place for people around the world to visit.

I want to check out all of those things too, but I live here now.

So I get to go to the museums and do the things on days of the week and times of the year when they are not crowded. Notice that there are maybe 3 people in that photo. I remember seeing the Mona Lisa in Paris and it was a zoo just to try to get anywhere near it. Here, I was able to go to the Reina Sofia museum of Modern Art Madrid and walk right up to original Salvador Dalí’s or Pablo Picasso’s and stand there as long as I wanted. I even had time to take a picture of my boyfriend back home in front of some of this notable artwork 😉

Not to mention, I tend to get burnt out of museums pretty quick, so I also have the luxury of taking my time on one floor and then coming back another day to check out the other collections.

It. Is. Awesome.

3 Reasons Why I love Tapas

I have a confession to make…I love tapas. Yes. Tapas are quite possibly the best part about Spanish culture (or perhaps second to siestas). For those of you who are unfamiliar with tapas, they are the free snack that comes with your drink in a bar. They are glorious. Reasons I love tapas:

1. The bar decides what you will try. As an indecisive person, I often fall short to the psychologic “default effect” of not ordering something or getting something familiar. With the free tapas, you don’t choose what will be given to you. Oftentimes the bars in Spain want to create something special about their tapa to set them a part from all of the others —  meaning that you will be getting to try traditional spanish dishes that you would have otherwise been too afraid to order or not known of.

This is a picture of a tapa served on a stack of newspaper… which looks like a realistic newspaper roll itself. You can eat the entire roll as well as read what is on the outside! Super fancy!

My first tapa in Spain was the “tortilla de patatas” which is a very famous spanish potato omelet… and it was delicious. So were the olives. Best olives of my life.

2. Did I mention they are free? There is something mysteriously delicious about free food.

3. It’s a big part of the culture here. In America, we go out to dinner at 6pm and we sit down and we order food then go home before 8. In Spain, you go out after 8pm, you order drinks, stand and mingle with the entire group while you share tapas, then repeat the process at 2-3 more bars and go home anywhere between 11pm-2am. It’s a very friendly and social way to go about having your evening meal. It’s also awesome because if you know where to go, you eat for the price of your drink. Not every bar has free tapas, and if they do, they aren’t necessarily large portions.

However, every bar is different. 

There is a place in Madrid called Pepa Tencha, which combines the Spanish culture with an Italian vibe. The environment of this place is very Italian, while they have two days out of the week where you can come and have a free “aperitif” alongside their affordable wine collection. We are talking an all you can eat buffet of pasta, polenta, salads and various dishes. If you’re looking to eat nearly free in Madrid, this is the best place to come.

Off to Africa!

I’ve been in Madrid for only 4 days now, gotten mildly bored, I have not even gotten around to doing all of the tourist things in the center of the city, and I already have plans to travel to the tip of Africa.

“The urge to escape from selfhood and the environment is in almost everyone almost all the time.” – Aldous Huxley

I had the urge to escape when I bought my ticket to live in Madrid. That satisfaction quickly disappeared again. Upon arriving in Madrid including the moments leading up to it, I was just… unhappy? I don’t know how to describe it. Anyways, I’m going to visit some other nearby countries.

Next stop: MOROCCO

Tangier is the gateway to Africa, and also an introduction to culture vastly different. It’s divided into an old walled city, a nest of medieval alleyways, and a new, modern city, the Ville Nouvelle. Cape spartel is on the coast and you can see the lighthouse in the image above. Soon I’ll be riding camels along the coast of Morocco.

However, what I am most excited about, is Chefchaouen. Imagine a tiny, mountain village, covered in blue. That is something I could only imagine in a dream. Soon, I will be exploring this artsy place that will surely feel like a world of its own.

Please excuse me while I go satisfy my travel gremlins.

Thankful For Fear

This is the miraculous existence of which we call life

breathing and seeing, exerting free thought

Are we alive?

We trust a mysterious and massive ball of fire

in that it might never forget to rise

is powerful enough to destroy us,

but will be perfectly placed to sustain our lives

In this life, the sun moves.

In this life, every night meets a dawn

and burns away a bright morning.

In this life, winter can never hold back the spring

Summer will come with the loveliness of heat,

not warmth, now pouring onto my face, aging me,

taking me closer to death.

I practice this existence

knowing that I am so small

that every corner of this fast spinning sphere,

a spec in the universe, is calling my name

But I’m afraid.

7.125 billion, all afraid.

So few of these lives will overcome this fear

the fear of the unknown.

They will remain in their homes

their communities, their jobs,

their friend groups, their routines.

They will never break the mundane cycle.

I will not be among them

I will embrace fear

travel beyond my limits

explore the unknown.

For this fear, I am so thankful,

thankful for every street corner I walk alone at night

for every bus stop that I can’t see behind

every moment that makes my heart skip a beat

because in those moments of fear

and those short, fast inhales.

I know that I’m alive.

Airplane Encounter – Never Forgotten

One of my favorite things about flying is meeting people at the airport and on airplanes. I met someone on my way home that really touched my heart. 

Donna was a half blind lady in her 90’s. I found my seat next to her and she turned to me and asked, “do you do this often?” I said I suppose I do and she told me it was her first plane ride. I instantly felt very excited for her and went into Comforting Miranda Mode. 

She proceeded to tell me about her life: how she had 7 children and feels that she made the right choice (she said that twice), how she was in the navy, how she was an actress, how although she was 90-something she still liked to have fun. 

I showed her a picture of my grandparents and she said that 70 is the new 40. When she was 70 she could do anything. I reminded her that she was 90 and can still do anything; look at her on this plane on her way to have fun with her daughters, granddaughter, and GREAT granddaughter! 

SIDE NOTE: I was amazed that she still had her beans collected mentally for being that old after encountering another old lady with my grandparents who said few words and stared often. She stared at me for a long time then said “boy you’re cute,” then proceeded to stare and didn’t say anything else the rest of the day. Interesting.

I wonder if Donna was so collected in part because of how many kids she had… if the need to care for others keeps you alive and well.

Anyways, right before take-off, our flight got delayed and we had to return to the airport and get off the plane. I got my bags then helped Donna carry hers since her son wasn’t there anymore to help her on/off the plane. It was a super small gesture to me but a significant one to her! 

Donna turned to me mid-flight once we got back on and said I looked like one of those Egyptian queens. I was wide eyed and glad to be able to tell her that I am actually pure blood Egyptian. (She probably said that in part by the combination of how I was dressed and the jewelry I was wearing) 

I showed her the polaroids that I had kept in my journal of my dear friend Kayleigh at her wedding, other family members, and places I’ve been. She pulled out her magnifying class from her pocket in addition to her glasses 🙂 P.S. shoutout to Kayleigh, she said you were a beautiful bride with a handsome young man (Josh). Another thing she said that I found amusing was in response to a comment I made about my travel hair: “It’s in style these days to have your hair looking ramshackled.” 

Lol, do you like my hair? It was ramshackled this morning. 

Anyways, due to our flights delay, I had to run right off the plane when we landed in the hopes and attempt to catch my second flight, so I asked Caleb (another nice guy I was talking to in the airport) to help Donna with her bags. She wished me luck in all of my creative career endeavors and life and told me “I don’t know what I would have done without you. I will never forget the Egyptian Queen that sat next to me. You were a great companion, Miranda.”

Wow. 

Between the Clouds

I love flying. It’s amazing to see yourself ascending above and between the clouds; and — to think that if the blissful fantasy we all imagine ourselves falling onto and being elevated by a fluffy cloud were to come true, the painful reality would commence. We would fall right through, probably have trouble breathing the humidity, and it would be an unpleasant experience. 

Some things are better left as dreams. 

But to be that close to the dream… to see the clouds… our scientific knowledge can be pushed away for a moment, and we can let our imaginations take us away in bliss. To be a dreamer is a beautiful thing and I would hope that you never stop dreaming, as cliche as it sounds. 

Upon leaving the Chicago airport during sunset I couldn’t help but notice all the light and my philosophical thoughts about light began to pour just as it seemed light was pouring into the city. 

There were areas where no light shined, and around those areas there were pockets of light that made patterns. It looked as though God spilt that light for it to spread the same way it would spread into a cracked surface.

Light fills dark voids to spread. 

When life feels like “The Last Stretch”

The last stretch:  The feeling you get when you are close to the end of something. When you are on the last few feet of a run, few miles of a road trip, few hours of an all-nighter, the week before your vacation, months before graduating…

The last stretch feeling is the feeling of desperate desire for the next step to already be there. You want to quit, and your performance starts to fall because you’re tired and just want something to change. You know there is something better out there and you aren’t doing it right now.

The last stretch is how I feel about my whole life. I can maybe do something for 6 months (and that’s even ridiculously long for me) before I start to feel ready for change.

What is life all about? How could you do the same exact thing every single day, when you barely understand your overall purpose and significance in your society and the world. How is it possible to be so content with your current situation when there is so much opportunity?! If you are reading this and answering those questions, please take a step backwards and remove your justification to think about it some more. Is that reeeeaaaaalllly the answer?

I’m so bored. I have an interesting life and still ache for some dynamic change or freshness.

It really hit me tonight as I finished up my online class homework before midnight and have become a regular at a few coffee shops. They know my name, what I order, and when I come in. How could I have let myself fallen into such a routine? I now know ahead of time how to manage my time to finish my homework and was planning ahead for next week and the week after that. It just really bothers me that I can plan my life out so far ahead… because some things just stay the same. This could be a good thing, but it really bothers me.

I don’t want to live a predictable life.

174 days until I move out of the country. Such a long time. I was content for a while knowing that date is approaching, but now I’m just waiting for it. Who wants to spend 174 days of their life waiting? Imagine how many actual days of your life that you have spent waiting. Are you going to waste any more?

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. (I’m half yelling at myself and half encouraging you)

This is not the last stretch, this is your life. Live it so you never have to feel like you are waiting for something better.

Or dont. Think inside the box, die in one.