January 15, 2024 • 41 mins
Angela Santos is a solo traveler and photographer known as the “Blonde Around the World”. Angela reflects on one of her most memorable adventures, a trip to Syria amidst the ongoing conflict. Angela aims to demystify stigmas and paradigms associated with tourism and lesser traveled destinations like the Middle East. While on her trip in Syria, she met locals that shared stories of courage, strength, and kindness she'll never forget.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:14):
You're listening to the Globetrotters podcast,the show dedicated to bringing you fresh endeavors
perspectives from traveling enthusiast all over theworld. I'm your co host John Otero
and I'm Max Melgnzalez. In ourlast episode, we interviewed Nora Dunn aka
the Professional Hobo. Nora is consideredto be one of the original digital nomads
(00:34):
and lifestyle travel bloggers and has beenliving this lifestyle since two thousand and six.
If you're a digital nomad or travelerwho is interested in financially sustainable travel,
that episode is definitely for you.She has a ton of experience and
free resources to help digital nomads offsettheir learning curve. But on today's episode,
we'll be speaking with Angela Santos,also known as the Blonde around the
(00:58):
World on Instagram, is an urbanplanner and photographer addicted to exploring the world
and getting connected with other cultures.She is Portuguese by birth, a world
citizen by heart, and a photographerby soul. Like us, her focus
is to break perceptions about less traveldestinations. As a woman photographer and traveling
(01:19):
mostly solo, she has an extensiveexperience in planning her own trips and uses
her platform as a means to demystifythe stigmas and paradigms associated with them.
At the end of the day,she is a storyteller who has gone on
some great adventures, and today we'llbe speaking about her trip to Syria,
which she visited back in March oftwenty twenty three. Angela, it's nice
(01:42):
to have you on the show.It's my pleasure to be here. Thank
you so much for the invitation.Of course, Angela, you and I
actually have something in common. We'reboth photographers and we both love to travel,
and I'm just curious, how didyou develop your passion for solo travel,
travel and in particular and specifically travelphotography. Well, I started to
(02:06):
travel by myself when I was eighteenand my parents gave me it was like
the early nineties, and my parentsgave me a camera, an old fashioned
camera, and they gave me likethe roles for the film for the camera
with twenty four photographs only. SoI had to go to Italy for a
(02:31):
month and only take twenty four photographs. It was really really difficult because I
had to choose which moments I wouldphotograph, and so I thought, well,
it's not about just shooting photos,because at this point we are used
(02:51):
to just point and shoot and thenwe delete and edit. But I started
to develop my sense of looking tothe world with attention by that time.
I think it was by that time. Shooting like film is something I try
to live by, even though Ishoot almost entirely digital. It brings a
(03:14):
whole new perspective. It really makesyou consider your composition, and I think
it's a really unique way to goabout it. So the fact that you
went to Italy with only twenty fiveshots that you could take, I'm sure
the pressure was on twenty four.What did I say, Oh twenty four?
Excuse me, give me one more? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah. I'm sure you'vepulled out your camera, looked at it
(03:34):
and you're like, no, apast next one? Yeah yeah, Okay.
So you've told us that you've donean extensive amount of traveling in the
Middle East. So my question is, given your extensive experience in planning your
own trips, what are some keyaspects you consider when preparing for a new
destination, especially one with unique challenges. Well, I like to first,
(03:55):
I like to educate myself about thedestination because it's very very important, not
only the history of the country,of course, because I'm going to visit
some historical places and places of heritage, but mostly about the culture, because
I think it's very very important tobe aware of what you're going to find
(04:17):
in the country, what you shouldand shouldn't do, what your behavior should
be or not. So I usuallyI start to plan my trip not only
the itinerary, but mainly the cultureand security of course, and that it's
(04:39):
in security too. Yeah, it'svery important too, that's usually my number
one if after security, I'm like, yeah, I can, I can
get by the serious of destination thatmany many perceived as challenging or unsafe.
What motivated you to visit Syria intwenty twenty three earlier this year, and
(05:00):
how did you navigate any concerns orstereotypes associated with the country, Because I'm
sure when you told people that you'regoing here, they were looking at you
like you're crazy, right, Yeah, Well most people look at me like
I'm crazy. No. No,because of the destinations I choose, not
because of who I am, ofcourse. Well it's part of me too.
(05:23):
My choices are a part of metoo. In twenty twenty one,
I went to Elebanon, and I'mvery curious about all the countries of the
Middle East, because in the Westernworld we have a very peculiar perception of
that region of the world, mostlybecause of what media brings us, and
(05:43):
we have some twisted perception of thatarea. And I started to read about
the Middle East and the history andall the geopolitics and the culture, and
about being the well the cradle ofthe modern civilization, because we know that
(06:08):
was born the modern civilization was bornin that region. So at some point
in twenty twenty one, I wentto Lebanon and I found myself in well
in Bullback, which is really nearthe border with Syria, and I thought,
well, I'm so close, soclose to Syria, and I'm so
(06:30):
close to the Masks, and Ialways wanted to go to that me too
ep city that city is, butit wasn't very easy at that time to
go to Syria because it's not likenow. Two years make a lot of
difference and now it's much easier.And so when I had the chance,
(06:53):
I had to do it. Sothat's what draw me to to go to
Syria. This year. I hadthe chance and I went for it,
And I think I just want toreally hone in on that point that you
said there's a window, because yousaid that earlier when you were in Lebanon
that at the time it just wasn'tsafe or possible to go, and in
(07:13):
the span of two years that windowopened up. And I think that's really
important because I'm a big believer intaking the opportunity when it presents itself because
you're not sure if it's going tocome back a second time. Yeah,
most most of the destinations that arein a limbo per se between between between
(07:35):
things happening, you have to takethe chance to go. I think something
that you mentioned that's really important isthe perception that people have on a certain
place. I mean, there's obvioustimes where you know a certain location isn't
the best time, it's not thatwindow of travel, but a lot of
people just view these countries as permanentlydangerous and while there may hold some truth
(07:58):
to that, that doesn't mean thatit's not The possibility of travel isn't actually
there, right, So I thinkit's important to do your research, like
you mentioned, make sure that it'ssafe for you, and then to you
know, maybe not listen to thenaysayers and do what you want to do,
which I think is important. Yeah, because those some places, it's
(08:20):
not that the place is unsafe.Of course, if there's a conflict,
it's unsafe. But if you goto like the government sites on the internet,
the foreigner affairs government sites, theyalways say it's dangerous because they don't
want to spend money with you travelingto those countries because you will cause an
(08:45):
expense. And I think that youshould be aware of what you see on
the news and on the television,and you should know that some countries,
the reality of some countries may changefrom one day to the other, and
you have to be prepared, andyou you have to be an experienced traveler
(09:05):
to travel to some places. Ifyou want to go solo or even if
you you want to go with atour group, you have to keep in
mind that things may change from onehour to the other, or from one
day to the other. And soyou you don't feel frustrated if something happens
and you can't achieve your plan oryour goals exactly how you planned a step
(09:28):
by step things may change. Sowell said, can you can you possibly
share some memorable memorable cultural experiences fromyour chip to Syria that maybe challenge your
preconceptions and left the lasting impact onyou. Were there any in particular that
you can recall. There were somany because it is a very diverse country
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and with very different realities happening atthe same time, because in the north
it's not the same that in theout or in the center of the country.
But a cultural experience, well,I think everyone who travels to city
wants to go to Palmida because it'san heritage site. It's an an a
(10:15):
mark to a landmark a city,but it's a landmark for humanity. But
to visit Palmida you have to havespecial permissions. You have to have military
escorts. And the ancient city ofPalmida is severely damaged by the conflicts and
(10:39):
by the isses. They destroyed alot of the ancient city. Well,
next to the ancient city you havethe modern modern city of Palmia, which
is also really really destroyed. Andat some point we were at the ruins
of the ancient and city and wewere the only ones there and a group
(11:03):
of kids, like shepherd kids.They were with their goats and their sheep
and they were just like with theirurds, just like spending time with the
animals. And they were feeding theanimals in the ruins in the Unish heritage
(11:24):
site and they saw us and theywere so freaking happy to see us.
They were really really happy that theycame to us to try to make friends,
to interact with us without speaking thesame language, because well they don't
speak English. But they were sohappy. They made us like play with
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their goats, like babysitting their goats, and they wanted to take pictures with
us. And they are so happyto see foreigners there and to show us
their legacies and their history and theirheritage and their animals, their daily life.
They just want to show us thatthey are exactly like us and that
(12:11):
we are welcomed, and they justwant to make us feel at home basically.
And to anyone listening, Palmyra pA L M Y are A Google
it incredible. I'm looking at picturesof it right now and it's just stunning.
So if you're listening to this,make sure you do that. Yeah.
(12:33):
Answer also for Queen Zenobia, becauseshe defeated the Romans to build Palmita,
so she was a badass queen.Yeah, Okay, that is awesome.
I love that I can just kindof envision you out there and having
that full on experience. I mean, sounds sounds magical. How do you
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approach photography and an unfamiliar and potentiallysensitive location, and how do you ensure
that the work that you're doing respectslocal cultures and traditions. Do you ever
have any fears or second thoughts ontaking photos in certain places? Yeah,
especially in Syria. I think itwas the first time that I would oh
(13:16):
wow, I know it was thefirst time I was in a country in
a post conflict situation. So thewar in Syria ended just like two or
three years ago, and it's easyto get to a place and to to
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take pictures of the homes of someone. Like you get to a city and
you see the debrize, the neighborhoodsall destroyed, and at some point I
thought that, well, I needto to make something about this, because
(14:03):
to me, it was like,it's not fair to take pictures of houses
destroyed houses, because this is ahome of a family, and I'm not
going to like take selfies in thedebris or in the destruction which one was
(14:24):
the home of someone a family livedthere, like normal people live there,
so it's not fair to go thereand to take pictures like if you are
in Rome or in Paris or inanother normal place. So I had to
(14:46):
be very very careful about what Iwas shooting because it's a matter of respect.
It's even difficult to me to explainwhat I felt there because it's it's
like you want to I want totake pictures of everything, because you want
to show the world their reality,because it's not it's not everything. Like
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I usually say that what you're seeingon Instagram, most of the times it's
not true because people make the scenesto girls wear very pretty dresses and they
pose. I wasn't going to posein the middle of the rubble of the
house of someone. It's it's justridiculous. You have to respect the moment
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and the reality. So I thinkit was a very big challenge as a
photographer to try to tell the storywithout just being very dramatic, because there
are very good things happening in Syriaright now, but I couldn't hide the
(15:52):
reality. So it was like veryvery strange for me. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, and I hear what youwhat you're saying. Where there's this's
kind of fine line between you don'twant to distort the truth, but you
also don't want to exploit the truthexactly, and you're trying to walk somewhere
down the middle. And yeah,I mean that that's hard. I think.
I think a key part to thistoo, a lot of people don't
(16:14):
think about it, you know,like John said, it's a fine you're
kind of walking in that gray areawhere you don't know if you should or
you shouldn't. I think a lotof people don't realize that when you're not
just going up and taking photos,but there is a style in which you
present yourself taking photos that makes abig difference. You know, there's a
huge difference of like you know,kind of like an influencer going out and
being energetic and kind of like seekingthat attention while capturing these moments. And
(16:41):
there's a way to go about itkind of like in a more uh like
kind of like light footed, respectfulway that I kind of try to do
when I take especially street photography.I don't want attention. I want to
kind of be pulled back. Iwant to be reserved, and I want
to be able to take these photoswithout being noticed as much and so as
long as it's I feel like,done in a respectful way, as long
(17:03):
as you're not verbally being told notto, it's okay, as long as
you do it in a respectful way. Yeah, mostly I tried, I
think I tried. At some point, I started to realize that it was
very much important to focus my photographyon people, on the local people.
(17:26):
So like I started to, Okay, there there is like imagine like a
neighborhood that was totally destroyed, butthere was a store and that person was
still working and selling like his vegetablesand fruit, and so let me focus
on what that person is doing becausethe reality is still there. But I
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tried to focus on the the courageof that people, the resilience, you
know, is it's so very strong. They are trying to rebuild their cities
and their lives, and they aretrying to heal the scars of the past.
So it's another level of respect,you know, It's just another level
(18:15):
of respect. Yeah, completely agree. And Angela, your platform or social
media platform and where you present yourwork aims to demystify stigmas and paradigms associated
with travel, and what ways doyou see travel and you know, empowering
women yourself, and what advice doyou have for women who aspire to travel
(18:36):
solo. Well, I think solotraveling it's very open minding for everyone,
not just for women. Of course, we cannot be closing our eyes for
our reality because women are still verystigmatized about traveling solo or doing things solo.
(19:02):
But I think that one thing Ialways do to to people who call
me and ask me for some advice, it's educate yourself about the destination you
are trying to go. Whether it'slike near your home or on the other
side of the world, it doesn'tmatter. And if you don't have the
(19:26):
courage to go like to Japan byyourself, just go to the city close
to you where you feel start closewhere you feel at home or more comfortable,
and to to gain some experience andto it's it's very important to be
(19:52):
aware of your surroundings when you're travelingsolo, so you need to gain some
experierience because no one borns knowing howto travel solo, so it's like it's
very important to that. So Ithink it's very empowering because you gain a
(20:12):
lot of self confidence when you travelsolo. And it opens your eyes to
the world and to other realities otherthan yours, and to other cultures other
than yours. And it allows youto interact with other people because when you
travel with the group or with afriend or with someone else, you are
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more restrict to be with that person, to give attention to that person.
When you are by yourself, youhave to open yourself to the world.
Whether if you want it or not, you have to do it. So
it's like you gain a lot ofself confidence, but you have to take
small steps before you throw yourself tothe world. Well, if you want
(20:56):
to do it, you can doit. But if you have some questions
and some doubts, first educate yourselfabout the place you want to go,
and then just listen to the peoplethat have already been at the places.
Don't listen to the cousin of thegrandmother or something like that, because they
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are going to every place in theworld except your house. It's usually seen
as dangerous to people, so everybody'sgoing to tell you're crazy. Why are
you going to some place by yourself? Don't do it. Wait for some
friend or wait for something. Butif you wait, you don't go.
Most of the times because it's notthe perfect time, because it's not the
(21:41):
dream destination of other people. Soit's just let yourself go and go for
it. Very well said. Ifeel like you keep touching back on that
one person's aunt, and I feellike there's a subtle story back there.
Don't tell you. It's more mymom. My mom tells you you're crazy.
(22:04):
Why are you doing this towards yourself? Yeah, my mom gave up
on trying to talk me out ofit. Now. She's just like,
okay, you're going. Okay,text me and you get there. Text
me every other day. No.In my last trip, my mom was
really scared because I went now toIraq and the situation in the Middle East,
it's like nobody knows what's going tohappen. And she was like,
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why are you going there now?Just wait, don't go there now.
And I had to tell her,Mom, we are not going to have
this conversation again, if you wantit or not. I'm going anyway.
So you you just have two choices. You don't bother me anymore about this,
and I will share the trip withyou. You keep bothering me,
(22:47):
bothering me, and I won't shareanything with you. Yeah, right right,
you did the right choice. Yeah, all right. Before I asked
this question, I do want toclarify something. When we mentioned solo travel,
there are a couple terms, orsorry, a couple of definitions that
come along with it. There is, you know, I feel like the
(23:08):
definite term or definition for solo travelwhere you go travel new places by yourself
and you're by yourself the whole time, taking it as it goes, or
working remotely or whatever it is,but you're you're solo truly. And there's
another type of solo travel where youcould be traveling solo and then you either
meet people, whether it's organized oryou know, on a whim, you
(23:30):
meet people and you end up travelingwith others. Both to us, we
would consider solo travel. And sowhen I asked this question, it's it's
the latter definition, which is Iwanted to know what were like the most
significant challenges that you faced during yoursolo journey to Syria and what were the
(23:51):
most rewarding aspects of that experience.Well, when I went to Syria,
I for you, let's just clarifyone thing. First. For you to
travel to Syria, you have tohave two things one visa and one clearance
security and to get the visa youhave to have the clearance security first,
(24:12):
and you can only have the clearingsecurity if you travel with the local tour
company. So I had to gowith the local tour company, and I
also went to because the thing was, I went with the Portuguese tear company,
which is san Jota, and thenthere we met the Syrian Golden Team,
(24:38):
which is the local torre company.So otherwise we couldn't do a proper
tour in the country. Well,we couldn't even enter in the country actually,
So it's like it's like an obligationlike North Korea where you have to
go on like a guided tours inorder to ask treat as North Korea,
(25:00):
because in North Korea you cannot speakwith the locals, and in Syria you
can interact with everyone. Yeah,it's not that strict, but yeah,
the government because there are some regionsin the country that are still going through
(25:21):
some situations, let's say, likethis, and are not exactly totally safe,
and they want to guarantee that touristsare safe and that we travel in
the country the safest way possible.So we have to have a tour company
to ensure that everything goes smooth,and you have thousands of checkpoints, thousands
(25:49):
of checkpoints, so if you don'thave someone who knows exactly what to do,
like with the passports and showing yourdocuments and speaking the language, even
speaking the language, it's very,very difficult to show that you are just
a tourist and you are there andyou are not going to do anything wrong
(26:14):
or you're not like spying the countryor something, because they still have some
issues going on. But for ustourists, it's fine because we go to
the places that are already stabilized andthere's no problem at all. There's no
issue at all in any place thatwe went to. It's totally okay.
(26:37):
I never felt myself in any kindof situation that I could say, I
don't feel safe here. You know, that's sixth sense that tells you I
don't I think something's going on.I never felt at any point like that
in any situation. And that's great. You know, you kind of already
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talked a little bit about Palmira,but what were some of the other places
that you visited that you just tooka lot from that experience where it was
rewarding where you were, like itstands out for you when you were in
Syria. Well, in terms ofcities that we visited, I of course,
(27:19):
Alepo is one of the places thatwe all heard about during the conflicts,
and it was very marked in mymind still a because I remember to
see on the news and everywhere thedestruction and the suffering of the people,
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and it was very very hard.But being there, it's totally different,
and because you see with your eyesand it's very very different, and you
feel the energy and you talk tothe people because you when you humanize an
inhumane scenario, things got get adifferent perspective, you know, because you
(28:03):
are talking to the people who livedthat situation, and they have faces,
they have families, they have hopesand dreams like all of us. And
so it's like it's not that youcan put yourself on their shoes, because
you can't never ever just the oneswho lived that situation can talk about it,
(28:27):
but you can at least be emphaticabout it and try to understand them,
try to hear them, try toshare their story, and try to
make the world see that they areexactly like us. Everybody wants to be
happy and have dreams, and everybodywants to be safe and has a job,
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so we all have the same expectations. And just a quick follow up
to that question, because we've talked. You talked a little bit about,
you know, outside of the shop, the individual who was selling vegetables and
when you were in a lepo tryingto you know, interact with locals.
Is there a encounter with a local, one specific person that you know stands
(29:15):
out in your mind that you canshare with us. Well, I had
many conversations with with people about thesituation, but I have about what what
they what they lived during the periodof war. Uh. And the stories
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are all of survival actually of tryingto survive. And I even wrote at
some point about it. Because it'slike when you see the city is destroyed,
it's easy to rebuild buildings. It'snot that easy to rebuild lives,
you know, and it's not thateasy to to heald the scars of years
(30:03):
and years and years of war.And it's not it's very difficult on the
human level. But I had onesituation at home at homes homes Homes.
It's a city in city which wasseverely damaged by the conflicts, and we
(30:26):
went to have dinner at the houseof Faddy, of his parents, and
Faddy is the owner of the tourcompany, of the Syrian tour company,
and we went to have dinner withhis family, with his mom, sisters,
father, nephews, everybody was thereand his his mother cooked for us
(30:47):
for hours, and I was tryingto explain her that the food was really
delicious, but she didn't speak English, so I was trying by gestures to
explain the food was amazing. Youhave the most She had the most gentile
action that I was not expected expectingbecause she just hugged me and she kissed
(31:11):
me in the forehead and it waslike I'm at home, you know's it
was so generous for them to giveus a meal, and she was like
hugging me, and well, we'renot used to this in the Western world,
because we are not like that.You don't open the door of your
(31:33):
house and take strangers to your houseto feed them and then you hug them
and kiss them and just make themfeel like families. So it's like they
have went through such difficult times andthey still keep their generosity and their humanity
(31:56):
and they're really, really generous andthat's one of the things I appreciate very
much in the Middle East, that'sone of the things. And in Sidia
I was I felt at that home. I felt like I was with my
family, with my Syrian family.I even joked I was. When I
(32:20):
was leaving the house, I justsold, well, I just got a
Sitian mama. You know, youcan't tell the stories for someone else.
You really have to do your bestto just listen to them and also try
to understand and understand that. That'sprobably the best that you can do because
you realistically won't ever understand unless youwalk in their shoes. But I love
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how you had those positive experiences andyou were able to, you know,
feel like you're a part of theirfamily. And I think that's just a
really unique way to truly experience acountry that doesn't get the best rap most
of the time. How do youbelieve travel, particularly solo travel, has
the power to influence and change perceptionsboth for the traveler and for those who
(33:06):
follow your journey journey through your platform. Well, in what concerns to me
specifically, I like to believe thatit makes me a better person because I
have the chance to interact with thepeople from the places that I'm visiting,
(33:27):
and I have the chance to talkto them and to sit myself with them,
listening to their stories and listening to, as I told before, their
dreams, their expectations, their experiences. So it opens my mind and I
think it turns me more human andwith more awareness of other cultures and other
(33:55):
people and people who struggle daily withthings that we live in a bubble of
privilege. So I like to sitmyself with people that don't live at the
same bubble and try to imagine howmy life would be if I was there,
(34:17):
so and to try to at leasttry to understand them. I am
never going to feel what they feelbecause I live in a very different reality.
And to me, it's like Igo there, I spend there like
a month, and then I comehome. But they keep their lives in
their reality. And so it's itopens your mind when you travel, especially
(34:40):
when it travels solo. And Ilike to think that to the ones who
follow my content and who read mystories, that at least it makes them
think about what is it to bein another place, in another cultures?
(35:01):
To think, well, she wentthere, she's telling this so maybe I
should listen to another and other versionsof the same story, you know,
because it's very important because what Ifeel when I visit the place, it's
not the same that you're going tofeel when you visit the place, because
(35:22):
my background is different than yours.But at least if you have already the
light at the end of the tunnelabout the experience of someone that has been
there, maybe that's a call toaction for you to go there too.
So I like to think that mystories will open the minds of the ones
(35:42):
who read the stories and well atleast encourage them. It doesn't have to
be necessarily to travel there, butat least to know a little bit more
about other cultures and to educate themselvesabout other cultures. Well said, Yeah,
I love that that perception on it, that angle is just yeah.
(36:08):
I agree likewise, and Angela,before we run out of time, we
do to keep it a little bitmore lighthearted. At the very end,
we do have a fun segment welike to play with all of our guests.
We're going to ask you five travelrelated questions and quick succession, answer
as quickly as you can. Areyou ready? Yeah, As I usually
(36:34):
say, I was born really sogreat. Let's go which country has been
your favorite to visit? You don'task a mother which kid she loves the
most, don't you? They allhave a favorite. They all have a
favorite. No, I don't.I have a favorite region of the globe
(36:55):
so far. Okay, I haven'ttravel everywhere, so it would be very
arrogant of myself to tell that.No, I love them in the least.
It's like to me, it's likemy favorite region in the world so
far. Let's put this so farin the end of there we go.
Ok fair enough. This is adifferent aeration of that question. Which country
(37:21):
has the best cuisine? Celia?That's easy. I love series. What
has been your favorite beverage abroad?Alcoholic or otherwise? Mangolossi in India?
(37:42):
I've tried to do it at homeand I can't do it. I can
replicate that, but I'm addicted tomangolassie. That's what that is. I
don't know what that is. Richfor it. I'm pretty sure you have
some Indian rund there, which butyou have to search for a very traditional
(38:06):
traditional note, a real real Indianrestaurant, not the franchising ones, and
search for mango lass c you knowwhat. I have had this before,
Yeah, and I just had itrecently actually while I was in London.
Yeah, but it's not the samebecause yeah, but I went to search
(38:28):
for the recipe on the internet totry to do it at home and it's
not the same thing. Don't askme, why's fair? Fair? Fair
enough? Sometimes fruit is different indifferent countries, because I think cherry tomatoes
in Italy are way better than theUS. So I hear you to some
extent. Which country are you mostlooking forward to visiting for the first time?
(38:54):
Hopefully Afghanistan. I have the treeplanned for the next year, for
the beginning of the next year,so hopefully Afghanistan. I'm really curious about
the country and too, I knowit's going to be a very big cultural
(39:15):
shock and it's going to be verychallenging. But if it's not challenging,
I'm not going. I'm not signingfor it. Snaps. Okay, last
question, outside of Syria, whichcountry has opened your mind the most?
Maybe India. No, it isnot because of glassy because I went to
(39:43):
India in a very specific time becauseit was the beginning of the pandemic.
Not many tourists there, so Ihad the chance to be with the people
without many many tourists, and itwas the beginning of the pandemic. The
world was crazy. So it wasa very strange situation, situation and it's
(40:05):
the most challenging country until now sofar in what concerns to cultural shock to
me. Yeah, it's love ittotally different, totally different. Yeah,
awesome, Angela, thank you somuch for being on our show. It's
been great to have you and justso insightful and truly a breath of fresh
(40:30):
air. So before we leave,where can I guess find you if they
want to learn a bit more aboutyou around the world. Like the name
says, blond around the World.Now, I'm on all platforms. I
have a blog it's Blown around theWorld travel and on Instagram it's Blonde dot
around the World. On x,Twitter or whatever they call it, I'm
(40:54):
the the around the world. Sojust I have everything on Instagram, like
on the tree. So find me. Oh there you go. Yeah,
perfect, And if you want tofind out a little bit more about us,
you can visit our website at wwwdot gtspodcast dot com. You can
find us on Instagram or Facebook atGlobetrotter's podcast, Twitter or x at globetrot
(41:17):
pod. Make sure you drop usa review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if
you enjoyed listening to this conversation.Editing was done by our very own Jonathan
Otheto and Angela. Thank you somuch for being a guest on our show,
and to all of our guests,thanks for listening. Until next time.
You're listening to the Globetrotters podcast,the show dedicated to bringing you fresh endeavors
perspectives from traveling enthusiast all over theworld. I'm your co host John Otero
and I'm Max Melgnzalez. In ourlast episode, we interviewed Nora Dunn aka
the Professional Hobo. Nora is consideredto be one of the original digital nomads
(00:34):
and lifestyle travel bloggers and has beenliving this lifestyle since two thousand and six.
If you're a digital nomad or travelerwho is interested in financially sustainable travel,
that episode is definitely for you.She has a ton of experience and
free resources to help digital nomads offsettheir learning curve. But on today's episode,
we'll be speaking with Angela Santos,also known as the Blonde around the
(00:58):
World on Instagram, is an urbanplanner and photographer addicted to exploring the world
and getting connected with other cultures.She is Portuguese by birth, a world
citizen by heart, and a photographerby soul. Like us, her focus
is to break perceptions about less traveldestinations. As a woman photographer and traveling
(01:19):
mostly solo, she has an extensiveexperience in planning her own trips and uses
her platform as a means to demystifythe stigmas and paradigms associated with them.
At the end of the day,she is a storyteller who has gone on
some great adventures, and today we'llbe speaking about her trip to Syria,
which she visited back in March oftwenty twenty three. Angela, it's nice
(01:42):
to have you on the show.It's my pleasure to be here. Thank
you so much for the invitation.Of course, Angela, you and I
actually have something in common. We'reboth photographers and we both love to travel,
and I'm just curious, how didyou develop your passion for solo travel,
travel and in particular and specifically travelphotography. Well, I started to
(02:06):
travel by myself when I was eighteenand my parents gave me it was like
the early nineties, and my parentsgave me a camera, an old fashioned
camera, and they gave me likethe roles for the film for the camera
with twenty four photographs only. SoI had to go to Italy for a
(02:31):
month and only take twenty four photographs. It was really really difficult because I
had to choose which moments I wouldphotograph, and so I thought, well,
it's not about just shooting photos,because at this point we are used
(02:51):
to just point and shoot and thenwe delete and edit. But I started
to develop my sense of looking tothe world with attention by that time.
I think it was by that time. Shooting like film is something I try
to live by, even though Ishoot almost entirely digital. It brings a
(03:14):
whole new perspective. It really makesyou consider your composition, and I think
it's a really unique way to goabout it. So the fact that you
went to Italy with only twenty fiveshots that you could take, I'm sure
the pressure was on twenty four.What did I say, Oh twenty four?
Excuse me, give me one more? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah. I'm sure you'vepulled out your camera, looked at it
(03:34):
and you're like, no, apast next one? Yeah yeah, Okay.
So you've told us that you've donean extensive amount of traveling in the
Middle East. So my question is, given your extensive experience in planning your
own trips, what are some keyaspects you consider when preparing for a new
destination, especially one with unique challenges. Well, I like to first,
(03:55):
I like to educate myself about thedestination because it's very very important, not
only the history of the country,of course, because I'm going to visit
some historical places and places of heritage, but mostly about the culture, because
I think it's very very important tobe aware of what you're going to find
(04:17):
in the country, what you shouldand shouldn't do, what your behavior should
be or not. So I usuallyI start to plan my trip not only
the itinerary, but mainly the cultureand security of course, and that it's
(04:39):
in security too. Yeah, it'svery important too, that's usually my number
one if after security, I'm like, yeah, I can, I can
get by the serious of destination thatmany many perceived as challenging or unsafe.
What motivated you to visit Syria intwenty twenty three earlier this year, and
(05:00):
how did you navigate any concerns orstereotypes associated with the country, Because I'm
sure when you told people that you'regoing here, they were looking at you
like you're crazy, right, Yeah, Well most people look at me like
I'm crazy. No. No,because of the destinations I choose, not
because of who I am, ofcourse. Well it's part of me too.
(05:23):
My choices are a part of metoo. In twenty twenty one,
I went to Elebanon, and I'mvery curious about all the countries of the
Middle East, because in the Westernworld we have a very peculiar perception of
that region of the world, mostlybecause of what media brings us, and
(05:43):
we have some twisted perception of thatarea. And I started to read about
the Middle East and the history andall the geopolitics and the culture, and
about being the well the cradle ofthe modern civilization, because we know that
(06:08):
was born the modern civilization was bornin that region. So at some point
in twenty twenty one, I wentto Lebanon and I found myself in well
in Bullback, which is really nearthe border with Syria, and I thought,
well, I'm so close, soclose to Syria, and I'm so
(06:30):
close to the Masks, and Ialways wanted to go to that me too
ep city that city is, butit wasn't very easy at that time to
go to Syria because it's not likenow. Two years make a lot of
difference and now it's much easier.And so when I had the chance,
(06:53):
I had to do it. Sothat's what draw me to to go to
Syria. This year. I hadthe chance and I went for it,
And I think I just want toreally hone in on that point that you
said there's a window, because yousaid that earlier when you were in Lebanon
that at the time it just wasn'tsafe or possible to go, and in
(07:13):
the span of two years that windowopened up. And I think that's really
important because I'm a big believer intaking the opportunity when it presents itself because
you're not sure if it's going tocome back a second time. Yeah,
most most of the destinations that arein a limbo per se between between between
(07:35):
things happening, you have to takethe chance to go. I think something
that you mentioned that's really important isthe perception that people have on a certain
place. I mean, there's obvioustimes where you know a certain location isn't
the best time, it's not thatwindow of travel, but a lot of
people just view these countries as permanentlydangerous and while there may hold some truth
(07:58):
to that, that doesn't mean thatit's not The possibility of travel isn't actually
there, right, So I thinkit's important to do your research, like
you mentioned, make sure that it'ssafe for you, and then to you
know, maybe not listen to thenaysayers and do what you want to do,
which I think is important. Yeah, because those some places, it's
(08:20):
not that the place is unsafe.Of course, if there's a conflict,
it's unsafe. But if you goto like the government sites on the internet,
the foreigner affairs government sites, theyalways say it's dangerous because they don't
want to spend money with you travelingto those countries because you will cause an
(08:45):
expense. And I think that youshould be aware of what you see on
the news and on the television,and you should know that some countries,
the reality of some countries may changefrom one day to the other, and
you have to be prepared, andyou you have to be an experienced traveler
(09:05):
to travel to some places. Ifyou want to go solo or even if
you you want to go with atour group, you have to keep in
mind that things may change from onehour to the other, or from one
day to the other. And soyou you don't feel frustrated if something happens
and you can't achieve your plan oryour goals exactly how you planned a step
(09:28):
by step things may change. Sowell said, can you can you possibly
share some memorable memorable cultural experiences fromyour chip to Syria that maybe challenge your
preconceptions and left the lasting impact onyou. Were there any in particular that
you can recall. There were somany because it is a very diverse country
(09:52):
and with very different realities happening atthe same time, because in the north
it's not the same that in theout or in the center of the country.
But a cultural experience, well,I think everyone who travels to city
wants to go to Palmida because it'san heritage site. It's an an a
(10:15):
mark to a landmark a city,but it's a landmark for humanity. But
to visit Palmida you have to havespecial permissions. You have to have military
escorts. And the ancient city ofPalmida is severely damaged by the conflicts and
(10:39):
by the isses. They destroyed alot of the ancient city. Well,
next to the ancient city you havethe modern modern city of Palmia, which
is also really really destroyed. Andat some point we were at the ruins
of the ancient and city and wewere the only ones there and a group
(11:03):
of kids, like shepherd kids.They were with their goats and their sheep
and they were just like with theirurds, just like spending time with the
animals. And they were feeding theanimals in the ruins in the Unish heritage
(11:24):
site and they saw us and theywere so freaking happy to see us.
They were really really happy that theycame to us to try to make friends,
to interact with us without speaking thesame language, because well they don't
speak English. But they were sohappy. They made us like play with
(11:46):
their goats, like babysitting their goats, and they wanted to take pictures with
us. And they are so happyto see foreigners there and to show us
their legacies and their history and theirheritage and their animals, their daily life.
They just want to show us thatthey are exactly like us and that
(12:11):
we are welcomed, and they justwant to make us feel at home basically.
And to anyone listening, Palmyra pA L M Y are A Google
it incredible. I'm looking at picturesof it right now and it's just stunning.
So if you're listening to this,make sure you do that. Yeah.
(12:33):
Answer also for Queen Zenobia, becauseshe defeated the Romans to build Palmita,
so she was a badass queen.Yeah, Okay, that is awesome.
I love that I can just kindof envision you out there and having
that full on experience. I mean, sounds sounds magical. How do you
(12:54):
approach photography and an unfamiliar and potentiallysensitive location, and how do you ensure
that the work that you're doing respectslocal cultures and traditions. Do you ever
have any fears or second thoughts ontaking photos in certain places? Yeah,
especially in Syria. I think itwas the first time that I would oh
(13:16):
wow, I know it was thefirst time I was in a country in
a post conflict situation. So thewar in Syria ended just like two or
three years ago, and it's easyto get to a place and to to
(13:39):
take pictures of the homes of someone. Like you get to a city and
you see the debrize, the neighborhoodsall destroyed, and at some point I
thought that, well, I needto to make something about this, because
(14:03):
to me, it was like,it's not fair to take pictures of houses
destroyed houses, because this is ahome of a family, and I'm not
going to like take selfies in thedebris or in the destruction which one was
(14:24):
the home of someone a family livedthere, like normal people live there,
so it's not fair to go thereand to take pictures like if you are
in Rome or in Paris or inanother normal place. So I had to
(14:46):
be very very careful about what Iwas shooting because it's a matter of respect.
It's even difficult to me to explainwhat I felt there because it's it's
like you want to I want totake pictures of everything, because you want
to show the world their reality,because it's not it's not everything. Like
(15:09):
I usually say that what you're seeingon Instagram, most of the times it's
not true because people make the scenesto girls wear very pretty dresses and they
pose. I wasn't going to posein the middle of the rubble of the
house of someone. It's it's justridiculous. You have to respect the moment
(15:31):
and the reality. So I thinkit was a very big challenge as a
photographer to try to tell the storywithout just being very dramatic, because there
are very good things happening in Syriaright now, but I couldn't hide the
(15:52):
reality. So it was like veryvery strange for me. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, and I hear what youwhat you're saying. Where there's this's
kind of fine line between you don'twant to distort the truth, but you
also don't want to exploit the truthexactly, and you're trying to walk somewhere
down the middle. And yeah,I mean that that's hard. I think.
I think a key part to thistoo, a lot of people don't
(16:14):
think about it, you know,like John said, it's a fine you're
kind of walking in that gray areawhere you don't know if you should or
you shouldn't. I think a lotof people don't realize that when you're not
just going up and taking photos,but there is a style in which you
present yourself taking photos that makes abig difference. You know, there's a
huge difference of like you know,kind of like an influencer going out and
being energetic and kind of like seekingthat attention while capturing these moments. And
(16:41):
there's a way to go about itkind of like in a more uh like
kind of like light footed, respectfulway that I kind of try to do
when I take especially street photography.I don't want attention. I want to
kind of be pulled back. Iwant to be reserved, and I want
to be able to take these photoswithout being noticed as much and so as
long as it's I feel like,done in a respectful way, as long
(17:03):
as you're not verbally being told notto, it's okay, as long as
you do it in a respectful way. Yeah, mostly I tried, I
think I tried. At some point, I started to realize that it was
very much important to focus my photographyon people, on the local people.
(17:26):
So like I started to, Okay, there there is like imagine like a
neighborhood that was totally destroyed, butthere was a store and that person was
still working and selling like his vegetablesand fruit, and so let me focus
on what that person is doing becausethe reality is still there. But I
(17:52):
tried to focus on the the courageof that people, the resilience, you
know, is it's so very strong. They are trying to rebuild their cities
and their lives, and they aretrying to heal the scars of the past.
So it's another level of respect,you know, It's just another level
(18:15):
of respect. Yeah, completely agree. And Angela, your platform or social
media platform and where you present yourwork aims to demystify stigmas and paradigms associated
with travel, and what ways doyou see travel and you know, empowering
women yourself, and what advice doyou have for women who aspire to travel
(18:36):
solo. Well, I think solotraveling it's very open minding for everyone,
not just for women. Of course, we cannot be closing our eyes for
our reality because women are still verystigmatized about traveling solo or doing things solo.
(19:02):
But I think that one thing Ialways do to to people who call
me and ask me for some advice, it's educate yourself about the destination you
are trying to go. Whether it'slike near your home or on the other
side of the world, it doesn'tmatter. And if you don't have the
(19:26):
courage to go like to Japan byyourself, just go to the city close
to you where you feel start closewhere you feel at home or more comfortable,
and to to gain some experience andto it's it's very important to be
(19:52):
aware of your surroundings when you're travelingsolo, so you need to gain some
experierience because no one borns knowing howto travel solo, so it's like it's
very important to that. So Ithink it's very empowering because you gain a
(20:12):
lot of self confidence when you travelsolo. And it opens your eyes to
the world and to other realities otherthan yours, and to other cultures other
than yours. And it allows youto interact with other people because when you
travel with the group or with afriend or with someone else, you are
(20:36):
more restrict to be with that person, to give attention to that person.
When you are by yourself, youhave to open yourself to the world.
Whether if you want it or not, you have to do it. So
it's like you gain a lot ofself confidence, but you have to take
small steps before you throw yourself tothe world. Well, if you want
(20:56):
to do it, you can doit. But if you have some questions
and some doubts, first educate yourselfabout the place you want to go,
and then just listen to the peoplethat have already been at the places.
Don't listen to the cousin of thegrandmother or something like that, because they
(21:17):
are going to every place in theworld except your house. It's usually seen
as dangerous to people, so everybody'sgoing to tell you're crazy. Why are
you going to some place by yourself? Don't do it. Wait for some
friend or wait for something. Butif you wait, you don't go.
Most of the times because it's notthe perfect time, because it's not the
(21:41):
dream destination of other people. Soit's just let yourself go and go for
it. Very well said. Ifeel like you keep touching back on that
one person's aunt, and I feellike there's a subtle story back there.
Don't tell you. It's more mymom. My mom tells you you're crazy.
(22:04):
Why are you doing this towards yourself? Yeah, my mom gave up
on trying to talk me out ofit. Now. She's just like,
okay, you're going. Okay,text me and you get there. Text
me every other day. No.In my last trip, my mom was
really scared because I went now toIraq and the situation in the Middle East,
it's like nobody knows what's going tohappen. And she was like,
(22:26):
why are you going there now?Just wait, don't go there now.
And I had to tell her,Mom, we are not going to have
this conversation again, if you wantit or not. I'm going anyway.
So you you just have two choices. You don't bother me anymore about this,
and I will share the trip withyou. You keep bothering me,
(22:47):
bothering me, and I won't shareanything with you. Yeah, right right,
you did the right choice. Yeah, all right. Before I asked
this question, I do want toclarify something. When we mentioned solo travel,
there are a couple terms, orsorry, a couple of definitions that
come along with it. There is, you know, I feel like the
(23:08):
definite term or definition for solo travelwhere you go travel new places by yourself
and you're by yourself the whole time, taking it as it goes, or
working remotely or whatever it is,but you're you're solo truly. And there's
another type of solo travel where youcould be traveling solo and then you either
meet people, whether it's organized oryou know, on a whim, you
(23:30):
meet people and you end up travelingwith others. Both to us, we
would consider solo travel. And sowhen I asked this question, it's it's
the latter definition, which is Iwanted to know what were like the most
significant challenges that you faced during yoursolo journey to Syria and what were the
(23:51):
most rewarding aspects of that experience.Well, when I went to Syria,
I for you, let's just clarifyone thing. First. For you to
travel to Syria, you have tohave two things one visa and one clearance
security and to get the visa youhave to have the clearance security first,
(24:12):
and you can only have the clearingsecurity if you travel with the local tour
company. So I had to gowith the local tour company, and I
also went to because the thing was, I went with the Portuguese tear company,
which is san Jota, and thenthere we met the Syrian Golden Team,
(24:38):
which is the local torre company.So otherwise we couldn't do a proper
tour in the country. Well,we couldn't even enter in the country actually,
So it's like it's like an obligationlike North Korea where you have to
go on like a guided tours inorder to ask treat as North Korea,
(25:00):
because in North Korea you cannot speakwith the locals, and in Syria you
can interact with everyone. Yeah,it's not that strict, but yeah,
the government because there are some regionsin the country that are still going through
(25:21):
some situations, let's say, likethis, and are not exactly totally safe,
and they want to guarantee that touristsare safe and that we travel in
the country the safest way possible.So we have to have a tour company
to ensure that everything goes smooth,and you have thousands of checkpoints, thousands
(25:49):
of checkpoints, so if you don'thave someone who knows exactly what to do,
like with the passports and showing yourdocuments and speaking the language, even
speaking the language, it's very,very difficult to show that you are just
a tourist and you are there andyou are not going to do anything wrong
(26:14):
or you're not like spying the countryor something, because they still have some
issues going on. But for ustourists, it's fine because we go to
the places that are already stabilized andthere's no problem at all. There's no
issue at all in any place thatwe went to. It's totally okay.
(26:37):
I never felt myself in any kindof situation that I could say, I
don't feel safe here. You know, that's sixth sense that tells you I
don't I think something's going on.I never felt at any point like that
in any situation. And that's great. You know, you kind of already
(26:59):
talked a little bit about Palmira,but what were some of the other places
that you visited that you just tooka lot from that experience where it was
rewarding where you were, like itstands out for you when you were in
Syria. Well, in terms ofcities that we visited, I of course,
(27:19):
Alepo is one of the places thatwe all heard about during the conflicts,
and it was very marked in mymind still a because I remember to
see on the news and everywhere thedestruction and the suffering of the people,
(27:40):
and it was very very hard.But being there, it's totally different,
and because you see with your eyesand it's very very different, and you
feel the energy and you talk tothe people because you when you humanize an
inhumane scenario, things got get adifferent perspective, you know, because you
(28:03):
are talking to the people who livedthat situation, and they have faces,
they have families, they have hopesand dreams like all of us. And
so it's like it's not that youcan put yourself on their shoes, because
you can't never ever just the oneswho lived that situation can talk about it,
(28:27):
but you can at least be emphaticabout it and try to understand them,
try to hear them, try toshare their story, and try to
make the world see that they areexactly like us. Everybody wants to be
happy and have dreams, and everybodywants to be safe and has a job,
(28:52):
so we all have the same expectations. And just a quick follow up
to that question, because we've talked. You talked a little bit about,
you know, outside of the shop, the individual who was selling vegetables and
when you were in a lepo tryingto you know, interact with locals.
Is there a encounter with a local, one specific person that you know stands
(29:15):
out in your mind that you canshare with us. Well, I had
many conversations with with people about thesituation, but I have about what what
they what they lived during the periodof war. Uh. And the stories
(29:37):
are all of survival actually of tryingto survive. And I even wrote at
some point about it. Because it'slike when you see the city is destroyed,
it's easy to rebuild buildings. It'snot that easy to rebuild lives,
you know, and it's not thateasy to to heald the scars of years
(30:03):
and years and years of war.And it's not it's very difficult on the
human level. But I had onesituation at home at homes homes Homes.
It's a city in city which wasseverely damaged by the conflicts, and we
(30:26):
went to have dinner at the houseof Faddy, of his parents, and
Faddy is the owner of the tourcompany, of the Syrian tour company,
and we went to have dinner withhis family, with his mom, sisters,
father, nephews, everybody was thereand his his mother cooked for us
(30:47):
for hours, and I was tryingto explain her that the food was really
delicious, but she didn't speak English, so I was trying by gestures to
explain the food was amazing. Youhave the most She had the most gentile
action that I was not expected expectingbecause she just hugged me and she kissed
(31:11):
me in the forehead and it waslike I'm at home, you know's it
was so generous for them to giveus a meal, and she was like
hugging me, and well, we'renot used to this in the Western world,
because we are not like that.You don't open the door of your
(31:33):
house and take strangers to your houseto feed them and then you hug them
and kiss them and just make themfeel like families. So it's like they
have went through such difficult times andthey still keep their generosity and their humanity
(31:56):
and they're really, really generous andthat's one of the things I appreciate very
much in the Middle East, that'sone of the things. And in Sidia
I was I felt at that home. I felt like I was with my
family, with my Syrian family.I even joked I was. When I
(32:20):
was leaving the house, I justsold, well, I just got a
Sitian mama. You know, youcan't tell the stories for someone else.
You really have to do your bestto just listen to them and also try
to understand and understand that. That'sprobably the best that you can do because
you realistically won't ever understand unless youwalk in their shoes. But I love
(32:40):
how you had those positive experiences andyou were able to, you know,
feel like you're a part of theirfamily. And I think that's just a
really unique way to truly experience acountry that doesn't get the best rap most
of the time. How do youbelieve travel, particularly solo travel, has
the power to influence and change perceptionsboth for the traveler and for those who
(33:06):
follow your journey journey through your platform. Well, in what concerns to me
specifically, I like to believe thatit makes me a better person because I
have the chance to interact with thepeople from the places that I'm visiting,
(33:27):
and I have the chance to talkto them and to sit myself with them,
listening to their stories and listening to, as I told before, their
dreams, their expectations, their experiences. So it opens my mind and I
think it turns me more human andwith more awareness of other cultures and other
(33:55):
people and people who struggle daily withthings that we live in a bubble of
privilege. So I like to sitmyself with people that don't live at the
same bubble and try to imagine howmy life would be if I was there,
(34:17):
so and to try to at leasttry to understand them. I am
never going to feel what they feelbecause I live in a very different reality.
And to me, it's like Igo there, I spend there like
a month, and then I comehome. But they keep their lives in
their reality. And so it's itopens your mind when you travel, especially
(34:40):
when it travels solo. And Ilike to think that to the ones who
follow my content and who read mystories, that at least it makes them
think about what is it to bein another place, in another cultures?
(35:01):
To think, well, she wentthere, she's telling this so maybe I
should listen to another and other versionsof the same story, you know,
because it's very important because what Ifeel when I visit the place, it's
not the same that you're going tofeel when you visit the place, because
(35:22):
my background is different than yours.But at least if you have already the
light at the end of the tunnelabout the experience of someone that has been
there, maybe that's a call toaction for you to go there too.
So I like to think that mystories will open the minds of the ones
(35:42):
who read the stories and well atleast encourage them. It doesn't have to
be necessarily to travel there, butat least to know a little bit more
about other cultures and to educate themselvesabout other cultures. Well said, Yeah,
I love that that perception on it, that angle is just yeah.
(36:08):
I agree likewise, and Angela,before we run out of time, we
do to keep it a little bitmore lighthearted. At the very end,
we do have a fun segment welike to play with all of our guests.
We're going to ask you five travelrelated questions and quick succession, answer
as quickly as you can. Areyou ready? Yeah, As I usually
(36:34):
say, I was born really sogreat. Let's go which country has been
your favorite to visit? You don'task a mother which kid she loves the
most, don't you? They allhave a favorite. They all have a
favorite. No, I don't.I have a favorite region of the globe
(36:55):
so far. Okay, I haven'ttravel everywhere, so it would be very
arrogant of myself to tell that.No, I love them in the least.
It's like to me, it's likemy favorite region in the world so
far. Let's put this so farin the end of there we go.
Ok fair enough. This is adifferent aeration of that question. Which country
(37:21):
has the best cuisine? Celia?That's easy. I love series. What
has been your favorite beverage abroad?Alcoholic or otherwise? Mangolossi in India?
(37:42):
I've tried to do it at homeand I can't do it. I can
replicate that, but I'm addicted tomangolassie. That's what that is. I
don't know what that is. Richfor it. I'm pretty sure you have
some Indian rund there, which butyou have to search for a very traditional
(38:06):
traditional note, a real real Indianrestaurant, not the franchising ones, and
search for mango lass c you knowwhat. I have had this before,
Yeah, and I just had itrecently actually while I was in London.
Yeah, but it's not the samebecause yeah, but I went to search
(38:28):
for the recipe on the internet totry to do it at home and it's
not the same thing. Don't askme, why's fair? Fair? Fair
enough? Sometimes fruit is different indifferent countries, because I think cherry tomatoes
in Italy are way better than theUS. So I hear you to some
extent. Which country are you mostlooking forward to visiting for the first time?
(38:54):
Hopefully Afghanistan. I have the treeplanned for the next year, for
the beginning of the next year,so hopefully Afghanistan. I'm really curious about
the country and too, I knowit's going to be a very big cultural
(39:15):
shock and it's going to be verychallenging. But if it's not challenging,
I'm not going. I'm not signingfor it. Snaps. Okay, last
question, outside of Syria, whichcountry has opened your mind the most?
Maybe India. No, it isnot because of glassy because I went to
(39:43):
India in a very specific time becauseit was the beginning of the pandemic.
Not many tourists there, so Ihad the chance to be with the people
without many many tourists, and itwas the beginning of the pandemic. The
world was crazy. So it wasa very strange situation, situation and it's
(40:05):
the most challenging country until now sofar in what concerns to cultural shock to
me. Yeah, it's love ittotally different, totally different. Yeah,
awesome, Angela, thank you somuch for being on our show. It's
been great to have you and justso insightful and truly a breath of fresh
(40:30):
air. So before we leave,where can I guess find you if they
want to learn a bit more aboutyou around the world. Like the name
says, blond around the World.Now, I'm on all platforms. I
have a blog it's Blown around theWorld travel and on Instagram it's Blonde dot
around the World. On x,Twitter or whatever they call it, I'm
(40:54):
the the around the world. Sojust I have everything on Instagram, like
on the tree. So find me. Oh there you go. Yeah,
perfect, And if you want tofind out a little bit more about us,
you can visit our website at wwwdot gtspodcast dot com. You can
find us on Instagram or Facebook atGlobetrotter's podcast, Twitter or x at globetrot
(41:17):
pod. Make sure you drop usa review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if
you enjoyed listening to this conversation.Editing was done by our very own Jonathan
Otheto and Angela. Thank you somuch for being a guest on our show,
and to all of our guests,thanks for listening. Until next time.
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