As we approach another peek in the COVID-19 epidemic, I sit back and scroll through the 3000 pictures (no exaggeration) on my phone many of which are of my endless adventures.

I am 23 years old, and have somehow managed to travel extensively whilst being a young and broke millennial. Most of my travels began when I was pretty young. It may not seem a lot to some, but my first travels were with my family to Puerto Rico, Arizona, upstate New York, Gettysburg Virginia, Philadelphia, Atlanta and various cities in Florida just to name a few. To a kid like me, I thought road trips were a normal part of growing up. I had no idea that people stayed in their home state and never left, that the first times crossing the state line or standing to go through TSA was a huge deal. I will forever be grateful and thankful for my parents for expanding my horizons and allowing travel (no matter how small) to be a normal part of my childhood growing up.

When I was 16 years old, I went to Barcelona and Madrid on a two week exchange program with another school and met the most wonderful people, who I am still in contact with today. I truly believe that that experience propelled my love of worldly travel outside of trips with my parents. My freshman year of college I visited a Quakertown in Pennsylvania while on a social justice retreat during spring break, the following year I flew down to Destin Florida with my best friend, the year after that we flew to Mexico (Cancun to be specific) and had an awesome time relishing in the touristy side of things but also trying to learn as much about Mexico and indigenous culture as possible. In my summers I flew to the Bay Area to visit my college roommate, took an internship in Arizona at the Sonora Desert Museum the summer after that, and drove across the boarder to a tiny town for some tacos and a margarita. As you can tell, travel is extremely important to me. I love experiencing and appreciating different cultures, traditions, and especially FOOD but one of my most memorable trips definitely is when I flew to Istanbul, Turkey by myself, at 21 years old.

One of my most memorable trips definitely is when I flew to Istanbul, Turkey by myself, at 21 years old.

Istanbul was simply a layover to my final big destination, Iraq, which you can read about here. I'm highlighting Istanbul because it was my first solo trip, and I don't know if I want to go on another one. My favorite experiences of trips are having said experiences with other people. I love photos, I love going on adventures, I love navigating cities, and I love doing all those things with somebody by my side cackling the whole time. Solo trips are awesome for self reflection and independence, but I realize that I like my trip experiences to be tag team.

I had a 12 hour layover in Istanbul and starting at 6 AM they give free tours through the city, where you can see the Blue Mosque, the old Palace, the Center Square, and all of the very touristy things that Istanbul has to offer. I loved it. My tour guide was witty, young, and majored in tourism at his university. It was a little bit more fast paced than I wanted so I went off the beaten path by myself. This is why I say that I need a buddy or a partner, because I have absolutely no sense of direction! I thought I remembered the way back to the bus but I didn't. I started to get nervous as a noticed young men clearly trying to shepherd me away from the crowd; lying about knowing where my tour guide was and offering to take me on a special tour of the city. I took out the scarf I packed and wrapped around my hair to bring less attention to myself. Somehow I went from a lost American tourist to a tourist no one bothered. Because of my new incognito status, I went in the shops and bought goodies for my friends and family, I ate street food and chatted it up with a Canadian girl who was on a similar flight path. But I was lost, and I knew I was lost.

The city girl in me simply flagged down a taxi on the street said the words "airport", and was driven exactly where I needed to go. I handed over wayyy more Turkish Lira than necessary and made my way into the terminal. I grew up in New York City, so even though I don't have any sense of direction, I have (I would hope) is a lot of Street Smarts.

I'm a much better traveler now. I have my currency converter and Google translate on the first screen of my phone, I always drop pins no matter where I go, and I make sure that my maps are loaded before I start venturing out. My time navigating around Istanbul is some thing that I'll never forget, I was excited, I was mystified, I was a little nervous, and I definitely didn't speak Turkish, but as I sit at my computer during this pandemic and reflecting about my travels; I'm itching to get back on a plane and explore a new country, new place, and a new culture.

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