130+ Countries, Shopping & Travel Vlogs: Life Without Borders 👑🌍| Expat Interview with Kerry Damiano

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welcome to the last episode of xat experts season one today's guest is a
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true World traveler who has visited over 130 countries Carrie Damiano on top of
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that she created a web series to encourage solo travel especially for women and inspires others to shop local
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and try to live their life the best they can Carrie once lived in England but her
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passion for travel continued until becoming Mrs W Traveler
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this is expat experts the podcast that dives into the fascinating lives of those who've lived and worked across
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borders exploring the challenges experiences and insights they've gained along the
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way but before we start with the episode I want to remind to all listeners that the best way to stay tuned with the
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latest episodes is by hitting subscribe here on YouTube and in your favorite audio platform for extra information
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about the podcast check the website exper Express podcast.com or check the link in the
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description the exper krie
The expat: Kerry Damiano
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darana welcome to the first part of this episode today uh first of all thanks a
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lot krie for for being here with me it's a pleasure to be able to interview you um thank you for having me my
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pleasure you lived uh in multiple countries um some places longer than
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others but you visited more than 130 countries so that's an impressive number
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I must say yes and fortunately not all at once you know it was it was over 40 plus years of
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travel but but yes I love to go and see something new makes sense I mean but a lot of
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people doesn't even arrive to to the 100 which is already a big number impressive
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number 130 it's even more impressive um I would I would like to to start this
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first part a little bit asking for your background where are you from and and and where did you grow up for
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example sure sure well I grew up in cordan Idaho which is about a 100 miles
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south of the Canadian border so quite far north quite cold country and now I
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have settled in Phoenix Arizona which is almost just straight down the US uh to
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the South we actually border Mexico so I went sort of from one extreme to the
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other of cold weather High Country to the desert and very hot uh but I love it
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here and it's a great base to you know take off and just go
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anywhere nice when did all your troubles start
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like how does this happen that you start saying or where was the spark that start
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motivating you to to travel around I would say it's my mom she was kind of
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um ahead of her time and even her mother uh you know which was a couple
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Generations back in the 1940s she would just load up her kids in the car and
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take off and so my mom grew up watching her mom be in independent and so I
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watched my mom be that too and so it wasn't weird to me to just take off and
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go somewhere knew and so uh you know I just I grew up with that sense and then
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when I took my first overseas trip which was a college graduation present that was in
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1984 then I was hooked on seeing new cultures experiencing sort of History
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come alive and that really is what what sparked my interest of wanting to do
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that you know as absolute much as I could afford and as much in terms of time that I could do
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nice so you started relatively early I mean I suppose before that first overseas uh trip you did uh also
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traveling around states which is it's something that for us Europeans and and
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it's a little bit like we don't have this concept no but also like changing from one state to the other you were just saying like where you grow up it's
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absolutely different from where you're living right now no so I suppose that that you already had some experience
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like learning ways of doing different part of was because there was a reason to do it it wasn't just trips though
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there were some of those but we were on the swim team the track team the volleyball team you know some of those
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things and so you have all of these different competitions that you have to go to especially the swim team because
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that wasn't involved with school so again my mom just you know put us in the
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car my dad was busy working and so he didn't come with us and we went all over the Northwest uh and I got to see places
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that I would never really have had a reason to go to had there not been a swim meet or you know we went for a
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purpose and and that's a good way to start uh traveling because then you um
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you're not trying to figure it out on your own you're you're going for a reason yeah makes a lot of sense I I
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also traveled sometimes because of a sport and and I I I actually like it it's another way of uh I mean there
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there is the responsibility behind and you don't do it because yes or yes no but um yes what was the first country
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that you didn't like travel to but you decided to stay for some time um was it
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England or would be England yes so uh back when I again I was in college when
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I uh I had just graduated when I took the first trip and just fell in love with travel so I figured out a way to go
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back so I went to graduate school in London at the American College fashion which is now defunct but it gave me the
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opportunity to go and so I was there for over a year and again had a purpose in
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it but interestingly Mark uh you know there was no internet there was no email
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it was all done by letters I wrote letters home to communicate with my
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parents and it took a week for the mail to get there so my mom would write me a
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letter and it' take a week so our letters would Us in the air like this um
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and so that was how I communicated with my family while I lived there so it's a very different experience I think then
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than what you could do now where you could just you know pull up your family on your computer and talk to them in
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real time absolutely I think Communications have changed so much like it's just a I
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mean it's a luxury on on younger generations and also like myself I think
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barely I mean I didn't have full when I was a kid but I think it was pretty fast that it start appearing all the
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smartphones and whatever and how easy we adapted to it um I I I don't remember
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much of writing letters or like I think I have I have to remember did you ever
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write letters probably more more postcards probably than than letters itself but uh
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I think well actually my girlfriend is still writing P postcards so it's just something that people still are in too
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so that's cool um although with the same thing you went
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to England which language at least wasn't a problem uh do you remember what
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challenge what was the biggest challenge that you had when you arrived to to the to England at that point of
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time well uh I don't wouldn't say it was just in terms of arriving because again
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I had go going to school so there was just the getting myself ready to go to
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school but I think probably the biggest challenge was being so far from home and even though I had already graduated from
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college and I had gone away for school there was still that um safety net of
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your family you're in the same country you can communicate easily and so being that far away and completely on my own
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okay I was 22 and a half years old but still it was a long ways away from home
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and difficult to get if something happened if there was an emergency so I think that was probably
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my biggest challenge was truly cutting the umbilical cord of um being so far
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away and I truly had to figure everything out on my own um and and I
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you know I call that adulting when you just go through that process of there's no help you just have to be an
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adult absolutely it's it's a good growing up experience right yes
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absolutely abely absolutely I think I mean nowadays I think people just start
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doing that by leaving the parents place and then going to whatever but it's really true that as soon as you have the
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family close by and whatever you always have the safety net and even nowadays
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when you live further away in another country then it changes the perspective
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for sure it's it's another whole story um on the other hand right now we
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are it's pretty common I don't know if if back then it was common in University
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for you to or you were one of the few uh Foreigner students in in in University
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back then because now Erasmus uh programs in internships everything everyone is from everyone know so you
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meet people from around the world but how was for you in in England in that time uh there were there were people
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from countries I didn't know were countries okay you talk about getting a little wake call in terms of you know my
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I felt like my education was good but it wasn't the same and you know this from living in Europe you know European
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education is different from an American education and so when I met people from places I'd never heard of it was like H
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I have a lot to learn and so that was really one of the things I enjoyed so much was just making friends from all
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over the place and uh while I I'm not in touch with any of them anymore that was
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very important for that time in my life nice um did you take the advantage
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of being in Europe to travel around also at that point of time or you were too busy with University you know a little a
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little I traveled a lot around England uh a little bit you know um I was a poor
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student so that somewhat limit uh but I did travel what I could and uh and then
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my mom did come over for a visit and we did Russia Poland uh you know this kind
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of nice big Loop East it was East Germany at the time do you remember East
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Germany uh not actively uh when there was in East
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Germany no okay well that that that was a truly fascinating experience uh to go
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to Berlin where you know it was cut right down the middle and there was the west side and the east side and um going
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through Checkpoint Charlie and having all the soldiers around and the barbwire
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and the just that feeling of one side was full of music and light and you know
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Joy of living and the other side was sort of depressed and kept down and and so I mean this is one of the reasons I
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love to travel I'm sure one of the reasons you do too is that you just experience things that you could never
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imagine and and you learn things okay we learned about it in the books but it's not the
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same as being there and experiencing and seeing it with your own
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eyes absolutely like I think it's very much about connecting a little bit also
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while traveling I think we will talk a little bit more on the second part because a lot of what you do it's also
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getting in touch with with the local shops and things at least what I saw in
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your social medias and and YouTube channel and everything think so I would go a little bit deeper into that part
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but um do you treat it the same uh when you are living in a place do you do you
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feel the same way uh traveling temporarily than when you uh when you
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leave there because it's I suppose it's easier when you stay for longer time to
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do these connections no like well you're setting down Roots even
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if they're somewhat temporary Roots When you are quote Living somewhere when you are TR
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you're like a a rock rolling down a hill you you just keep moving moving moving and so you never have any chance to set
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any Roots so there's quite a bit of difference I think from that perspective
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and you develop routines when you're living somewhere what are your routines well I you know go to the grocery store
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on Tuesdays or you know whatever it is that your routines are when you're
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traveling there really isn't a routine because every place you go is different and so you're just trying to uh you know
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live in the moment and and also I'm sure you know this as well that when you're
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living somewhere you can almost take a breath you can slow down and you're not
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on this fast pace see everything 400 miles an hour uh when you're living
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there you can just go okay if I don't see something new today that's all right I still experience
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something I still met people talked to people made friends um you know had had
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cultural experiences when you're traveling it's different you're on this mission to
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check things off of your list yeah I suppose also the cultural immersion that you can achieve while
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setting on on a place for a little bit longer it's much bigger um what's what's
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what's your tip advice for anyone who is traveling around to meet local people to
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know their culture to to get in contact with how how do you do it ah well that is a good question and
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it it's I would say other than in terms of my show and I know we're going to talk about that in a little bit um but
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that is how I meet people I like the the shopping experience when you go in and and you're asking questions and you're
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learning and then they want to give you some advice go here and go there um you know so you end up building sort of a
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little um you know relationship for lack of a better word it's it's not um a deep
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relationship but you know you start making friendships along the way and uh
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that's what I do when I travel it's to the nth degree when you're living
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somewhere that then you can't let's me for a coffee or or something because there's time to do that it's truly about
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the luxury of time you know don't you think You' lived in a number of places that when you have that luxury of time
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it's you just approach your whole life differently
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yeah what happened next in your life like you were traveling with with your
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mom at that point you finish your your studies in England you go back home or
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yes yes moved back to the States and tried to become a productive member of
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society so you got a job but I was very fortunate that the job that I had
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uh allowed me the the schedule was such we worked for1 which means I had
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three-day weekends all the time and I could combine it with you know paid
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vacation days and I could get quite a nice chunk of time each year to travel
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and so I that's where I spent a lot of my time just going to those 130 plus
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countries uh because I had the time and sort of the resources to do it and I
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traveled with my mom probably for about 10 years and then you know I just got to that stage of my life where I wanted to
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do my own thing I wanted to go where I wanted to go and do what I wanted to do which is hard to do when you're with
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someone else you know you know this you go with someone you go where do you want to go I don't know where do you want to
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go and you have this back and forth but if you're by yourself this is one of the things I love about it is that when I'm
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excited and um enthusiastic and energetic I go out and do things when I'm tired I rest and I don't have to
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worry about disappointing someone else or or having to split up and go do different things because we don't want
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to do the same thing so you're a big advocate of Solo
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solo traveling let's say like this um I suppose you need you need to
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be a kind of person who also knows how to be be alone and and be okay with yourself it's part it's true
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and and not everybody is okay with that but you know for those who say I'd like
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to travel by myself but I'm not sure I'm going to like it my advice always is to
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start really small and so small like go out to eat alone like go to a fancy
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restaurant by yourself when you are surrounded by couples and see how that
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feels see if you like it go to a movie by yourself or you know just start doing some things by yourself and just see am
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I self-conscious do I like it you know okay this was just fine I had no
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problems then bump it up a little bit go on a little weekend trip by yourself see
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how you like that you know don't don't go to Europe for a month by yourself
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first time build up to it slowly and and see if it's for
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you I think you also give a lot of advice to woman who want to solo trouble
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like I think one of the questions that pops up of course it's security as a woman normally IO I suppose or it's the
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first thing that crosses my mind unfortunately we live in a world where uh where things are not as equal as they
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should be and some places it's hard it's harder than others um what what what do
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you say to any any woman that wants to travel alone uh and travel solo
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and most most places you go in Europe are perfectly safe and it's just fine
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and enough people speak English and it's just fine it's a little bit like going somewhere in the United States meaning
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most places are going to be okay there are some places that maybe it's not that great for a
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woman to be traveling by herself and when that is the case then I say if you possibly can hire a private guide or go
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with a group tour you know um there's different experiences in both of those things they have their advantages and of
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course their disadvantages for me I'm far enough along in my travel career that I like to hire private guides fact
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I have a trip coming up in just um two weeks less less than two weeks that is
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Cambodia somatra Malaysia Indonesia and Vietnam and those are places that it's
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you know you can't read the signs so it's very hard to do it on your own so I've hired private guides in all of
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those places uh for one my safety but two uh my time is so limited I mean it's
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fast some places I'm there one day I've got to see as much as I can in a very short period of time and I don't want to
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spend half my time lost or trying to ask people who don't speak English where to go and what to do so uh it makes sense
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for me to hire private guides to do that but it also makes me feel very safe and so if you can possibly afford it that's
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a great way to go if not group tours are typically quite reasonable and then you have people around you and you have that
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sense of somebody's watching out for me makes a lot of sense yes um recently
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you're leing like you're staying sometime in in the places where you travel you switch a little bit the mode
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of like also I suppose um you don't have the same amount of work that you had
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back back in the days where I mean at Le at least you had the three days weekend hopefully someday that arrives
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everywhere um it's really nice um is is it because of time now you
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have more free time to to to take also and then well travel slowly I do I do M
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World traveler full-time so it's uh I didn't think it was going to be full-time but it's so much work that it
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is so when I go to places and I stay a month I'm working the whole time so I
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just like you that work remotely I take my work with me so oh darn I have to go
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to Paris and spend a month and call it
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work what what a bad news uh well depends on on your wallet especially
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Paris depends on on how much how is your budget because it's an expensive
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city somebody somebody's gonna ask you like how do I get a job like that uh multiple times and uh but I
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think since Co since the pandemic things are getting a little bit more and more into that direction it's happening agree
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more it was a very reserved thing yeah I don't know a lot of companies they're
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wanting more flexibility in their work and and working from home or working some days from home I have a niece who
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uh she works I think two days in the office and three days at home so that gives her a lot more flexibility yeah
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yeah definitely yeah I think some something that it was reserved for the it environment and and everything it's
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opening up for for companies of all sectors and everything of course if you
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don't need to be present in front of a machine or or in a restaurant or there
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is that's a different story you know like being a being a chef uh remote it's
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complex uh for the moment um what is the places where you liveed now recently
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what are the places that you stayed for for a longer time yes yes well this year I did Rome and I was there for a month
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and I don't know if that's technically called living there but I call it that because I rented an apartment I um
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shopped at the grocery stores I only ate out like twice the whole time that I was
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there so I was and I'm not a great cook or anything but I ate in I tried to live
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as much like a local as possible and obviously because I was working I wasn't hitting all the tourist places and I've
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done all of that I've been there several times and so I wasn't I didn't have the great need to see all of the touristy
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things so I concentrated on on my work which again it it's more like that's
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what I would do if I were at home so it felt like living there rather than being
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a tourist does that make sense yes definitely like I think it's a
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easier way to or it should be it's less disconnected than just being there
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living in in your bubble of experts and or of of other foreigners without connecting with anything and eating out
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every day and living outside of makes sense still I suppose it doesn't give
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you the time exactly to set connections deep connections with anyone or like get
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favorite places or like I don't know suppose you meet people but they go a little bit more faster than what you
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would consider a deep friendship or or a good relationship no
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MH but you know I I had again my route and I knew people along my route the the
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grocery store where I went and they knew I spoke English so they would speak English back to me uh or help me you
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know do you need help with reading that label you know so people then knew who I
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was after being there for a while and so you know that's kind of nice right that
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uh you know they say it's nice when people know your name didn't necessarily know my but they knew that I was living
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in the area and that I was a foreigner and they were very helpful to me uh and
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then the year before I did Rome so 2024 I did Rome 2023 I did Paris and kind of
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the same thing I was there a little bit longer but um just loved the experience
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of having the luxury of time and being able to see things I would never have
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seen had I just been you know come in see some things and and head on to the
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next thing so uh again because I was working working for the show trying to find interesting stores and all of the
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um little outlying neighborhoods I I really felt like I got a good sense of
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going to all the different neighborhoods and wouldn't have had a reason to had I not been there for five weeks and
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working nice I really love when I kind of have the option of discovering
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something that it's out of the touris spots like these kind of places where you where the locals go and and then
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suddenly you are the only Foreigner there the sensation of like oh I found something that it wasn't supposed to be
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for me uh and that I think that takes time it's a matter of integrating
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yourself um I I think it also matters on which country you are there are cultures
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that take more attention on these kind of details of like you going to the same grow grocery store every time no um here
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in Greece for example if you speak some words of Greek and they see you doing the effort they treat you in a complete
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different way although they treat everyone perfectly but when you do the effort of the language it's it's a it's
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another level and when you go to the same fruit shop over years um they is
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what you say they don't necessarily know your name but you are that guy who has
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been here for 3 years going to buy the tomatoes to us um you know like and they
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know you and that and and they give you I don't know I have you ever tried this uh the other day I tried a a vegetable
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that tastes like mustard it's like an spinach and if you
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as much as you chew it it tastes more and more of mustard never tried before
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Master yes similar to master leaft yeah and which I I did I've never tried
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before and and it's just because these guys know me from some time and they was like oh this for free try this okay
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whatever I don't even know what it is but in Greek trying to
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speak it's scous so do you feel like you have totally integrated now into the
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culture there no I don't think 3 years are enough for being fully integrated into
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the langu which is very complex uh Greek it's it's very complex I think I have
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more facility because at the end Mediterranean people tend to have similar ways of doing things let's say
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like this but um for being like fully doing
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Greek Lifestyle on on everything and and everything I think you need more time and and probably setting much more one
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of the things that I suffered a little bit here is getting deeper relationships with with uh with Greek people which is
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something that foreigners Trend to to I although I met Greeks from the very beginning due to sports and everything
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it's difficult to make the Deep connection uh in there because of course everyone has their circles and since
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they were five years old with their friends from school or from University and whatever and you entering there like
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a mushroom in the middle of nowhere um but yeah
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although I've integrated more here than in other places it feels more like home
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and why do you think that is so well culturally wise I think the the
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culture between between Barcelona and Athens and the way of doing things and taking
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things a little bit slower when when you grab a coffee or when you I don't know paying less attention to work and more
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to life and this kind of stuff um also sometimes like the cows but organized
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think uh being chaotic but at the same time being extra organized with stuff fits pretty well into into aens let's
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say like this yeah it's it's a curious experience gree in general has a lot to
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to offer um love I want I've been there several times and love it so it's a cool
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country need to go back you should like there is a lot of the Mainland uh these
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years that that we've been here traveling that nobody knows about it and everyone goes to the islands and the
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mainland gree it's incredibly beautiful um talking about beautiful places I
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wanted to to close this first part of the section and I I will ask some questions that probably they ask you
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thousands of time but but uh you visited 130 countries which is a lot like what
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are your favorite or your hidden gems in the terms of like okay this is a place that I was not expecting that it was
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that beautiful and suddenly surprised you uh uh I'm going to have to think
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about that the Hidden Gem for moment but I do get asked a lot about my favorite places and I was I say there are
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favorites for different reasons so favorite for friendliness of the people
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New Zealand and Australia okay favorite for shock value
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you know we just everything seemed to be shocking the heat was shocking the Flies and the lack sanitation was shocking
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that would be Egypt um favorite place for shopping would be Paris even though you know prices are
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not great but it's there's just so much and it's just so amazing so you know I
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have a few favorites more importantly I would say I have places that I'm glad
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that I went but I don't need to go back and I think we probably all have those
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that okay once was great but it was enough uh for examp example Easter Island that was incredible just
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absolutely amazing but it's also a place that once you see it it's not a place it it's not changing so you don't need to
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go back and see it again makes sense what about for foot
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what is your favorite food you thread so far you I I am not a foodie not in the
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least okay uh so I sort of eat to survive rather than you know live to eat
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like some people so I typically don't put any time and effort into um big
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cultural experiences for food so I have um and I know we'll talk about this next
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half my show I purposely don't talk about food because there's so many people who do and so I will leave that
The expert: Ms. World Traveler
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to The Experts of you know people who have great sense of taste and smell and
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can tell you all the nuances of all the special cultural you know flavors makes
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sense but I think you need to find your Niche and if you have it clear that's good for
32:33
you I suppose um exactly yeah with that with that said I would say like we could
32:39
rather like jump to the second part of the episode already I mean we have been putting it de here and there hey there
32:46
everyone if you're loving this episode so far and you want to stay tuned with other expert experiences make sure to
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hit the Subscribe button and follow our podcast so you never miss an episode
32:59
the expert Miss World traveler you have I would say like a
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website where you have more like a Blog approach uh into into your travels but
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it's like a web series at the same time that you give insights for solo traveling uh you have social media now
33:18
uh about your travels also I I saw Instagram and Link LinkedIn I think also
33:24
um and you also have a YouTube channel where you have a show uh where you
33:30
explain your your your travels but you also try to explain I don't know I I've
33:37
seen a lot of like giving recommendations of local shops where to go for like these kind of things what
33:44
what is the the whole if you have to to summarize what is the what is the show
33:50
about well the mission of M World traveler is to inspire women to travel
33:55
and then shop local so we feature women artists designers entrepreneurs and men
34:01
too just our focus is women uh with the idea being that if you know something
34:06
about a place you and You' you know been into their shop and met them and know their story you will feel comfortable
34:14
you that will that will inspire you to want to go there so you mentioned the
34:19
blog I haven't worked on the blog for a while so that probably isn't the most important thing that we're doing it's
34:24
just you know it's a matter of time you have to choose as just what are gonna spend your time doing and so the the
34:31
YouTube series has has really just taken over everything so Mo mostly that's what
34:37
we work on and we go into a city and I shop the whole city in two days and in
34:43
those two days I storyboard it I write a script I lay everything out and then we film on one day my niece comes with me
34:51
uh my middle niece uh and you know we film on one day and then we move on to
34:56
the next place so it's very fast-paced and I'm really trying to give information that people don't typically
35:04
get so you know this there are thousands of travel blogs and travel sites out
35:10
there and it's all about where to stay and where to go and where to eat uh you know and those are good good things to
35:17
know but since everybody's doing it I wanted to do something different so for mworld traveler we're going to be
35:23
focused on style design fashion art and teque uh history culture architecture you know
35:31
sort of the the design and the style side of things I think that's what sets us
35:37
apart interesting where does the the name comes from I I know that you work
35:42
in in pagentry and I suppose that Mrs World Travel comes from there uh but how
35:48
did you came with the idea yeah it's it's an homage to the 40
35:54
plus years that I've spent in pageantry uh was obviously a uh a title holder
36:00
back in my young days but I stayed in it I judge all over the country I'm a coach
36:05
so I I'm an MC um you know I do a lot with pageantry and so when I came up
36:12
with the name m World traveler I almost didn't know what it was going to be I I've had it for several years and just
36:18
you know set it aside it it it will come to me how I'm supposed to use it and
36:23
just one day it was like the scales were lifted off my eyes and I could sort of see it it's supposed
36:30
to be this YouTube series it's supposed to be a you know website and a you know just travel information and so I made up
36:37
the banner and uh you know have the little crown that I I just have a picture I don't wear it you know when
36:43
I'm out traveling but um it's just an homage to to my pageant community and
36:49
something that sets me apart a little bit different than what everybody else is doing it's also an amazing marketing
36:57
tool because I wear it when we film and so I'm out there and people come up and
37:02
what is this you know or they'll say congratulations and I just say oh thanks
37:07
I didn't win anything but it's nice that people have come up they want to take pictures which
37:13
means they're going to go home and Google it and maybe follow us once they've you know seen us out doing our
37:20
thing yeah it's so there is a marketing behind it also of course it's a strategy
37:25
to to put yourself out there and and show who you are no I think it makes a
37:30
lot of sense um maybe coming back to to the the
37:35
importance and the emphasis that you put in on shopping local um how do you find the shops it's it's
37:44
because when we were saying I mean finding a generic shop in every city it's relatively easy no and finding the
37:49
big Brands it's relatively easy but how do you connect with the real local shops yes thank you for saying that Mar
37:58
because I work really really hard to find those little like the hidden gems you were you were asking about the
38:04
hidden gems uh I do a lot of research before I come because my time is so limited so I'm checking things out and
38:11
of course there are some shops that get a lot of uh attention online I check
38:16
them out but I don't tell them I'm coming I don't arrange interviews ahead of time because I need to walk in I need
38:22
to see the store I need to meet the person I need to see what it looks like and sometimes it's the right place and
38:28
sometimes it's not and and as you said we don't cover any big major uh Brands
38:35
because you can find them in any City that doesn't inspire you to travel to that place and uh by finding local
38:44
people then you're hearing local stories and seeing things being made you know it's not made in
38:50
China wrong with that but you know if you go to Barcelona you don't want
38:57
something in China you want something made in Barcelona so that's really what we're after and I think that tells the story
39:04
of the place through its people through their art through their design through their
39:12
inspiration absolutely I mean I'm I'm a big defender of not buying products from
39:18
Big Brands and especially like for for ethical reasons but also for ecological
39:23
reasons and sometimes because um this fash shopping industry of like getting
39:29
things fast it will last only some months it's okay maybe you pay some more
39:35
money for something produced locally but if the quality it's better it's better that thing will last longer than buying
39:42
something that it's three times cheaper producing whatever in the world um and
39:48
you're supporting local people yes you know I I often say this you know some some of the places you go as you know
39:54
their their economies are struggling and so I feel like when I come I I spend
40:00
money in the hotel and on a guide or in a restaurant or for local products that
40:06
are made there so I contribute to their economy by coming and and rather than uh
40:12
foreign owned uh businesses trying to do it to locally locally run
40:18
places nice so your research Market basically is then trying to find local
40:25
brands in in Internet or or like do you contact people I find them there first
40:30
and then I'm walking I walk the whole city and just again going into shop
40:36
after shop after shop trying to look for just the most the most interesting again maybe the ones that don't get any play
40:45
you know or or they're just a mom and pop shop they don't have any Internet presents um but that doesn't mean
40:51
they're not a great place for you to know about so hopefully people depend on me you know they follow our journey to
40:58
see these places that they wouldn't have found on their own cool
41:05
um I think I've seen a lot of your videos like preparing
41:10
for the interview and and I realize that there is not a single type of shop that
41:17
you go for it's a little bit generic like in one place you enter a camic shop and then in the next one you would be
41:23
entering a shop that it's I don't know doing a lot of craft I I saw in in in
41:29
the latest video at least but I I get the point like if you can get the experience of seeing how they are doing
41:34
their thing it's even better now I suppose but yes that's our favorite I understand it like I I I
41:42
carve wood and it's one of my passions and when I find a wood shop every somewhere I'm I'm
41:48
always spending too much time in these places and then it's so so ins you're
41:53
learning something getting inspiration so yes that would that's great great idea um from all the shops categories
42:01
that you've covered what what is the one that interests you more the
42:07
most now that's not a fair question I
42:12
know you know I I would say I don't have a favorite uh I do like the ones that
42:18
are making things in front of us because for one I do have a little bit of a Fascination I'm I wouldn't say I'm good
42:25
with my hands but I make a lot of things like I'm make all my own jewelry I designed my own clothes I've made
42:30
everything in my house uh you know so I love design and color and you know
42:36
fashion and that sort of thing um so I'm inspired by that so I love to watch
42:41
people create things and then I learn something from it um but I I don't you
42:47
know I don't try and copy anybody so I'm very appreciative when people are willing to show us how they make things
42:54
that they know I'm not going to try and steal it uh not stealing the idea I'm I'm trying
42:59
to um show the world their creativity and their talent and again that inspires
43:06
people to want to go there nice um obviously the creativity
43:15
side you have it the traveling part you have it no like the whole uh um mixure
43:21
makes sense that it results in the show that you are doing but how did this idea
43:27
come life like in which moment in your life you decided oh okay I'm because
43:34
you're already travel it to majority of these 130 places before you start doing
43:39
the show it's not you start traveling due to the show no it's more the other way around probably um what what
43:47
triggered the moment or was the moment of decision of like a why why I don't do this well as I said it was sort of just
43:54
that epitome moment where all of a sudden oh I need to but it's also
44:00
turning a hobby into work which you know you you have to think about that a little bit because travel was my getaway
44:08
from work now it is my work so so there's a little bit of difference there
44:14
there's also a lot of pressure and I I understand that it's pressure we put on ourselves for how fast we need to put
44:21
together a show but it's it's also a little bit about budget and time and you know there are factors the reason why we
44:29
put such pressure on ourselves um but it's very different that when when you're going and you're I'm searching
44:36
for places I want to cover on the show I'm not sightseeing and relaxing and
44:43
enjoying it's working it's fun work but it's work all of the same but when
44:50
you're asking about this moment it was it was like it laid out in front of me
44:56
and and I could see what it was supposed to be and truly this is a summation of
45:03
my whole life you know in other words it's impossible to separate Miz World
45:09
traveler from krie Damiano it's it's the same because it's all of my experience
45:15
and my passion again the style the design all of those things that's why it makes it easy for me to cover those
45:22
things as opposed to what some of the other people are covering the restaurants I told you I'm not a food
45:27
so it doesn't make sense for me to cover restaurants when that's not my thing
45:33
this is my thing and so you know hopefully people are going to see something different and um you know be
45:39
inspired kind of like I'm inspired when I go um so yeah it's it's just the a
45:44
culmination of all of my life experiences put together into a job that I made up for
45:51
myself nice um you also like touch a point that find very interesting no
45:58
because at the end every project this podcast as an example it requires an
46:04
amount of work behind it's not always seen on on how much work do you put
46:11
behind the scenes No but um when when when is for you the transformation
46:18
between something being a hobby or like a sight hustle to being your full job of
46:25
things uh is it due to monetization is it due to sponsors is it due to bringing
46:31
a a revenue constantly that allows you to go to the all these travels or or why
46:36
why is the reason that you considered that click that to be your work and not your
46:42
hobby right uh I haven't figured that out yet Mark okay we haven't started making
46:49
money from this yet and smartly because we're still really working hard to grow our followership and you you know you
46:55
have to be at a certain level before you can approach for sponsorships and Partnerships and some of those kind of
47:01
things I hope that that will come if it doesn't then that doesn't mean I'm going to work any less hard and be any less
47:08
passionate about this we we'll see hopefully it will come but you know we're we're working to get more exposure
47:15
so things like podcasts uh we're we're now working with uh tourism websites to
47:22
try and get them to uh you know partner with us to put our videos on their site
47:27
because they typically have a lot more followers than we do so it's a growth process nobody starts out at the top as
47:34
you know uh and hopefully your your trajectory is a quick one but sometimes
47:40
it's more like that just you grow a very few people there's a secret you
47:48
know you should tell people and make a million dollars because everybody wants to know the secret yes well there is a
47:54
lot of people selling courses for a million dollars out out there of The Secret of being famous the other thing
48:00
is is that they work because if not we will all be famous no that's a whole
48:06
different story N I think it takes time it takes hard work and I don't I mean I kind of
48:12
agree with the whole strategy I I also take this project what it started like
48:18
three years ago as a project now it's it is a a side work a second work but it's
48:24
work it's it's production it's a TI I need to dedicate time to it and therefore I put an effort as if it was a
48:31
normal regular work into it no um right I was just curious if it was for you the
48:38
same or or or or it really worked so so brilliantly fast uh hope for for both of
48:46
us let's say like this um it's it's difficult it would be nice to be an overnight success but you know there are
48:52
very few of those very few um do you remember from the places that
49:00
you've been recently traveling any any shop any local shop that you said okay
49:07
this blowed my mind I wasn't this is something that marked
49:15
me um I wouldn't necessarily say that it blew my mind but I never thought about
49:22
it before we covered a store in New Orleans uh about a lady who made
49:27
umbrellas and you know you just you don't even think about somebody hand making an umbrella you just okay that's
49:35
an assembly line mass production you know kind of a thing but she made these
49:40
incredible uh with lace and Fringe and and she had an amazing vintage
49:47
collection and and then she showed them you this has this kind of a canopy and
49:53
just information i' never thought about and it was was just fascinating to hear
49:58
her who'd spent her whole life learning and uh collecting you know share her
50:04
information with us and then of course we got to share it online too so that you know I just felt much smarter as I
50:10
walked out and even more fascinated with next time I you know put an umbrella up
50:16
like I'm like I I know more about that now it's not as pretty as the one she had but to to me that was just kind of
50:23
surprising and and very interesting nice do you keep contact with all these
50:29
people like do you keep connected with the persons from the shop I have there are some places I've actually G back
50:36
back uh in Athens actually uh the last time I was there was
50:42
probably I think it's been about 10 years but I had covered a couple of stores there on a previous show that I
50:48
did in the early 2000s and two of the places were still in business and the people who ran the shops were still
50:55
there and I came in and and like hello and they remembered me and so I mean you
51:01
know it's not keeping in contact regularly but you make a friend and and
51:06
then when you come back it's like seeing your old friends again and and there's something really quite fun about that
51:13
absolutely I mean if if they remember you they you live an impression that's
51:18
also good uh it's it's both sides I suppose and so that's important also
51:25
yeah it's a bad we're in big trouble right well then
51:31
they don't welcome you to the place it's the other way around if you left a bad impris
51:38
so what what keeps you keeps her surprising you about about new places I
51:45
mean how how new travels now you said that you're going to to Cambodia and and
51:50
all of that have you been before in there or no it's a reg so it's new country Vietnam before but not sooi will
51:57
be new for me but no all of those places are new so I'm going to have to put a new number instead of over 130 I'm GNA
52:03
have to I'm G to have to up that number a little bit uh but yeah um I would say
52:09
just uh what I learn travel for me is a continuing education and so you know you think
52:17
after you've done it for a long time that you're not going to be surprised by anything new but there's still something
52:22
new to learn always uh and and even seasoned travel you know o i I need to add that to my
52:30
list of things I check before I go so there there's always something new to
52:35
learn so you are visiting new countries soon but what uh countries are remaining
52:42
that are in the top list uh that's well Greece we haven't covered
52:47
Greece yet uh so we need to come there so most of the countries that I cover on
52:53
the show I've already been to so I have some idea sort of you know what we're going to run into though it can be very
53:00
different for example I covered um Argentina on the show that I was doing
53:06
20 years ago and at that time the peso had just taken a big dive and so the
53:13
prices were just rock rock bottom and so we went back this time and the peso has
53:18
recovered now the prices were still good in terms of American you know in
53:23
comparison to American prices but not anything like it was when I was there 20
53:29
years ago so even though you think you know it's things are always changing so
53:37
you know just stay open-minded so that you can you can see the new and compare
53:42
it with the old but move on with the new what are the next steps then for you
53:49
on this project there is any any surprises coming soon or we we have we
53:55
actually have a kind of a change coming uh we're not we're going to try and do
54:00
some more local things and really try and work on our local community to try and get them to know us uh as as I said
54:07
we know we're we're really trying to grow and I think part of that can come if the local community knows who we are
54:13
so we're GNA be doing more shops here and so we're going to change instead of mworld traveler in Paris mworld traveler
54:20
and also we're going to do mizor traveler uh goes to a museum World
54:26
traveler goes shopping so it's less about the location and more about the activity and that is coming in 2025 you
54:34
have heard it first I just told you I just made a big announcement so you're
54:40
you heard it first perfect so exclusive it's coming it is an
54:47
exclusive yeah probably when the episode is released hopefully you're already doing it because uh these will be
54:54
released in 2025 so it's already happening hopefully uh fantastic
54:59
so um with that said I would say krie thank you thank you so much for for your time today and and um of course the last
55:07
question it's it's mandatory where can my listeners find you where are all your
55:15
channels where is your website well we are on YouTube Miz World
55:21
traveler Ms Miz World traveler and then we're also on Instagram Carrie k r r y
55:28
Carrie msworld traveler and we're also on Facebook at mworld Traveler so hopefully your followers can find us any
55:36
of those places absolutely as always the link on uh of of Carrie will be on the
55:42
description of the episode both in YouTube Spotify and all the audio platforms so and of course on social
55:48
media I will be keeping keep posting about about uh kry and and the and the
55:54
project itself so stay tuned Ted and uh to all the audience thanks for watching
56:00
uh this new episode of exper experts until next time keep exploring stay curious and take
Outro
56:06
care hey there everyone this was the last episode of
56:11
the first season of exper experts and I just want to take some time to thanks all the listeners who have been
56:17
following expert experts until now uh the podcast will continue there will be a season two which I'm currently
56:24
recording with other guests more exciting experiences and a little bit of a restructure of sections as you might
56:31
notice also a different office different space for recording so I hope that you will stay tuned uh in this months that
56:38
there will not be episodes I'm hoping that around June uh of this year 2025
56:43
there will be the first episode of season two I'm looking forward to hear your opinions and see if you like it
56:51
also uh thank you so much again for listening to to the podcast and for
56:56
watching in YouTube uh subscribe if you like as always uh also follow us in
57:03
social media so you're stay tuned when new episodes might be coming uh again
57:08
thank you so much and we see each other soon you've been listening to expat
57:15
experts the podcast that takes you around the world through the stories of
57:20
those who've lived it subscribe now to YouTube and your favorite podcast
57:27
platform and stay tuned for more inspiring interviews