Is South Africa Safe to Visit? (Real Stories from Travelers)

True travel stories about South Africa from a native – we talk about everything from if Cape Town is safe to visit, to why you should visit the country Lesotho, to how to stay safe while traveling around South Africa, to solo-female traveling through Lisbon, Portugal, and so much more.

This podcast is with the ever-lovely Alex, a semi-professional master of horses, hyper-educated biologist, and an ever-curious world traveler who loves a good adventure.

We cover many travel stories from staying in hostels, to solo female travel, to backpacking Europe, and so much more.

I hope you enjoy this episode of Travel Across Time Zones!

Cheers & Stay Curious!

#lisbon #southafrica #capetown #travelpodcast #safety #traveltips #podcast #travel #solotravel

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to Travel Across Time Zones, the podcast that takes you beyond borders, across continents, and deep into the heart of the world's most fascinating destinations. I'm John, and we are going to bring you real stories from real travelers, adventurers, and nomads who have explored the far corners of the Earth. We are going to uncover the experiences, the insights, and the unexpected moments that make travel truly life changing. Or just really fun. Now let's go meet some amazing people. www. travelacrosstimezones. com Tell in a boat, and next minute you just see this hippo, like a speedy manatee, coming after you. It's terrifying. And the boat takes off, you're hanging on, this thing's coming, you see the teeth, you're like, I don't want to be hippo food. We would go via mcdonald's and buy the uber driver Whatever he wanted at mcdonald's as a way to like bribe him to not do anything to us it's a different world so different to difficult to articulate to people and also like When we had a night out out if we made it back not spiked With our phone with our id with our money like without something being stolen or being drugged. It was a good night Which is wild. god. So going out in Europe like we did in Lisbon was so freeing for me. Welcome! Alexandria of the world. Ah, can't call me Alexandra because that's when I'm in trouble. I only get called Alexandra when I'm in trouble. It's Alex. Alex. Alex. a bit naughty. Maybe we'll revisit that after some drinks. Anyway, truly a gal of the world. i'm trying to professionalize the introductions at this point. I met you in Lisbon, Portugal at check in. The gal with the best energy of the entire place. I was so excited. It was great. It was great. I loved it. I remember it and I was like, it's going to be fun now. Alex is here. I really was arrived. you know, some people are a little bit grumpy and you were like, yes, I am home. This will be amazing. honestly the best hostel ever. Was it not? It was so Really? In the name. We've got, Lisbon, but real quick before then you are of England, South Africa. And Peru? Yeah, technically. Do you want A true woman of the world. I've got so many questions. You have no idea. I've got imaginary clipboard. I'm going to go through them. I don't know if you've got a crop handy, but you might need it later. Not in here, but as you can see, the horses and there's more that's everywhere. And That is a horse. skull. That's a horse. That's not part of a horse. Did you just win that? Last year. Congratulations, what kind of oh and you are a master of the horses by the way Master's a bit of a stretch. I want to be pro. wanna be pro. I like that. I am curious I know this is travel But tell me how what have you broken again while riding a horse and is that the skull of one of your horses on your? Wall, That is a skull that I drew as my grade 12 final art piece. oh my gosh. I loved it so much, it took me ages, so it's now above my bed, which some people might think is a bit morbid, but I love it. And it's not accurate, so it can't be used in a textbook, but, because of the he kicked you off. You skinned him and you drew his skull for a memorial. Perfect. That would be truly morbid. I drew That one as well. That's my current horse, but he's not so good. He's got like a black patch in the middle that I just, I buggered up The next. I just was like, yeah, color it in. But that's him. I love it. He's looking rather snarky. I saw some of your videos online of him and, uh, your selfies. He looks really nice. He's, he is a sexy horse. If I do say so myself. I did hear you guys were weird. Your horse people were weird. I'm not gonna cheers to that. I was about to cheers because you have to cheers before every drink. I'm gonna cheers to something else now. How about we What are you drinking? to the spontaneity of adventure. Yes. I, I, I, don't have a drink with me because I'm dry Januring. How boring. I don't Is it rum? what we're supposed to do in January. Okay, so I don't actually know what this is because I ran out of wine from my hippie place. And um, Let's see, it says it's very smooth. And usually if you have to say that a bunch, I'm concerned. It's Paul Mason, it's Grande Amber, it's very smooth again. I don't know how smooth this can be. It just means it's no 5 on the way out. It's what? It's not going to be smooth on the way out. It is, uh, I don't know if you can see it with the video, it's 40 percent alcohol, it is something that was used to make food over the holidays, and it's Now it's consumed by me because I ran out of wine. Uh, it is sweet in an old man kind of way. So I think you might like it. Perfect. You know what I mean? my favorite type. It's not sweet in a kind of like 19 year old uni girl. Let's go have some gin fizz. I don't know with sparkles in it or something. It's Yeah, yeah. you know, those like, it's like sherry or like cherry brandy kind of sweet. Yeah, Yeah. Yeah. it's not. Yeah. Hmm. I think you asked me a question about five minutes ago and we got totally distracted by up there. my So or the shall we circle back to the questions before I don't know. What was the question? I totally forgot. So here's the I'm, you're gonna remind me this is technically episode five, but it might be episode four because in episode two, both of us drink too much and we might have to cut out some stuff because yeah. And, um, I've decided that this is going to be my time to relax because it's so fun to connect. Uh, it just really is because we travel the world, we meet the most amazing people, like, however many countries you or I have visited, you will always meet someone who's like 10 times more, who's done the craziest stuff. And it's like excitement after excitement, after excitement, amazing, amazing, amazing. And we all understand each other so well. And then you go home. And then it's boring, and sad, and monotonous, and mundane, who do I, who do I talk to? This is like a therapy session. Now I should have started it years ago. I should have started this during COVID. I would have some more sanity. I yeah. Everybody was doing things online in COVID. You missed the boat. Although, arguably, with TikTok going down, you could be the new thing. am the new thing. You are the I hope it doesn't go down because we, uh, we, I say we, me and my alternate ego are, uh, other personalities, um, are going to try and promote this on TikTok. So I hope it doesn't disappear. But. sure Trump will fix it. As soon as Trump comes into power, he's gonna sort it out. Yeah, he's going to name it Trump Talk. Tick Trump. I have, I have too much fun with politics. You know, you travel, you get such a broad perspective and then you come home and everyone is so myopic, everyone is so focused and they're like, Oh, you don't know this. You're not so upset by this. You're not blah, blah, blah. I'm like, bro, I was just in the Amazon. Okay. the F down, chopping down trees with machetes to make the morning salad that you're eating with the illegally captured alligator crocodile thing that you don't know what's going on, but your guide just sharpened a stick and stabbed it in the head. So no, I wasn't following It's all about perspective. Absolutely. And that's why Also, we have it I don't follow politics at all. I don't follow politics at all. British politics, American politics, nothing. Just what I see on the odd headline or what I hear on the radio. Because I just don't care. Yeah. Well, directly affects me. I just don't care. Yes, ma'am. I agree with that. before we get into it, the world. I'm about to start talking about fires, if we don't do this, because I know some people in Los Angeles, they've been sending videos and photos of the fires. Apparently, I wasn't supposed to reply with better go buy some marshmallows. But, um, Oops. Too soon! Too soon! I need like a real life editor. I think that's Yeah, real life filter. I'm like that too. People are like, you're so blunt. I'm like, oh, is that how you say I'm rude? The filter is just sleeping. Um, tell me as we ease into the discussion of travel, Yes. where have you been? Just give a general overview. Huh. Well, I grew up in South Africa, and within SA, I've been to Cape Town, Durban, Pleasantburg Bay, Swaziland, Lesotho, Drakensberg, all of these amazing places. Um, I also have traveled to Mauritius, recently. So much fun, so much fun. I've been, my family all lives scattered across the globe. I've got cousins and aunties and uncles in America. I've got cousins, aunties, and uncles in South America. I've got them in Canada. I've got them across Europe, all over the show. So I've been, I've only done East Coast in America and I've done, uh, Peru. I say I've done it a bunch, tiny little faction, obviously want to go back and do more. And when I was very little Brazil and Argentina, I don't really remember, but I'd like to go back and then, um, yeah, just hopped around Europe, but mostly being in Europe competing. So Lisbon was actually my first solo trip was originally booked as a trip. Yeah. It was originally booked as a trip with my ex boyfriend. Ex boyfriend. Ticket, tickets were non refundable and non transferable, so I was like, fuck it, I'm just gonna go, and I'll stay in a hostel, and I'm gonna have the best single life ever, and I did, and now I just want to travel. So, yeah, um, where else have I been? All over the show really. I've been very lucky, but I've got my, obviously my list of places I want to go is way exceeding the places I've already been. So, love, uh, that that was your first solo travel experience, and I feel like I got to witness it from the side. sorry I didn't get to get the full experience. There were a couple nights where I did not go out. Um, yeah. But it was be fair, summer. I think of, I think, I was only there for five days and there was only one night that I didn't go out and I regretted it. So the rest of the time I was like, I will go out. It was so I remember one particular night, would have been good for me to go out, but, um, I've got a photo of you and me before you went out. It was a good time. Um, know about this photo? everyone was just having a great time. I'll send I have a brilliant photo of you at the bar. I think you had. I think you were wearing a wig, and your captain hat, or something, and you were just like, It was great. That's my favourite photo of you. there is a chance we went out on the pub crawl together. Yeah. But anyway, I think the first night. I was, uh, very well behaved when we met. Situations were a little bit different than they are now. So. douche, douche, douche? What do you No. I wanna know! Tell me the tea, pirate! How have situations my, I love that. Tell me the tea. Is that the most British thing? It's the most British thing I've ever Spill the tea. Spill the tea. And then also, if it's lunchtime, it's actually called tea. Well, Or maybe that's Ireland. the UK you're in. The, The, northerners like to call lunch dinner and dinner supper. Or tea. I remember I was in an elevator in Ireland, which I know is different, and I had a pizza and some old lady got on and said, That's some really nice tea you got there. And then she tried to Tokes me out of a slice. I was very confused. the Irish are very friendly, so. I love the Irish. Oh, I have also been to Belfast. Forgot about that. That Was I think the Irish that don't live in central Dublin might be friendly. Yeah, well Dublin's like London, it's just an extension of the rest of the world. It's not like proper Irish people. London's not full of Londoners, it's full of New Delhi. Three was, uh, Three months, in the super center of Dublin, Dublin one. It was Liffey street or no, the Liffey river, whatever, And O'Connell street right there, right across from temple shit bar. And one morning. There was someone shooting up heroin in the entrance to the hostel. The owner comes out, he's a small business owner, it was a huge hostel, but he comes out and he's like, trying to shoo the person away, but you know, you don't really, you don't know what to do, you don't really want to touch them, they've got a needle in their arm, and it's, it was, welcome to Dublin, baby! And you were like, shit. That's also, I had a, I had a great time there, but it was, It was just very interesting. A lot of cultures clashing all at once and being in the hostel, you see all the foreigners coming in and you're a foreigner, so you get along with the foreigners, so you hang out with the foreigners and then there's quite a lot of them looking for jobs. And so I saw it from their perspective and it was rather interesting. And there were some, you know, I don't want to start it off negatively, but there were some interesting situations that happened. But then when I met. Uh, Irish people that were just from outside, anywhere outside the city center. They were just the most lovely people ever. And they're all like, what's the crack? And I'm like, I don't have any crack, you weird leprechaun person. They're like, oh, do you want to come back to me gaff? And you're like, you what? They're out. It's a I, love Irish people so much. Honestly. If the weather was better in Ireland, I would go live there. Because I find the Irish people very similar to South Africans. They have the same sort of blase approach to life. And when things are like a bit chaotic or you're in a crisis, they just adapt, improvise and overcome. There's none of this red tape. There's none of this panicking. You just make a plan and get on with it. And that's why I like the Irish. Whereas the Brits are like, That's great. Have you ever met an accent you couldn't understand from Ireland? yes, yes. When I went to County Cork, I was like, What? There's so northerners are learn when Go on. Say again? The northerners are really good because they kind of, they sound like they're singing and potato da da da da da and then the southerners are, I can't even. I can't. English never made it really down there. Like, they heard of English a little bit on TV, but not much. Yeah, it's the same. I haven't been to Scotland yet. It's on the list. My brother is currently working in Scotland. Um, but he says that, like, the Glaswegian accent is mad. Like, going to Glasgow. is way easier. So, I didn't even realize there was, you know, a difference between the two. So, I I love it. I Heh heh heh up north they sound like leprechauns, and down south they just sound like golems. But, in reality When you get there, it's so funny to hear these foreigners. So, we're in the hostel there, or me, we, I made friends, though, and you get people from all over the world, and they hear my English, then they'll talk to like a southern, then they'll talk to a southern British person who's visiting for a bit, then they'll talk to an Irish person, and at the end of the day when we're having drinks, they're like, John, I can't do this. You, all you fuckers, you're Speaking different English. It's like three different languages in one day. that is exactly how I felt when I first moved to the UK, because I was at an international sports yard and we had somebody from Manchester. We had an Irish guy, we had a Scottish guy, we had a girl from Cambridge. We had a guy from George, from Manch, not Manchester, uh, Newcastle. So Geordie, very Geordie. Oh my god. an American from Florida. Then we had, like, and then we had a German. Like, all of these, everyone was speaking English, but I had no idea what was going on. I was just, I must have thought I was retarded because I was like, what? Again? Pardon? Huh? Like, I've had to repeat themselves so many times because I was just like, no. So I get that. But I just, I don't of the funny in life then. Do what? We didn't struggle in Lisbon with the accents, did we? We had quite a diverse range of English No, it was pretty good. It was pretty good. And there's a lot of, um, Americans there as well. there were loads of Americans in Lisbon. I'm just going to move this up because my back hurts a bit. So, there you go. Yep. Yep. one of the funny things when you leave. As you realize, it's not just English. I was having a chat with a guy the other day. I don't know what episode it is. And he's very good with languages. And he traveled all over, uh, or, yeah, South America. And he's like, man, it's, it's, might as well be different languages. Going from Peru, to Colombia, to Ecuador, and it's just And then I hear a Mexican speak and it's just crazy how different it is and English The funny thing is I love how the more you travel the less you actually prepare to travel Because the more you're like I want excitement. I don't need to know that much and So you actually plan less cause more problems for yourself, but have more fun Oh, Because you're not scared. Well, that's the thing. For Lisbon, I completely overplanned it because I was supposed to be going with Lisbon. Ex partner. So I had like done, I've even, I've still got it on my computer. I did like a little presentation with like itinerary for each day and everything sent it to him. Didn't get any reaction, hence why he is no more. And then threw that all out the window and just went. It's alright. Yeah, just, just threw it out the window, and had the, literally, I booked just the first night at home, and was like, I'll see how it goes. If it's crap, I'll go to another hostel. And ended up staying there the whole time. It was the was your first night Wow, I'm sorry. I didn't give you a better welcoming that day that you tell you that I was a hostel virgin, so. Okay. well You actually had plans that day. I remember I tried to make plans with you. You had other plans at a viewpoint Yeah. That's game might be a little bit foggy at this point I Forgot what I was gonna say now. Oh, yeah, so when I arrived in Ireland I'm like, yeah, they speak English. Why wouldn't they speak English? They are my ancestors. We like Yeah, you Americans are all obsessed with being Irish. Yeah. Yeah, we love it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah So I arrive and you're at the airport and I see this freaking elf language on all the signs above English and I'm like. How much was I drinking in Scotland? Am I in the wrong country? Am I in Thailand? Like, what the? hell is going on? That's how I then I I go to Wales. Yeah. I always forget if it's Gaelic or Gaelic, because there's the one in Ireland, then there's the one in Scotland. One's Gaelic, one's Gaelic. I don't know. It's an elf language. It's a legit elf language. It's hilarious. Nothing else sounds like it at all. It's their original language. Before they had potatoes, they had Gaelic. well I can raise you one more. Have you ever been to Wales? Have you ever heard Welsh? Now that is a magical language. My old roommate is a fluent Welsh speaker and she used to call her sister twice a week and I would just sit there like. Because it, when you see it on paper, it looks like Zulu. But when you hear it, it sounds like Elvish from Lord of the Rings. And you're just like, mad. Mental. I literally just spent a weekend with her in Cardiff and had the best time. But yeah, I see the signs and I'm like, They just, They're like this long, Because they're even bigger. Because they've got to put all the flipping letters in. Laughter. You cannot read it at all. It's not phonetic whatsoever. I also, yeah, I had that experience as well. I had no idea. I was in London in a hostel there, my favorite hostel, and there were three girls in my room that were going to uni together. They did a weekend party there. We hit it off in the room, but we never hung out. And then one of the girls says, Well, we got a house, just come sleep on the couch. And I said, alright, I'll be there. So I show up a week later, and then I hung out with them for four days. But yeah, zero understanding that, that, it was maybe similar to how you did it in Cardiff. But I had zero understanding that there was a foreign language there. That English wasn't the first language. And Yeah. it was awesome. But they were so nice. Everyone there was nice. There was even this dude who, Straight. I don't swing that way. I have a high tolerance. I will accept your luck. but we'll chat while I'm drinking the beer, but then I'm going back to the table. You know, I laid out all the rules. I didn't take advantage of And he was, he probably thought it was hysterical. Yeah. Yeah. So I got free beers. I met a bunch of people in the bar, had a great time. There were no bar fights there like they do in London. Yeah. Oh, gosh. Yeah. So you said your favorite hostel in London. Where is that? If you don't mind me asking. It's just, uh, name, but where is it? I don't know if it's still there. It's just South, you know, COVID messed everything up. Yeah, yeah. it is just South of the park, Hyde Park in, it's just South of Queensgate. It's right on the Oh, right. So it's in South Ken, that's what all the posh people say. South Kensington, that, and, uh, well, no, I won't make that joke. Um, but basically no locals can afford to live there. And somehow they have a hostel where they had, they had the whole building and I forget the name of it, but that's exactly where it is. Look it up on a map. It used to be right there. And I was friends with the manager. I was friends with all the people who worked there. It was great. So, you know, you basically have your run of the place when you're friends with everyone and they know that you don't cause trouble. So I had a tremendous amount of fun there. So many amazing stories and the pubs in London are so cute. You can compare other cities, but London pubs. Expensive, yes, but cute beyond belief. I loved exploring them with little hidden gardens, and then every once in a while you forget that the beer that they like sort of pull like this, uh, with the long handle has no carbonation and is warm. Uh, I forget what you call that. Yeah, what do they call it? Craft beer or whatever. Sad beers. It has a stupid name. Oh, that's amazing. I've been to London for ages. I've actually got a load of friends that work on the West End and I went to go see one of them perform in a pantomime a few weeks ago, so I've got to try and find a way to go and visit my theatre friends, my thespians in London. They are so fun. Thespian friends are the best. You know London, they do, and they have so much fun, and they don't mind, sort of, I don't want to say, uh, living in the shit, but, you know, they don't mind piling into an apartment and all kind of coming together and having a great say. Yeah, no, I agree with you. The one thing I really love about London, and the UK in general, is that on the outside, you can look at a building, and it looks tiny, it looks narrow, it looks shit. And you think, Oh my gosh, I've just travelled how long to get here? I've spent so much money. And then you walk in, and it's like Hermione Granger's bag. It's like, there's so much space inside. It's beautiful. It's well done. It's manicured within an inch of its life. And it's like, quaint and perfect and everyone's happy and bubbly inside and you're just like, whoa, trans transported to a whole new dimension. And that's one thing I really preach about, appreciate about the UK is that they know how to make a space function, despite what it looks like on the outside. With that dark, dirty brick color, which I don't know why they have Well, the house is like falling down because it's a freaking, you know, old thing that they're protecting. What do they call them listed? Yeah, something like that. What do you, tell me, what do you think about the two faucet system that they have? Hot water on one side, cold water on the other side, it's and they're separate taps. Yeah, perfect. Because then you've What if you need the best. Well, then you just got to, anyway. Um, the best is the hot water in the UK literally comes out scolding. You could make a cup of tea with that shit. It is so hot. So tell me do they have tea in South Africa? Do you guys have tea? We do. It's called red bush tea. Or if you're going to say it as a proper South African, it's rooibos. Rooibos tea. I think I like South Africa It's very nice tea. It's quite sweet tea. It's very good. And it's perfect if you've got a sore throat. You've got to have red bush tea with honey. And that will sort your sore throat out. But I don't, I never, I've never been much of a hot drink drinker. I've only picked it up as of August last year when I decided to volunteer at two music festivals and ended up on a night shift and was like, I need coffee. So now I drink lattes every now and again, which arguably isn't really coffee, but It's better than before. It's not it's not I feel like I've been banned from Coffee shops because I it's really hard to go back to America and coffee you go to all these places that have just coffee culture It's like old man coffee culture like in Italy. The coffee culture is quite simple. It's an espresso It is like that much espresso which could launch a rocket to space as I was told in Sicily, John, you must go and order a drink and then you leave. Don't stay. Why are you here? No lounging! We must serve 20 more espressos! Piss off! a euro and then you come here. And you go to any one of these coffee shops, it doesn't matter what it is, there's that much coffee, there's no caffeine in it, there's that much milk, that much sugar, some whipped cream on top, a cherry, and uh, like some syrup. ha and a voice recording that tells You are love. Fuck, it's coffee! I want it to kick me in the ass and wake me Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha I was in Austin, Texas, and this guy in front of me, he orders a red eye. And I had ordered a coffee and double espresso. And then I just, you know, dump it in and drink it. And it's coffee. He ordered the red eye and they, and it was, I think, 2 more than what I had ordered. I didn't know what the red eye was. So I asked him, I said, Oh, hey, what's a red eye? First of all, he looked at me like, why is this human talking to me? No one should talk to me at How dare of he. Who does he think he is? It's weird because when you're abroad, people like to talk to you. And then you come home and everyone's like, why are you talking to me? Oh, fuck off. I'm curious. What's in your coffee cup? I didn't say fuck off. I'm just getting excited. And they explained what it You wanted to. just. Well, I was just like, okay, well, here's what I actually did that made him feel, I don't know, weird. Uh, he had his coffee, they said it was a coffee with a shot of espresso in it. And I said, oh, okay, well, why didn't you just buy them separately? Save yourself two bucks or whatever. Something like that. They just looked at me like I was an alien. I don't know. I don't know where I was going with that. It sounded better in my head. But I just don't like the coffee culture in the U. S. It's ridiculous. Stop putting sugar in it. You're gonna get your foot cut off from diabetes. Just drink some To be fair, I don't think the coffee culture in the UK is that much better. Everyone opts for a cuppa. Cup of tea. Bleh. Cup of piss. Don't say that. You're gonna get rounded up and kicked out of the country. not, not all of all of the Brits drink tea, but at the same time, like, I just don't see the appeal. What, um, By the way, I think I got that coffee story wrong. I think what I said, Is if you isn't your coffee just the same as ordering an espresso with water in it. That's what offended him. Oops. Yeah, that that would that's probably just as bad as the previous thought. Whatever agree with you. That's that's what I when I got back from. Traveling should I say my very brief trip to Lisbon, but equally when I went to Miami by myself I went to go see family. So it wasn't like I was traveling but I just found like sitting in the airport. It's so much easier to talk to people like oh, where are you going? Oh, that looks that looks really fun or weird. Oh my gosh, where did you get that from? Where have you been? You know, it's so easy to talk to people and then you get back to wherever America, UK, and you're on the tube or whatever. Talking on the tube is a cardinal sin to start with. Um, but yeah, you try and talk to anybody, engage with anyone, and it was the same thing as your experience in the coffee shop. They just look at you like you're crazy, like how, how dare you be friendly? And I just think everybody should be more open to conversations with random blonde girls in a Tesco on the side of the road, you know? Why not? She might stab me. Is this Glasgow? Do I look like I might stab you? Come on, this is bubbly and friendly. I feel like that's what a criminal would say. Bubbly and friendly, I come with tea and, uh, an umbrella for the rain and Kachow! No, murder's not in my repertoire, I'm afraid. but yeah, when you come home, that's one of the funny things. When you're abroad, first of all, you get to talk to everybody. You make friends immediately. The stories are ongoing. I mean, I mean, never ending. It's so exciting. You make the best friends. Best And you learn so much as well about where people have been, where they're going, their advice. It's just like a whole new world. Google could never. Yeah. between bitch and beach. So it's bitch and beach, bitch, beach, beer. Super difficult to say. Really funny when you're on like a coastal town, and they're like, Oh John, come to the bitch with me. Come on. It's a really nice bitch. Nice and warm. Not too dry. And you're like, perfect, just the way I like my bitches. Well, we'll bring some drinks. It'll be a nice bitch experience. It'll be bitchin Yes! The, uh, and, and the thing is that nobody is making fun of anyone. Everyone is just having a good natured time. as well. I think possibly my favorite part of the trip to Lisbon is the second to last day. We went to the beach when I say we, people I just joined in spontaneously with. It was two Dutch people, a French girl, a Swedish guy, a Canadian guy, a guy from New York, a girl from Florida. Myself, a South African Brit. I just like the whole world and we literally met that day and we spent the whole day on the beach together and had the best time and it was just and then after that stayed in touch and like every now and again comment on each other's instagrams or whatever but it's just so fun how you can out of nowhere spend a day doing something quite intimate with people from and the other side of the planet and you just get on and why can't I make friends like that here It's so, I completely agree. It's, it's, it's, it's It's this weird 180 that happens when you're at home. And yeah, there's a lot of reasons. Do I, I think that's why I like travelling so much. Because you can just be yourself and people take you at face value and embrace it and run with it. it was like before I'm going to redo this. I'm going to get my thoughts right. I'm going to be a better Kumbaya. interviewer, You can English, go on, I believe you. trip ranger, pirate. Um, As a solo female traveler, tell us what it was like before you went and when you actually went. Like, your feelings, obviously, and how it all turned out. So, I had traveled alone to see family on the other side of the planet prior to that as a young person. So, I had experience. Being in an airport alone, going on airplanes alone, you know, navigating the transport systems in a foreign language in a foreign country alone. Because previously I'd relied on my parents, you know, dad got his little travel wallet, everyone's passports are in there, we all have suitcases, let's go. So then obviously when I was like 16, I learned how to do it alone. So I was quite confident in my ability to navigate my way around and find where I was going. The That's a really big hurdle. Yeah, that's a big hurdle for a lot of people and the insecurity came in when I then had to face five days with no plan and not knowing anyone and trying to like, figure out. I knew I was in a good spot because Lisbon had great reviews from what I'd seen online. And I was just so lucky that I landed in that hostel with this sort of like minded people, but I think it would have been the same in any hostel and just clicked straight away, fell straight into it. And I think it, it comes down to, I think, your inherent nature and your personality and being outgoing and bubbly and, You know, wanting to learn about people and wanting to engage, because I know a lot of my friends would a not cope with the solo travel, navigating airports and all of that without somebody to hold their hand and be being able to just take that step and break the ice and talk to people and make friends. And even if you have a 10 minute conversation with someone and you like, okay, this person's not giving, like, I'm just going to find a way to waft off and talk to somebody else. Or it doesn't matter because you probably never see them again. But then the people that you do get on with you want to see them again. And I think that's the difference. So that's what I really enjoyed is that then when I came back home and I'd had this amazing experience where I'd just been able to talk to anyone and everyone. It gave me so much more confidence in my everyday jobs and life to just not care so much and not put so much pressure on at all because I knew that the world is bigger. There were more people out there and this really didn't matter that much because there's always an option. And I think that's what When you say, oh, someone's so narrow minded or they need more perspective, they should go solo traveling, because that'll sort them right out. Yeah, it shows you. it. I think that's perfect. I mean, it's one of those things you could talk about forever, but at the end of the day, make the first step. It is very scary at first, and then you learn that it's not. And then you feel like you have superpowers. And once you start, then you realize how free you are. You don't have to wait on anyone. You don't have to ask for any permission or anything. You just go. and at the end of those few days, you're free. You figure out where you want to go next. Maybe you go with some people that you had a great time with. And then you just go there. And continue your journey. And it's just a truly beautiful experience. And a beautiful time. And my first solo travel. Go on. No, no, carry on. Sorry. I was just agreeing. Oh yeah. Something with this delay. With this delay. Amazing software that costs, uh, more than it should. Uh, we can't talk at the same time or we can't hear each other. Um, and there's a one second delay, so that makes it great. Um, the first time I did it, I just couldn't get people to travel with me. Yeah. I asked all my friends to go with me. I asked any family members to go with me. And it was always something. Timing, or don't want to go, or no Money. to go. Americans think, Americans think traveling is really expensive. Because we just do it wrong. It's expensive to get yourself there. Because the plane from the U. S. is super, super, super expensive. Something's weird with our plane system. And then, once you get to Europe, It's super affordable to travel around and you stay in hostels. It's amazing. So I couldn't get anyone to go with me. I was so upset, but I was scared. So I eased my way into it. I stayed with my aunt who was the head of, um, a convent of nuns in Rome. So my first two weeks I was in this huge In a convent. a bunch of nuns. Oh my gosh, that's I'm the only guy there and you know, they don't have kids or anything and they don't get that many guys that come around and they're happy to see guests. And they are yet. They are just so John, can I get you this? And can I help you? And do, and all you were like, from yes. it felt awesome. And What a start. They're so lovely and I mean these people are from countries you've never heard and the stuff that they have done I mean it makes any one of these adventurers on TV look like a kindergartner These old ladies have just seen and done things and the craziest of course Places during war times, helping out the doctors with limbs that have been sliced off and putting people back together and holding bloody organs and the diseases. And just, I feel like half of them have had dengue fever and you see them and they just look like these little innocent old ladies and they're like, you have no idea what we've been through. Yeah. Um, me, um, when I was in Mauritius recently, beginning of December, I, it, it was like a reunion. I met up with my best friend after not seeing her for two years, and we spent 10 days exploring the island. Luckily got to stay at one of her friends apartments, so we were very fortunate that we didn't have to pay for accommodation. But it was 50 Mauritian rupees to one pound, so I lived like a bloody animal. You know, it was amazing. But anyways, on the way out, my flight was 6 hours after their flight because they were going from Port Louis to Johannesburg, whereas I was going Port Louis to Gatwick. So, different times for international flights. And, um, I just remember I had to say goodbye to them in the airport and I was crying my eyes out and I was like, oh, I'm gonna miss you so much. Big goodbye, big hugs. And then I was sat there at the cafe by myself and I just couldn't stop crying. I literally, it was just like coming out of every hole. I know it only comes out there, but it felt like it was coming out of every hole. And, um, This gorgeous little old lady with a massive cross on her neck comes up to me and I think oh I'm about to be evangelized. Here we go in my deepest moment. She's gonna hit me with christ Nope came and sat down held my hand didn't speak a word about the lord or the bible or jesus or anything just spoke to me, told me about her stories, how she was living in Mauritius, but she'd lived and worked all over the show, and how she'd married a pirate, pirate, I'm just looking at a pirate, she'd married a pi lot, and had been everywhere, and was like, this amazing life story, and then she went, oh my friend should be here now, I hope I've made your day better, bless be God, or whatever she said, a big hug, and off she went, didn't know her name, I, I was so excited, engrossed in my own emotions, but I didn't think to actually ask any personal questions. We were just exchanging life stories, which distracted me and stopped me crying and made me happy and made me laugh. And then off she went. And I was like, you know what? Amen. A bloody men. And that was just like such a sweet moment in the airport. And you just, you just don't get that here. You don't get it back home. Do you? I'll have what she's having. Yeah, literally. Jesus. Well, we can just say it was water. We'll call it was water. yes Yes. Oh my gosh, that's beautiful was water in the world. All right, all right, let's patent that before this episode gets out start up a little winery Yeah, we're gonna have to stick some, uh, contracting on that ASAP. Yeah. you need to encounter people like that, I think, to really understand how beautiful it can be. Because I think sometimes we live so much in the West in our own weird little super privileged bubble. Even if our neighbors have more than us, I can guarantee you that we have more than the vast majority of the world, like 99 percent of the world. I'm on this thing about dryers, by the way. Do you have a dryer? No. dryer? Too expensive to run it in this country, so we just put the heating on and dry our clothes inside. That sounds way more expensive. A, B, Well, we're on a thing about, I'm on a thing of, just clean them before you put them on the heater. My worst, my worst hostel story. I have to tell this now. go on. Ha is kicking in. ha ha ha Yeah. I'm in that big hostel. This isn't specific to then. It's just that it was cold. So they didn't let you open the windows because it's really cold outside and you'll freeze to death. So all the windows are locked and the heaters are turned on. And some long term traveler after walking around that tiny little city. For six or seven hours. I don't even know how you do that. I think you end up in London after seven hours. You've swam the non channel channel, whatever the hell, and walked to London seven hours. He put his socks on the radiator in our 12 bed dorm, where we couldn't open the windows because they've been locked. And there's no, ventilation. that's so here's how it goes. You swipe your card. You just had a great time with people from around the world. Bunch of French people teaching you how to say asshole in French because they think it's funny when you say it. And it means nothing to you. So you're just like, C'est va, tru de coup? Sounds like what a parrot would say, and they're laughing their asses off. So you have, everyone has fun. Oh my gosh. your card, open the door, and you're just hit in the face. And it's a rhino from South Africa, right in the face. A hyena fart. I'm trying to localize it for you, so you'll understand. I don't think I've ever smelt a hyena fart, so that might be slightly difficult to contextualize. Ha, So Or it's like cherries. So anyway, it takes 15 seconds to get used to it. And those 15 seconds are the toughest 15 seconds of your entire day, month, maybe even year, even worse than paying taxes. If I say so myself, had, anyway, that's my worst Yeah, so I had a similar experience. I was staying in a hostel in Miami. And, um, because my, my uncle and auntie, No, gone uncle and auntie originally didn't have space for my best friend and I. So we were like, cool, we'll just stay in a hostel in Miami. And then, after this horror story, they were like, you can sleep on the couch. Anyways, so we get into this hostel. It's really clean. It's really nice. It's run by a little Venezuelan lady. No, no, no. All good reviews, really everything's totally right, not the stuff at all. Get into our, it's a four bedroom, four, four bed dorm, so two bunk beds and girls only because we were kind of like, oh Miami, or anyways, so we get into the room and it's, it's really dark and we can tell someone's sleeping and it was quite late and we were like, cool, so we just plugged our phones in, got into there, don't didn't think much of it. 2 a. m, lights are on. What time did we get there? We got there at about 11. Yeah, it was after dinner. 2 a. m. Lights go on and this girl is sat there wrapped up in bandages, right? And she's like on the phone to some dude and she's like having a full on like, like sexual conversation with this guy with her bandages. And we're just like, Both my best friend and I woke up and we were like, what the hell is going on? And then she finishes her sexual conversation, um, and then opens a bag of cheese Doritos and starts shoving them down her gob. And then just leaves the In a sexual way. off, goes back to bed. No, not sexual that time. Um, And the next morning, the whole room, I mean, obviously, like, we then just roll over and went back to sleep because we were pretty drunk and tired. Didn't really care. The next morning we wake up and it's just smells like cheesy Doritos. And then she sat up in her bed and she goes, Oh, yeah, my, um, my. My uh, sponsor paid for me to come and get a boob job in Miami, but he said that I couldn't have a fancy hotel, so he paid for me to stay in this hospital. So yeah, these boobies are for him. And that phone call that you heard last night, that was him. So sorry, but also like, not sorry. We were like So then we basically got back to my uncle and auntie's house, told them the story, and they were like, you can sleep on the couch. I love that. These boobies are for him. And we were just like, Wait a minute. Alex. I'm gonna send you to another country to get a boob job. It's gonna cost I don't need a boob job. 000. But I don't need a boob job. No, you don't blessed me. This wasn't about you. I'm maintaining eye contact in the camera where I can't see you. Oh But listen, it'll cost 15 grand, okay sugar baby? But you're gonna have to stay in a dorm room after they cut you up. You're gonna have to recover alone In a dorm room in Miami. That's what we didn't understand. We were like, this has got to be the worst sugar daddy in the world. Like, he's paid for her flights and her boob job, but he's put her up in a hostel. Like, what? Because he's only paying Top Dollar for what he wants. He doesn't care how she is. She might die of some disease, it's fine. As long as those boobies return. I paid for them. it was such a weird story. And that was my first ever experience of a hostel, but I was with my best friends. So actually, my first experience was Lisbon because I was alone, and it was like No, that That's a great first experience. Cheers to that first experience. We gotta start cataloging people's first experiences. I love it. These are his boobies. Nobody stabbed me, but sorry about having phone sex while you were sleeping. And would you like a Dorito? Oh my gosh. So, Pirate, I have to ask. Where are we going this year? That's interesting. Mauritius, by the way, you Yeah, I want to go back. was a pleasant surprise. I love seeing that. I don't usually see places that, this will sound a bit arrogant, but I don't usually see places I haven't been that are so exotic and amazing. And that was cool. can't sell Well, Mr. Pirate, um, was looking for a new crew. His old crew is gone, and uh, he's uh, free to sail wherever he wants now. You're not tied down anymore. Ha my dear. That's probably going to sound creepy later. Yeah, he stole a feeling good! Ha ha didn't get to have dinner yet. It's the middle of the day for me. These are my lunch drinks. Um, Is it like, what time is it there? Oh. Oh. Oh, it's half past nine here. I'm just going to pull my charger up because I've just realised my laptop's looking poor. Yes, ma'am. Do that. come prepared. your back. Do you have a horse? You have a cute, like, children's horse on your shirt. And then you have the skull of a carried on. Behind you. Yes. Skull. Did you hear that? Drawing. And cute horse on your shirt. You've got like every type of horse dynamic going on. It says Wicked, and it's a My Little Pony. love it. And my little pony better behave or it's going to be another skull on that wall. and so there's, Are those all your drawings? there's more, no, those were commissioned by actual artists. And then there's butterflies on the wall there from Paris, and then there's a little wooden Africa there that I got from a market. So that's about it. I haven't really just like, I've only just moved into this room. So the decorating hasn't completed yet. Um, I caught this fish in the Amazon. And I caught this, yeah, I caught this ghost in Salem when I was living in Boston. They just followed me here, actually. I didn't even have to pack them. Yeah, Nice. that's not even painted. That's a real, it's alive, is a, that's huge. No wonder you brought a box from the Amazon with you. I would have too. Right, answer my question. We're going to Mauritius and then where else? Where are we going? Are we going to Europe again? Are you coming to Europe? I would like to have some excitement, you know. I did want to come and visit you, but end of the summer was, oof, but Done. Um, where would I like to go? Could I talk about somewhere I'd like to go that I haven't been, Yeah. Sure. Lesotho. I want to go to Otho Otho, L-E-S-O-T-H-O. Don't. know if it's a country or a Don't say it like that. Don't say it like that. Lesotho is a very small landlocked country within South Africa and it is very cool. There's lots of hiking, lots of hiking, beautiful mountains and That is so cool. So I can tell you a brilliant story about Lesotho. Do you want to hear it? Okay, so in grade 10, so when I was 16, we had this tradition at our school where we did a thing called Inuka. Which was a week's worth of hiking and camping on the Drakensberg mountains, which run through Lesotho. And there's all these different paths that you can go up and down. So we went up a path called Rockeries, went down a path called Mweni. And going up, I was flying. Having the best time ever. Totally fine. Going, like, going up and down several times, pick up my friends bags, take them up to the next point, go back down, pick the next, and like, and my mates were like, this girl's crazy. Summited. Amazing. That night, we're all super tired, because we've been going up, I think it took us, like, two, two and a half, maybe three days? Get to the top, exhausted. We're sixteen. We're being dramatic. Oh, I miss mummy. Um, um, And we all go to bed quite early and we're being wet wipes, really. And I'd like, I mean, I don't even know what time it was exactly, but somewhere in the early hours of the morning, we hear these bells. Sort of like cow bells. And we're like, what the hell? So we stick our heads outside the tent and, I'm not even joking, 200 donkeys going past our campsite with a load of shepherds and they've all got these big white sacks over them, strapped to them. And we're like. What the hell? And then our, our camp guide is like, Get back in your tents! Close your tents! Close your tents! Get back in your tents! And we're like, Okay, now we really want to know. Anyways, now we're all super awake and wired, then we start telling each other scary stories. Woo! Anyways, then we get woken up at the Black Crack of Dawn, because we have to then set off to go down again, to go back to the, the base camp. Anyways, we now have, like, haggling our guide, like, what are those donkeys? What were they carrying? Where were they going? Eventually, at lunchtime the next day, he cracks and he goes, okay, I'm only going to tell you this once and I don't want any more questions. Those donkeys are weed donkeys. They are carrying bags full of weed. And the reason why you have to go back inside is because if you start entertaining with the shep, like talking to the shep and whatever, they'll just steal stuff and like rob you and whatever. Um, they might be scared that you'll steal their donkeys. So all of this stuff. And we're like 16, naive and terrified and we're thinking this is, this is amazing. We want to see these weird donkeys again now. Um, So anyways, that's when I learned about the illegal moving of weed between Lesotho and South Africa. The donkey in the day when it was illegal, now it's legal. So I don't know if No more dog. Oh. I don't know. They, they, they could be, they could still be there, and they could be very legal now. So they probably still have a job. I think I actually know what the donkeys are doing now, because my story, oddly enough, has to do with donkeys and Lizotho, is, apparently they're like big dogs and you can get miniature ones. I look after miniature ones. There's one of the yards I go to, one of my clients and has mini donkeys. They're so cute. I want a selfie of you with that mini donkey next time you see it. You probably already sent one, but send me another one because it'll just make me happy. I think I'm going there next week, so I will. So the reason When you travel at first, you're like, I want to go to the Louvre or the Arc de Triomphe for Champs Élysées. I'm obviously using Paris. Everybody knows Paris. I'm going to go to Big Ben. Overrated. By the way, I almost got in a fight with a group of gypsies on the bridge next to Big Ben. That was a funny one because I was dressed up like an American colonial soldier and they were doing the card game and I had my camera out and I was lit because it was July 4th in London. So I dressed up like an American revolutionary soldier in London. It was too funny. None of the Brits knew who I was though, because you know, we're just another colony they lost. But, Ha ha. I am now and fatter. So like way bigger. And cause I was blah, blah, blah. And I'm watching him do the card game and I'm making a video and, I'm just like, Oh, hey, yeah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So look, he is actually going to cheat them and she works with them and she works with them and there's only two people that they're trying to scam out of like the 10 people who are there, they're just pretending. And so I was telling him that, and I was with my friend who is also not the smallest person. And the problem with that is it makes you feel a little bit secure sometimes, but then also. You're in central London. You're in central London. You're next to Big Ben. You know what's connected to Big Ben? The Parliament. You know what you shouldn't have to do next to Big Ben? Is fear that a bunch of gypsies are gonna attack you. So anyway, we got into a little bit of an altercation. Everybody survived. We continued. They did not scam that rather large man who looked like a very fun fella to have a beer with in a pub. So I'm proud to say I saved at least one person. Save that one person. Um, how did I get Oh my gosh, I'm like five steps removed from what I wanted to say. I want you to tell me about donkeys. Thank you. Really? guy and the people who have traveled the most, the most interesting people, they're very quiet. You have to sort of pry things out of them because everything is so normal to them now. Oh, I see. So it's like, oh, you saw a shark? They're like, oh, I fed a bunch of sharks. I lost my pinky to feeding sharks. Like, big deal. Feed a hyena, feed a lion naked. You know, they, anyway, they're not arrogant They've done it all. I meet this, I meet this guy who is from East Asia. And Usually, East Asians are not traveling a bunch solo, but when they do, they are epic. This dude had been everywhere, and I'm getting story after story after story out of him, and the one that really stuck was the Lazotho, the Lazuti story. Yeah. even heard of this place before, but I love pub crawls for all the reasons we talked before about meeting people. And he said, you know what? I got a good story from Lazotho. It was a pub crawl where everybody gets their own donkey. Oh, this I said, what? He goes, yeah, you start the pub crawl, you get a donkey. So you get on your donkey, everybody gets on their donkey and they go to the first pub, park your donkeys, then you get back on the donkey, go to the second pub. You just get totally pissed. They're probably the same donkeys. That's their other job. Okay. Um. marijuana. Oh my gosh. I've heard of that actually. I think it's a tree called the Donkey Mile. Or something like that. Oh, so it's a real thing. I think so. Yeah, I'm sure actually. I wasn't sure if it was Lesotho or if it was in South Africa, but they probably copied it and doing it in both. Yeah, What? So what I was saying sort of about when you go for the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe or somewhere, You're going for these big things that are supposed to kind of change your life or whatever. And then you realize it's a building with some bricks and the architects were amazing. And that's cool. And I love my architect friends. Got a great one in Thistle and Nikki. She's amazing. One of the funniest people you've ever met, but the. You're like, okay, how many churches can I see in Rome? Okay, how many paintings can I see in the Louvre? I didn't even go to the French section. I did the Louvre in three and a half hours, by the way, very proud of that, saw it all. Sculpture section's amazing. Very perky gals they had back then. Half should get tipsy and do the Louvre. together. Yes. I love tipsy arting. I agree. Have you ever been paintings come alive. or an exhibition a bit lit? That's quite fun. Would recommend. Especially like Especially the big water scenes. Or if you go to the space museum, Or the Air Museum or the Natural History Museum and you're like, it's great. The Natural History Museum in London is actually pretty cool. It's right near the hostel I was at. Yeah, It's very, very properly cool. Um, I made a mistake though. I decided to go in there in summer when there's no air con. I only made it through three sections and then was like, I'm out. Don't ever tell anyone you're from Africa. Well, the thing is, I, I, we have air con in Africa. Well, the When you're standing there, yeah, true. When you're standing there looking at a skeleton, and you've got, like, sweat coming down your face, it's just not the one. Yeah. Bro, next time make some space for air conditioning. Okay, we're going to invent it in a couple hundred years. They've got heating, but they haven't got the units that can do both. So Oh, I did go to a drinking event there. Actually, London really is cool. London really is cool. It really is fun. It costs quite a bit of money to enjoy yourself on the regular. it. But, uh, yeah, I love having a city break. Oh, the best. yeah, I think, and I think you need both. I think you need, and also London is not as crazy congested as a lot of capital or big cities are. It's not as crazy as downtown New York or any of these other massive cities, Tokyo, Seoul, Seoul, because London, yeah, I think London's transport system is so good, the buses, trains, you could get a bloody electric line bike now, like it's so easy to get around. And it's quite big, even though everything's on top of each other, it is still a big city. So, But they have It's only, do you know, a lot of green spaces. Do you know, it's only a 45 minute train ride from where I live to get to Really? You're trying to sell me on it. Hey, London Waterloo, 45 minutes. Bosh. In town. I do love me a London, man. Okay, I want to I want to get I want to finish this point Okay. when you first start traveling It's these big grandiose things everybody knows about that you want to go and see and they are cool But what I have found is you don't need a big reason to travel You don't need to try if you like this museum That shouldn't be my reason to go there. That's your reason to go there. You want to see the Arc de Triomphe? You want to do all that? Yeah. Whatever you're passionate about, whatever excites you, if you go there to do that, that's going to make the trip so much more interesting, even if it's so small as a donkey pub crawl in Lesotho, Africa. I'm sure there's amazing things to do there other than that, like do the mountain hike, but I'm super excited for this one thing. And as long as you are driven, at least I find that to be so exciting. You see some people who are going somewhere for, um, to do smaller things like birdwatching in one place or something like that. And they're so excited by it. And it's. It's really great to see them do that from the outside, and then when you're doing it from the inside, it's like, I'm motivated. I'm not only going here because I'm supposed to. Like, I'm supposed to go to Paris, and then I'm depressed because I got robbed. No, I want to go and see some skulls underground. Maybe have a little bit of fun down there. Then hit up the Rodin Outdoor Museum that used to be two euro to get into. Have a few drinks south of the Seine. Have a nice time. You know, work your way up if you can make it going from bakery to bakery having a fun time. Doesn't have to be some standard thing. Whatever makes you happy. Go I think that's the fun thing about solo travel is that you go there with a vague idea of what you want to see and do, but you're so adaptable. You're so open to influence. You're so, there's no, like, pressure to stick to it. Yeah. And then if you've got the time and the money, you can just go to the next country or just follow a group of people there or just, and I think that's what is so enticing about it because all the family holidays I've been on, it's to see family or to go to Disneyland or to do XYZ within a, you know, we're only there for two weeks, so we have to, so that's where I think I love the freedom of solo travel, that you can do whatever, whenever, however. Obviously, you might be restricted by budget or time frame if you're not traveling for six weeks or whatever the story is. And I think that's what really, like, my post Lisbon depression was insane. Like, I wanted to go to Porto. I wanted to go to Lagos. I then wanted to go to Seville. Like, I want, everyone I spoke to, I just wanted to keep going. I didn't want to go home because I was so sucked into that whole world of doing whatever you could to see, you know, all these amazing little off the beaten track places and unique experiences that typical tourism would never give you. And I think that's what I was like, so like, ah, I don't want to go back to soggy England. I want to go to Seville. So I get I was there right before, I was there right before Lisbon and I love the south of Spain. It's everything that you want it to be and the moment that people know that you genuinely, this is not just south of Spain, but it's kind of part of what you're saying, which is like getting out of the big cities as well and following travelers. So getting your family, you get a travel family. And travel family is the most amazing thing ever because then all the stress isn't on your shoulders. And when everyone's sort of like minded, you do whatever, um, the most passionate person in the group wants to do that day. But in a way where it's amenable and friendly, it's not like, Oh, I don't want to do that. It's like, I actually had no plan today. And you're so excited by that. Now I'm excited by that. Now I'm going to go and hang out with everyone. And day drinking is a thing. And yeah, and When you show an interest in people's culture, they're so happy to help you experience it. Like when I went to smaller cities in France, they're so happy, even with my horrible, amazing, if I do say so myself, French, Talk with me about all the cheese in the fromagerie. And I'm like, Oh. but what is this? And what is this? And once they see my smile and that I'm genuine, they give me a taste of everything. And then I come out with like this one tiny little thing of cheese, but I had 20 tastes, but it was such a great experience. Cause I'm like, I want your cheese, brother. I don't want factory cheese. And like, that was, yeah, I love those Oh. Love it. That's why I just want to go and do more. I'm actually thinking of, um, taking a break from the horses. I'm in the process of, like, leasing my horse out to another young rider and then I've changed careers as well. I've gone into event management because I really love music festivals. I love gigs. I love helping people. I volunteered for a charity called Oxfam at two music festivals last year. Loved it. It was so cool to see everything from a behind the scenes perspective, like the logistics operations, all of that was so cool. And now because of that, I've got priority to work as a steward at Glastonbury this year. So I'm super excited for that. Going to do Glastonbury. And then, yeah, I want to go and do international festivals as well. So that's another part of my like, I, I need to put the horses in a little box for a bit, go and experience travel, scratch that itch that is like gnawing away at me, and then maybe come back to the horses, because they're not, they're not going anywhere. You can ride until you're like 70 these days. So yeah, I just, I just feel like I'm running out of time to, sorry, to see the world. where are you most interested in going? I love that the place I said I wanted to go to you're like, yeah So I hiked there when I was 16, saw a bunch of weed donkeys It's all about balance, different, different lives, you know, um, I don't really want to see more of Europe because I feel like it's so close by and I've only done Europe from a sporting perspective. competition perspective. So I've not, you know, I've had a horse in tow and I've gone there to compete. So I've not been able to see things. Um, I've seen the countryside and the highways, but you know, but I'd love to do more of Europe, specifically the med. So like Italy, Croatia, Greece, Turkey, All of that along there, I've not done ever, and I want to do that, like, and then obviously more of Spain and Portugal, and then I love skiing as well. I'm going skiing in the first week of Feb, so I would love to go and work a ski season at some point, whether it's in Europe or Canada, that would be amazing, either as a chalet girl or a ski instructor, so that's also in the pipeline for things to do before I settle down into the real life, um, and then I would love to go and do more of America, North America specifically. Okay. Um, I'd love to see Arizona, Wyoming, uh, Utah, Montana, all of that sort of, I may have been slightly inspired by Yellowstone, but I'd love to go and see the West Coast and all that and work on a ranch and, uh, and then the other one, Australia, I think Australia would be sick. I know it just seems to be the it thing. Everybody's going to Oz, but I'd Sorry if I want to be part of that too. So yeah, those are the main three. Europe, North America, Australia. There's a lot, there's a lot, not a lot of money, so. We could do a whole episode actually and I'd like to do that at some point with a few different people to show people how you can travel economically and pay almost nothing once you arrive somewhere. Because there are people who travel for years and years by volunteering at love to just disappear, work there for three months, work there for three months, maybe do a bit there two months, go and do a season in the Alps or, you know, just do that for like two, three years and then figure out what I'm doing. Work at a festival, do a project here, do that project that, you know, everywhere. I need to see the world, live all over the show. I love living out of a bag. So that's fine by me. Sold. I'll take ya. What about you, Pirate? You said you want to go to Lesotho. Where else do you want to go? So remember, I'm all about just find a tiny little reason to go somewhere. I are your a funny gal from Uganda when I was in the bear hostel in Singapore. So now I want to go to Uganda. Yeah, that'd be sick. Why not? Is there a better reason to go somewhere? I'm tired of just seeing bricks. I saw some cool person. Let's go there and let's see what happens. Ha ha Well, if they're cool, there must be a reason why they're cool, especially if it's like their culture. So yeah, absolutely. I'd love to go and see Tanzania and Kenya as well. I feel like I misrepresent the African continent because I haven't experienced, you know, South Africa is quite manufactured in terms of its safaris and because it's all protected and save the animals from poaching. Whereas Tanzania and Kenya are proper wild Africa. And I've. I've got loads of friends that have volunteered out their work there and it just looks insane. So that will be, I think that'll be something I would do with a group of friends who haven't done Africa at all, rather than Alright, well, I'm, I'm a friend. Put me in that group. There's at least three other people, so five's the party. Perfect. We just wanna do, I wanna, I wanna see the real deal. I wanna see the real deal. Um, I'm terrified of settling down into a normal life. Um, That's kind of what I have at the moment and I hate it. It's so because then you get into a bit of an existential crisis, like what is life about? What's most important while we're here? We have no idea what comes after. Do I really want to the rest of my life? No. do, I really want to be a lead accountant and okay, my car might be a little bit nicer, but I get Do I really want to buy a house? No. Mm what I was thinking about my living situation going forward. If um, 'cause I would like to own. Something where I live at some point. I say something because there's, you know, could be apartment could be a house or something and I would love to have roommates who have experienced a world like I have. I mean, common experiences, you know, that's why people like people that are from where they're from. Because when they say something, the other person can understand them, so they can get along with them. And then the more that you travel, the more you remove yourself from where you're from, and you put yourself in this weird little cloud that exists only with other people who have also put themselves in that cloud, but they don't all live in the same place. And then you're like, okay, do I want to go live in a house somewhere that feels more like a prison? Because I don't see anybody when I'm there. And oh, Hello. Hello. Sorry, she's just licking herself like crazy. Yeah, I totally so I would love to have, Yeah, the more you travel, the more difficult it is to relate with people back home who haven't traveled. So I get that because then when you come back with this crazy perspective and all this excitement and people are like, that sounds expensive or like, go away. Um, but yes, I, I also don't really like living alone, but I also don't want to. have to sign up to generic norms of society and have to marry someone and all that crap. I'd rather have a house full of people that I love that we can share the costs and whatever, and that doesn't necessarily have to be in the UK. I'd love to live somewhere much warmer, but I totally agree with you. Like, maybe even if someone's bought the house and then you rent it or you all buy it together, I just think that'd be sick. I totally agree. I mean, I want to I'd like to have, um, if we're going to be all modern, a lifetime partner. Um, but I do, I do not wish to be isolated the way that I feel like. Here's what I mean. Okay. I was visiting a friend in California. They'd been there for 20 years or more. They didn't know the name of their neighbors. Yeah, that's mental. great, that's so nice. I was in Albania, in an apartment building, in a place much less luxurious than that really nice home I was in and After a week, the neighbor who spoke no English knew who I was. And we would always exchange pleasantries in my horrible Albanian. And it just felt so nice. It felt great. Everyone knew who I was in that small little building after even three weeks or a month. And then you've been there 20 years, you don't know the name of your neighbors? What the shit? Yeah, I totally agree. community Let's build it. rather than isolated and adhering to societal expectations and standards of where you should be for this point in your life. Don't tell me what to do. I want to travel for the next three years. And the balance, the balance is almost impossible. I, I've been truly, truly lucky. A lot of people ask me how I could do what I do. If you read some of the comments online of some videos I posted back years ago, they're, they're so evil comments. I'm very lucky to be able to have been one of the original sort of work from home people. But if you have to make that choice, Like, you can't make money while you're traveling, and it's either or. It's really depressing. Because once you come home, all of it stops. And it is so hard to be able to do it again. Yeah, that's basically, I come home, work my ass off so I can afford the next trip. Come You find it hard to, trip. And it's the worst. where did you go to uni? I I went straight out of school in South Africa and did my undergraduate at a university in Pretoria, literally called University of Pretoria, but we know it as TUCS, the old Transvaal University, um, back in the apartheid day. And then, um, I did a master's diploma through King's College London, uh, in think I went to that college. Yeah, and then now I'm using a company called Event Crowds. to help me learn about event management. So, So that's another thing you did sort of a version of what I did. Although a little bit bigger, you were here on the globe and then you went here. And now you're here and when you go to all those different places and then you go to a city where people are just from that city, which is almost every city in the world. That's how it works unless it's the London basically of the city of the country. I don't find myself rejecting anybody that I talk to, but they kind of reject me. Like, when I tell people that I've been to Paris, they immediately think I'm some super posh, whatever the hell rich person. I'm like, bro, when I first got there, it was like a 12 a night hostel in Chinatown. I mean, I ate those, those bread things that had meat in them were 90 cents. You know, we couldn't even afford the French food when I went, but they've automatically sort of written me off as, um, a person to interact with. And I never forget when that happened. I was still smoking at the time I was outside of a bar. And anyway, I'm not going to say which one it was, but it just sucked. That's when I was like, who do I talk to? Who am I? Where do I belong? And yeah, Yeah, I don't know how we really fix it. yeah, that might be quite an American thing, because I, I don't know, I, this might sound terrible, but when I speak to people here, I don't think classism is as rife, or maybe it's just the people I associate with, but when you tell them where you've been traveling or where you want to go, they, they have sort of their own travel stories to share. They're excited for you. They have suggestions, but I've, I've yet to come across somebody that looks at me like I'm some posh twat that has too much money and spends too much time on an airplane. But that might just be the British mentality. I don't know. Well, what you have to realize is that anytime you plan on flying from the U. S. to Europe and back, for the most part, not when you get lucky, not those idiots selling shit online, you're paying a thousand dollars. And it's been that way for decades. Sometimes it's 1, 200, 1, 300, 1, 400. Sometimes it's 350. I got really lucky when I flew from L. A. to Oslo and Oslo to Prague. They didn't even give you food. But, but, the guy next to me took a bunch of Xanax and he had paid for the food and his girlfriend gave me his food because he was passed out on Xanax. Yes! Winner! I got the food. But the point is that it's really expensive to go. And now, compound that with the fact that Americans, for the most part, maybe not the people who are watching this, all 25 of you beautiful people and mom, um, think you can only stay in hotels. Yeah, So that's a hundred, 150 a night that they're thinking in their brain. So two week vacation, two to 5, 000, you know? I mean, America's so vast, so I think you probably all automatically think you've gotta hire a car and all of that shit, whereas Europe is just trains and buses and bikes and it's so easy. yeah, exactly. Can I, and, and, um, yeah, so they just don't understand it. There's, there's a big, the main thing is get your ass out of the U S. Then you can have your adventure. You you're really just saving up to get out. But because of that. And because there's not as many shared experiences, like from the UK, you guys have Ryanair since forever. You have EasyJet. You have Wizz Air. Oh my God. Every time I hear someone complain about that, I'm like, bro, you have the world's cheapest airlines and one of the most expensive regions to live in in the world that can fly you across the continent for 20 or 30 euros one way. It is amazing. I found a deal when I went to go visit my friend in, uh, Belfast. I found a deal, return tickets, 35 pounds. I was there for a week. Belfast. Okay. The flight back was on a Friday after a football match. So it was crazy, but it was a fun flight. man. Someone needs to do. the deals are mad. I go on to Skyscanner and I'm like, Should I just, should I just, should I, should I? And then I'm like, no, no, no, no. After my situation changed a few months back, I had that moment and I pop up Skyscanner and I was like everywhere in the destination and just sort by price. care. Yeah. like, I could go some interesting places, but But in all seriousness. Are you going to come back to Europe this year UK or this year for certain when is what I am trying to figure out exactly because I'm honestly all the things that we've been talking about are because, well, both of us are feeling them at the same time, and I'm feeling them very much and I think that we're actually both in a very similar place right now on all the things. And. So, I really want to be back in Europe. I think I need to spend one month in San Francisco for some networking, and I think I'm gonna do that soon. Um, we'll come back for summer. I mean, don't don't bother coming now. It's horrible, but come when it's warmer. oh yeah, I love when you guys cry about now. I saw some of your, I saw some of your photos. It's minus two, John! Minus two Celsius. It was very cold. Minus two Everything was frozen. Let but zero for you is 32 Fahrenheit for us, and then it kind of goes like that. So when you were minus two Celsius, me do a quick Google. today it was 15 Fahrenheit. Which in Celsius is probably minus one billion. That's Jeremy Clarkson math right there. He's my mentor for all things British. Actually, and I just learned that I started saying boot and bonnet because of them Did you? Oh my god, that's so funny. So, Google has told me. I'm telling all my so Google's told me that minus three is 26. 6 Fahrenheit. Is that Oh my god, that's warm. Oh, okay. Um No, yeah, that's pretty cold I didn't know that island got so cold I thought our gulf of soon to be america current warmed you guys up so you never make it that far. Doesn't make it that far. No, no, Maybe it hits Ireland. We have Arctic freezes that come in for like four or five days and then it doesn't go above zero. Okay. Literally doesn't go above zero. Everything's frozen. We have, it's quite funny, you must Google this. We've got these trucks that are called grit trucks. And they will spray salt on the roads so they don't freeze and people don't crash and whatever. But, all of the grit trucks in the UK have got different names. And the other day, I was driving behind Gritty Gritty Bang Bang. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Do yourself a favor I love it! British Grit Truck Names. You will die. It's so funny. They all have different names. They're brilliant. See, I was behind Gritty Gritty Bang Bang and I was like, no way. Gritty gritty bang bang. It's so exciting. This is what keeps me going in winter. See, for us, we had a good snow for the first time in like 10 years. And, so you could make snowmen, snowballs were amazing. It was great. I mean, I don't have anybody to enjoy them with now, but anyway. Um, your parents out. Yeah, physical activity. Um good. I forgot what I was going to say. Um, I did not know that it froze there. Uh, We had some snow in November, does it? Yeah, it does. Scotland gets really cold. Scotland gets way colder. I'd say Scotland's like minus eight, sometimes minus ten. Yeah, very didn't know that. The further north you go, the colder. I'm technically south I thought that the water stopped it though. I thought the water currents. That's what I Um, I'm it's Ireland. I don't I'm pretty sure, no, okay, Ireland probably doesn't get as cold as Scotland, but it's, I mean, Scotland's there, Ireland's there, so. Have you ever met anyone from Jersey? No, but I had friends that went there for a holiday and it looked really nice. It's funny. It's a British territory, right? Yeah. It's just above France and it's an island. France was just like, I don't feel like fighting for these islands anymore. It's like two inches away from me, but fuck it. So they speak English Hm? and they're blonde because some Vikings came down there at some point Hm. and they're right next to France. I met one in Ecuador. I wonder if they get snow. I don't think the islands. No, the coast doesn't really get snow either because it's, I don't know what it is about the coast, but it's warmer there. I was, I was in Wales over the weekend and that was much warmer than it was back home. Yeah, so Okay, so it's the, yeah, it's the water. Yeah. Um, Maybe it's more inland then. What was I going to say? Yeah, that makes sense. That's the water. It's the water that keeps them warm because obviously if the water is liquid, it's not going, it's not going too low. Yeah. The one place I haven't been yet is the Isle of Wight. That looks really nice. Why do you want to go there? Or no, maybe I'm thinking of Isle of Man. Is Isle of Wight with the cliffs like in Ireland? Yeah, well, when you go to the Isle of Wight, you can see the Cliffs of Dover. I believe. Am I talking shit? Anyways, Isle of I don't know. A, there's a music festival there, which I'd like to go to at some point. B, You're like 19 again. I know. There's, I've heard really cool things about when you go over there, the beaches are really nice, the food's really nice, and you can like almost drive the whole sort of circumference of the island and see all the different views and obviously something to do in summer, but loads of people that I've spoken to have been like, yeah, well you can go and just rent an Airbnb and then stay there for a few days and drive around and this is a nice place, something different, warm in summer, beaches, sounds like a cool vibe. What do you think of, what do you think, you can do that in Iceland, by the way, my friend, I want to do Iceland so bad. why does everyone want to do Iceland? What excites you about Iceland? I want to see the volcanic beaches, so the black beaches. I want to go and see, there's that salt bath, like salt bath. Thingy hot hot spring salt thing. I don't know. We everyone goes and swims and covers their face and salt and it like rejuvenates them Whatever I want to go see that I want to go see their hydroponic plants because apparently they're like pretty much off the grid I think it'd be so cool to go and learn about how they are growing plants on the ground Recycling carbon dioxide all that stuff And then this is the landscape looks amazing. It looks really cool there Plus I think Icelandic culture is very different, so I think it'd be interesting to learn about that. That's so cool, I love it. I, I love any place that's different. Everything you said is true, you should go, um, oh my gosh, pardon me, is this microphone gonna, I feel like you heard that, I heard it, I heard it from the depths of your soul. I heard it rumble. Uh it's amazing, you gotta go. Here's my favorite thing about it. huh. That place where you put the white stuff on your face, it's not salt, it's silica. So the same thing that was in your friend's sugar daddy's boobs that were attached to her body in the Miami hostel. Uh huh. It's actually not exactly the same, but same ish. Someone, one of you 25 people out there, correct me. Um, I'm just setting the bar low, so if more than 25 people watch it, I'm happy. Um, So, it's actually one of the original power plants of Iceland, because Iceland is at a place, I think it's where the tectonic plates or something kind of push up, so you can get access to the mantle or something like that, superheated steam, much more easily than anywhere else on Earth, except for somewhere in Africa, I think, so they drill down there, and then they get the steam to come up, and it powers their tiny little island of three or four hundred thousand people, and that was one of the first First or the very first plant where they did that, but they couldn't pump the water back underground at that point. The new ones pump the water back underground. So that one made a lagoon that has turned into a spa. So the spa is legit power plant runoff, and that's my favorite thing. Toxic waste spa. Love it. Yeah, I just love that. I mean, I did it. It's awesome, but to learn later is like, it's power plant runoff, baby. You're gonna glow at night. Let Harley Quinn when she gets pushed into the acid and then comes out with like crazy hair. That'll be perfect. me bring a little baseball bat with you. Yeah, and What do you think about stockings. About Cyprus, we'll talk about that later. No, I'm I want to, I want to go everywhere in Greece. I would love to do Corfu, I'd love to do Cyprus, I'd love to do all of that. Oh my gosh, Have you done Greece at all? No. Mm. I've made, I made a, I had a phone call with my best friend the other day and her 21st birthday was Mama Mia. And we decided that for our 30th, the year that we turned 30, which is two years time, we are going to do a three or four week, maybe four weeks is a bit excessive, but just go fly to Greece island Hop live in hostels party. Just go mental, go everywhere we want to go. So I've said to her that's what we're doing and it'll be around my birthday because I was born in August, she was born in December. So we'll go summertime, two years time, and we're going to take over Greece. Message me before you go. Uh, my friend, he practically lives in Greece and he's done all the islands. I have only done one island. I have done a lot of the mainland, most, almost all the mainland, except for Athens. But he's done all the islands. And so I can hook you up with, with great, great, great info. But if you ever want to do mainland, I did two week road trip, mainland, right at the end of the worldwide lockdowns. I couldn't get anyone to go with me. I had the best time of my life and I would love to show someone else that because it's kind of funny but you end up becoming happy by showing people things that made you happy, especially if it makes them happy, as well. And I had just the best Best road trip. I didn't even wear a shirt. I was at the temple of Delphi without a shirt. The security guard was like, you've got to put a shirt on. I was like, bro, it's 45 Celsius. I'm dying. I'm not putting a shirt on. And they didn't come out of their little air conditioned booth. They couldn't tell you otherwise. That's how I feel about Mauritius because I feel like only South Africans know about Mauritius. So when I put a post up or when I was chatting to people at our various Christmas parties, I was just like, go! It's so affordable. There's so much to do. The food is amazing. The people are so nice. The weather is perfect. It's just so, uh, go! It's like a hidden gem. And also the tourism would do the island wonders. So more people need to go to Mauritius. Could you fly there from London? Uh, well, from Gatwick, yes, that's one of the, the airports. You can get, so, from London, from London, London. from London Central, you can get a train to Gatwick, which I think is like an hour, maybe less, then from Gatwick, flight direct, because when I went, I didn't have anyone to drop me off at the airport, so I just went on the train from Reading, and that was like, Forty five minutes from Reading to Gatwick. The trains are really easy there. Only Gatwick does the flights direct to Mauritius, though. But it goes direct. I mean, Mauritius is an island in, I believe, the Indian Ocean. Is that what it is? And it's also a tax haven. It's like The Cayman Islands for India. It's the weirdest place, though, because it's very third world, but they're very island proud. So, you know, the locals are, they do keep their pods. the island very clean. It's relatively safe, but it's like a weird mix of Indian and French. And they have this, this other language called Creole. Yeah, Wait, they speak Creole? yeah, that is like the main language, then French, then English, then Hindi, whatever else. But they all look Indian, but next minute they're speaking French and you're like, But yeah, no, it's mad, mad clash of cultures. And you know, they're obviously, well, it's extinct now, but Mauritius is famous for the dodo bird. That's where it comes from. Dodo bird's extinct? Sorry. Have you watched Ice Age? All of the Ice Ages? And they very quickly expanded then. I'm a little bit deficient in my Ice Age knowledge. I could get better though. You need to go watch Ice Age because it explains the demise of the Dodo bird very well, even if it's not historically accurate. I'm gonna watch it. How many people are in Mauritius? Oh, I'm a sucker for an animation movie. How Mauritius? Oh, okay. Wait. More important. Which one's your favorite? It's quite a niche movie. It's about a little purple No porn. No, it's called Home. And the little main character in the movie Home is called Oh, and he's voiced by Jim Parsons. And the whole soundtrack of the movie is Rihanna and JLo. And it is adorable. Do yourself a favor, go watch Home animation You did not explain what it's about at all. Is there an want to give it away. Yeah, so Okay, okay, I. I'll give, it's cheat codes, I can't, you have to watch okay. Okay. Okay. You should Uh, I on Rihanna and JLo. ha ha well I don't, I don't, it doesn't tickle me in a nice way. I'm more Britney Spears when she's swinging knives around. I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding. What's, what about your favorite animation movie then? Uh, I like the one with the minions. Oh, just pricking with me. Yeah, I love it, And Gru, we steal the moon! then I love cute little weird creatures. Uh, whoever gets me a mini me plushie, by the way. It's, uh, Fast track to my heart or I don't know what but I just love them. They're cute weird little funny bastards that just make noises. I don't know but I like that one a lot. This is my cute little weird bastard. What's his name by the way? Her name is Nori. Nori. Nori. She's named after the hobbit that rescued Gandalf in Rings of Power. Have you read all of the books? No. I've watched all of the shows and TV series and movies. Thank you for butting me. That's good enough. That's good enough. That's good enough. It is a very cute dog. Uh, I've seen her quite a bit She seems very lovable. This is my child. She's my mental health support companion. I love that. Did you see the one lady that brought a peacock on an airplane as her mental? You can, you can get anything to fly these days. Who was it? Was it? It was Salvador Dali who used to walk around with a peacock on the lead. Wasn't it? It was an emu. I don't know but it sounds it sounds right. So I'm gonna go with Yeah, I think he was a abstract surrealist artist or something like that, I don't know, and he used to just walk around with his pet emu or his pet peacock and people were like, cool, but that's like in the 80s, That's perfect. Um If you haven't seen his paintings, you have to see his paintings. They are super cool. Everyone else is all like, well, I don't know. I wasn't certain with how you said that. Listen, we got to go to Paris. I'm going to take you to Rodin. Rodin. I don't know how you say that name. And I don't care, but I love his art and his sculptures. We're gonna get a bit lit. We're gonna go to the outdoor sculpture garden. They've got some, like, cabana things you can kind of relax on. I think they're just for show, but we could lay on them. we can rely on them. It's fine. He didn't sculpt them. We can lay on them. It's surrounded by walls, so you're safe from the chaos of Paris. A little bit south of Seine. They've got the door that's like the descent into hell or whatever, chaos into hell. They've got the thinker, of course. Perfect. It's amazing. It's beautiful. I love it. I love artists that, I don't know, seem to envision something bigger than themselves Yeah. and where you can't stop looking at what they've made. And thinking about it. And I'm not hoity toity about it. Uh, I love all those people that sit in front of the Mona Stand in front of the Mona Lisa. You're probably there. It's like 40 rows of people. And when I got up to the front, I was looking around like, How should I look at this painting? Cause everyone else has got their hand up on their face. So I went, I gotta scratch my face. And then it's gonna look better. More interesting. Looks like shit. I didn't even bother. I got into that room and saw all those people and was like, looked at it from a distance and was like, cool, and just kept going. Because I was like, man, no way. I've got other stuff to see. Yeah. it's so small, and there's so many people. same. Whenever I have people over and I drive from where I live down to Dorset, which is where I used to work, you end up going on a road called the A303. And when you go on the A303 down to Dorset, you will pass Stonehenge. You will see it from the road. You do not need to stop and pay 30 pounds to park to go and walk around the fucking stones in the middle of the fucking field. mates are like, oh we need to go to Stonehenge. I'm like, no. Over my dead body, absolutely not. So. I can see you as a tour guide, everyone is screaming on the bus, Stonehenge! Stonehenge! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Fuck right off, it's a pile of rocks, There's just rocks in a field not stopping! I'm saving you 30 pounds! Amen. I, I went there, uh, when I was at uni. And I think it was King's College, but I don't know, I did the study abroad thing, which was weirdly enough across the street from the hostel that I would later spend a lot of time at on Queensgate. And we did the Stonehenge thing, and I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. If something is built up too much, and you go there, you can only ever be disappointed. Yep, And I was like, okay, some big rocks. Okay, winter solstice things happen here. Okay, why have I been seeing so many History Channel shows about this? yep. It's very, very, very entirely underwhelming. It's so underwhelming. And then you learn. Aww, no. Kidding. No, London is cool. by the way. What? Orange face. Yeah, we should get into that discussion in a second. One thing I want to say real quick about the Stonehenge. The whole region has like a million Stonehenges. There's tons of stone things going on there. So, I don't know, maybe it was aliens. What? There's one in my friend's back garden. There's like two of them and they're not allowed to do anything to them and they're like, they're fucking annoying. So like, when they mow the lawn, go around far away from the stone? Don't you chip that stone. Ah, okay. Here's Your friend could start a new religion, the religion of the three stones, however many stones are in her backyard, and we could come up with some amazing story behind them. Sell it for millions. History channel, documentary, here we go. Yeah. Oh. Oh. of this religion, you must pilgrimage there once a year and pay 10 pounds to touch the rock. Seems like a very good deal. Although, I'm not sure Granny will like all those people in her back garden. Squishing her tulips. That is Yeah, there's a I love all of those types of things. Oh, oh, you said where would you like to go? Um, I haven't been to the island with the heads. West of Peru. I'd like to go there. Oh, yeah. I forget what it's called. I do want to do more of South America as well. I just love the Yeah, where have you been in Peru? If you only say Lima, we've had this chat before. Is it only Lima though? I forgot. No, I've been to Paracas, I've been to Lima, I've been to Machu Picchu, I've been to Cuzco, I've been to, uh, Ollantaytambo, I've been to, what's that other place called? Oh, I've gone blank. I can see it, it starts with an A. Arequipa. Yes, Arequipa, I've been to Arequipa. I've seen the Rainbow Desert, I've seen the Nazca Lines, I've, all of it. Wow, that's really high up. It's 4, 400 meters, I think. Well, I got altitude sickness when we landed in Cusco, so I had to drink the, the, the cocaine tea. I don't understand why drugs are so casual in this country. It blows my mind every time. It is weirdly casual in the UK, right? It's a fucking Island. Should be hard to smile drugs. Yeah, I went to a house party the other day and I left my phone on the table outside, came back an hour later to find it, and there's like residue coke on the screen where someone had just done a line on my phone, and I was like, are you kidding? Are you joking? What the hell? Yeah, and you're walking around London and there's just canisters all over the road from people that have done these weird moth balloon things that I don't understand either. I'm just like, and you go to festivals and everyone's like, I don't, that should be, we, if I ever get really famous and have some money for marketing, I want to redo marketing posters for cities. And the face you just made it'll be like the welcome to London. Crazy, gurning, cocaine face. Although, to be fair, I When I, Okay. when I lived in, um, London, um, a lot of the people that I met are foreigners. I don't even think there's British people in London anymore. I'm sorry, guys. We just come. We enjoy. We leave. Um. There's, but when I started to hang out more British people, and I started to understand, because there was this one time where I lived in the same place for six months, and it was in South Camden between Mornington Crescent and Camden Town. And once you understand what it looks like to be on Coke, and once you get a lay of the Witness it. kind of, yeah, and you know who the bartenders are and everything, it's amazing. It's unbelievable how many people are using drugs every night. It's just so far above and beyond every other city I've It is, to. ridiculous how casual and how consistent it is. Like, you'll just be like, I got invited round for a pajama party with pizza. Yeah. arrived in my pajamas to eat pizza and everyone's off their face on cocaine. And I'm like, guys, it's Thursday. why I love you. Like, what is going on? And if you want, I'm like, uh, is why we get along. I love it. I love it so much. it's just like, I mean, I don't, I, I was slightly judging maybe, but I just joined, joined in, in the sense that I just was part of the party, but didn't actually do any of the drugs. So I just pretended, and they wouldn't otherwise, because they were all like, so, but yeah. No, don't feel the need to engage in everything that everybody else engages don't need it. I've got enough natural fucking spunk. I don't need it. Yeah, London. At some point, once I start releasing episodes for this podcast and I see how things go, we'll see how many stories can be told, but I have so many stories to tell and I live six months. with one, two, three, four, five, six or seven Aussies in Southampton. love Australians. They're the best. Love you guys. Yes. Also, can we Can we talk about this real quick? How are so many of them so good looking? Yeah, that's why I want to go to Australia as well. I'm going to find a husband. We're going to show up on the island. Prisoners, welcome. I'm looking. my kingdom. a spouse. You're now Yeah. my kingdom. That's better. I used to watch British Love Island until about three years ago, where I just lost interest because it became so manufactured. Now, I watch Australian Love Island. Revolutionary. Best shit. Best reality TV you can find. is this like where they make them naked in the wilderness and then date each other? No, they're not naked. They just shoved them in a villa in Spain. And they just video everything they do. And they match them up and make them do stupid shit. It's mindless, but it's entertaining. I didn't know they were still making shows like that. I got to stop watching conspiracy theories and start watching that shit. Love Island Australia, do it. It's the best shit ever. I will, I need to get back into some of those funny crazy things. So here's, here's the thing that just perplexes me, right? I'm sure we could find a bit like an ugly one. But it's like one in a thousand or something. There's, there's some weird thing. That people who haven't met Australians, at least Australians traveling in Europe, maybe, maybe they only let the attractive ones travel. Maybe they're only let the hot ones leave, yeah. Maybe. a, that's a big marketing ploy. Could be, could be possible. So the British people, they send all their prisoners to Australia. And it turns out those are the most beautiful people on their island. Well, it's a mass exodus of people, fairly good looking people, just moving to Australia. So they're just increasing the, you know, the hotness demographic, if you will. But like, it's so, it's weirdly true. Almost, you can't, you almost can't argue against it. You almost can't argue against it. Um, but the ones that travel also, I haven't been to Australia because I was a bit disappointed. Some of my sort of Thoughts about how Australia was were ruined, and then it pissed me off, and then I learned it's super expensive The ones that travel are so cool, and they're so funny. They're so sarcastic and They go out, and they have a great time. I mean they're just great people to be around Most of my friends that I made at home hostel were Australian. Um, but the one thing I did notice, there seems to be a very big rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne. And then also, everyone who leaves Australia and sees the world, then tells everybody else how shit Australia is. So I'm like, you should maybe do a bit more self promotion for your country. Because I want to come visit. Haha. by the way I don't know if they still do it. I think they do. If you stay there for a year, to extend to your second year, you have to work on a farm. Oh, I'd love to. Apparently it's really easy to get work in Australia. You just have to get all the right paperwork and then your visas and everything. And then you can literally just go work anywhere. I'd love to do I just love, farm or in a bar or hostel. Who knows? That'd be I just love that. They're like, so, you really like our country, huh? Alright. Well, we've got some farm work ready for ya! Let's go! Whee! I don't know any other country that does that. a great initiation. You wanna stay? Guess what. yeah, it's, uh, they have such a great, and I have to say, I would really love to get an Australian on this podcast. Um, it's just that the, I haven't met so many in such a long time, but they undersell themselves. They always say, when you say, wow, you guys travel so long, they say, oh yeah, well, you know, everything is so far from Australia. We have to travel for a long Yeah, yeah. go, no, bro. You're underselling yourself and they're so modest about it. They're just really, except for Sydney people. I'm sorry, Sydney people. You're your dicks. Okay. Give me, Oh my God. I love it. Tazzy. I love Tazzy's people from Tasmania. met a Tazzy yet. They have, well, everyone outside of Sydney can actually make fun of themselves. And then Tazzy's. The whole island are natural born comedians. They've got a second head, you know, lives right next to him and it talks, but they, they'll understand that that's a joke about them being, I don't know what, but they are hilarious, Oh yeah. but they always say, you. good, believe everything. Wait until we get to the aliens. Sorry, that was the alcohol talking. So anyway, they undersell themselves. They're always like, Oh, is everything so far away? I'm like, no, bro. You guys have an amazing culture of travel. You can take one year off of work, go travel the whole year, then come back to your job. Yeah. in the world has that on a regular basis. It's beautiful and amazing that your whole culture and one of them, or a few of them used to tell me that if you would get a job right out of university and you hadn't traveled for a while, they would be like, what's wrong with you? Why haven't yeah. Uh, are you going to do it? That's what I think everybody should embrace, that, you know, before you settle into a real life, you should go and do some sort of travel somewhere that's not your, the same country you grew up in. But I think it'd do the world of good for narrow minded people and people that are just obsessed with their little village or their little community. Yeah, for me, it's back to the conversation we had earlier about where do you fit in, and I don't know the right answer, because sometimes I think if I had never traveled I would be a lot happier. And then I meet people who haven't traveled and they say I'd like to travel like you traveled and then people say don't complain about traveling because you're so lucky to have traveled and I'm like, okay, but I don't know. I, I think at the end of the day, everybody has something that somebody else wants and Of course, I don't, greener on the other side. absolutely. And I understand that when you say, oh, I'd be happy if I hadn't traveled because you hadn't known true happiness, if that, without being cheesy, you know, and like the freedom of self exploration within a different country or a different city. So yeah, absolutely. And then circling back to what we discussed earlier, the post travel depression is definitely something that. we are struggling with. So, and I think that's difficult to relate to someone. Like, I was, deep story, I was seeing someone very briefly, not anymore, um, before, during and after Mauritius, not anymore for good reason. Anyways, and when I got back from Mauritius, I you can talk about the reason if you want. No, I don't want to. Um, when I got back from Mauritius, A, I was really missing my friend, and B, I was so sad that it was over because I had the best time. Like, I just, oh, it was unreal. And he kept saying to me, he's like, oh, but didn't you miss me? Aren't you so happy to be home? Aren't you like so relieved? I'm like, no, I didn't want to come home. And he's like, oh, I don't understand that. Why wouldn't you want to come home? And I was like, well, Anyways, he is no more and I've actually accepted that there was nothing wrong with the way I felt because he made me feel like I was wrong and I was stupid for feeling that way and silly, like, why shouldn't I be happy with my life at home? It's not that I'm not happy, I was just happier on an airplane going somewhere else. So, it was a weird moment of justifying my emotions, processing them and then moving on. Thank you. Yeah, it's, it's very tough, and that's part of, I guess you could say, being on the same page with somebody. Like, somebody either understands how you feel, or they don't understand how you feel. And when you very clearly understand that they do not understand how you feel about something that is a big part of your being, you gotta make a choice, and you made a choice. And now we're here on a podcast. I'm not going to cheers you to it because I don't want to cheers the destruction of anything, but I'll cheers to perhaps the creation of something beautiful going forward for both of us. Amen, Captain. Was water. Haha. Please remind me of that. I love that so much. It's so a vineyard somewhere. Oh, You don't have to own the vineyard. And there's all sorts of things like these weren't their favorite grapes. So you can buy their non, non most favorite grapes or something and then make wine out of it. Oh, interesting. I don't know if there's money in But you see, I understand where you're coming from, but I think we should buy a vineyard with a massive house and then just have loads of roommates and then We just live off the land, you know? Wouldn't that be fun? And we make wine that is called Was Water. we could have workaway volunteers, Yeah! Could have like a hostel on the vineyard. you stay for free as long as you work the vineyard mines. Yes, something like that. Wouldn't that be fun? I would love to try that because you know, of the ways that I've changed is when I met someone. My best friend now. You've got to meet him. He's my, he's my Greece connection. Uh huh. He's been there for ages. He's from California. He worked on vineyards. His name is Chris. He is awesome. He teaches you how to appreciate the connection of people around you. And Pardon me. Part of that is because, you know, you got to go at his pace, and part of it is because he's lived so long that he's fucking wise. And once you learn to listen to people who are older than you, which helps if they aren't part of your family, I don't know what that is, but it's like if they're related to you, you're like, I can't listen to you. yeah, yeah. helped me to appreciate the beauty of communal dinners with lots of people. Like at Home Hostel in Lisbon, and being able to share food and to share drink and to share stories and to slow down. We don't have to take a bunch of shots and get blackout. We'll end up at the same place eventually, but the way that we get there. Is add so much more value to our life, sharing stories, sharing moments, sharing presence of being together. And he taught me a lot of that and that ties in with having a sort of a community place, not a commune, like the hippies had where everybody sleeps with everybody and all this weird stuff where they hate each other at the end of it, but just the fact that you're not alone. And you're sharing experiences and you're sharing moments and happiness and space with people who add value to your life as you add value to their life. but I feel Anyway, he taught me that. I feel like that's European culture though, because the French are like that, the Spanish are like that, the Portuguese are like that, you know, the Greeks are like that, Italian, they all, they all love sense of community. Your neighbor's invited, your neighbor's neighbor, your cousin, your brother, your uncle, you don't even have to be related, they can all come. And South Africans are like that as well, but we obviously have the safety factor to consider living in Africa. But. We always had a saying, this is a South African house, the door's open to anyone, you're always welcome, help yourself. So, that, you create your own community by being generous and being open and that's why I think I love Home Hostel and that, you know, that vibe that we had there because it was almost like a taste of home, being called home. So yeah, I love that. If I can find that all over Europe, I'll be so happy. Or we What is it? You're going to meet Chris. Yeah, definitely. Um, you going to ask me? what, tell me more about that. Like in South Africa, because I know so, so little, um, so what is that? Like, I never heard about that saying the, Yeah, home is open essentially. So I, I grew up in a gated community, which was what we would call a gulf estate to make it sound posh, but it was for our own safety. And it was basically where. All the wealthier people lived on a Gulf estate. It was all very close by to the local shop, the local school, the local hospital. So you were basically on your own little bubble. And within that bubble you had book clubs and scrapbooking and sports and all sorts of things that people would just come together and they would share. The lifts for the kids for school, they would share this run and that run and you know, and everyone It's all like there'd be a run club and there'd be a cycle planner and everyone's so involved in everybody else's business a for the gossip and b because We just love having That community because then you've got a safety net. You've got people to fall back on you've got people to rely on and You know whenever With school would finish and we get home. I could come home with like five kids and my mom would be like, cool. She just whip up lunch for all of us. And then we play in the garden, you know, it was fine. Then we moved out to a farm, which was a good half an hour away and significantly more dangerous. We had sick, crazy security and it became, that was when I was a bit older as well. It became a case of wanting to host house parties and have people around and It was one of those things that we were almost forced to be generous because once people were there past a certain time you couldn't leave because it was too dangerous for you to try and drive home at that time of night in that area. So it was almost like cool you want to have a party tell me how many people are coming so we can make sure we have enough food, beds, and we have enough entertainment for that and we did. I mean we had a pool, we had a fireplace, we had a massive garden, we had trampolines, we had stuff in sight. We were like, we were like It was sick parties, but that was the thing. Once you were there, you were invited in, you were part of the family. You stayed the night, you helped clean up in the morning, and then you got to go home. And that was very much how the in house parties operated within South Africa and Joburg specifically, because it was much safer in like Ubers. You couldn't trust the Uber drivers. Taxis are not a thing for white people. Unless you had somebody who could pick you up and drop you off. And even so, where we lived, it was not recommended because we didn't want our own safety to be compromised by having cars in and out all the time. Especially when you're a bit drunk and all over the show, not paying attention. So it's very much, I think almost forced, but we loved it and we loved having that. And our community grew as we got older, you know, friends come and go, new people. So yeah, it's a South African house that we have here. Anyone's welcome, help yourself, you know, part of the family. I think that's how it looks really. I love that. Um, I mean, I love the communal aspect of it, not Yeah, not the that's going to be in my next question. Um, why were Ubers not safe? Um, thinks Ubers are safe when they're traveling. Not in South Africa, as a 17 year old girl You know going out out with her best friend wearing very minimal clothing, possibly quite drunk by 1am when two of them flop into your Uber and the Uber drivers haven't been properly, you know, assessed or whatever, things happen, things go down. So basically, I was always told I wasn't allowed to go out unless I was going out with male friends and I wasn't allowed to go in Ubers or anything unless there was a male friend present and even so we were always a bit like Can, can your older brother just drive us and pick us up instead? Because we used to do this thing if we absolutely had to get an uber We would go via mcdonald's and buy the uber driver Whatever he wanted at mcdonald's as a way to like bribe him to not do anything to us and to get us home safely And the one time we did that we got to mcdonald's and it was such a sketchy uber driver And he was saying such weird things. We just got out and told him to leave And then phone somebody to come pick us up because we were like we would rather wait here at McDonald's at 2 a. m For somebody else to come get us than be in your uber driver be in your uber with you. Mr. Driver So yeah, it's it's a different world so different to difficult to articulate to people and also like When we had a night out out if we made it back not spiked With our phone with our id with our money like without something being stolen or being drugged. It was a good night Which is wild. god. So going out in Europe like we did in Lisbon was so freeing for me. We were just walking the streets with total strangers. Going into clubs and, you know, drinks open, not worrying about what is going in it. And like, my phone waving in the air, like, it. Different world. Wow so in South Africa There is a McDonald's test for uber drivers in order to get home safe I don't know if this happens to every South African, but that's That's what I'm that's what I'm gonna get out of this if I take an uber in South Africa I'm that bro. You want a Big Mac? Let's go get a Big Mac Alright, are you? I think as a white male, you'll be okay. Yeah, I'm joking, but that's, that's legit fucking terrifying. So Yeah, I got this Uber. It's, oh yeah, it's this billion dollar company from, uh, San Francisco, uh, US. It's a super special blah, blah, blah, pioneer of ride sharing. Now here in South America, I'm trying to get home. Oh yeah, but down here, even with all the verifications and everything in order to get home safe, I got to take my friendly Uber driver to the McDonald's to see if he's going to try and sexually assault me. So we're going to buy a make sure he doesn't. Okay. Mac, I'm going to see what he says. about my short skirt because I'm a gal enjoying my life. And if I'm freaked out, well then it probably means I'm going to get murdered, murdered and chopped up into little pieces. So I got to go. You failed the McDonald's. I'm on my third Uber driver. It's 6am. Now I got to go from buying him breakfast to buying a regular burger and he's not going to open up as much then cause he's pissed that there's no breakfast. It's hard to find a good Uber driver here in South And often, Okay, I got excited. I'm sorry, that's okay, and often when you get into the Uber driver's situation, you can almost guess, because they'll be like, oh. Oh, but I'm so thirsty. Oh, but I'm so hungry. It's been such a busy night. Such a busy night. And then you know, and then you know you have to go buy a McDonald's because otherwise you're like, shit. Wait, really? So you get in the Uber and it's like, Oh, white girl, I'm really hungry. Would be nice if you could buy me a Big Mac so I don't murder you. Yep. Isn't that wild? And need a South African Harry Potter. Wh When you, uh, get stopped by the cops in a roadblock, the best thing is they always say to you, Oh, but your, your brake lights are not working. And you know, your brake lights are working, but that is basically code for give me money and I'll let you go. So then you have to scramble around, get some cash out, slip it into your ID, give them your ID or your drivers, whatever they go. Oh, but it's okay. You can go now. And I, when I sold my car, the little unit where I kept my money had like a gap in it and it sucked in like 300 grand. So when I sold my car, I sold it with like telling them, I was like this 300 grand under the AC unit. It just like, so just so you know. And then when I pulled out my old South African ID the other day, I found 200 grand still in it. It was clearly for bribe money for whatever expedition I was going on next. But yeah, you can't trust the cops, and if you get out the car, good luck to you. why? Oh, heaven knows what they'll do to you. I had a couple friends that had I tell horrible, when I, when I'm nervous, I tell horrible jokes. Um, what would happen? How bad is it? I'm getting nervous and I'm in Kansas City. let's, let's not talk anymore about it because we are 2 hours and 15, 17 minutes deep and it's, it's taking a dark turn, isn't it? Um, always say we should share some happy stories. But you get done with that? I would love to share. more crazy stories, but I don't want to put people off of South Africa because it's, Does have so much to offer and if you want to go, please do go to Cape Town. There's vineyards There's amazing hikes. There's Table Mountain. There's Lion's Head. There's beautiful beaches. There's penguins. There's the best seafood you'll ever taste There's if you just go up the way you can go and find a couple game parks and go do safaris Go to the Kruger. The Kruger is beautiful. Go to the Drakensberg. Go to Lesotho I thought you said those were like fake preservation parks down there. The Kruger is still, you're going to get a safari experience in the Kruger. As I said, it's just a bit more manufactured because the animals are protected from poachers. Not that they're not protected from poachers in Kenya and Tanzania, but it's on a smaller scale. Whereas Kenya and Tanzania are like, Okay. so you get to see more in South Africa because They're locked in and you know where the lions are going to be every day. You know where the leopards are going to be. So you get to see more. Whereas Kenya, Tanzania, if you see it, it's like whoa, because it's quite rare. So that's what I mean by it's manufactured. Is that okay. I see what you're are restricted. Yeah. It's more, It's more. I have a question for you. No horses. What's your favorite animal? No, no horses, no dogs. I'm talking, Probably a going with stereotypes. A I'm gonna place your country of origin based on this and this ties in with what we were just saying which is parks and stuff. Yeah, I'd say my favorite animal is a giraffe. You might be from Africa if your favorite animal is a giraffe. Okay. Have you I didn't expect that actually I had a hyena joke. Um, so you threw you threw that off. Whoops. you seen a giraffe and was it in one of the parks in South Africa or one of the other countries you said has the more wild parks, Captain, Captain Pirate, Sir John, do I have a story for you? So, my dad loves hunting, which sounds funny, but Is this a heart story? A is it a what? heart story? I think so, anyways, um, my, my dad used to, Go hunting. He told the government he used to go sort of like one of his very very good friends had a game farm that was about an hour away from where we lived and we used to go and stay there. They built a beautiful, uh, what do you call it? LARPA next to the bungalow and it's, oh, it's really nice. We used to have big cookouts with a big fire, sit around it, get drunk, all sorts of things, go on night game drives, day game drives. We had quad bikes as well, so we'd just jump on the quad bikes, disappear for hours, go driving around, we'd go find a good spot where you could see everything, like a viewpoint, and have sun down and just watch the sun go down. Amazing. Anyways. On this game farm, there was a reservoir, quite a big round reservoir because they were subject to drought every now and again because of Africa. And we got really hot that one day because it was 35 degrees. So we jumped on the quads with our cozzies and our towels and some beers and ciders and legged it down to the reservoir and jumped straight in. And we're splashing around, swimming, music's going. And. We just hear sort of crunching of trees and next minute we look up and a whole herd of giraffe come wandering over to the reservoir and they sort of stop and watch us for a bit and they kind of see that we're just drunk humans in a reservoir with music playing. By this point we turned the music off because we were like holy shit. Anyways, they then came over and all of them drank from the reservoir that we were swimming in Like, it was quite a big one, but I would say like a good 20 meters from where I was hanging on the wall, seven giraffes were just having a drink and I was just like, Unreal. And then they had a little drink, they wandered off, put the music back on, carried on. So cool. You, you have you know, not just in a concrete zoo? weird. Sense of respect that just kicks in. You get this complete moment of awe where you just want to be dead quiet, just watch them, watch every muscle move, watch them flick off a fly, eat some leaves off a tree, have a drink, scratch their butt. You know, you're just like, Just watching these majestic animals just be, it's, I don't know how to explain it, but you just shut down and just watch and take it in. And then afterwards you're like, did that just happen? Was that real? It's so cool. I love it. That's awesome. Do you go from feeling like you're at your reservoir to feeling like you're at their reservoir? you feel like you're intruding on a very quiet aspect of somebody else's life that you probably shouldn't be in. You know? It's like you're tiptoeing on somebody else's lawn and you're kind of suddenly a bit like, ooh, I should, I should leave. But at the same time, you don't want to because you're so ensconced in what's going on. in front of you. The only thing I can say is I have a very healthy respect for buffalo, hippos and elephants because they are very territorial. They are very scary when they get angry and I'm quite happy to see them and leave. I don't want to hang around because that might piss them off and then they might want to try kill me. So I'm like cool, picture, we go now. We impede no more. have you? So hippos, I know a little bit about, which is basically they're like top of the food chain of everything. Um, I remember I saw a video recently of, uh, an alligator or crocodile. I don't remember which one trying to attack a zebra and the zebra attacks it back. And then the zebra somehow gets away. And there's all these alligators or crocodiles. I always forget which one is They are crocodiles. um, Then there's just a hippo in the background chilling. Ah, cool. I'm afraid of nothing. I'm just enjoying the show because they're so high up. Um, how have you seen them outside of a zoo? Yeah, I've been chased by one. On land and on a boat. is terrifying. The boat one sounds oddly more terrifying. Tell in a boat, and next minute you just see this hippo, like a speedy manatee, coming after you. It's terrifying. And the boat takes off, you're hanging on, this thing's coming, you see the teeth, you're like, no, hippos are scary. You're like, bro, I just bought this tour online. It didn't include death. yeah, I don't want to be hippo food. You're not going to get five stars if I die. What, Do you know, I think, okay, but wait, let's run through this again. You're in a boat. You're just, like, I imagine it's a boat where the engine's controlled like this. No, no, no, no, it's much bigger. It's, it's like a proper river barge, kind of, with a bar and cocktails and beers and it's like an Well now it sounds awesome. I'm gonna have, uh, I'm gonna have a gin tonic while Lady Hippo eats the other guests. I think more people die by hippo than any other animal on the planet. Like, okay, besides the obvious. But I'm pretty sure hippos are the number one killers. Their teeth are insane. It's like, Yeah, I mean, they don't necessarily eat you, but they just want you dead. That sounds, sounds, worse. Sounds like you have a higher chance of dying. Yeah, I Okay, so you're on this barge. Yeah. You're on this barge. You're having a cocktail, having just escaped your Uber driver that you vetted at McDonald's, and now a hippopotamus is chasing you guys. In the water, yeah. He's just like, woo, woo, woo. And they swim bloody fast, eh? Bloody fast. Yeah. Go and Google it. Yeah. Go and Google it. A hippo chase in the river. It is scary. Sounds like a Nightmare. You know like in your nightmares, um, the bad things go faster and you go slower? That's what it sounds like. Literally, and they are so destructive as well. They'll literally rip a hole in the boat and then you sink. Silence. a boat. I'm on a boat with four other people from my hostel. There's one boat man. It's a small boat. Hippopotamus has just ripped off the back right side of the boat and we're sinking. Now, is he gonna, is there any Is he gonna kill all of us? Or is there any way he just kills one of us? Like, how do I make it so I'm the one that doesn't die? Well, in that situation you want to get to land as fast as possible because it's not just angry hippopotamus that wants to eat you. You then have to contend with crocodiles as well. They're like a tag team. Crocodiles actually want to swallow you. Hippo just wants you dead. you just need to get out as fast as you can and pray there's no croc in your way. So, I'm Africa. with you. I, I bet in Africa I could swim faster than Michael Phelps. If there was a hippo chasing me. anybody would. You just gotta ask the hippo what McDonald's he wants and sees what he says when he's ordering McDonald's. Okay, him what he wants, he'll be like, You dead. Can only a Big Mac. I'm not on the menu. imagine? Yeah. They're, they're so terrifying, but they are so harmless looking. They look like fat little Disney angel, like, I don't know, cows of the water. Exactly. They, the first time I saw a manatee I was like, are they as territorial as hippos? And my mum was like, no. So I was pretty stressed the first time I saw a manatee, because I wasn't sure what to expect, because I'd only ever encountered angry hippos. that's so funny because they are really fat and round, but the manatees are so lazy. They just, I mean, if the current pushes them this way, they're just like. like, okay, take me. Weird That is, that's a really funny connotation. You're like, Mom, they all kind of like hippos. Are we about to die? I think Literally, she's like, no, you can touch it. I'm like, do I want to touch it though? Is it going to get angry? Oh my gosh, the world is such a crazy interesting Amazing place and it's just because there's that baby hippo that went famous not long ago Maybe a year ago or six name? Mu Deng. like he's Mu Deng. What's it? His name is Mu Deng, I think. Mu Deng? Mudang. But that's why. He's so angry because hippos are so angry. He's just small enough that it's not that scary. It's funny. He's gonna be a menace. Uh dead zookeepers trying to make TikToks with Mudang. gonna have to get a new baby hippo because he will literally try and kill them. Because I saw the, I saw the thing where it kind of like bites the leg. I didn't know if it was the same hippo or not. And, yeah, I guess, In a year, when he does that, your leg is gone. Yep, pretty much. So in a year, Mudeng will not have a TikTok account anymore. He'll be left to be. He'll be, he'll be banned for gore. It's alright, they'll just breed another little baby and make fun of that one. It's I thought that that was like a midget hippo or something, and He might have been I'm trying but it doesn't make him any less aggressive. He'll still murder you. It'll just take a little bit longer. So what age did you? I gotta be honest. I don't know what's gonna happen with this podcast, but I'm having so much fun. I'm I just love all these talks. And when we talked before everything was such a short discussion. When did you move from South Africa, death by pygmy hippo to England? Death by too much foundation. I decided to move to the UK in 2019, so I came over January 2019, um, and I'm not going Wow I came, or actually was over, I was over in December 2018 for a load of interviews because I wanted to work at a big international equestrian yard so I could get loads of experience on the international circuit, compete, and all that stuff. So I landed a really cool job at an Olympic event yard down at Dorset with a brilliant rider called William Fox Pitt, who is a legend in the equestrian world. He's won more medals than God. And, um. Wow Brilliant integration into society here and the way it works and the horsey world and everything and I worked there for a year and a half. I was going to stay longer, but COVID ruined everything. So, then I moved back home and worked as a carer for 2 years. I wiped people's bum during COVID was great. Human people or a Yeah, human people. I looked after people with Parkinson's, dementia, MS, all sorts. Um, it was great. I was busy, I was out, I was meeting people, I was chatting to people, doing stuff while everybody was locked inside, so it was fun. Um, and then opened up my freelance business, which I've been doing ever since, and then plopped in and out of other various jobs that I've tried to do along the way, but I just keep ending up coming back to horses, so I'm trying to get out of horses for good and then go traveling. But yeah. So it's been six years now living in on the soggy island. on the what island? The soggy bipolar little island. Yeah. I like that Well, um, I think it's good to deal with people who aren't at their top because it gives you perspective on the fact that we won't always be on our top and that we will have downs and we can't judge anyone based on things like that. And I, I think there's a lot of people that are a bit too quick to judge people on that. And so anyway, I think that that's, I think that was a really good experience to have. Certainly. I don't know if it was grounding for you, but I feel like in general, it's sort of a grounding Oh my gosh, yeah, but the little 21 year old girl that arrived in the UK couldn't be more different from the 27 year old that sits before you, but I had to go through all of that to be who I am now, and to have figured out what I like, what I don't like, my superpowers, my weaknesses, you know, and yes, the original reason why I moved here doesn't necessarily exist anymore or like my goals and my ambitions aren't the same as they were, but that doesn't mean that I'm not in a good spot to operate for the next set of goals and the next plan. Yeah. being in the UK is, as we've said, super cheap flights, really easy to get to Europe. So I've just got to try and figure out how I'm going to get more work because Brexit ruined that for us. But anyway, I'll figure it out. Can you say where you are a citizen of, or are you just like, you got a UN passport? Citizen of no, so, taxes. No, sorry, I wish. I have, I was actually born in the UK, my mum kept her legs crossed, flew over here and went, and then I got the British passport, and then she flew back two weeks later, and I grew up in South Africa for 21 years, so I then got a South African passport as well, so I have both. I'm a dual citizen of both countries, but because of Brexit, To work in Europe, because we've left the EU, you now have to have a work permit and a work visa once you've been offered a job, so It's quite annoying. What I don't understand is why Okay, no, I understand it. But, because the people who make the decisions aren't affected by the results of their decisions. That's the reason why. But, the UK is so close that they could work out A bilateral agreement, super would think. The, The, entire Europe, they don't call themselves Europe, by the way, for people who don't know this, but all of Europe goes there to learn English. That's why the rents are so high in London. As someone who has been there a bunch of times, who has been apartment searching a million times, who has lived in apartments, lived in hostels, lived there for years. They go there to learn English, okay? So many of my friends and everybody, they have power to negotiate that they just don't use. That would make it so that they don't have to engage in all the agreements they don't wish to engage in, but could still make it easier for the people who are citizens to go to the mainland, because so many people go there. And, I mean, London, I'm sorry? It's very stupid, the whole situation. And also I find it's, it's really, well, this is part of the reason why horses have become so expensive is now pre, pre, um, Brexit, when you traveled a horse between the UK and Europe, you literally rolled up to the ferry, scanned your passport, got on the ferry, traveled, got off the other side, drove. Now because of Brexit, The horses have to have a carne, which is like your travel insurance, to make sure that you don't sue the shit out of Europe if something goes wrong. Then, uh, They have to go into quarantine slash customs and they have to get approved and they have to get all of this crap. So what used to be really easy, hop on the ferry, hop off, keep going, you could then stop somewhere, let the horse off for, you know, welfare reasons, give it water, litter, put its head down and graze. Now you end up sitting in customs for two hours before the ferry, then customs two hours after the ferry. Animal welfare goes out the window if it's hot or cold. And it's all about the stamps and the paperwork and the load of shit that we've never had to deal with before. So, thank you, conservatives. Yeah, I think just nobody who makes these decisions has to suffer from these decisions. I mean, one of the things Like we said, we, we, I think both of us don't get too political, but the older I get, the more I'm like, you don't have a choice that actually saves you from anything. Like, I just feel like that. I just feel like you Well, that's why it's easier to just stick your head in the sand. Wow. Hehe. find something that you enjoy drinking. Was water. me, we had a chat once I gave you like three random questions on Instagram and one was about what you would drink in this instance. Did you reply brandy or whiskey or something like that? What was it? Uh, my answer to that question would change on the monthly, but at the moment I'm very into my rum. Um, Spiced rum to be preferred, perhaps. of? Dark You're trying to get on my good side. No, I just, when I went to Mauritius, drank a whole bottle of rum to myself within seven days and have not looked back. Loved it. It was a great time. So I now am very, very pro rum. Now I, I, when I was in, because this is the one thing about Mauritius, the alcohol is very expensive there because they have to import everything. So when I was in the airport in Duty Free, I bought a really nice bottle of rum and thought, yeah, this is the last 10 days we can all sip on it, be nice. Loved it so much I drank it all by myself in seven days. So that was called Kraken rum. love it. Kraken rum, and the bottle is beautiful. So yeah. Look it up. Yeah. was in the Philippines, Yeah, good hostel in that city. A very small city on an island. So I stayed in a hotel and there were a bunch of other people, same situation as me. So it was basically a hostel. We just came to the common room, hosteled it, basically, you know, got together, had Made at a hostel, yeah. played games. Yeah. And, and it was all open air. So you had like rooms. Down here, you had a hallway here, but it was completely open to the outside there. So just a little railing and you're all sitting here. And I was tasked to get the alcohol for eight of us or so. And I go to the shop, and we're a little bit back from the main drag, like four or five streets back. So in a small city, you're basically, you know, in the, like, outskirts. Yeah, yeah. Go to a shop. And it's like a one or two liter bottle of I think it was a one liter bottle of rum and it was 75 cents Wow! And I had never been there before so I just came back and I told everyone said listen guys You know that 20 euros you gave me um So this costs 75 cents. So either we're gonna die or have a great night Was it good? was amazing. It was so Good It was so good You We had a great go to the Philippines. I used, I used to work with a Philippine lady and she was so much fun. She used to rock up to work super hungover. I just, she was really good at her job but you could see she was like, uh. Yeah. Yeah. and just really personable people. I found absolutely. Right pirate, I, it is quite late here, so I'm going to have to wrap it up now, if that's okay. was a good conversation. No, it's not. Okay. You're not allowed to actually, as part of our contract, our Brum contract, 75 cent room contract, Alex, it was so nice to talk to We could talk all night, you know that. Heh to do this again. We have to do this again. And we need two of the pod. 2025. Yes, we do. I know that I am skiing first week of Feb, possibly going to Croatia at the end of April. I want to do a load of Europe in summer and then I want to go to Mauritius again and then work a ski season. So, easy, very affordable. Well, you've got to do Greece road trip with me at some point. I want to take somebody who's Pretty bitchin Somewhere that I've been, because I did it all by myself, and I want to share it. It was just, it was amazing. This is how I feel about Mauritius. I want to share it with everyone. All right, you share Mauritius. with me, I'll share Greece with you. Deal. On that note, the most amazing Alex Of pretty much the whole world. We didn't even talk that much about Peru. Oh my gosh. We have so much more to talk about. I have so can hook you up. get your dad on this podcast. I want to talk about Pisco Sour. We have so many things to talk ceviche you'll ever taste in your life. Yeah. We gotta get Papa Mun on here. I'm going to have to come over to your house. Yep, everyone's welcome. South African house doors always open. All right, well, thank you, my dear. It was such a great time having this great conversation with you. Thank you for having me. It's been great. We have to do it again. For sure.