What is slow travel?

A nice travel read....

It's true. We plan a trip and we go hard every day with a list of bucket items and to do lists.  We get so caught up in FOMO hype we forget to be present and mindful and to enjoy our new environment.

You know what?

It's okay to rest. It's okay not to do a million things in a day. It's okay to spend the day reading in the park or on the beach.

Read this article, it'll do you good.

What is slow travel?

Spiritual Awakening: 23 major signs and symptoms

What an incredible and eye opening article.

I knew I was developing spiritually but to actually see my 'symptoms' written down was mind blowing.

Check it out.

Spiritual Awakening: 23 major signs and symptoms

Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.

I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size   

But when I start to tell them,

They think I’m telling lies.

I say,

It’s in the reach of my arms,

The span of my hips,   

The stride of my step,   

The curl of my lips.   

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,   

That’s me.

I walk into a room

Just as cool as you please,   

And to a man,

The fellows stand or

Fall down on their knees.   

Then they swarm around me,

A hive of honey bees.   

I say,

It’s the fire in my eyes,   

And the flash of my teeth,   

The swing in my waist,   

And the joy in my feet.   

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

Men themselves have wondered   

What they see in me.

They try so much

But they can’t touch

My inner mystery.

When I try to show them,   

They say they still can’t see.   

I say,

It’s in the arch of my back,   

The sun of my smile,

The ride of my breasts,

The grace of my style.

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

Now you understand

Just why my head’s not bowed.   

I don’t shout or jump about

Or have to talk real loud.   

When you see me passing,

It ought to make you proud.

I say,

It’s in the click of my heels,   

The bend of my hair,   

the palm of my hand,   

The need for my care.   

’Cause I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

The most beautiful thing I have hear in years: You are it - Alan Watts

The most beautiful thing I have heard in years...

Sassy Stitching at its best!

Check this awesome Etsy shop out.

Modern cross stitch that is not for the faint of the heart.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/SassyStitchinStudio

Be kind to one another

I know this post is meant for kids but it made me think of something else.

Someone brought to my attention that others are making comments about her weight. Now this was a beautiful and fit person but yet the comments were affecting her in a negative way and she was really bothered by them.

I started to pay more attention to the comments people made towards me. Now i never really paid attention to them before as my confidence does not come from others' opinions of me. I noticed that people were making comments all the time. Comments like 'you are bigger then before', 'are you not going to the gym anymore?', 'you are less fat/more fat then last contract', 'she was big like you' I even got 'you are the biggest I have seen you' etc.

When I asked some female friends if people ever make comments about their appearance one of them said 'my paisanos tell me I am fat every day'.

People, this is not okay.

We don't comment on one's religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity etc. yet people make comments like this? It is not okay to make comments about someone's body regardless of their shape, size, weight, height, appearance etc.

Personally I am confident and I don't care what others think BUT there are many people who really suffer when comments like these are made.

The point I am trying to make is

YOUR

WORDS

MATTER

Be kind to one another.

Old Town Promenade Walk

May must be the most beautiful month in Wroclaw. It is so green and beautiful and full of life. I decided to take a stroll in the Old Town Promenade, 6 hours and 10km later I was re-energized and fascinated. Of course I stop a lot to take it all in, take photos and sit and have a cold one and watch people go by.

My starting point

The moat around the Old City

National Museum

Ostrow Tumski

Love Locks

Wroclaw has an interesting story with these Krasnale (Dwarfs).  There are 349 different ones all over the city honouring different occasions, trades etc.  You can get a map in any of the tourists spots and see how many you can find. Sometimes they are really obvious and sometimes they are tricky to find. You can find more info on these charming creatures here:  Krasnale.pl

My beloved Krasnale or dwarfs

Polish Women

wrocLOVE

When I was young I used to come to Poland every summer or every other summer. When I started working on ships it got increasingly harder to do so with limited time off. Now as an adult I have been coming here for the last three years. I absolutely love how this city has grown and changed. Wroclaw is a perfect marriage of old and new. It still has all this history but it's cosmopolitan at the same time. New restaurants, bars with previously unknown cuisines are popping up in old, restored buildings. I hear new languages and see new nationalities choosing Wroclaw as a home, I love it.  Being here gives me so much peace and fuels my curiosity.  I spend hours just wondering the city and absorbing all her glory and taking photos of the old buildings and cobblestone streets.

I wanted to share some of these photos with you....

my old elementary school

Sculptures coming out of the sidewalk, on my way to the main square

Main square (Rynek) and surrounding areas

Uniwersytet Wroclawski - University of Wroclaw

And my favourite bar in the whole wide world:  Dom Whisky & Cocktail Bar Max

Wroclaw, Poland

Ahhhhh....this is the sigh of relief and relaxation that escapes my lips when I land in my birth town of Wroclaw, Poland.

I pinched this beautiful video from the Insta of PolskaZachwyca. I just had to share it with all of y'all.

Some of my photos to come soon.

I do not own the rights to this music or video

16 People Who Are Embracing Their Flaws In The Most Beautiful Way

What a refreshing and beautiful article!

We should all love our bodies the way that they are. They allow us to do magical things every day and experience this beautiful planet.

After all, we are all created in the image of the head honcho upstairs.

16 People Who Are Embracing Their Flaws In The Most Beautiful Way

This city.....

This city....it's just so full of life and colour and expression.  Busy and bustling with opportunity, tolerance and acceptance.

I am still in shock what happened here earlier this week. These things are not supposed to happen here. I have always felt so safe here, it is after all my home even if I am not here all the time. The van incident made my head spin for several days, took a lot of meditating to bring myself back down. The age old question of 'What is the world coming to?' kept creeping up.

But I can tell  you that I am very proud of how we as a community and as a country responded to the incident. It shows that even in our darkest hour we still standby our values of compassion and kindness which simply amazed me.

Oh Canada!

Baby it's cold outside....Happy December!

It's the most magical time of the year!

If you're single and you don't have kids....

I have just gotten back from Australia and Italy (in that order) and I am slightly jet lagged. 

I have not been able to write as much as I would like (and I do love doing it, it's like therapy for me).  I have literally been around the world in 4 months (Toronto - Miami - Caribbean - Victoria - Alaska - Vancouver - Hawaii - French Polynesia - Fiji - New Caledonia - Australia - Italy - Toronto) and now that I am home I need to take care of all that fun stuff (like banking and dentist appointments) that I ignore for majority of the year.  I do hope that in this whirlwind I can sit down and share some of my travels with you but in the meantime I wanted to share this speech with you.

It's my birthday in a few days and it's lovely being home for it. I will meet my friends and we will chat and catch up. They will ask me when I am leaving the ships and ask about my romantic life and the dreaded question of kids will come up. I don't want kids, I never wanted kids and it's not because I am a sailor, it's just something I never see myself doing. I can't even commit to living in one country or to stay anywhere longer then a month never mind commit to having a child.

Anyways, I saw this speech and I thought it was awesome. Honestly I don't feel any pressure from society to be married or to have kids and I know plenty of men and women (sailor and non sailor) that are like me. But I do get annoyed when some friends questions me. I don't understand WHY they would want kids and I don't question it, I think it would be nice if they didn't question me.

Nevertheless this speech from Tracee Ellis Ross is just wonderful and I would like to share it with y'all.


Click Here for the speech:  Tracee Ellis Ross - Glamour Women of The Year Speech 2017

Miami, Las Vegas & Holland....cause I don't travel enough...

Alright, alright. So this post is going back to June and July of this year but better late then never!

So all this travel took place on my so called vacation. I say so called cause I went cruising with my boo on one of our ships, I went to a work conference in Miami and then I got sent to Amsterdam for training.  Now Vegas was for my bestie's bachelorette so no work  was done there.  BUT the good thing about being Miss International is that I get to see friends in all of these places. Some of them are passing through just like me and some of them live in these destinations.

The first destination was Miami.  I ran into several good friends while I was there and I stayed for a few days longer and invited another friend to hang out at the beach for the weekend.  Caught up with another ship bestie in the Cuban neighbourhood of Calle Ocho. We attempted to go salsa dancing but turns out we ate too much Cuban food BUT we did get to see Ronaldinho at the club jamming on stage with a live salsa band.

Donna and I enjoying cocktails in South Beach

Weekend in SoBe

Aperol Spritz

Dinner in Calle Ocho

Calle Ocho

Pool day at a friend's apartment....overlooking the Miami port

Las Vegas....well what can I say about LV.  It was hot, messy and crazy with the Polish wolfpack. And cause I apparently know people everywhere, I ran into one of my finance friends from the ship while strolling through Old Vegas! Got to see Tiesto live (bucket list - check!) and partied like a rockstar.

Our hotel: The Bellagio 

Polish wolf pack

Back in Amsterdam! Well a suburb of it anyways. We have a training facility there where all the Officers get sent for courses. As per usual, I did my work duty and extended my stay to enjoy the surroundings.  My friend was also starting work as an instructor there so I got to enjoy the city a bit with him.  Also managed to hang out with some other ship friends; One Dutch, one Irish and one Ukrainian.  My last couple of days I spent in Katwijk with a friend who I haven't see in 10 years, what a lovely place!

View from my room

Reunion time

Random concert in our backyard

Gorgeous Katwijk

Drinks by the sea