Do not order Starbucks

Google and yelp reviews can only get you so far. They’ll get you as far as the last tourist.

Have no plans. Show up, talk to people. Listen to where the place leads you.

Discover the gems from the words of the locals, not some tourist from the Uk or an Instagram influencer desperate for vanity metrics.

Follow the Tourist Trail and you will get the cookie cutter experience. A path that too closely parallels the world you already live.

This is not the point of travel.

Traveling is a privilege that allows you to observe a new world and develop a deeper understanding of a new culture.

Because there are a million right ways to live, and yours is only one of them.

If you stumble upon a trendy coffee shop, keep walking.

Around the corner you may find a new experience, a new point of view, the same point of view.

Or you might not. You might have the shittiest meal of your life, have awkward exchanges, or talk to scammers and rude people. That’s everywhere.

But thats the point of travel—to try something new, to break free of familiar comforts.

If you keep following what you know,

You will never know what you don’t know

Broaden your perspective with travel; don’t reinforce your western mind. Challenge it, add to it, but please God do not travel just to stay the same. Do not protect yourself from the reality of a place. Do not order Starbucks in Turkey. https://nostr.build/av/6f923d54cd67f8c9e0c23e89138ea405475c12a8e290335dcdb891e0a84a43b1.mov