JUST MY IMAGINATION

2023 has been one of my favourite years. But as I always say, my best year is yet to come. This year, I have travelled a lot. Visited 11 countries and many more cities. Solo travelled a few times and absolutely adored it. Reached the final year of my Ph.D. and managed to squeeze in a few more conferences. Gained even more responsibilities in my role at work and felt respected and appreciated. Started writing my book, my autobiography. It was supposed to be my 30th birthday present to myself. Not sure if I will be able to finish it on time, though. Life moves very quickly, and a lot of things happen all the time. And somehow, I am always on the move. One of my resolutions for the new year is gotta be stay home more. I never thought I would say this, but I am tired of traveling. The next big thing on the agenda is to get the damn Ph.D. done. Met a lot of people on the way- got new friends and lost some. Because that's life. Done some video shooting...

Two hours before checkout. Enough time to have one last coffee and pack up. This is the end of my Balkan tour. I explored five countries and over ten cities, opting for a guided tour this time, as a change, and this gave me the chance to compare traveling with a tour and solo. As you can imagine, solo travel beats traveling with a tour. However, there are certain benefits of traveling with a group and an experienced tour guide when it comes to the Balkans. First of all, group travel allows you to cover more countries in a limited time. Originally, I planned this trip for just Albania with my sister. Then decided to extend our journey to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro since we’re going to that part of the world anyway. But ended up seeing Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, Montenegro, and Macedonia. There was no way I could’ve seen this many countries in such a short time and actually understood where we are and what is the history behind them. Also with the tour, we mana...

It’s a fine Monday morning. I just said goodbye to beautiful Bali* knowing that I will come again one day. Sipping my coffee in the airport. Are you one of those people who have to get a coffee before boarding? Unfortunately, I am. It's almost like otherwise I wouldn’t know that I am flying. The barista wrote ‘Have a good day, Fatimah’ on my cup. Aww, I love you too! Did I tell you how awesome people are in Bali? They are incredibly kind, helpful, and always wear a smile. Even in one of the most touristy areas, I managed to strike up conversations with many locals during my stay, and everyone was just so friendly. So I’ve come to the end of my short Bali vacation and returning to reality in a few hours. I am not heading home yet, just back to work. However, I might have just had one of the most amazing holidays ever. Bali is beautiful in its own right. But I think my entire experience was pretty wholesome apart from the island itself. I came here alone. My second time traveling sol...

There is something called ‘pre-travel doughnut’ or at least there should be. I am talking about the one you get, after doing all of your last-minute shopping two days before traveling. You are rushing from one shop to another to make sure you don't forget anything. Travel size deodorant, fanny pack to hold your stuff when you’re touristing around, currency exchange to get through the first day after arriving, and many more. And you’ve finished all of those chores and are happy and tired and excited and slightly nervous at the same time. You decide to take a moment to slow down and gather your thoughts. You then go to your favorite coffee place to stay by yourself few hours and have a last doughnut before your trip. Yes, this definitely should be a thing. The more I write, the more sense it makes. I am not a big doughnut person but there are some moments that definitely require a doughnut and this is one of those moments. So, I have three upcoming trips, each of them on differen...

Today, I decided to do nothing. Literally nothing. When I use the word ‘literally’, I often misuse it and use it figuratively. But this time, I was going to use it correctly and hence do nothing, be idle. Typically, when I want to relax and enjoy my free time, I head to a coffee shop, order an oat latte, and try to write a blog post. I said ‘try to’ because writing does not really occur when I want to write. The ideas usually come to my mind while I am doing something else, like walking on the street, running errands, or at any other inconvenient time to open a laptop. The moment I have these sentences floating around my mind, if I can write them down, I can then edit and compose a blog post from them. If not, the ideas are gone forever. So, it’s a process that happens outside of my will and control. But today I wasn’t going to do that either because writing a blog post is doing something that totally contradicts the whole purpose of the day. I told myself that I was just going to ...

24 February 2023. I'm sitting in my living room, looking at my laptop. ChatGPT is open on the screen,  and the question that has been asked is ‘How to cope with the anxiety of traveling alone?’ I was so scared that I was kind of hoping that artificial intelligence would help me. I wish I could tell the girl from two weeks ago that flying overseas by herself will be the best decision and that she’s about to see a tremendously beautiful country. When I get bored, I look for a conference around the world. This was just one of those days, and I saw that there was a conference in Thailand to which I could contribute. The deadline for the abstract was three days away. I texted a few of my friends, hoping that someone else also would come to the conference. Because what the hell I was going to do at the other end of the world all by myself? Some of my friends were interested, and some of them were not. But in the end, no one managed to actually make it.  At first, I was really up...

I don’t know how much I will be able to express my feelings in words, because it was not only the best trip I have ever had but also the first overseas solo trip that I had. So, it is especially sentimental for me. With its delicious food, delightful weather, and everything unknown, it felt like both a holiday and an adventure. So here we go. Food As my close circle would know, it is pretty hard to make me happy in terms of food. I don’t like different cuisines except for Greek, Mediterranean, or Middle Eastern which are all very close to Turkish cuisine. And I have a few things that I like about Asian cuisine but in general, I am picky. However, Thailand was like heaven for me in terms of non-spicy and vegetarian food and heavenly delicious tropical fruits. Honestly, I’m never going to forget the taste of mangoes and bananas there. I also managed to try a few other fruits that I hadn’t tried before, like jackfruit, dragon fruit, and durian and loved them all. In Pattaya, I found...

I have been watching tons of travel videos lately since I am preparing for a trip these days. One of the most common types of videos I watch is ‘‘what to pack’’, ‘‘what do to’’, and ‘‘what to eat’’. They are helpful, to some extent. But I think I am learning more from my poor packing skills and other mistakes I made in Korea. So I decided to write those down to remember them in the future. 1-Not choosing a flight meal if you want a vegetarian option Funny enough, I never had to choose my meal beforehand since I always fly with Turkish airline companies. But when I flew to Korea, I didn’t buy my tickets, a travel agency did for me. It never occurred to me that I needed to choose my airplane meal if I want to eat vegetarian on the plane. So when dinner was being served on the plane, the hostess asked me to choose between chicken and beef. I asked for a vegetarian option and she replied, and I quote, ‘‘Pick it up the meats.’’ I will never forget her hand gestures as she explained to me ho...