The Blog
I wanted to start a blog where I can retell the stories of the people and experiences that I had while living and traveling abroad. This one that I’m about to share being the reason why I wanted to create a blog. I know that I am going to continue having a life of traveling and now I want to document those stories and people that I meet.
Background
Before I get into how I met this person I want to get into why I chose to travel to this country. When I first heard of the country of Malta it was from a BuzzFeed video where one of their writers’ grandfather was from Malta. She decided to write an article about the country and became famous. The story was pretty interesting I’ll link it here: https://youtu.be/JoNj0KDuDR8 But I never added it to my list of countries that I wanted to visit when I moved to Barcelona. What made me want to visit was a girl that I had met in Budapest, who’s story I will be sharing in a later blog. I had already visited the main countries every study abroad student wants to see France, UK, Spain, Germany, but I wanted to know what other ones I should see. So, she suggested Malta. This tiny little island country off the coast of Sicily looked magical from all the photos I had googled.
The Hostel
Let me just say Malta was not like any other coastal country that I had been to. The main places where people stay are the cities of St. Julian’s, Sliema and Valleta. I decided to stay at Sliema after looking at some of their hostels and location to the other two cities. I decided on a hostel and was excited to arrive once I landed in Malta’s tiny airport. Once I got to the hostel I was greeted by the front desk person with some unfortunate news that they had accidently overbooked and didn’t have any space available at that location. However, their sister hostel which was right up the street did have some space available and already booked me for a room. I was okay with that cause I knew sometimes these things happen from previous hostels I have stayed at.
Roommates
Typically at hostels you are placed with people from all ages, backgrounds, and genders, depending if you are okay with co-ed rooms. I preferred staying in all female rooms just for the safety but I have done co-ed on other trips. At this specific hostel I was paired in four bedroom unit but there were only two of us. After spending the first day roaming around Malta and taking picture of the beautiful scenery, I came back to the room and introduced myself to an older lady sitting in the bed across from me. I desperately wish I could remember her name but I will never forget who she is as a person. Automatically I could tell she was French by her accent. I got really good at telling the difference between accents 🙂
Politics
We began asking each other questions about our background and travels. Eventually she started asking me the typical question that every European was asking Americans during that time which was “Why did we vote for Trump?” It took me a moment to think about because I definitely didn’t vote for him but I was trying to figure out an explanation as to why people did. I told her that I’ve learned that the American education system causes people to believe things that are mainstream and a lot of people don’t have the true information about what is going on in the world or in politics. They’re okay with whatever the media says and never take to the time to question it for themselves or learn what is factual. She agreed and began to tell me about her experiences and thoughts about some French politicians that were similar in character to Trump. Then she shared her job as a French photojournalist has allowed her to see things that you don’t always see in mainstream media.
Refugees
I just want to divert a second here to talk to about the irony of the current political situation in 2022 and how we are seeing so much news coverage of Ukrainian refugees, and photos of their women and children. The U.S. and other countries have been eager in helping them but compared to the refugee crisis that was happening when I was abroad in 2017-18 a lot of countries weren’t willing to open their border to Syrian refugees who were escaping just as the Ukrainians. It’s so telling what the world feels towards POC refugees. Even my own heritage of Mexican citizens and other Central American refugees that have tried to peacefully enter the states are instead thrown into detention camps. I say this cause the photos that she showed me of the many Syrian refugees arriving on the coast of Greece was heart breaking. In these photos were small little boats that carried probably about 10 people had men, women and children in them. The children as small as 2 years old, crying as they were helped off the boats by humanitarian volunteers and with only the clothes on their backs. I had never seen anything like that before and my heart ached as she showed me more and more photos of these helpless people that gave up everything and now were going to be in a place that didn’t speak their language, separated from some of their relatives and having to start a new life.
Bridge in Paris
I don’t want my blogs to be sad or political in any way but these are some things that I never knew I would see as I travelled abroad. A lot of travel vloggers and people don’t show the true reality of what some of these countries are like. After seeing these photos that she had it reminded me of when I went to Paris for the first time and what I had seen on one of the bridges. They could’ve very well been from Syria or another war stricken country. What I saw on that freezing, cold November night as we were walking back to our Airbnb was a father with his two kids, probably under the age of 10, laying on a mattress with only one blanket covering them. My mind began racing of how something like this would be normal in an expensive city like Paris with people just walking past them like they weren’t even there. I just kept thinking of how young those kids were and to know that this was their life sleeping on mattresses on the side of a bridge. It really humbled me and assured me to be grateful for where I was in life. However, I still remember these things because I have always wanted to help people and those that are suffering like this in other countries.
Continue to be Curious
I shared this story with her and she agreed that unfortunately that is the reality in a lot of countries in Europe that don’t really care to help refugees or those escaping political warfare that they may have caused. Before we went to bed for that night she told me one thing that has stayed with me since and has motivated me to start a travel blog and hopefully do more in my life and that is to “continue to be curious.” At first I didn’t know what she really meant, like be curious about the countries I go to, or the people I meet or the food? But for all things in life she said to continue to be curious. Now as I am getting older I question everything about life and things that I was taught growing up. Because the way that I see it, is that we need to be curious about who we are as a person, curious about the life we want to live, curious about these governments that control us and the systems that they create that affect how we live, curious about people that grow up differently then ourselves, curious about religions that I sometimes feel all share the same underlying message. Just to continue to be curious, because once you stop being curious about life you begin to conform to the ways of others and lose who you really are.
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