Ep. 25 | Travel Tales: Stories & Lessons from the Road

Have you ever stepped through the cobblestone streets of New Orleans, letting the jazz rhythms fuel your soul, or felt the serenity of a European adventure with loved ones by your side? Join me as I unfold heartwarming narratives of several adventures and escapades. During this episode, we'll dive into the transformative power of travel and the ways in which it expands our horizons.

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Theme Music:
She No Dull Beat by Nana Kwabena
Festivities in Belize by RAGE Productions

Chapters

• 1:34 Memories of Travel and Adventure
• 14:56 Memorable Trips to Various Countries
• 26:15 Experiencing Travel Adventures and Wanderlust

Transcript

Aliya Cheyanne: 1:34

Hey y'all, welcome back to another episode of the Prolific Hub podcast. Thank you for tuning in. It's your girl, aaliyah Cheyenne, and I'm here for another solo episode, and this one is a break from all things entrepreneurship, and this is just about life and travel and making this episode on the tales of getting back from New Orleans for my first family trip with my mom and sisters, which was really magical, and yeah, I just kind of wanted to reminisce on all things travel because it's one of my favorite things to do. I'm a Sagittarius moon, so yeah, anyway. So, yeah, it was our first family trip. It was my third time being in New Orleans, it was Tasia's second time and it was my mom and my younger sister, bree's first time and, yeah, new Orleans is one of my favorite cities, places.

Aliya Cheyanne: 2:36

Of course, there are a lot of things that are not perfect, but overall I love the energy and the vibe there. The food is really good and I don't know. Just the atmosphere is just different and I love the fact that there's just music everywhere. Of course, some people sound better than others, but typically it's not uncommon to just be out on the streets and just hear really good music. So, definitely a vibe. It was nice having this first trip, like being able to take everyone and show them the parts of the city that I love and you know the aspects and elements of the city that I love and do some of the stereotypical, you know touristy things. Like we definitely did a ghost tour. My older sister, my younger sister, went on a swamp tour, which I've done before. I didn't feel like doing this time, going to some of the popular spots to eat some really good food, just hanging out in Jackson Square in the quarter and listening to the music and just enjoying the vibrance of the city. And we lucked out. We had really good weather. It was a little chillier than we all would have liked or expected, but we didn't have any rain, so that was beautiful too and we stayed in an area that wasn't too far from the quarter. We had a nice view. We had good food for the most part. There was one spot we ate at where we all were not feeling great after and having tummy issues, but outside of that, feeling great after and having tummy issues, but outside of that it was really good and definitely one of my favorite cities.

Aliya Cheyanne: 4:18

I will go back again at some point in the future I don't know when, but at some point I'll be there again. But just coming off of that trip and just some recent little adventures, to like Philly for the flower show because it's like a tradition my granny and I have she loves going there. When she used to go more frequently to a senior center back in the day, she actually used to organize trips for herself and the other seniors to travel out there by bus, spend the day at the flower show, go to the was it Reading Terminal, the market there, and get some good food and come home. So since then we've kind of just gone on our own. This is actually our first time going back since the pandemic, because prior to that we hadn't gone since before lockdown in 2020. So that was nice. And then we went to Maryland recently stayed in Baltimore at one of my favorite hotels in the world and took a trip down to DC to see the cherry blossoms, because it was cherry blossom season and when we had gone it was like peak blossom, which was really nice. I took Storm on both trips because we stayed at pet friendly hotels, so that was a nice little adventure for her. She loves little road trips in the car with us. So that's good.

Aliya Cheyanne: 5:51

But outside of that, since coming back from New Orleans, I've just been reflecting on just travel and trips. It was funny my mom had mentioned something while we were in New Orleans about me being so young and traveling as an unaccompanied minor to Italy when she and my older sister lived there many years ago and my younger sister was born there and I didn't even remember what age I was when I went and she was like, yeah, you were like 10 or 11. I was like, wow, flew all the way from New York to Italy as an unaccompanied minor at a very young age. And I was also reflecting on an alternative unaccompanied minor flying experience. That was not good. Don't remember where I was coming from, but yeah, a flight attendant didn't do her job at the time and had anything happened to me, that airline would have been in serious trouble. But, yeah, serious trouble. But yeah, I remember some things about going to Italy at that age. But there's a lot I don't remember and I've always wanted to go back. That was actually supposed to be the first family trip, a nice trip to Italy, so that my mom and my sisters can remember and reflect on where they lived and what it was like and as a refresher for me, because I just didn't remember much from my first time there and still is a goal someday I'm not sure when it'll happen, but it's definitely on my bucket list and my place I want to go.

Aliya Cheyanne: 7:29

And of course, there are many little trips when I was younger to Jamaica and other places, so many places that I just really don't remember. I feel like the trips I started to remember started happening mostly later in life, and some of those started with cruises with my grandmother. She would always go on little cruises and trips with her senior center and bring me along as a teenager or a kid or like a pretty young adult, because I think some of them were like when I was an undergrad in college too. But we went on some like Caribbean cruises which were really fun and really cool, like spending a day in different islands here or there. It's the first time I ever went to. Haiti was on a cruise. The first time I ever went to like St Martin and a couple of the other islands were on cruises.

Aliya Cheyanne: 8:31

And my first time in Alaska actually was also a cruise, which is really funny because I had so much resistance to going on that Alaska cruise because there was so much I didn't know and I was just like, why would I want to do that or go there? Because it's so cold? What kind of fun could I even have there? And it turned out to be one of the best experiences I've ever had traveling. And a lot of that could just be like nostalgia looking back on it, but I genuinely remember so much about that trip that I really enjoyed Going up in the seaplane to fly over the glaciers and look at that. And there was one excursion that we were able to do where we got to go horseback riding through a rainforest and revisit a trail that folks use. God when for the gold rush. I don't even remember what era that was like 18 something, 1860. I don't know when. The gold rush whenever. That was Supposedly the path that a lot of people took during that time there for that, and I just remember so many activities that I really enjoyed and what I remember most is I was not freezing to death. It was a summertime cruise and summers in Alaska at the time. This is over a decade ago now. I don't know what it's like now with climate change and global boiling. I have no idea what it's like now, but at the time the summer there was really nice. I basically just needed a light sweater. It wasn't anything as cold as it being a really beautiful cruise experience which was really nice and definitely took trips hair in there since then.

Aliya Cheyanne: 10:42

But another memorable one for me was a birthday trip to London, maybe six years ago five or six years ago, I want to say. Now my best friend, carmen, was traveling around my birthday for work and she suggested the idea like why don't I come, like I can make a trip out of it and celebrate my birthday? And I brought my grandma with me and it was really nice. Carmen had to work, but my grandma and I did many different activities that were really fun and informative. There's some naval base or like old naval school or something that's out there. I can't remember the name of it now, but at the time I had gone they were restoring some painted ceilings in a building that was out there and I actually ended up going there by mistake because I forgot what mode of transport we were on. But we like missed the stop and we got off at the wrong place and we're still curious when we got there. So making that mistake actually turned out to be really beautiful because it was really cool to see the restoration of those paintings and learn more about what they were and what they meant.

Aliya Cheyanne: 12:10

We had done an excursion out to Stonehenge which is one of the wonders of the world, I believe, and it was really cool to stand there and see Stonehenge in person because I remember a time way back in the day on my Windows 98 or whatever it was, when Stonehenge was my background on my big bulky computer. So to be there in the flesh and be present was very cool. What else did we do? Another memorable thing was going to Windsor Palace Castle, fucking up the name, sorry, but just going there and walking through there. And of course I broke all the rules because you're not supposed to take pictures and I was snapping pictures everywhere, got yelled at a couple times Still snap pictures, but I did that.

Aliya Cheyanne: 13:04

And the church, the really popular church that's out there for royal weddings where they were having royal church services and all that stuff. Megan and Harry got married at that church, like, going there was cool. And oh it's. And no, it's not St Paul's, it was a different one, but there's also St Paul's Cathedral, which was really really cool Getting to see inside there. You're not supposed to take pictures there either, but I was doing it anyway and you have the opportunity to go all the way to the tippy, tippy, tippy tippy top of the church and get a panoramic view of the entire city of London, which was really really cool which I had done at the time and it was definitely claustrophobic, because I was just reflecting on it the other day and thinking about how narrow some of the passageways are, because obviously, when a lot of these buildings were built, the people were a lot smaller back then. To pass through some of those little passageways definitely made me anxious. I remember that feeling of paranoia, of getting stuck or having an issue, but I made it all the way up and all the way back down safely and it was nice to get a panoramic view of the city. So there's a lot of memorable things out there. Despite what people say about food in Europe, I actually remember enjoying most of the food I had when I was in London. At that time I was vegetarian I'm not right now at the time of this recording but I didn't have issues getting good food that worked for me at the time, so I really liked that.

Aliya Cheyanne: 14:56

Another memorable trip I would say was Ireland, which was a group trip with Tasia, with my best friend, carmen, and with one of Carmen's friends and Carmen's friend's sister, and it was, as far as I remember, a really good trip. I just really enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Ireland. It's a really gorgeous place if you like scenic views, if you like lots of green pastures, if you love water. It's just a really beautiful like country, um, and I really enjoyed going to different places, like there's the Rock of Cashel, like a couple of castles out there. Um, giant's Causeway is another popular tourist destination. The Giants Causeway is another popular tourist destination. The Dingle Peninsula is another touristy destination. I will say that's probably one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen, from the sense that, you know, not really for swimming per se, but when we had gone the water was just so clear and so reflective that you could look out and the ocean just mirrored the sky. My description is just not doing it justice. It was just so beautiful. I do remember having a lot of anxiety on the way up there, though, because I just felt like the tour bus we were on had to go up so high and I felt like the road was so narrow around that climb around that mountain or hill or whatever. So I was just super paranoid the whole time and trying not to look over and I was getting anxious, with more people leaning to one side of the bus to look out, like I just thought the bus was going to tip over and we were all going to die. But thank God we didn't and it was worth it. It was really beautiful and just learning more and more about the history of Ireland and Irish people was really cool and, yeah, it was a really good experience. So that was one that I really enjoyed.

Aliya Cheyanne: 18:14

Another one was Seychelles. So Seychelles is an island off of East Africa, I believe Do not quote me on that in terms of what side of the continent. It's on One of the longest flights I've ever endured in my life. Tasia and I did that one. We were those people during the pandemic, when flights were really really cheap and when airlines were still practicing social distancing. We did that, flew from New York to Abu Dhabi, I believe, and then had a layover and then had a connection from Abu Dhabi to Seychelles and I don't know. I really enjoyed it to the extent that it was. I really enjoyed it to the extent that it was somewhere new. I felt like it was one step closer to stepping foot on the motherland and the staff there was really nice.

Aliya Cheyanne: 19:21

There were a lot of people who were actually from another island called Mauritius, who were there on Seychelles working for like a resort company For Stints at a Time. Many of them would be going back to Mauritius at some point, but you know, it was really cool. We didn't do all of the different islands, like there's the mainland and then there's an island called Prale and another one called Ladig, and a lot of people take boats out to the different islands and explore those. And just the timing for us when we were there it wasn't always great days on the water to even do that. I remember we tried booking it one day and the booking agent was just warning us in advance like hey, the water's super choppy this time of year. If you do this, there's a chance that it's going to be really rough and you might get really seasick and I don't know. Just by the end of that just completely got talked out of it. We ended up doing a different activity or excursion instead, but just being out there. It's a really gorgeous place, definitely some place where you want to go during a time of year where the weather is at its best, where the water is at its smoothest, and make the most out of visiting the different islands. But, yeah, definitely one that I enjoyed as well.

Aliya Cheyanne: 20:53

And probably one of my other favorite trips of all time was Cuba, which was another birthday trip, and Cuba was really special and meaningful for me because my late grandfather, who's no longer with us, was actually born in Cuba. His parents are Jamaican, born and raised in Jamaica, but they had went to Cuba for work and had my grandfather there and I think they were there working until he was around the age of three, around the age of three, and then they all went back to Jamaica. But I really enjoyed Cuba a lot. I did that with Teja and a friend in Noye, which was really cool, and we were all over Cuba. We were doing tours every day. We went to Varadero Beach, which was one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever been at, just gorgeous and really enjoyable. We had really good food.

Aliya Cheyanne: 21:59

But I also held with me pretty deeply just the state of the country. It's great for tourists, but the local people there experience a lot of hardship. It is a communist country. One of our tour guides was showing us her ration book and how the rations aren't even enough to fully take care of or feed a family of four family of four sometimes people have a hard time accessing even basic basic things. And one of our other tour guides he went to school for law and he said he stopped doing that and became a tour guide because he makes more money being a tour guide than a lawyer because the government takes so much of it.

Aliya Cheyanne: 22:49

And I learned that they have a program out there for doctors where they send doctors to all kinds of places all over the world. Cuba has some of the best. Even if their hospitals might not necessarily be great. They have some of the most brilliant doctors in the world and they send their doctors out all over the world to support and help other people. But a lot of those doctors don't even see those earnings. Most of that goes to the Cuban government. So that's interesting. And of course we learned more about the wealthy Cubans who fled and left Cuba under Fidel Castro and what they left behind. And just very interesting to learn more about the dynamics of Cuba now, the history, and it inspired a tattoo that I have on my wrist.

Aliya Cheyanne: 23:47

And, yeah, I still hold that experience near and dear. I hold that trip near and dear and I think it was something that I needed for myself spiritually at the time, but also just an experience that I will never forget, like all the things that I learned and shout out to people in my life who helped me put that itinerary together, because I was definitely asking left and right like, hey, should we do this, should we stay here, should we do you know like? And it turned it into a wonderful trip and I think you know it was exactly what it was meant to be. I had originally wanted it and planned for it to be much bigger, with many more friends, and it just didn't work out that way and I think it was really good that it worked out the way that it did. So I will always appreciate that trip.

Aliya Cheyanne: 24:39

Another birthday trip that I really enjoyed was to Costa Rica. Costa Rica is one of the most beautiful places I think I've been to and a lot of these places I like going when the weather is kind of like mild, warm, slightly hot, not like boiling hot, not like summertime, like as soon as you step outside you're drenched in sweat, like I don't know. So a lot of these have tended to be, you know, during times of years where the season like it just makes sense, like I'd be the most comfortable there, and that was definitely Costa Rica around January, cause it was pretty, pretty mild and like warm enough but not like uncomfortably hot, and I enjoyed that. We stayed more inland, so where we stayed was equidistant from both of the airports. It was more in a mountainous region and that was really cool and really nice, quite a drive from the airport, but it was still nice. And we were in the La Fortuna area. So the history there is that there's a volcano in La Fortuna and it had erupted decades ago and changed the fabric of that area and it was very interesting to be in our hotel and look out of our window and see that same volcano in the distance. It was kind of surreal.

Aliya Cheyanne: 26:15

But we did so many cool things. We did ATVs. Well, I had to ride on the back of the tour guide's ATV because I could not drive the thing. I kept driving it off path and it was making me nervous. It was making the tour guide nervous. So he drove and I rode in his. Tasia drove her own, but that was really fun to do. We did ziplining, which I almost died on the way to the top of the zipline, but somehow I made it extremely out of shape then, extremely out of shape now, but it was quite a trek and quite a hike to get up to the zip lines, but coming back down, of course, was really, really fun. I remember we had to pass over this high bridge over water and forest and I was just so nervous because it was just rocking like crazy and I was just like legs were shaking getting across it. But thankfully they didn't buckle and I made it and I really enjoyed that. And yeah, we got massages, like we had good food, like. It was just a good experience. And I'm hoping that Costa Rica will be another family trip at some point someday, but we'll see how that goes, but it's definitely on my list. And, yeah, for my birthday trip in 2023,.

Aliya Cheyanne: 27:42

I went to Turks and Caicos. That was my first solo trip ever, my first real solo trip, not work-related, just me from my vacation and my joy. That was so good. It felt good to operate at my own pace, my own schedule, do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it. Explore different restaurants, try really good food, spend a lot of time at the beach, spend a lot of time with myself. I really enjoyed it. A lot of the islands do it, but one popular touristy thing you can do out there is do a clear kayak photo shoot, and I almost canceled it just because of a lack of confidence in my own body, but I'm so glad I did it. It was fun. I love how the pictures and the drone footage came out and I got a whole tour of the main island or main area, providenciales.

Aliya Cheyanne: 28:47

There's other areas that make up the whole of Turks and Caicos, so when I went it was interesting to see how much development is happening there. It's still largely underdeveloped in many ways but of course, people are flooding it with money and building it up like crazy. But the beaches were really beautiful. The local people were really nice. Things are very expensive there because everything is imported, so it is really expensive there and saying that, I don't know how some of the local people do it because it's so expensive. But I enjoyed my time there. I enjoyed learning more about Turks and Caicos, seeing the island and seeing some of the highlights. I went on one tour and they were showing where certain people live out there. Floyd Mayweather has a house out there, drake has a house out there, drake has a house out there. And then, of course, when Prince was alive, prince had a house out there and now I think a fan bought it and, you know, turned it into more of like an Airbnb experience, like there are a lot of like brand and influencer trips that go out to Turks and Caicos. When they do, they stay there. Very interesting, but I really enjoyed it.

Aliya Cheyanne: 30:16

I'm feeling like I'm overdue for another solo trip. Somewhere I've been thinking about for my birthday next year is Colombia. I actually wanted to do it this year and it just didn't work out, so we'll see what happens for 2025. But I definitely love travel. I'm like going back and forth between feeling like I just want to be still for a little while, but also wanting to see so many more places. Something that I've been floating around in my mind is eventually making it to Switzerland, because it's just the views are breathtaking and to die for and I definitely want to see those. And yeah, I need to make it to Morocco. I've tried twice now in the past. The first time, that trip just fell through and it just couldn't happen and work out. The second time I was fully confident when I booked it. The closer it got, I started having just doubts and anxiety and I just felt like it was better to let it go and not do it. And then, not long after, I finally decided okay, I'm not going to do this anymore and I canceled everything. The earthquake happened not far from Marrakesh, where I would have been staying. I would have been there like two weeks after that big earthquake happened. So I just chalk it up to spirit and gut and intuition for sparing me from going at a really disastrous time and, of course, just praying for and thinking of the people who were impacted by that devastating earthquake and Mother Nature doing what she does best, being largely unpredictable and chaotic at times. So I need to make up for those things.

Aliya Cheyanne: 32:37

I feel like travel is so important. It's so important to see different parts of the world and see how other people live, what their cultures are like, try different foods. I think it just expands your worldview and I think it's so important and I will never get enough of it. Never be too full from it. So it recharges me in many ways. It's a nice break from the mundane, the day-to-day, to just be in a different environment and see life through a different lens. So that's something that will never get old to me and I recognize in many ways that it's a privilege to travel places and have been to so many places and to have so many more goals to go to other places, because I think about the fact that apparently most Americans, statistically, have never left the country. Some people, let alone the state they live in, some people just don't even have passports for international travel. So I don't take it for granted. I appreciate that I have been and continue to be in a position where I can see more of the world and, yeah, I look forward to doing that more. So I think that's about it.

Aliya Cheyanne: 34:00

Thanks for tuning in to this episode, the travel edition. And yeah, if you enjoyed the episode, leave us a rating and a review. Let us know if you're traveling or you want to share your travel story, let us know in the reviews or email us at podcast at theprolifichubcom, and I'm excited to hear about your travel adventures too. You might get a shout out. Yeah, let us know what you think. Thank you so much for tuning in and we'll talk again soon. Catch you on the next episode. Bye y'all.