My latest series follows some of my favorite bloggers and their clumsiest moments. If you want to learn a little bit more of about these bloggers and hear their craziest stories abroad, stay tuned every Wednesday to meet some clumsy travelers! My first graceless wanderer is clumsy traveler Paloma of Anxious Traveler!
Paloma was probably one of my first followers on Instagram. IDK how she found me or how I found her, but as budding bloggers, we instantly clicked. We were both trying to find our voices in the blogging world, identities in social media and just trying to get in the game. But what we did know was that we loved to travel.
Over time we settled into our routine, blogging about our particular subjects that interested us. Paloma spoke of traveling and guides related to her anxiety (a very raw and informative POV) and I babbled on about embarrassing stories and city guides.
And during this time, do you want to know the one thing that didn’t go away? The amount of support I’ve received from Paloma!
This girl is not only a great story teller with amazing insight for those traveling with anxiety disorders, but she’s also a good friend (despite the fact that we’ve never actually met in person). Which is why I’m starting my series with the girl who helped give me the courage to get going!
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your blog!
Hmm, okay well, a few little factoids: I grew up in the Bay Area, but am currently living in the PNW. I love reading and believe it’s the next best thing to travel. I have my Masters in Writing from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago.
My blog, Anxious Traveler, is about what it is like for me to travel the world with an anxiety and panic disorder.
2. How did you get into blogging?
I first started my blog when I left on a three month trip to India, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Turkey, and more by myself. I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted my blog to be at first, all I knew was that I loved writing and wanted to find an outlet for it.
Quickly though, I realized that I returned over and over to writing about not just travel, but my anxiety when it came to traveling.
I’ve had an anxiety and panic disorder for most of my life, but had always been so embarrassed by it. Opening up and writing about it turned out to be incredibly therapeutic in so many ways. It helped me to learn more about myself and not be ashamed of my mental health, and it helped me to realize that there are so many others out there who deal with the same exact issues.
3. How long have you been traveling? What’s your favorite destination?
When I was ten my parents took me and my brothers to Europe! Both of my parents are huge travelers themselves. They have lived all over the world. I still remember driving around Europe with them on that first trip and having them point out all of the different places that they’d lived while we were there.
My favorite destination… Wow, that’s a hard one… Honestly, right now it’s probably San Francisco, aka, HOME! Just because I don’t live there at the moment and miss it incredibly! But after that… Paris. I LOVE Paris with every fiber of my being. There’s just something about it that speaks to my soul every time I visit.
4. So, what’s your clumsiest, craziest or most bizarre travel story?
Probably when I got kicked out of Vipassana while I was in India.
I had gone because of all the amazing things I’d heard about it. I love yoga and meditation and am actually a certified yoga instructor, so I thought it would be right up my alley.
I loved the meditation part, but I had a big problem with the videos they show you at the end of each day. I think that for some people they can be really enlightening, etc, but I just got a weird cult-y vibe from it all.
After 7 days of trying to leave, they finally “kicked me out” waking me at 6 in the morning and pushing me out the gate. I was in a tiny town a couple hours north of Mumbai, I didn’t speak the language and I had no idea how to get back to the city. They basically stranded me there and shunned me.
Thankfully one of the guards helped me to phone somebody about a car ride back to Mumbai. I was a little terrified getting into a car with a stranger that someone else set me up with, especially as a woman by herself, but I listened to my gut the whole time, and it all worked out!
