I know y’all were probably worried about me. But I promise I’m fine. I’m just extremely busy. Let’s start with where I’ve been for the past month.
So, I left Istanbul on July 7th, and the week before that I was panicking. I hadn’t seen barely any of Istanbul and I had lived there for over a month. I spent my last week seeing as much as I could and eating as much food as I could so I could say with confidence that I had seen Istanbul. And after that week, I can say that I like Istanbul. Great city. 10/10 would go back again.
After Istanbul I hopped on a flight to Zambia, where I was going to be doing a bit of a recon trip to Zambia for my mom’s travel agency. It was a really good deal for me. I didn’t get paid for doing it, but instead got to stay for free at five star safari lodges and go on safari. My mom’s company did pay for the trip, but I’ve found that a lot of travel agencies do get a pretty heavy discount to go on trips like this so they can experience the lodges firsthand and hopefully recommend them to their clients.
While I was on this trip with other travel agents in Zambia I realized something. I could do this job, and no, not just because of the discounted trips. Because I love Africa, and it would be a pleasure for my job to be showing people just how much I love Africa. Letting them see why, and creating the best possible vacation for them. Obviously it can get a little pedantic planning trips for people and them yelling at you because the safari lodge only has almond milk and not soy milk, or that they don’t like some of the guests at the hotel. But I don’t think I’d mind. Every job has its ups and downs, but I think, for me at least, being a travel agent would be full of ups.
I also thought about adding Morocco to the company’s portfolio. Honestly, I have no idea how that would work. But I love Morocco, and it would be so cool to plan trips there after living in the area for three months. And after Morocco, maybe I’d even start in Egypt, I haven’t been there yet, but Jordan has been dying to visit. So, who knows! I am so lucky to be the nepotism baby of Mrs. Sandy Salle!
After Zambia, I got to go see my family!!!
Okay okay, I did see some family in the UK, which definitely made me feel a lot closer to home. But I haven’t seen family that I had really met before in a whole year. Yeah, it’s been a year since I’ve been gone. So it was so nice to be at home in Harare with my family.
I have been really lucky as of late and was able to visit my family three years in a row in 2021, 2022 and 2023, but last year didn’t visit, so it was incredible to see everyone again. And since the last time I was there there are two more babies, and two more cousins on my Salle side (two of my cousins got married). I got to meet everyone over there, and other than that I just spent my time being retired.
That’s one thing I love about staying with my granny. I don’t have to do anything if I don’t want to. The only mandatory is at least one walk during the day. Other than that I read, cooked and caught up on a lot of work. Even though I was technically working when in Zambia, I did no actual work. And so, things needed to be written and posted so much. Especially to prepare for my second European stint.
Oh yeah? Did I not mention, I’m in Europe right now, Vienna specifically. I arrived yesterday evening from Harare, promptly took a nap until dinner time, and then had sleep for dinner. Then, this morning spent the morning at a cafe drawing (no computers allowed) and then picked up Jojo from the train station!!!!!
While I was in Zim and Zambia Jordan was actually working on a sailboat the whole time!! If you want to hear more about Jordan’s experiences sailing, please leave a comment below!!
xx Abby
Oh my what a great post and as you can imagine I'm very envious of your Africa sejour! Yes please of course we want to hear about Jordans boat adventures!!
Your mom's travel agency sounds super cool! Loving your content.