Travel

Her Travels: “Little Havana” of Spain

¡Buenos dias amigos queridos! Que tal? Bien? ¡Vale! Are you digging my Spanish? Sexy right? I’m just kidding…I’m really not though. Ha. Moving on, I tend to frequent Spain often. Living in Paris, I can visit surrounding countries pretty easily. It’s one of the many perks to living abroad. I also visit Spain a lot because one of my best friends from childhood lives there, extra bonus.

My bestie lives in Sevilla, Spain and if you’re not familiar with the city, it gets very hot there and with no beach I’m like a fish out of water. I love the city, but I can’t stand the heat. So, we made a trip further south to Cadiz. Known for it’s beautiful beach town landscape and energy, it’s history runs deep. The ports in Cadiz were used to go and explore, conquer and decimate the Americas…how lovely! With the conquistadors long gone, the city has since become a location revered for it’s openness, and residents proud of their reputation for having a love of life.

Often referred to as “Little Havana“, I quickly understood why. Although I have not yet had a chance to visit Cuba. I have seen tons of photos from there. One thing that stands out is the bright city buildings and vibrance of the people. Cadiz has both. We headed over for some impromptu photos in the old city (seen above and below). I had every intention of telling people I had actually gone to Cuba, but why lie? Either way, the area was really cute and I loved the colorful buildings, all intertwined and resting atop narrow roads.

I truly enjoyed Cadiz and have every intention to return. You can see more of my photos from this beautiful city in Her Travels.

Artists Know Best: London’s Brick Lane is for Artists

I recently spent the week in London with my mom and extended family. It was such a good time, because as many times as I have gone to the popular English city, I don’t know much about it. Having my family there with me, and as they too were newbies, gave me the perfect excuse to take up some tours. After some heavy “googling”, I stumbled upon Unseen Tours and it sparked my interest because of its premise. The award winning company uses guides who are homeless or were formerly homeless to show folks around. For me, that is such a beautiful idea. They are paid tours, but 60% of the proceeds go directly to the guides. Knowing all of this definitely made me feel good about participating in the tour. Not only this, but I was sure we would get a peek into another side of London, from someone who knows the streets intimately. The route I chose was the Brick Lane excursion, which lead us to Pete as our guide. He told tales of Jack the Ripper and how much the now gentrified area started out in a drastically different form.

Pete liked me an my peoples so much, he even told us about these abandoned train tracks called Nomadic Community Gardens. The transformed abandoned area places raised beds of garden allotments amongst a village of tents, vans and dens of upcycled wood and canvas houses. I could sense the creative energy steaming from all areas of the park as it is packed with graffiti, sculptures made of tires, a repurposed shacko in an opera house, and other dope pieces of art. The place is magical. It reminded me a bit of if Sanford and Son’s junkyard landed somewhere in the land of Oz. To think, we would have never found this place without good old Pete.

Our guide the awesome Pete (Image via TripAdvisor)

The magical Nomadic Community Gardens

Unseen Tours Contact Information

Website – www.unseen tours.co.uk

Instagram – @unseentours

Twitter –  @unseentours

 

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Outfit Deets:

Shades – Forever 21

Bikini – Forever 21

Gotta Love Big Things

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This mug is everything, it practically covers my whole face, but it’s awesome. I love my tea and I love big, oversized things, mugs are def included. I’m just kidding, but I do love my tea. I got a hold of this mug during my time in Bretagne (Brittany), France. My time there was amazing. You have folks out there who own a ton of land and then hold these festivals in their background. They title them with crazy names and unfortunately I forget the name of the festival I went to. I do know the festivities went until 6 a.m. the next day and I partook in a majority of the fun. You can find out more of what went on in the travel section of my blog. In the meantime, enjoy me and this huge mug! haha

Outfit Deets:

Jean Button-Up – Free’p’star

Tank – Free’p’star

Bikini – Monoprix

Sneakers – New Balance