shutupandgo.travel

I was looking at statistics of Covid 19, with the growing case numbers, the new countries closing, and it was finally sinking in that this virus was much, much more than simply a bad flu strain. I couldn’t go to Italy, I had turned down the position in Greece (which even if I hadn’t, Greece responded faster to the virus than many European countries and closed early), and I now only had only a week before my original scheduled flight left London. Before I had left Africa my Moroccan friends had consistently joked about me going to Italy, saying that I should just come straight back to Morocco to avoid the virus. What this experience reminded me of, and really what my whole attempt at living in Europe reminded me of, is that no matter how much we attempt to plan, organize, and dictate our futures, we never really know how the fates are going to weave our lives.

Oh, how we miss the days of riding on a stranger’s vespa in Rome or stumbling out onto the streets of Buenos Aires after seeing the Prince of Greece in the clerb. This said, for the rest of the year, we’ll be focusing all of our energy over on The Shut Up and Go Insider Program and Instagram! Every Monday (mhm – every damn week), we’ll host a one-hour discussion with topics ranging from moving abroad, heartbreak and romance abroad, travel horror stories, and more. n’t travel right now, the best way to keep that spirit alive is through community and storytelling!

If you’re lucky enough to land in the Chopin airport, Warsaw’s “main” airport, you can either take one of five different bus routes or one of two train lines leading into the city. But if you’re like me and managed to land in the secondary Modlin airport which is way farther away, then the only public transport is the Modlin Bus, which is a long but comfortable bus ride that comes every hour or so, running from the Modlin airport to the Palace of Culture. Because Poland was so heavily ravaged during World War II, the country got the unique opportunity to thoroughly retouch its historic architecture, and as a result a lot of the traditional areas look almost new. Jewish culture has also left its mark on the food scene, and one of my favorite restaurants I went to in the city was a modern and trendy Jewish cafe-bakery, with a great assortment of Jewish breads and brunch fare.

Yes, many people have left, the city is sometimes eerily quiet, and we may need to rebrand our “city that never sleeps” slogan, but that’s the exciting part: the opportunity to rebrand. Our tribe may be fewer in numbers now, but the ones that are left are here because we fucking love this dirty ass rat-infested concrete dumpster and know from the pits of our bodega bacon-egg-and-cheese filled stomachs that New York is and will remain the greatest city on Earth. These little decisions us remaining New Yorkers are making every day, like where we want to spend our time and money after work, are redefining what New York City and New Yorkers are all about. Don’t get me wrong, my love for New York has always run deep, but I felt like we had become a bit like a giant Corporate America company that had too many people, too many old ways of doing things, and not much of a shot at radically shaking things up.