Well hey there!
Do you like to travel?
Today I'm sharing a real natural English conversation
about travelling
and there are so many reasons to keep watching.
First, it's going to be fantastic listening practice,
you'll get to listen to a natural English conversation
between native English speakers
as I chat with my friend Kat about her travels.
Secondly, you'll also learn lots of interesting travel
phrases and vocabulary and you'll hear them as they're used
naturally in a casual conversation.
And thirdly, we have made you a fantastic workbook that is
free for you to download.
It includes explanations, examples and some activities
that will help you to practise using these words
as you speak about travel yourself
and you can get that free PDF workbook
just down in the description below.
You need to sign up with your email address
and we'll send it through straight away.
So if you're ready to practise listening to a casual conversation
about travel, let's dive right in!
I've invited my friend, my colleague, Kat along to join me
for a natural, relaxed conversation about a topic
that friends often discuss together.
Travel!
Travel.
And travel is something that Kat is a bit of an expert on.
A bit of an expert?
Bit of an expert, I would say that.
If Kat looks a little familiar that's because she is one of our
incredible coaches from inside the Hey Lady! Community,
an online, safe and supportive community
to help women develop confidence and freedom
with their spoken English.
Our community is global. There are women from over
a hundred and twenty different countries.
Kat has met the most of them because she has been travelling
around the world for the last seven years.
Seven years?
Seven years. I left Australia seven years ago, yeah.
The world has changed since.
So much.
Absolutely!
And right now we are in Turkey, in Istanbul, in fact.
That's why we're together. Usually we're online teachers
and we've got the opportunity to spend some time together
here in Istanbul for...
The Hey Lady! Meetup.
We just went to Cappadocia. We had
almost forty of us together in one hotel. It was like a
school camp holiday. We were
going on buses, field trips together, seeing amazing things.
It was fabulous.
I'm sorry to interrupt the conversation but I could not
let this opportunity pass
since Kat and I are talking about Hey Lady!
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click the link down in the description below.
Let's start by talking about
how many countries you have actually visited now.
It's so hard to say but I did count them the other day
and it was up to thirty-seven. Yeah, thirty-seven countries.
Thirty-seven countries.
I wonder actually if any of you have been travelling as much
as Kat has, maybe you've been to thirty-seven,
maybe you've been to more
and you could let us know down in the comments.
How many have you been to?
Which one has been your favourite?
For me it turns out the places that
steal my heart are the places I've spent the most time in
which says something about my personality that I really like
to get to know places as I travel.
So I spent the most time in Mexico, near Mexico City and it's a
fabulous place. I highly recommend going there, yeah.
So I can see why this type of travel is so appealing,
being able to live and immerse yourself in
different places and different experiences
with different people.
When I look back to seven years ago,
I remember the moment where we were saying
let's leave Melbourne, where we lived
and I was saying I really want to travel and work like
I really want to do that, let's make it happen. And
we were looking at the map, where do we want to go
and it kind of turned into let's go all the way around and
one of the biggest, unique things about this is we're doing it
slowly, as in slow travel which means
no flights.
I fly sometimes.
It's a secret but Garth, my partner, he is doing the whole world
without flying and...
Circumnavigating the entire world.
Yeah.
Without catching a flight.
Yeah.
So what are the means of traffic?
Yeah so, it takes ages so we
started by taking a campervan to Perth.
Perth and.
That's where I live.
Then we - he took a boat to Singapore and then
you know, slow travel, buses, trains, everything is actually
quite accessible with this public transport.
The biggest, you know, the biggest part is the oceans and
I've done one ocean,
I did a cruise from New York to Southampton
but Garth has gone across the Pacific on a freighter ship
which is like, it's a transport company.
Like a cargo ship.
A cargo ship and you have to pay for it,
you can't like just.
Is it comfortable?
Yeah it looked really comfortable. He got his own room,
he got meals every day, it's like your hotel,
your room and your board and your travel,
all of it, inclusive.
And he did it. He got from Vietnam
all the way to California and it took twenty-one days.
Amazing.
Slow travel.
That's like going back in time to the way that our
grandparents used to you know from Australia
catch the ship back to England and to visit family
and stay for long periods of time.
Yep.
It's pretty impressive and kind of unique because
the rest of us, we travel
in an instant. We try and get there fast
so that we can spend as much time as possible there
while we've got our time off work,
you know, we have such limited time.
Yeah.
That I guess it's a luxury...
It is a luxury.
To be able to move at that pace and
working online and having the flexibility in your work
also helps.
Absolutely.
To make that happen.
We have spent a year in some places,
like a year in Vietnam teaching.
Two years in Mexico teaching.
So you have long spells but as soon as we had
the opportunity to switch completely online as teachers
all of a sudden that door was opened and we saw this
possibility of let's do it, let's actually be
that digital nomad and let's go from
place to place to place.
We have a routine within our crazy world.
Tuesday's travel day.
So on Tuesday, you pack your bags
and you take a train or a bus and you go to the next place
and it's funny because in that routine you have a normalcy
and you get used to it.
It sounds so
abnormal to me, like the idea of packing up.
Everything.
I have so many questions for Kat because the idea of
packing up your bag every week and moving to a new place.
Yes.
Catching a bus, catching a train, catching a ferry.
Yeah, lots of ferries.
To the next destination, setting up,
finding where to get
ingredients to cook, being able to locate yourself
and work out where to go, what to do,
learn new languages.
Yeah.
I think it takes a certain type of person to be able to
function in this way and also
to be able to really enjoy it and embrace it.
Yeah.
What do you think are the characteristics of
someone who travels
like you do? Lives this nomadic lifestyle,
moving from place to place and taking your things with you.
Yeah so
I have learned a lot in seven years and you see your skills
develop, you see your ability to be patient,
increase. You have to be open-minded.
You have to be flexible
and a little bit resilient because plans change
like at the drop of a hat.
We've had so many moments where we
planned to go to this country and then
because of pandemic, because of, you know anything that
happens internationally, there's always something
that you can't plan for
and you have to be okay to
say that won't work, let's do this. Let's change it.
So that sort of resiliency, patience, flexibility and curiosity
because why do this to yourself if you don't,
if you're not curious and the benefits are that you're
trying new food, you're learning about the world, you're seeing
beautiful places,
picking up history, going to museums, all the things
that we normally do as tourists, you're doing this every week
and a curious mind
is essential I think for this because that is the true benefit
compared to all the inconvenient aspects of this lifestyle.
I feel like in these situations you know, where things
don't go right or you've got to change your plans,
I feel like I would become quite frazzled you know
and anxious and I think that that's something that you have to
build resilience in to be able to
deal with those different situations.
Yeah and it is helpful if you have a partner with you
like someone who you can rely on,
who can help you in those moments. For example
I just flew to Turkey to be here at this meetup
and my partner is not doing that because he doesn't fly
and I was frazzled
because it's the first, it's a solo trip
and solo travel's different to traveling with your travel buddy
but you rely on each other to help each other out of tight spots
but you learn how to just take a breath,
problem solve, look around,
say okay what can I do to fix this situation
and you do get better at it
and you say yeah of course you'll have bad days, good days,
just like any day. Any normal life is full of ups and downs too.
So Kat what do you miss most about
a location-stable lifestyle? Just staying in the same place.
Yeah. Everyone asks me:
Where where do you live?
That's a good question. Where?
And so someone once asked me okay
where do you get your mail delivered to?
And so I would say in my hometown in California
where my parents live, that's where all my
bank statements go, all of that, that's where I send all my
souvenirs that I buy.
Every six months I'll send a package to California,
say can you keep this for me? Yeah.
So I miss nesting.
I wish I could buy that. I want that for my house.
What house?
So we have chosen in terms of a lifestyle,
we have chosen travel over stability,
stability is a home, it's friendships, it's predictability
and that's something that we talk about a lot, that
one day when we have a home we will do this.
The grass is always greener on the other side,
everyone says you're so lucky and I say
but you have a lovely home full of things and..
You have dinner parties with your friends.
Yeah, dinner parties and
so I miss obviously my friends and community and just
having a place to put things.
I imagine that travelling around, sending things home
because you, you know, you can't carry things
constantly with you,
what are the things that you carry with you?
You know, what are the essentials,
something that you would, you just could not live without?
It's funny because I think about this a lot as I'm
carrying my suitcase and I can give some general tips that
I can stand by. So first of all, the essentials,
practical shoes.
I usually only have one pair of shoes, maybe two,
and it's seasonal so
in the winter, in the spring and autumn,
I might have my really good boots and I will wear them out
until they are full of holes and then I get sandals,
lovely walking sandals that you can have in the summer.
I only have enough clothes so that I can do laundry
one time per week,
one load of washing per week
and that's enough so a few dresses, socks, the bare minimum
so I would say you have to be a little bit low-maintenance
about what you wear.
And I guess as well, you're travelling and going
through different seasons, different climates, different
requirements, how do you manage that?
Yes.
Are you continually adding to your pile of stuff?
Acquiring and purging so
I'm as we say in the United States, a thrifter,
I don't know what you, op-shoper?
Op-shopper.
Yeah so someone who goes to second-hand stores, I love it.
So it's a hobby of mine so I will buy a dress, get rid of a dress,
buy some jeans, get rid of this,
so it's like a circle of my wardrobe
and it's affordable so you don't
have to invest a lot in a high-quality pricey item.
So right now it's, well, we've just come out of summer,
it's really still very hot here.
Yeah.
In Istanbul, as you start getting towards
November, December, you'll probably
purge?
Yeah.
I like that word, purge a bunch of stuff.
Yep.
And find some...
A good jacket.
Good jackets and warmer things.
But apart from the essentials, I also have luxury items
so what I mean by that is for example
I carry a little satchel of
small perfume bottles so I have five different
what would you call them, aromas?
Fragrance?
Fragrances. Yeah I have five different fragrances
to choose from, they're so small, they pack well.
I carry earrings. Garth carries a pocket square.
What's that?
It's just like.
Like a handkerchief?
Yeah that you can fold up and put in your pocket
so you look fancy. So these are just the small luxury items that
pack well and make you feel fancy.
So if you have the opportunity to go to the opera.
Yeah which I have done.
Or do something like that, you've got a few of these little...
Fancy items.
Fancy items, luxuries.
It does make you feel like you're not just backpacking,
you know, you need to feel normal.
Would you say that like would you describe
the way that you travel now as backpacking?
No. Backpacking is travelling light, being mobile.
We are mobile. I do travel lightly
but you would be so surprised if you opened my suitcase
because what you will find are some creature comforts
that nobody in their right mind would travel with.
What's in there?
Yeah so if you were to open the suitcase
you would find a small
cooking pot and a plastic box full of spices.
That's interesting.
Yeah.
Because home cooking is quite challenging when you are
travelling so frequently, moving from place to place,
getting ingredients.
Yeah.
Getting the things that you're familiar with.
Or just yeah because when you buy spices, they're expensive
and if you go from place to place you're always
buying the same thing again and again.
So is that the essential item that you would not travel without
or is there something else?
That for me, as my current lifestyle, I think it is.
So we're in Turkey now. Where are you off to next?
In about a week I will take an overnight
train from Istanbul to Bulgaria.
I'll reunite with Garth there and then from there
up to Poland and towards the beginning of
next year, January we're going to start heading
towards Asia, East to connect the dots so to speak
so I'm almost anxious about
completing the end of the journey
because then I have to decide you know, where's home?
I don't know. Everywhere is home.
Where am I gonna settle down?
Yeah and that's the big question of the year, I think.
What kind of advice do you have for anyone who is
thinking about this nomadic lifestyle?
If anyone's been watching and they're like
wow, how do I do this? I'm so excited about this.
What do I need to do to prepare or to start thinking?
Yeah, absolutely, so
if you want this nomadic lifestyle and you're working,
of course, there's the practical things like
always have data on your phone
so that you have an internet connection wherever you are.
I recommend going to Airbnbs because you have,
you know real homes you can be in.
If you like to share a space, it's always really nice
to actually live in a room with a local host,
it's a nice warm home feeling.
For me, going from place to place on a weekly basis,
for me, my favourite stay is two weeks at a time,
I think that's enough to relax, enjoy where you are,
explore.
Of course, do your research beforehand because
there's always visas, border checks
pandemics, all these things that can get in the way
and you have to be prepared for so.
I can't quite tell if I'm like,
half of me is a little bit envious
and half of me is a little bit overwhelmed.
Yeah.
By the pace of travelling and moving, I wonder what
you guys all think about Kat's lifestyle and
whether or not it's something you'd be interested in doing
if you could make it happen? Like you say,
it's something that you have to
create space for in your life, in work life, in family life,
but lots of people do it and people who do travel a lot,
talk about how incredible that experience is in
meeting different, people different perspectives,
understanding different cultures in different parts of the world.
It's been wonderful. Yeah.
Kat, thank you so much for joining me and for having this
interesting discussion with me, always curious to hear about
different lifestyles and different perspectives and it's certainly
been interesting chatting with you today.
Wonderful.
I hope you all enjoyed it.
What we have done is prepared a little workbook for you
that includes a lot of the different expressions,
the words and things that have come up in our conversation,
helped you to put a little bit of context around
the way that we use these expressions and words
so we've included all this information on the worksheet
which you can grab down in the description below this video.
Hope it's useful and I hope we get to see you again very soon.
Bye for now!
Thanks!
Cool, high five!