New to duffelbagspouse travels– Start Here New to duffelbagspouse travels–Start Here Welcome! Thanks for stopping by so let’s get to know each other. I’m Stacey and I enjoy writing about travel and wellness as well as the military lifestyle. I find we are not marketed to or represented in marketing/ tourism campaigns. Ultimately my goal is to inspire more black women to travel to show we are as multidimensional as any other group. I started writing articles for Duffelbagspouse Travels in 2009. There are too many articles to know where to start if you are new to the site. So instead of going through the full list of posts, I’ve collected a few of the most popular posts for readers new to duffelbagspouse travels that will get you traveling fast. It’s not for me to say, they are the best. They are, however, a great place to start because these are the stories that make me me— what makes me unique from every other travel blogger. So if you are new to duffelbagspouse travels, I’ve broken them down into 5 categories: food, travel, personal stories, wellness, and military-related travel. I hope you enjoy the site, -Stacey Food & Wine How to Eat Street Food Without Getting Sick – This is one of the most frequent questions I receive. So I wanted to put together a long post with my tips, and hopefully inspire people to skip the chain restaurants on your next trip. Traveling the Good Food Highway. But one of my absolute favorite foods is bread and one of my earliest and fondest food memories happened in my grandmother’s kitchen. My grandma Mabel used to make the best-baked bread. The memory alone makes me salivate. No matter where we are, we celebrate, mourn, and comfort one another while we eat. Here are just a handful of some of my stories that start at the end of a fork. Etna Wine is not Italian Wine. After making the mistake of calling the wines Italian or Sicilian, I was quickly corrected. I learned this firsthand from my exclusive day-long visits over bruschetta and cheese from two of Etna’s most venerable (and hospitable) winemakers– Giuseppe Benanti and Ciro and Stephanie Biondi. Travel The Insanity of Driving on the Left in Malta – Driving can be hard enough when you are traveling. Add trying to navigate, driving on the wrong side, and doing it all on a solo trip in Malta. And you have quite the travel experience. If you’ve been struck by the travel bug as I have been, you discover ten new destinations for every place you visit. I’ve talked about the wanderlust gene before, but what about using that gene and all the rest of them to select your next vacation destination using DNA? Ethics. It’s simple, but at the same time incredibly complicated. What is wrong? What is right? And if you know something is wrong, will you still do it? Or will you act accordingly? What are your values? And what are they worth to you? Here are 8 ethical dilemmas in travel and how I think you should tackle them. Why I Love Istanbul, Turkey. It’s so easy to fall in love with Istanbul. The city is so beautiful– so romantic, it resembles the set of an epic love story. Romance in Istanbul is around every corner. You can smell it, hear, feel it with each step. And every street brings you face to face with a sultan’s palace or a French patisserie. The melting pot of food, architecture, and cultures encourages visitors to fall in love. What is Making Americans So Afraid? Extended travel really changes your perspective when you return home. We lived in South Korea for 3 years and when I returned home I saw firsthand how fear creates an environment of tension and distrust. And I realized that fear seems to be trending upwards. We all know the country is sharply divided over cultural, political, or religious issues, But what many of us don’t realize is that that’s okay. Our country has always gone through these kinds of debates and not only survived but prospered. Personal Stories I smiled. My kindness was not reciprocated. His stoic eyes were cold and full of rage. His face was rigid and unkind. He grabbed the collar of his coat tighter and with a huff, hurried his pace down the narrow backstreet. All the while, he never lowered his eyes. He never stopped staring at me. He watched me until he turned the corner and disappeared. And that’s just the beginning of why I will never return to Poland. In The Thoughts of a Travel Ambivert, I talk about being a traveler vs a tourist because I don’t want to rush through any travel experience and just tick the box. I want to understand, to be able to not only describe but emote what I see. So I must be bold enough to ask the questions. But patient enough to wait and listen for the answers. My Fight with Depression. I’ve been thinking a lot about depression lately. The back to back deaths of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain really shook me. I didn’t leave a note. I called my parents in time for them to call an ambulance. However, I did swallow all those pills. And I did lie down to die. I can barely remember them breaking down the door or all the questions that ensued. But I can, 30 years later, still taste the charcoal they made me drink at the hospital. Military Lifestyle Too Many Goodbyes in the Military. We sat there talking but not saying much. Small talk about the last movie we watched together— Inception. We were just waiting for the signal that it was time to go. And then it became clear that his departure was imminent as a caravan of chartered coaches pulled into the parking lot. The pot had been stirred and everyone seemed more frantic. The mood turned from mellow to anxious. Many of my civilian friends don’t understand military life or the role the military plays when they aren’t training as badass killers. They’ve never been on a military installation, been assigned living quarters, or speak fluent acronym. And even though they may never understand what a military spouse is, we more common ground than you think. One day we’ll be civilian spouses too. And that’s Why More Military Spouses Should Blog. Decorating my Temporary Home. Military life is colorful, but military housing is not! On-base housing pairs light beige carpeting with white walls to create a 360-degree panorama of ho-hum. The typical military family moves every 3 years so it makes sense to develop a method for making your temporary housing feel like home as quickly and inexpensively as possible. Health & Wellness 9 Ways Mindfulness Helps Relationships. The military lifestyle is not for everyone. And over the past 25 years, I’ve had to find ways to adapt to the constant change that exists all around me. Practicing mindfulness has helped me in my meditations but it has also helped me develop deeper relationships with the people around me too. The Rewind– What I’d Tell My Younger Self. I am 50+ years old. FIFTY people, 50, half a century, five decades. Unfortunately, I’ve outlived good music, using the telephone to “call” someone & we used to call moderate Republicans. Fifty years old— I look in the mirror and see the same girl afraid of jello. This is the New SEXY because I am happy with myself. And this is my rewind of what I’d tell my younger self if I could. Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!