Postcards From The Edge
When you walk with intention, magic unfolds around you. Focus on your strides and find your light. xo KO Astor Place // New York City Instagram | Twitter
All posts tagged: wanderlust
Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Anya Peters
“There was a moment, in Marrakech, Morocco, that reassured and amplified my philosophy of feasting… One year ago, my sister and I went to work at the carpet shop she takes pictures for – measuring and documenting the thousands of carpets that are sold there. It was a long afternoon of holding up rugs while learning Darija (Moroccan Arabic dialect). We went in for lunch for a home cooked meal by Zoubida. We all settled into a small room lined with brightly colored, subdued and rich carpets on the floors, walls and rolled into stacks against the stairwells. A low round table was set out and my sister and I sat cross-legged on the floor with a bunch of Moroccan businessmen and merchants talking politics and agriculture, flowing in and out of Arabic to ask our opinions. Zoubida set before us the biggest tagine I’ve ever seen that smelled so divine. Loaves of semolina bread were broken and passed around the cipher. We dunked our piece of bread into the stewed tomatoes and they let us choose first which part …
Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Lili Lopez
“2013, I was traveling across West Africa with my mom visiting family. Car rapides after car rapides, making key stops here and there, rediscovering our country like we’d never been here before. We curiously roamed with a different set of eyes, with a different sense of purpose. From Mali to Senegal, a little bit of Gambia, our trip quickly turned into a month. We now had 2 weeks left and Guinea-Bissau was our last stop. I could spend 10 more hours describing the village that welcomed us, but instead I’m just going to jump straight to the ending of this trip. For 10 days, they fed us, gave us a place to sleep, shared their bed, prepared “Ataya” for us, and taught us expecting nothing in return. “Let’s buy a cow for the village before we leave,” my mom said. To tell you the truth, even 10 cows wouldn’t have been enough to make up for their level of hospitality. The chief declined our offer at first, he is not the “give to get” type …
Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Austin Willis
“Morocco…there’s still so much I want to see of the country. It’s refreshing to get away and kinda be off the grid and fully live in the moment. The food and people are amazing as well. The people of Morocco made me feel at home. I think it’s also due to the fact they thought I was Moroccan so I got a really unique perspective when I was there. A few people allowed me into their homes to meet their families and enjoy conversations about life over some delicious mint tea.“ – Austin Willis // @visualsbywillis Photo by Hanif Castle
Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Kamilla Sun
“It’s hard to choose one specific memory! So many of them! Each trip has its unique, fascinating story: sad, funny, risky or inspiring. But, all of them have a similar trace. When I followed my intuition and was open in all these moments, I had the most incredible adventures. So I’ll just tell the first that comes to mind… In 2013, when I just broke up with my long-term boyfriend whom I lived with, I temporary moved to my girlfriend’s apartment and stayed there on a month-to-month basis until I figured out my next step. I was lost, confused, broke, didn’t like my job, and didn’t know what I wanted from life. Somehow I came to the realization that all my life, I’d actually never really known myself due to living under so many societal conditions and expectations. So, I was determined to reevaluate my whole life and what I wanted from it. One night, I went to dinner with a group of people and met this German girl named Maria. We connected right away …
Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Marrisa Wilson
“In 2013, I lived in Paris for a semester in college. I was studying at the Mod’Spe International School of Merchandising and the Paris College of Art (formerly Parson’s Paris). There was a point in the trip when I was starting to feel lonely – this particular night I had called my mom a bit homesick and hitting a bit of a rut at this point during my stay. The next day, my best friend Nick and I went for a walk down Rue Saint-Honoré probably around 3 or 4 PM in the afternoon and we both got hungry. None of the restaurants were serving food at this time so we stumbled into a pastry shop called Rotin’s Home. I remember I had this delicious cheesecake and we both had tea. We both noticed that our server had those red high-top Margiela toe boots and we both gave each other a funny look. We finished our meal and went downstairs to thank the woman who seemed to be the owner. The man with the Margiela shoes came …
Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Sheena Sood
“As a designer and color lover, every place I visit affects me creatively, professionally, and often personally. The art, people, textiles, street art, and food I experience inform my design work. Last year, I traveled by myself to Mexico City to visit a friend and to explore the city. Three moments from this trip stand out to me the most now. 1) My visit to Casa Luis Barragán– the rich color palette of pinks, ochre, metallics, touches of blue glass, lots of wood and natural greenery, and the sense of zen that comes from being in such an impeccably designed space. My eyes were dancing for days after. 2) A vendor selling these multi-color hand knotted bracelets on the street. The geometric rainbow patterns on each one were so mesmerizing to me and my fellow Libra friend that it literally took us both half an hour to choose about a dozen of them. Each one provides a perfect palette to inspire something to come. 3) The insanely delicious, never-ending bowl of pozole I ate in …
Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Maurizio Zatachetto
“Definitely New York has been significant with how I now perceive the world. There is no other city like it. I had this fascinating feeling that I would somehow find the missing portion I was always looking for to allow myself to freely be the real me. When I first arrived, it wasn’t easy like most people can imagine. But after a short period of time, everything changed, changed me both as a man and as a creative. There’s such an amazing alchemy in that city. A kind of environment that I’ve only ever experienced there.” – Maurizio Zatachetto
Postcards from the Edge
Dignity above all else speaks volumes. Inside our hearts, we are all born kings and queens… Spotted this underserved king on the streets of Varanasi and was instantly moved by his regal stature. I decided to not focus on his eyes because his struggle is not mine to interpret. But, observing him within this moment gave me an undeniable sense of calm about whatever was to come and his stillness was as vibrant as the noise within the streets… xo KO Varanasi // Uttar Pradesh, India Instagram | Twitter
Candid Chats w/ KO
Last year at BlogHer15’s Experts Among Us conference in New York City, I met fellow blogger, Liv of Unbelievably Human and we connected on travel and life experiences. I invited Liv to be a part of my #100DaysofConfessions project and she equally had a few questions of her own for me regarding thoughts on travel and self-love. View our candid conversation below! Has travel always been apart of your background? or Did something call you to Travel? Travel has always been in my genes and from birth I’ve been nomadic due to having parents from different cultural backgrounds creating a delicate tight rope between America and Africa. Tracing where I was born and raised always turns into a geography lesson of sorts with the most frequent stints in California, New York and Nigeria so roaming has always been a natural extension of who I am at my core. However, despite my frequent movement as a child, I truly didn’t appreciate the character growth that stems from travel until my junior year in college when I …