A Little Human Conversation with Ali Garland

Ali Garland is a travel writer and blogger at Travel Made Simple. She’s been traveling since she was 14 years old, and is now living in Germany as an expat. She’s been to more than 50 countries and visited each of the seven continents before her 30th birthday.

We asked her twenty questions (she picked 10, we picked 10) from the list as part of our ALHC project. Read on to see what she had to say…

If you could wake up tomorrow in your favorite place on Earth, where would you be? 

Southern Spain. I just love southern Spain, the Andalucia region to be specific. The food is delicious, the tapas culture is the best in Spain, and the people are so friendly. Plus it’s a gorgeous area and almost always sunny. It helps that I speak a decent amount of Spanish too, so I can have reasonable conversations with people. 

Do you have any tattoos? 

Yes, though I’m not sure the exact number. It started with a small butterfly on my lower back, off to one side. Then a few years later, I added some flowers. And then I just kept going back in for more. Now there are a few butterflies, a dragonfly, a ladybug or two, and a bunch of flowers. I always wanted it to look like it could be finished but also that it would be easy to keep adding on to. I haven’t had any new work done on it in over 10 years though. 

Where would you like to live? 

This is a question I’m totally struggling with right now. I spent most of my childhood in NJ, then lived in the Atlanta area from age 15 to 31. At that point, I moved to Germany, and I now live in Berlin. It’s a great city, and there’s a lot I love about it. But it’s also depressingly cold, dark, and gloomy in the winter, and winter lasts for so long since it’s so far north. So every year I think, there’s no way I can live here for the rest of my life. 

But I have no idea where would be the ideal place to live. I mean, nowhere is perfect, right? Sometimes I think I want to live in Spain, but then it’s way too hot there in the summer. So, for now, the plan is for my husband and me to try being in Spain for a few months in the winter and see if that’s enough to ease the pain of the Berlin winters. 

Early bird or night owl?

Definitely a night owl. I’m so not a morning person! Even if I’m exhausted in the middle of the day, I almost always get a second wind in the evening and don’t go to bed early. And when I’m traveling by myself, I tend to stay up even later. There have been many nights on a solo trip when I end up in bed reading until 3 a.m.

What was the last thing you watched on TV and why did you choose it? 

Jane the Virgin. It’s such a good show! I love the combination of the romance and the drama of the crime storylines. I love how the show often plays right into telenovela/soap opera stereotypes, usually for comedic effect, while still making me believe what’s happening and truly care about the characters. The show makes me laugh and cry, and I’m seriously sad that the series is now over. 

Introvert or extrovert? 

I’m an introvert, and I’ve become even more of an introvert over the past few years. I can be outgoing and social, but I definitely prefer my own space and quiet, and I need that to recharge. Over the past few years, since I now work for myself and I work from home, I can easily go days only being around my husband, who’s also an introvert, and I’ve really leaned into it. I think it’s even harder for me to be around lots of people than it was a few years ago. 

If you could travel in time (if you think it’s possible), would you go back along your own timeline and change things about your life? 

Yes, I think I would. As long as the domino effect didn’t result in me not meeting my husband, because I wouldn’t want to change that. 

But yes, I’d love to change a few things. I wish I had traveled more when I was college-aged and early 20s. I wish I hadn’t waited so long to finally take a trip by myself (I was 28 when I finally did). When I did finally take a long round the world trip, I should’ve planned less of it in advance and given myself more flexibility to change things as I went along. 

With regard to work, I should’ve stood up for myself more when I was being treated badly. I also wish I had taken my blog more seriously earlier. And because I’m answering this just a few days after my wallet was stolen, I’d love to go back in time and put my purse between my feet instead of next to my foot and a pole where I somehow didn’t notice a guy take my purse, remove my wallet, and put my purse back close to where it was. 

Did you want kids? 

Nope, never. Ever since I was old enough to realize that not everyone has to have kids, I haven’t wanted them. I’ve never felt that urge to be a parent, and I really don’t think I’m cut out for it. I think I’d be a horrible parent, and I’m not a kid person. I also have ulcerative colitis, a somewhat hereditary autoimmune disease, and I’d hate to pass that onto another person. Though to be clear, my desire to remain childfree came before my diagnosis. 

What’s your favorite piece of clothing? 

Comfy pants. These are basically gym pants, and they’re really comfortable. I always own at least two pairs of pants that I can call comfy pants, and they’ve become my work uniform basically. Since I work from home, I don’t wear traditional business clothing anymore, and as much as I like jeans, they’re not super comfortable to sit around in all day, so I wear my comfy pants. 

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I’d love to be able to deal with stress better. I get so stressed out so easily by so many things, and it’s not healthy. I worry about things I shouldn’t and feel guilty about things I shouldn’t, and it all funnels into stress. Unfortunately, stress is a big trigger for colitis, and it can make me sick. So for lots of reasons, I wish I could not get stressed out so easily, and that I could handle it better when it does happen. 

What’s the last thing you threw away?

A banana peel while making my morning smoothie. 

What’s your favorite food memory? 

Oh, this is such a tough one! 

I have lots of good food memories! I’m not sure I can pick an absolute favorite, but one that’s among the best is from early 2014 when my husband and I were traveling in Thailand. We were staying in a popular coastal town called Ao Nang, and our guesthouse was on the outskirts of the touristy center, so we walked farther away from that area to find food. This meant we ended up at little restaurants where we saw no other foreigners. We were there for a week and rotated between three different places where we ate Pad Thai, red curry, and Penang curry, and they were all so fantastic! 

The one meal we had down near the beach was mediocre and twice the price, so we were happy to return to our little hole-in-the-wall places. 

Who is your biggest influence?

I have no idea! I’m not sure I’ve ever had any one person be a huge influence on me. At least not in a positive way. I have friends and my husband who make me want to be a better, stronger person. There are bloggers who indirectly make me want to be better at what I do. But mostly I think it’s the accumulation of influences from tons of different people.

Do you remember your dreams?

Usually, I don’t. When I do remember them, it’s usually little snippets, like a person who was in the dream or one weird little detail. I recently woke up knowing there were puppies in my dream, but I don’t remember anything else about it. 

What is your favorite journey?

I’m going to answer this from a travel perspective — since that’s my thing anyway. It’s hard to pick one favorite, but one of the best trips I’ve taken recently was to Uganda. I went with a friend who loves traveling in Africa and has taken several safaris, so she planned things. We ended up with a wonderful week in several different parts of southern Uganda, and it was just the two of us plus our guide or driver. 

We saw tons of different animals - lions, elephants, giraffes, zebras, hippos, a variety of antelope types, buffaloes, warthogs, and so much more - and it was just such a different experience from any other kind of trip I’ve ever taken. 

Are you superstitious?

No, not really.

Air conditioning or open windows?

Open windows. Certainly, when it’s extremely hot, air conditioning is better for actually cooling things down, but I’ve never really liked air conditioning. Living in Germany, I’ve gotten used to not having it because most places here don’t. We’re too far north to need it most of the time, and as a complete generalization, Germans don’t like air conditioning and think it’s bad for you. 

What talent would you most like to have?

Writing - I wish I was a talented writer. As a blogger, you’d think I’d be better at writing, but it’s actually one of my least favorite parts of the job. I don’t feel like I’m a good writer, and I’m so slow at it that I’m regularly months behind on writing about a trip I’ve taken. If I was better and faster at writing, I feel like I’d be a much better blogger. 

Coffee or tea?

Neither really. I like the super sugary coffees, like a frappuccino or something, but I don’t like normal coffee. I’ll drink tea when I’m sick — seriously, fresh ginger and lemon tea is the best for a cold — but that’s about it. And I’ve never liked iced tea or sweet tea. 

What do you want to be celebrating a year from now? 

I’d love to be celebrating better health. I’ve been doing a lot of different things in the past few years to improve my health with regard to my ulcerative colitis, and while I have seen improvements, I know there’s still a long way to go. I still get sick too often and too easily, but I’ve been able to recover quicker and more easily, so that’s good. But I’d love to be celebrating a full year without even a minor flare-up.

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