Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Daniel Schaeffler. This is everywhere today's travel commandment,
Speaker 1: thou shalt embrace the stillness. There are very few instances
Speaker 1: during travels where I am fully immersed in silence, where
Speaker 1: the stillness is louder than the noise. One of these
Speaker 1: times is when I stupidly decided I was ready for
Speaker 1: helly snowboarding in Canada, right up in more northern part
Speaker 1: of Alberta, close to Revelstoke in Banff. After some very
Speaker 1: serious safety training which included a bubble boy demonstration, I
Speaker 1: was getting onto a helicopter taking off for the highest peaks.
Speaker 1: This is the moment that my fellow snowboarders revealed that
Speaker 1: they had competed in the Winter Olympics. Excuse me, your
Speaker 1: professional snowboarders. The woman next to me then decided that
Speaker 1: this was also the perfect time to tell me that
Speaker 1: she's been training for this specific excursion for I don't
Speaker 1: know three years. So I had to at this point say, well,
Speaker 1: I snowboard once or twice a year. I also have
Speaker 1: a broken knee. And then there was silence, a deep
Speaker 1: silence where only the blades of the helicopter distracted us
Speaker 1: from the upcoming feet. We touched down on this glacier
Speaker 1: and we huddled together as a group and what seemed
Speaker 1: to me the only way to get down. The helicopter
Speaker 1: then left and boom, a group took off, everyone into
Speaker 1: the zone, into their single minded focus. Okay, so picture this.
Speaker 1: Now I'm standing with my snowboard thousands of feet up
Speaker 1: on a mountain's edge, and my entire group has headed
Speaker 1: down this insane hill. Silence, the loudest silence of my
Speaker 1: entire life. I could only hear my own breathing, which
Speaker 1: at this point had become a little louder as you
Speaker 1: can imagine. Well, how was I supposed to do this? While?
Speaker 1: I decided that I was going to try and remember
Speaker 1: every childhood ski lesson, combine it with my sincere love
Speaker 1: for snowboarding, and an absolute meditative concentration, and that's how
Speaker 1: it's going to get back down to earth. Luckily, I
Speaker 1: noticed that our trainer guide person was waiting just a
Speaker 1: little way ahead of me. He seemed to trust that
Speaker 1: I knew what I was doing more than me, And
Speaker 1: trust me, if you've been in Canadian snow, it's mostly powder.
Speaker 1: Once you're moving, you have to stay in motion. Or
Speaker 1: the object in motion will sink into a tree well
Speaker 1: or worse. So yes, it was me and the silence,
Speaker 1: and I think a little bit of luck that brought
Speaker 1: me down to the launch. Of course, there also times
Speaker 1: where you can actively choose the silence, like the ten
Speaker 1: days Silent retreat in the winelands of South Africa I
Speaker 1: studiously attended. I drove a few hours from Cape Town
Speaker 1: and pulled up at this farm with merely a few
Speaker 1: structures assumed one I'd be sleeping in. They had massive
Speaker 1: gardens where vegetables and herbs were being grown, and a
Speaker 1: whole section of farm animals. I checked in and handed
Speaker 1: over my phone and my kindle and an emergency contact
Speaker 1: and every other piece of memorabilia from my life. They
Speaker 1: suggest that you don't bring any distractions, no books, games,
Speaker 1: not even a photo from home. Well I was all
Speaker 1: in actually, Day one, like most new adventures, feels fresh
Speaker 1: and exciting. Anyway, Oh, before I forget to tell you this,
Speaker 1: As you check in, you also take a small vow
Speaker 1: of absolute silence. For the next ten days, you will
Speaker 1: not speak one word to anyone. Day one was aunt.
Speaker 1: I smiled when someone handed me a plate of food.
Speaker 1: I smiled when I watched everyone sit down for a
Speaker 1: four hour meditation. I smiled when I watched everyone take
Speaker 1: towels and go shower. I mean I was even smiling
Speaker 1: when someone showed me a tiny single bed with a
Speaker 1: small pillow where I was meant to sleep. When I
Speaker 1: realized that there was only one meal a day, plus
Speaker 1: a silly tea break, and the rest was for I
Speaker 1: don't know, fourteen hours of meditation, I stopped smiling. But
Speaker 1: onwards I marched they two. I was starving. Since you
Speaker 1: don't dish your own food, I couldn't dish extra food
Speaker 1: for myself or go back for my usual plate of seconds.
Speaker 1: Lucky me, water was free and I could have as
Speaker 1: much as I wanted. A kind act of benevolence suddenly
Speaker 1: won't became my elexir. By day five, I was ready
Speaker 1: to leave. And a lot of people give in at
Speaker 1: this point. So you'd think it's the silence that disturbs
Speaker 1: you and sends you off the edge, But no, After
Speaker 1: a few days, you kind of forget to speak and
Speaker 1: the silence becomes this beautiful, soothing bomb. By day six
Speaker 1: and seven, my mind was playing tricks on me. Was
Speaker 1: I in the matrix. Was I captured and voodoo mine
Speaker 1: trick to be here? Have I joined a cult? Then
Speaker 1: you get to the amazing thing. On day eight, full zen,
Speaker 1: the silence becomes you. Sleep was never the steep food,
Speaker 1: even one meal, never tasted this good. Even that water
Speaker 1: started to taste like the finest first quench of my
Speaker 1: whole life. Meditating for four hours straight no problem. My
Speaker 1: knees and back were fully on board with my new
Speaker 1: life and not giving me any pain. And I was
Speaker 1: no longer fighting this silence. I was the silence. Of course,
Speaker 1: I stupidly decided to have lunch with my parents on
Speaker 1: the last day as I left the retreat, and after
Speaker 1: ten days of silence, the world seemed so silly, so petty.
Speaker 1: My parents were not amused and thought that I was
Speaker 1: being far too banastic for their liking. And then there
Speaker 1: are times where the silence just chooses you. Namibia with
Speaker 1: its forever and ever silent dunes, and that's the exact appeal.
Speaker 1: It's that extraordinary, ordinary thing. There's something primal and truly
Speaker 1: unearthed about Namibia. Away from a usual glut of tourism,
Speaker 1: the country holds the steep connection to the beginning of time.
Speaker 1: Although now only a small percentage of the local tribes
Speaker 1: still exists, Namibia is home to some of the original
Speaker 1: hunter gather people. My and your first ancestors think about
Speaker 1: that their presence and their untouched virtue somewhere propagate the
Speaker 1: remote parts of the land right here. Even their fertile
Speaker 1: lessons and simple life philosophy opposed to a constant drone
Speaker 1: of bigger, better more, are kind of written in the
Speaker 1: sand before you arrive of one of the many African tribes.
Speaker 1: The sand had inhabited Southern Africa for at least thirty
Speaker 1: thousand years and are one of the fourteen known surviving
Speaker 1: ancestral population clusters from which modern humans descend. My knowledge
Speaker 1: of these sand people and their unique click sound vernacular
Speaker 1: actually comes from seeing this old BBC production from the
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties by a South African author, Lawrence ban de Post,
Speaker 1: who called these people the lost soul of all mankind.
Speaker 1: To ponder what that looks like, it helps with some perspective.
Speaker 1: So I hopped onto this tiny bush plane with a
Speaker 1: female pilot and ticked off into the big African skies
Speaker 1: with the wind creeping around us, looking down at a
Speaker 1: wad of nothingness framed by cyan and dust. The understanding
Speaker 1: of real luxury whispered to me space and time and freedom.
Speaker 1: It's here in this pristine wilderness and eternal views and
Speaker 1: the desert's magical cape enveloped me. The city dweller heading
Speaker 1: out to northern territories of Namibia, where all you get
Speaker 1: is just endless space. Tomorrowland, which is the inland area
Speaker 1: close to the famed Skeleton Coast, romances with these early
Speaker 1: morning mists coming off the numbing cold Atlantic Ocean and
Speaker 1: then a hot desert air kisses all the way from
Speaker 1: the canyons, creating this almost Mars like place. The area
Speaker 1: is where I find my next moment of meditative calm.
Speaker 1: The isolation in the world I know is at Bay.
Speaker 1: Although not thick with wildlife, this tract is a perfect
Speaker 1: example of how na each is laws of sustenance, ordained
Speaker 1: tracks for the animals and humans are just visiting. Days
Speaker 1: here feel like weeks, and you spend them tracking this
Speaker 1: shy desert adapted elephant, or a magnificent aurex, or this
Speaker 1: pointy lipped black rhino. Fast paced life is something I
Speaker 1: now can look at from the outside inn the window
Speaker 1: of its slightly smudged, and the jerk of quiet desert
Speaker 1: life prevails. Even my attire changes t shirts become more slumped,
Speaker 1: and the need for shoes simply dismantles. My longing for
Speaker 1: anything digital is replaced by simple moments of observing an
Speaker 1: ant or stretching out at a sunset. As you move
Speaker 1: by a charter to the Hoa Nib Skeleton Coast Camp,
Speaker 1: the privilege of access to the wilderness becomes so apparent.
Speaker 1: It's located in this private concession between the Palm March
Speaker 1: Area and the Skeleton National Park. This areas as remote
Speaker 1: as you can possibly find. You fly over shipwrecks and
Speaker 1: these stark coasts, and you think about the ancient navigators
Speaker 1: and conquerors that wanted to grasp their sort of idea
Speaker 1: of Africa, and that soulfulness is likened to my own.
Speaker 1: How can this continent, with all its toils, hold such
Speaker 1: a grasp and such a love on me and so
Speaker 1: many of its swains? The great beauty and then this
Speaker 1: great silence. The coastal camp is accessible only by our
Speaker 1: light aircraft and located in this wide basin at the
Speaker 1: confluence of two tributaries with hills smiling from east to west.
Speaker 1: The lunar like landscape is what over as the gravel
Speaker 1: plains are covered with some low lying plants, rock formations,
Speaker 1: flood plains and dry river beds, and that quiets any
Speaker 1: monkey mind and brings this retreat state to Namibia. Nights
Speaker 1: are long in the desert and they allow for proper
Speaker 1: rest away from modern day side tracks and those bright lights.
Speaker 1: Here it's just stars rocking me to sleep, and the
Speaker 1: silence is what wakes you. The next stop on my
Speaker 1: journey was on Gava, just a small flutter inland where
Speaker 1: Namibia meets Angola. The famed Eatasha National Park encloses a
Speaker 1: giant pan with silvery mirages toying with the savannah, grassland
Speaker 1: and thorny shrubbery. The park, proclaimed game reserve in seven,
Speaker 1: is known for its abundance of game, and it's even
Speaker 1: visible from space. In the rainy season. Flamingos congregate in
Speaker 1: the salt pan, and the park proudly counts three hundred
Speaker 1: and forty bird species. I hang up the binoculars to
Speaker 1: rather picnic on the grass to contemplate wildlife, sanctuaries and
Speaker 1: the need for conservation in the world. Of course, This
Speaker 1: is where my feet sink deep into the sand and
Speaker 1: a scorpion decides to bite me. The strangest thing happens
Speaker 1: in these life or death situations. The whole world goes silent,
Speaker 1: time stands still. My whole body gave into this crazy,
Speaker 1: excruciating pain. A local tribal guide came to speak to me,
Speaker 1: as he probably saw me jumping up and down like
Speaker 1: a full yelping in agony. He looked at my leg,
Speaker 1: and he looked at me and he said, we have
Speaker 1: about twenty minutes. Oh, twenty minutes before the pain stops. Right, No, No,
Speaker 1: twenty minute before the poison kills you. Unfortunately, airlifting to
Speaker 1: a hospital will take thirty minutes. I was trying to
Speaker 1: just understanders to embrace the stillness, but it was becoming harder.
Speaker 1: This man took my leg, sucked on it, plucked on it,
Speaker 1: and did some kind of magic and somehow managed to
Speaker 1: get the poison out. The pain not so much. He
Speaker 1: had saved my life now that I didn't die from
Speaker 1: a scorpion bite, which sounds rather bad. As I took
Speaker 1: deeper breaths and went into a more contemplative headspace, I
Speaker 1: think that's what happens when you are near death. Life
Speaker 1: goes on as it always has, but Namibia's fingerprints are
Speaker 1: all over me, reminding me of this existence. Of course,
Speaker 1: there are also times where silence is so deafening and
Speaker 1: so undeniable that it's some play consumes you, like the
Speaker 1: Bolivian salt flats, where you can actually see that the
Speaker 1: Earth is round. It is so flat the horizon actually curves.
Speaker 1: I have this idea that we should suggest that the
Speaker 1: Flat Earth Society hold their next conference there. I know
Speaker 1: this year they are on a cruise ship of the Irony,
Speaker 1: and then they're hot air balloons with their moments to
Speaker 1: go into silence. I've been on a few of those,
Speaker 1: but Kappadocia in the center of Turkey and the Serengetti
Speaker 1: in Tanzania stand out. Hot air balloon ing f y
Speaker 1: I is an early morning activity if the wind isn't
Speaker 1: right or you're staying on land. In Cappadocia, wake up
Speaker 1: time is four am. As you approach the field where
Speaker 1: you'll be taking off, from your eyes seem to deceive you.
Speaker 1: Hundreds of colorful balloons all waiting on the ground with
Speaker 1: their little baskets filling up with people, and as the
Speaker 1: sun comes up, the fire in the balloon gets all
Speaker 1: jazzed up just enough that it gaintly lifts the basket
Speaker 1: up into the sky. For the next two hours, the
Speaker 1: only sound is the sound of the occasional fire spurting
Speaker 1: upwards into the balloon to keep it in the air.
Speaker 1: And you have this burn's eye view of cone shaped
Speaker 1: rock foundations. You can also see Bronze Age homes carved
Speaker 1: into valleys by cave dwellers, just a little dip into
Speaker 1: the past. It's all kinds of magical peacefulness. Nobody speaks
Speaker 1: because the silence feels so valuable you don't want to
Speaker 1: waste it. In the Serengetti, you have this burn's eye
Speaker 1: view of the animals, herds and herds of every animal
Speaker 1: you can possibly imagine. What's so different about Safari in
Speaker 1: the Serengetti versus Safari in the Kruger in South Africa
Speaker 1: is that here you have these giant open spaces, planes
Speaker 1: that are endless, so you can see animals in mass quantity.
Speaker 1: You see them as they move from one area to
Speaker 1: another to feast or to find water, whereas in South
Speaker 1: Africa it's all bush and shrubbery, so you can get
Speaker 1: much closer to them from a game vehicle, but you
Speaker 1: never see them in quantity, or from the balloon a
Speaker 1: few hundred feet up in the sky. You quietly watch
Speaker 1: as these herds go about their business, young elephants playing,
Speaker 1: the elder giraffes eating baby giraffes how to lean down
Speaker 1: to drink water. Zembra is floating with each other. This
Speaker 1: is one of my favorite silent moments of my life,
Speaker 1: animals in perfect nature harmony. The other was in Cambodia,
Speaker 1: close to sim Reap, where there's this huge lake and
Speaker 1: on the water are p people who actually live on
Speaker 1: little boats, in fact, people who have never been on
Speaker 1: land before. They're borne on the water and they die
Speaker 1: on the water. So this is where I spent an afternoon,
Speaker 1: just floating on this Buddhist prayer boat. I sat cross
Speaker 1: legged on this floating temple and meditated as the sun
Speaker 1: came down, with incense burning and flowers being offered up
Speaker 1: to a statue of Buddha, surrounded by hundreds of little boats,
Speaker 1: all floating happily along, and the silence gave me this
Speaker 1: brief moment, this tiny opening in my life to think
Speaker 1: about how fortunate I am. Is this luck I don't
Speaker 1: think so. Is it fate? Probably not. It just is
Speaker 1: what it is. And what a perfect reminder that the
Speaker 1: silence gave me. Let's take a breather and we'll be
Speaker 1: right back with Everywhere afterward. From our sponsors trade tables up.
Speaker 1: You're returning to Everywhere Land, Welcome back today. I'm with
Speaker 1: my friend and tour guide, Unca Bentley, an Istanbul native.
Speaker 1: I've never met anyone who knows more about all things Turkey.
Speaker 1: Hello Anca, Hello Daniel. How are you fine? How are you?
Speaker 1: I'm very good. I you know how much I travel.
Speaker 1: And one of the best experiences of my entire life
Speaker 1: is spending a day with you walking the streets of Istanbul.
Speaker 1: And that experience I had with you at Haggis Sofia
Speaker 1: is something that I think about and reference all the time.
Speaker 1: It really was about thinking about embracing the stillness and
Speaker 1: walking into the space and I want you to kind
Speaker 1: of tell me exactly what it is and sort of
Speaker 1: filming in on its history, but walking into that space
Speaker 1: and just walking and being in the silence in this
Speaker 1: beautiful place with so much history. And it's funny because
Speaker 1: in that silence and just observing. I learned so much.
Speaker 1: That is so beautiful. You put it so beautifully. It's
Speaker 1: my favorite building. First of all, I think it's a
Speaker 1: building with so many things combined in one. It is
Speaker 1: actually one of the first churches, and it was built
Speaker 1: three times on the same location with the same name.
Speaker 1: And I really liked the name Sophia or Holy Wisdom
Speaker 1: as beautiful. Sophia is the root for you know, we
Speaker 1: know those words sophisticated philosophy. It's wisdom, and I really
Speaker 1: do like that they appreciate that wisdom so much. It
Speaker 1: was one of the biggest churches of its time, and
Speaker 1: I even today, you know, you put the in the
Speaker 1: same category with Saint Peter's Saint Paul Cadiral Milan. But
Speaker 1: that was built in five thirty seven and five years.
Speaker 1: Thousands of slaves have worked on it. It has a
Speaker 1: huge dome's it's still the highest dom in Istanbul. It
Speaker 1: inspired so many architects. Everybody tried to go higher than
Speaker 1: the Dome of Haiger Sophia. I think it's so beautiful
Speaker 1: with all of a different sides. So because it became
Speaker 1: a Catholic church during the Latin invasion and fourteen hundreds
Speaker 1: it became a Catholic church for sixty eight years and
Speaker 1: then you have those crosses made in that period whole
Speaker 1: different than the Greek Orthodox Church it was, and then
Speaker 1: it became a mosque. In four three it was converted
Speaker 1: into a mosque. And since it's a museum, but when
Speaker 1: you go into that building, you you're going to witness
Speaker 1: all of these different periods. So if it's time and
Speaker 1: it's it's beautiful, it's really an incredible experience to working there.
Speaker 1: In fact, I was yesterday there. It always makes me
Speaker 1: happy getting in there. Well, the thing that stuck with
Speaker 1: me so much was that everyone's been there, the idea
Speaker 1: that all these religions and all these different cultures have
Speaker 1: been in this one place, and that really the lesson
Speaker 1: of that is that we're all the same, that there
Speaker 1: is actually more similarity than difference. That is true. What
Speaker 1: really is interesting about that is that it was probably
Speaker 1: built on top of a previous temple, a pagan temple,
Speaker 1: and that tells a very big thing about people. You know,
Speaker 1: they have to build their temple that they're going to
Speaker 1: worship on top of a previous temple, like in many
Speaker 1: other places and people like sacrid locations. And that's what
Speaker 1: really strikes me the most about Hiker Sophia. Has to
Speaker 1: be the same location, has to be the same building.
Speaker 1: When you look about it, I think it has an energy,
Speaker 1: there's something special to it. When you walk in it,
Speaker 1: it's so beautiful. You have all these different periods you
Speaker 1: could witness, you know, mosaics from ninth century, ten century,
Speaker 1: twelfth century. And at the same time you have big
Speaker 1: calligraphies circles, the biggest caligraphic circles in the Islamic world
Speaker 1: with the names of God, Mohammed and the Caliphs. On
Speaker 1: the other side, you will see the mosaic of Virgin
Speaker 1: Mary holding up Baby Christ Jesus and they're just next
Speaker 1: to each other. And I really, I think I love
Speaker 1: the combination of all of that together in a building.
Speaker 1: That is the beauty. Also the decoration of the building.
Speaker 1: You have all the different materials from many different sides.
Speaker 1: But I really but really impresses me are those thin
Speaker 1: slices on the walls, the marble slices that they put
Speaker 1: together like a matchbook design. And you have devil faces
Speaker 1: and you have different stories being created. You have angel
Speaker 1: wings being created out of the marble veins because you
Speaker 1: put them like veneering, you know, you just cut them
Speaker 1: in sin slice us and put them next to each other.
Speaker 1: I always like to think about the time when people
Speaker 1: had no media, no TV, nothing, But then you could
Speaker 1: look at this marble slop which really looks like a
Speaker 1: devil face, and the more you look at it, the
Speaker 1: more scary it gets. Those images, they're so so alive
Speaker 1: when you keep looking at them, right, uncle, Like, I
Speaker 1: grew up in Europe, and to me, Turkey is Europe,
Speaker 1: whereas Americans often see Turkey as the Middle East, this fictional.
Speaker 1: Like when I was going to Turkey, remember I said
Speaker 1: to you, My friend said, are you seeing any camels? Like?
Speaker 1: And I was thinking, well, no, actually, like I'm at
Speaker 1: the Soho house, I don't know about the camels. But
Speaker 1: maybe talk a little bit about that misunderstanding of Turkey
Speaker 1: and how travelers if they could just come into Turkey
Speaker 1: without this preconceived notion of what it is. First of all,
Speaker 1: I would say, Turks or Turkey isn't doing a very
Speaker 1: good job at promoting itself. I always told you that
Speaker 1: they're really like like today, I was at the spice
Speaker 1: market and there is this candy store and it's there
Speaker 1: on the same location until seventeen seventy seven. It is
Speaker 1: actually one of the oldest candy stores and it's very modest.
Speaker 1: They never even let you know about it. There's a
Speaker 1: very tiny sign on the corner which says, you know,
Speaker 1: we are with you since five dred something years and
Speaker 1: and that would be really in a big city in Europe,
Speaker 1: it would be in the books, it will be promoted properly.
Speaker 1: Here they're really not good at explaining themselves in many ways,
Speaker 1: or maybe they don't never learned how to. But this
Speaker 1: is a crossroads of many things, like in Is tanbul
Speaker 1: Is Tumbul is a city divided by the boss first
Speaker 1: and two parts Europe and Asia. And people always say
Speaker 1: that east east west, but it is actually not beating
Speaker 1: south at the same time. It's it's such a crossroads.
Speaker 1: It's been always a big part of the Silk Road,
Speaker 1: of the trade routes. I always like to say Turkish Turks,
Speaker 1: like the Turks living in Turkey are the most mixed nation.
Speaker 1: We do have genes of all different kinds of nations.
Speaker 1: Because this has been always um crossroads for many nations.
Speaker 1: It's very diverse and many things, like even with the
Speaker 1: city parts, every section makes you feel like in a
Speaker 1: different city. Sometimes it's very diverse within the city. But
Speaker 1: I would say in general Turkish people are very hospitable,
Speaker 1: they're friendly and well. People have this idea of Turkey
Speaker 1: and it's it's always seems too many people who haven't
Speaker 1: been here, like a dangerous place. They have to come
Speaker 1: and see more theirselves. It's really not like it's nothing
Speaker 1: like what they imagined. This is the first thing that
Speaker 1: people tell me because they have really a notion in
Speaker 1: their head and it's really only changing once they're here.
Speaker 1: So maybe it's my responsibility to to talk about it.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's my responsible ability to tell people Istanbul is
Speaker 1: part of Europe and the concept of the Middle East
Speaker 1: does not exist. It was created by military ideals of
Speaker 1: America to control an area. But there is no such
Speaker 1: thing as the Middle East. There is Europe and there's Asia,
Speaker 1: there's Asia. Turkey is Asia minor. We are not the
Speaker 1: Middle East, that is for sure. Turkey doesn't belong in
Speaker 1: the Middle East. I would say we are located on
Speaker 1: Asia minor and on Europe, very tiny, tinsy part of
Speaker 1: the country in Europe. But still though the West coast
Speaker 1: in general is very European because when we consider Greece
Speaker 1: as Europe, you could swim from many of the beaches
Speaker 1: to the Greek islands. Literally you can swim, so it's
Speaker 1: really quite west and located. It's really very difficult to
Speaker 1: just cut these lines with a knife. One of the
Speaker 1: most amazing experiences of life is hot air ba learning
Speaker 1: and Cappadocia, and I loved so much being in the
Speaker 1: silence and hearing just the slight fire pushing up into
Speaker 1: this balloon. It really was part of my whole Turkey experiences.
Speaker 1: I felt again and again, We've all been here, every religion,
Speaker 1: every culture. I looked down at this land and I
Speaker 1: was like, wow, so much of travel is noise and chaos,
Speaker 1: but here I have this moment of looking at this
Speaker 1: ancient landscape without sound. No, you just put it so beautifully.
Speaker 1: You're right. We are told to travel in a certain
Speaker 1: way and do things in a certain way, and it's
Speaker 1: always kind of given to us. We don't look for
Speaker 1: anything else. And what you just say is so beautiful
Speaker 1: to just you know, take it in. It's a very
Speaker 1: big I would say, ability, and not too many people
Speaker 1: no of it. It's beautiful if you could do that.
Speaker 1: And while we're at the hot air balloon subject in Cappadocia.
Speaker 1: Cappadocia is a wine country. Turkey has been some of
Speaker 1: the few countries who started to make their wine. It
Speaker 1: goes really quite back. We've been producing wine I think
Speaker 1: forever in this part of the world, and we are
Speaker 1: just not good at promoting stuff, as I told you,
Speaker 1: And we are selling lots of our ready made wine
Speaker 1: to certain European countries. We have seven different regions and
Speaker 1: all these regions have their own kind of wine. Who've
Speaker 1: been produced in this part of the world for for
Speaker 1: a really long time. How long, oh, as long as
Speaker 1: it goes. Wine in in Turkey goes back to before
Speaker 1: biblical time exactly. It's it's been around and it's been
Speaker 1: been produced, you know. So how are we going to
Speaker 1: get people to come to Turkey? Like that's my mission?
Speaker 1: Can you hear Anka, I'm just like ready to bring
Speaker 1: people to Turkey. That is so kind of you, Daniel.
Speaker 1: This it's so nice of you. It's one of my
Speaker 1: favorite places in the planet and you're loved here. You
Speaker 1: should know that. I would say Turkey is so diverse,
Speaker 1: and it offers really beautiful beaches and all of that.
Speaker 1: That's true, we have really surrounded by beautiful beaches. But basically,
Speaker 1: I think the cultural diversity is really very impressive. You
Speaker 1: have very different regions from another. You have this very
Speaker 1: green Black Sea coast, you have the Aegean coast, you
Speaker 1: have the Mediterranean, the central part Cappadocia, and there is
Speaker 1: so much natural beauty as well. We have so many
Speaker 1: former volcanoes and they create many natural springs, and we
Speaker 1: have those beautiful spring waters in many different regions, beautiful waterfalls.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not only the historical sites, which there
Speaker 1: is an abundance of. You have so many ancient Greek, Roman,
Speaker 1: Hittite sites, But it's not only about that. You also
Speaker 1: do have all the natural beauty. And it's really not
Speaker 1: that far and he wants you think about it. Turkish
Speaker 1: Arelines is doing great job flying from here to every verse,
Speaker 1: so you could just you know, always make it a
Speaker 1: stop location. Meanwhile, going somewhere, it's always useful to spend
Speaker 1: a few days in Istanbul as well. The one last
Speaker 1: thing I just remembered, which I can't believe I forgot
Speaker 1: nearly forgot this. I was on a boat on the
Speaker 1: Bosphorus with Anka and she said this beautiful thing to
Speaker 1: me where she used this word hitch. And she said,
Speaker 1: we is timber lights and we Turkish say, oh, that's hitch.
Speaker 1: It means everything is nothing and nothing is everything. And
Speaker 1: my husband and I looked at each other and we
Speaker 1: had this moment where we felt, this was the essence
Speaker 1: of what we've learned in Turkey. We have to get
Speaker 1: this tattooed on our um. And so later that day,
Speaker 1: somehow we had met some guy at the Soho House
Speaker 1: who owned a jewelry store who we were visiting, and
Speaker 1: his very good friend was a tattoo artist, and he
Speaker 1: called the tattoo artist to come to his store and
Speaker 1: he tattooed us in the back of his jewelry store,
Speaker 1: whilst Unca was putting on million dollar diamonds on Earth
Speaker 1: and Michael and I were getting getting inked. I couldn't
Speaker 1: believe that moment. Your tattoo is called hitch. It's mostly
Speaker 1: written in Arabic, but I really liked that you did
Speaker 1: use the Turkish version, which is the Latin alphabet a
Speaker 1: little altered, and you have hitch written h I received that,
Speaker 1: which is the sound. It means nothing, and it's a
Speaker 1: very deep meaning. It has to do with the whirling dervishes.
Speaker 1: It's it's very difficult to plain, like in inn in
Speaker 1: a sentence or so what it means. Eventually you end
Speaker 1: up with nothing or deeper than that. Everything you belong to, everything,
Speaker 1: you're part of, this whole part of the universe. It's amazing. Well,
Speaker 1: I can thank you for your time. I miss you
Speaker 1: at Land. I'll have a beautiful day and I send
Speaker 1: your kisses me too. Bye, Darling. This is a great
Speaker 1: moment for us to travel to Advertising Land and we'll
Speaker 1: be right back with Everywhere. The time has come for
Speaker 1: more of Everywhere. Now where were we? My next interview
Speaker 1: is with Genevieve Morton six Times Sports Illustrated swimsuit model
Speaker 1: or as I would say, costume model who's done multiple
Speaker 1: magazine covers and traveled all over the globe and always
Speaker 1: with a pair of heels and that signature cat all
Speaker 1: of a laugh. Genevieve and I've been friends for many
Speaker 1: years and we've recently reconnected in Los Angeles. Hi Genevieve,
Speaker 1: Hi Daniel, it's amazing to see you. Haven't aged a
Speaker 1: day in a decade. Well, it's because I'm on the
Speaker 1: plane all the time, and I think the compression of
Speaker 1: somehow being in the skies doesn't age you. So I'm
Speaker 1: basically preventing myself from it. Was the signature face masks
Speaker 1: used to do. Remember the signature forget. I could never forget. Wow,
Speaker 1: you need to take me down a trip of memory
Speaker 1: lane of all the things we used to do. We
Speaker 1: used to have a lot of fun. That is true.
Speaker 1: I recently was on the phone with Genevieve and we
Speaker 1: had this amazing discussion abound the things that we used
Speaker 1: to love about each other and why we are still friends.
Speaker 1: And the thing that I adore about you is that
Speaker 1: you were always willing to evolve and grow and challenge yourself.
Speaker 1: And you did this thing where you would just become still.
Speaker 1: You would allow yourself to be still, and then you'd
Speaker 1: go from that place. When I met you, your mother
Speaker 1: had passed away and it was a difficult moment for you,
Speaker 1: and you were just so ready to learn and feel
Speaker 1: and evolve from that. And look at you now. Well
Speaker 1: it's been a long time, and I'll tell you what
Speaker 1: I learned from you. There's a couple of things. First
Speaker 1: of all, I learned to read magazines that are more
Speaker 1: interesting than just glassy fashion magazines, which is a big thing.
Speaker 1: I have subscriptions to like legit magazines that you turned
Speaker 1: me onto, which is great. Second, I learned how to
Speaker 1: rest from you, which it may seem like a silly thing,
Speaker 1: but you know, when you're someone who wanted to go,
Speaker 1: go go, and you just keep going, you symptoms can
Speaker 1: just forget to take a time out. And I remember
Speaker 1: at the time when we were are hanging out some
Speaker 1: days at call and I say, what are you doing?
Speaker 1: And you're like, I'm taking a mental health day, and
Speaker 1: like a what day? And you'd be like, I'm just
Speaker 1: watching the show and I'm just relaxing and be like
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe that this was a thing that people
Speaker 1: were doing, and it was just so inspiring to me.
Speaker 1: Of many things, but that's the thing that comes to
Speaker 1: mind today. But ten of Vive, it's about embracing the stillness.
Speaker 1: It was about those small moments where you just have
Speaker 1: to be still. Travel taught me to do that. Like
Speaker 1: you're on the road and you're experiencing all these beautiful things,
Speaker 1: and the only way that you're able to assimilate this knowledge,
Speaker 1: to take it from head knowledge and turn it into
Speaker 1: heart knowledge is if you become still. The reason I
Speaker 1: said that to you at the time, and I probably
Speaker 1: say it to you again now. I don't know if
Speaker 1: i'd call it a mental health day now I call
Speaker 1: it a respite now or something a respite as Americans say,
Speaker 1: But it's something to do with In that stillness, the
Speaker 1: wisdom comes, and in that stillness you're able to process
Speaker 1: things which you just can't do if you're letting the
Speaker 1: monkey mind run wild. And travel is so stimulating, it's
Speaker 1: so um there's so much happening, and there's so much
Speaker 1: that you want to see and do. It put you
Speaker 1: on this path of inquiry and curiosity. So it's hard
Speaker 1: to find stillness. But in that stillness, I think there's
Speaker 1: so much wisdom that's offered to you. So one of
Speaker 1: the things with traveling for me is because I'm also
Speaker 1: generally traveling for work, what I found that I've used
Speaker 1: as a great technique and i'm traveling is once I
Speaker 1: crossed the security line at the airport, I draw a
Speaker 1: line in the sand and it becomes me time because
Speaker 1: although these people around me. I'm generally traveling alone, and
Speaker 1: I can be around humans but be completely alone. I
Speaker 1: don't have to engage with people, and that's just time
Speaker 1: where I can write, I can read, I can just
Speaker 1: be by myself and I don't owe anyone anything. And
Speaker 1: then the best of all getting on the plane, of course,
Speaker 1: I wear the big headphones, the international signal for do
Speaker 1: not talk to me, I'm not available for you right now,
Speaker 1: and just knowing that I have like eight hours for me.
Speaker 1: That's the most incredible part about traveling, I think. And
Speaker 1: you're forced to be with yourself. You're not numbing out
Speaker 1: on your phone or whatever else is available to you.
Speaker 1: I think that's really important. So this leads me into
Speaker 1: wanting to talk about you were a model when I
Speaker 1: met you, and you've had this incredible career and you've
Speaker 1: had so much fun, but you've evolved that into something
Speaker 1: else now and you're helping people in a way. Then
Speaker 1: maybe you didn't think you would be able to do
Speaker 1: Ten years ago. When I met you, I was trying
Speaker 1: to be a model. Let me rephrase. I was doing
Speaker 1: some stuff and then I got a big break right
Speaker 1: about the time that I met you, and I was
Speaker 1: lucky enough to book Sports Illustrated America, which catapulted my
Speaker 1: career into being in the top in my industry. And
Speaker 1: of course I've done other magazines before and other jobs
Speaker 1: and catalogs and things, but there's a big difference from being,
Speaker 1: you know, just a regular catalog model, wearing clothes, taking pictures, whatever.
Speaker 1: It's a whole other thing when you start building a
Speaker 1: brand for yourself. I'm obviously older now, I'm thirty three,
Speaker 1: and I know that there are a lot of models
Speaker 1: that still model well into into their forties, fifties, sixties,
Speaker 1: even may masks in the seventies. Amazing. But what happens
Speaker 1: and we achieve our dreams and then what you have
Speaker 1: to dream up a new dream and that's a really
Speaker 1: hard thing to do. I mean, I can shoot, I
Speaker 1: can take photos, and sure it's fun, but I don't
Speaker 1: walk onto set and feel excited the way I used to.
Speaker 1: And that set me on a journey of going war.
Speaker 1: Who am I beyond just the two D image that
Speaker 1: people have of me? So I had to ask myself
Speaker 1: what do I have that other models don't have? And
Speaker 1: for me, that was my voice. And what I love
Speaker 1: about social media is that it's social and the point
Speaker 1: is connection and if you use it for that purpose,
Speaker 1: it can really bring a lot of people together. So
Speaker 1: you've started helping people with grief. Yeah, Well, as you know,
Speaker 1: I lost my mom when I was very young, and
Speaker 1: I had to try and find some meaning around that,
Speaker 1: and it's a really hard thing to do, especially you
Speaker 1: know when you ask the universe like why why did
Speaker 1: this happen to me? And maybe there isn't a reason,
Speaker 1: maybe things just happened. But for me, over the years,
Speaker 1: I found that had a lot of people with a
Speaker 1: lot of pain and trauma come into my life and
Speaker 1: was not afraid of those negative feelings. So people often
Speaker 1: open up to me. And I thought to myself, what
Speaker 1: an opportunity to do a course and a qualification where
Speaker 1: I can actually help people through a set out program.
Speaker 1: It's just very rewarding, it's amazing. It's not the only
Speaker 1: thing I'm doing, of course, there's many things. So there's that,
Speaker 1: and then I also talk vocally about being sober. That's
Speaker 1: a really big thing for me. I think it's changed
Speaker 1: my life and I'm very vocal about joining twelve step
Speaker 1: programs and doing the work surrounding that because Oftentimes people
Speaker 1: are saying they're diagnosed with this or that or the
Speaker 1: next thing, but it's it's like, no, you you're just
Speaker 1: an alcoholic. Maybe if you just pause with the numbing
Speaker 1: and addictive behavior, do the work surrounding that and see
Speaker 1: what's left, maybe you wouldn't have to be diagnosed with
Speaker 1: all these things. You know, tell me um some stories
Speaker 1: about modeling on the road. I remember when you did
Speaker 1: Sponsor Illustrated. You told me the story about how the
Speaker 1: water was so fucking cold and you had to like
Speaker 1: pretend like it was warm and wonderful and you still
Speaker 1: had to keep going right. So when you're shooting modeling,
Speaker 1: you're shooting opposite seasons, so you for for summer clothes
Speaker 1: you shoot in winter, and winter clothes you shoot in summer.
Speaker 1: So in winter you're shooting summer things or bikinis, for example,
Speaker 1: and the water is freezing, everything's freezing, the wind is blowing.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've been on set where I'm wearing like
Speaker 1: a bikini and they have to have heaters blowing on
Speaker 1: us because we've turned blue and we have to try
Speaker 1: and look warm. But just in terms of traveling, I mean,
Speaker 1: the funniest story I had I think was when we
Speaker 1: went to shoot in Fiji with Sports Illustrated and the
Speaker 1: guy who owned the kind of island we were on
Speaker 1: the island resort kept like evicting people out of their jobs,
Speaker 1: I guess, and the chef got fired while we were there,
Speaker 1: and they wouldn't give him a ride back to the mainland,
Speaker 1: and he was sleeping in the hammocks on the beach
Speaker 1: trying to like solicit a ride from this island to
Speaker 1: the main and just like crazy things like that happening
Speaker 1: all the time, just weird stuff, And I think that's
Speaker 1: the beauty of traveling. Those you just see, like you
Speaker 1: get a glimpse into all these stranger's lives and then
Speaker 1: you carry on your merry way and keep living your life.
Speaker 1: It's great. I like the idea of you sitting on
Speaker 1: this flight for eight hours and just embracing the stillness
Speaker 1: that comes to you like that, to me is really beautiful,
Speaker 1: this idea of just being in that silence. I mean,
Speaker 1: of course I'd like people to listen to my podcast
Speaker 1: when they're traveling, but sometimes there's this an amazing thing
Speaker 1: where I'd be on a flight and I would watch
Speaker 1: no movie, I would read no book, I wouldn't speak
Speaker 1: to anyone, and I would have headphones on as if
Speaker 1: I'm listening to music, but they would just be noise canceling.
Speaker 1: And that's when I'm processing. And then at some point
Speaker 1: during the time, you're watching your mind go and it
Speaker 1: stops and you just get this like moment of silence,
Speaker 1: and that's where I think the work starts. Well, I
Speaker 1: think you have a kind of relief because there's no
Speaker 1: expectation on you. No one can like somehow reach out
Speaker 1: to you via your phone. I mean, we don't take
Speaker 1: downtime in our lives right now, like you're we're available,
Speaker 1: and people don't have the boundary like and that time
Speaker 1: on a plane, it's like an extended meditation. And if
Speaker 1: you know, if you're meditated, you're not really trying to
Speaker 1: get something first, you're just observing the crazy thoughts bouncing
Speaker 1: back and forth in your mind, and like you said,
Speaker 1: you get to that place of silence. I think what
Speaker 1: I've found on planes is that I'm able to connect
Speaker 1: with myself. See see what I'm saying, Someone's just trying
Speaker 1: to get you. Ye can't you can't get a break?
Speaker 1: Give me some lesson that travel gave you. But when
Speaker 1: we were chatting the other day on the phone, we
Speaker 1: were going over a couple of things because obviously we
Speaker 1: haven't spoken in a really long time. And I think
Speaker 1: the sentiment that we reached together ultimately was no matter
Speaker 1: where you go, there you are. And I know for me,
Speaker 1: I was running away from myself. I want I left
Speaker 1: the little tiny town of Scottborough to get away and
Speaker 1: show them that they shouldn't have bullied me, because if
Speaker 1: they hadn't bullied me, they're going to regret it now
Speaker 1: because I am all that and a bag of chips.
Speaker 1: And let me tell you, when I went back to Scotborough,
Speaker 1: nobody cares. Okay, no one cares about there's infants you
Speaker 1: hold from high school and how you're spending your whole
Speaker 1: life running away trying to like show them. And it
Speaker 1: took me a full decade to get to that experience,
Speaker 1: and just how many lives I feel like I tried
Speaker 1: to live to get away and get to the point
Speaker 1: where it's like you have to be okay with yourself.
Speaker 1: And that's what I've learned to travel. What I didn't
Speaker 1: say is how we met. We met in Cape Town
Speaker 1: at Origin Coffee where I've met so many of my
Speaker 1: closest friends. And it's funny that this coffee shop, this
Speaker 1: little coffee shops serving incredible coffee in the tip of Africa,
Speaker 1: in Cape Town, brought so many people together for me.
Speaker 1: And I remember when we met and you were like
Speaker 1: the girl about town and was I didn't feel like
Speaker 1: the girl about town. I felt the loser about town.
Speaker 1: You would never the loser about town. And I remember
Speaker 1: us being like, we were this gaggle of friends, and
Speaker 1: you were always so bubbly and ridiculous, and you used
Speaker 1: to do like this funny impression like pinky in the brain.
Speaker 1: I can't remember what it was used to do stuff.
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess I do to my dream to
Speaker 1: voice a cartoon or animation. But you know what I'm
Speaker 1: thinking of doing. I'm thinking of making a little mini
Speaker 1: Catrie already show and voicing the two cats in my apartment.
Speaker 1: But maybe that's a little bit over the top. No,
Speaker 1: I think that's great. It'd be hilarious. I can come
Speaker 1: on and be like the tramveling cat returning home, the
Speaker 1: baritone voiced lady cat. We're going to figure this one out.
Speaker 1: I used to say, my name so funny to be
Speaker 1: like Genevieve, you'd be like and then you hold your
Speaker 1: hands up like, well, Genevieve. It is such a pleasure
Speaker 1: to have you, and I'm so glad that I can
Speaker 1: reconnect and we can do something meaningful together. Yeah, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for having me on your show and
Speaker 1: also reconnecting with me. It's a pleasure to reconnect with
Speaker 1: you in l A. And I'm looking forward to listening
Speaker 1: to your podcast and hearing more about all of your
Speaker 1: journeys because I've really missed out. O good, we'll do
Speaker 1: some journeys together. Okay, so I have a plan to
Speaker 1: catch but if you'd still like to reach us, go
Speaker 1: to Everywhere Podcast on Instagram, Everywhere part on Twitter, or
Speaker 1: the website at everywhere podcast dot com. Thanks for hanging out.
Speaker 1: I'm Daniel Scheffler and I'll see you everywhere