June 28th, 2024
Wow, it’s almost been a month since I’ve last written here. What an incredible journey Albania has been. We’re taking off tomorrow evening to Switzerland so now was the time to jump in and give some updates. Morocco was such an insane experience that Albania has felt tame in many ways. I’ve had little to no culture shock or sketchy situations. After a layover in Italy, I’ve realized that contrary to most Americans, I don’t even think it seems like fun to hit Italy in the Summer unless you’re in the mountains.. because it’s completely blown out with Tourists and we were only in Milan. The rest of Italy seems like a nightmare. Maybe I’m just a hipster. The next night, Jas and I started our journey to Tirana then Shkoder the next day. Shkoder is AMAZING. I’m calling it now - Albania will be one of the most popular tourist destinations in the next five years. It’s like a hybrid between Greece and Croatia with the big city Balkan Magic. Tirana is stunning. It feels undiscovered. The people are so cool. The Balkan states have a lot to offer. We did a week in Shkoder where we honestly just chilled out after the insanity of Africa. I worked a lot and we enjoyed the calm safe world which is Albania. That following weekend I got a rare vacation and we met up with Pat and Lexie. We met them in Valbone, a tiny little mountain town in the Albanian Alps where we did a 4 day backpacking trip. It’s downright stunning. Imagine Yosemite but a lot greener. Just jaw dropping. We also made our way into Montenegro in the mountains. The forests have wolves, grizzly bears and a whole lot of Babushkas cookin’ up fire meals. We stopped at some of the coolest hut/rugged airbnb type spots where families spend their summers housing travelers. By far everyones favorite part of the trip.
After the hike we headed down to Ksamil which is near the border of Greece, looking at Corfu. Magnificent beaches with a vibrant night life. LOVED Sarande. Jas broke her toe, burned her hand badly, someone stole her IPAD and she needed good wifi, so she left two days early to get some peace. We met up once her retreat was done and got an airbnb with one of the best views of the Adriatic sea that you can get. The day I went to the airbnb, I had to go solo for a few reasons while Pat and Lexi stayed back at our old airbnb in Ksamil. I was waiting on the side of the road for the bus and an old Albanian man in a retro Mercedes pulled up and said “Ten euro to Sarande!”, I was like why not? and jumped in his car. He was smoking skinny cigs and playing some awesome music which will be todays song. We were straaaaight vibin’. I had such an incredible time with this crew and hanging in Albania. I have a feeling that I will forever look back on this time with joy and it’s the only place that I’ve been sad to leave. Having the time of my life out here. Sorry for not writing… if anyone is even reading this lol.
Todays song is my Albanian taxi drivers banger - “Cause You Are Young” by C.C. Catch. Such a f’ing banger.
June 4th, 2024
Lessons from traveling:
Time isn’t as patient as it used to be.
Finding someone that encourages you to live is something to hold on to tightly.
You’re going to be fine and even if you’re not going to be fine, there’s no sense to ruin “right now”. Just exist thinking that you’re going to be fine until it’s not fine, then when it’s not fine, you figure it out.
June 3, 2024
Last week in Morocco and I can’t feel my legs. That good pain. Incredibly proud that I accomplished the one difficult goal while being here - climbing the highest peak in North Africa, Mount Toubkal. Even though it’s not the biggest mountain that I’ve ever climbed, it was the highest elevation gain. I started the morning of Saturday June1st, getting picked up by a taxi from the medina. I was paired with two french guys who ended up being hilarious and a great hang. They didn’t speak english well but were kind enough to try to talk with me because my french skills are nonexistent. Our guide also didn’t speak english and very little french but he pretended to which was kind of hilarious because as you know, you can’t pretend to speak a language. Nice guy though. You legally have to have a guide to climb this mountain after a few tragic incidents occured.
We started the hike from Imlil, a little mountain town that thrived off the snowmelt creeks from Toubkal. Quite a phenomenal existence. We’re in the driest place but then there’s an oasis running through the canyons. Locals have little shacks built into the sides of the trail that must be 100+ years old. Each shack would either sell drinks, trinkets and snacks to one place being a full blown “restaurant”. One thing that’s interesting about Morocco is that there are a lot of illegal dwellings that the government does nothing about because they’re so old. All of these shacks would have a tube connect to the creek, blasting out some of the cleanest mountain water you’ll ever drink. They live lives that are incomparable to anything I’ve see in the US or Europe. Covered from the sun, sitting above some of the most beautiful creeks you’ll lay your eyes on. Smoking Moroccan hashish, taking their mules down to town to buy goods, then going back to what some would consider paradise. High in the mountains away from society. Toubkal is located in the Atlas Mountains which have some very steep inclines, steeper than what you typically see in somewhere like Colorado. These hills are decorated by all kinds of life like wild flowers, big horn sheep, horses, macaques, and even leopards.
This was a two day hike. The first day we did 5 hours and about 6 miles to the refuge with huge elevation gains in blistering heat. Upon getting to the refuge, the first thing I noticed was how dark it was inside the building. The small amount of solar power was only to be used when necessary in the evenings. The architecture looked like something out of Harry Potter. I was the only native english speaker in the entire place which was probably housing 40+ hikers and guides. There were also various tent refuges set up, plus another refuge that I didn’t get to see inside that was a bit smaller than mine. We had tea at 5 then dinner at 7. The dinner was subpar. Cheap spaghetti or classic tajin. I was exhausted and crashed pretty early while the french guys watched a football game in the one spot of the building that had service. I woke up sometime around 3:30 and had breakfast at 4am. We hit the trail before 5am. Some people started early to catch the sunrise from the peak. As we began, you could see sets of lights wayyy up the mountain. My group was cookin’ and we passed almost everyone on our way up. It was such a difficult hike. I’ve climbed probably 10+ 14,000 ft mountains in the states and this was astronomically more difficult even though it was only 13.5k. Partly due to the heat and partly due to the elevation gain. We started lower than your typical mountain in the USA. The views were incredible and sunrise was crazy from the canyon. Once we got to the saddle at about 13k, you could see the peak. A tiny spec way up there in the distance. A short distance but a huge elevation gain. This is where my altitude sickness started to kick in so I took it slow but kept up with the team. I was more experienced and knew the consequences of not listening to your body when elevation sickness starts. One foot after another and we made to the peak.
I have no idea why but the second I touched the summit marker, I cried. Not hard but it happened. When I think back to this moment, I’ll get emotional all over again. I’ve never reacted that way to climbing a mountain or to anything if we’re honest. Reflecting back, I’m trying to understand why this specific mountain hit me so hard. When Jasmine and I started planning this trip, it was well before we got married. I had to put in a lot of effort to get a remote job, pack up our house, and figure out a lot in a short period of time. Leave behind a monumental era in LA. It was extremely stressful at times. Life has been an absolute whirlwind the last year. So much has happened. Leading up to this, I had been very paranoid about not climbing this mountain as it took some effort to fit it into one weekend and this was my last full weekend in the country. If anything went wrong, it wouldn’t happen. I was exhausted and really happy… maybe not happy but accomplished. Proud AF to be honest. I can’t believe that I was at the tippy top of this place that took so much to get to. A place like Africa. Years in the making. I wasn’t raised by world travelers and I’ve had to pave this road myself. Even my career choice was built into this moment. Jas, friends, family all tell me I work too hard and often times the hard work feels pointless. I realized that everything I had worked for was actually happening right then. All the previous mountains, all the shitty deadlines I had to hit, all the interviews I had to prepare for lead to this exact moment. It felt like for the first time, I was fully present. It’s like the moment you realize that you’re living your dream and it actually feels as good as you thought it might. At times, I can be overly humble and that’s not a brag, it’s a problem that has negative effects. For the first time in my life, I had tears of joy. A moment of truly loving myself. I hope I can experience this feeling over and over again.
Todays song is “Boys” by Amen Dunes.
Kyle
May 29, 2024
Almost a month in Morocco - we just landed in Marrakech this week. Right when I thought I was getting sick of this country, Marrakech brought me back to life. We’re staying in the Medina (huge old town) where it kind of feel likes there’s a Genie in a bottle just waiting for you in one of these shops. If we were rich, we’d be sending back like 400 Moroccan rugs. Currently staying at this coworking hotel-thing that is incredible compared to the last couple of dodgy “surf hostels” we were at. I’ll tell you more about Marrakech once we’ve spent more time here. For now, let’s go back to the beach. You may remember me talking about Moroccan “mini-scams”. Our last place we stayed in Taghazout, had a mini-scam that was my least favorite type of scam… internet speed fibs. The LIES!!! Luckily, I’m kinda psychotic and packed a 20 foot ethernet cable with me for this exact scenario. I literally had to send the cable out our window to Jas and down to the office so I could connect it to the router. I was playing NO games this time. At our previous place in Tamraght, we lived right next to a Mosque and the internet was shit. One time the internet went out and a call to prayer (google it if you’re not familiar) went off during a client call… as I was logging back onto the internet my microphone automatically turned on - I got kicked off by my employer because they thought there was someone mowing the lawn directly outside my window, totally screwing up our important meeting. lmao. Anyways…. the ethernet finally got a nice strong connection in Taghazout so I no longer looked like a glitchy sims character living in my zoom calls.
I’ve been encouraged to tell one of my stories that I wasn’t so eager to tell but… here goes nothin’. I met a guy, Mustafa, who may or may not be homeless, real scammy but good guy who doesn’t have a lot, he hangs out down the road from me and sells tourists “surfboards”. He sells the famous Moroccan kind of surfboards. Morocco produces 30% of all the worlds surfboards. He said “follow me, it’s 5 minute walk to a surfshop”. If you don’t know this, a Moroccan minute is like 10 American minutes. We got walking, then we kept walking, then after that we kept walking, and next thing you know… we’re still walking…. and in the town over like 2ish miles. This is way out of the tourist area and I was in a part of the world that I had never experienced. To be frank… and I hope this isn’t offensive, it was how I imagined slums to feel, in a way. Finally, we get to this “surfshop” where they sell “surfboards”. We walk in… and… let me set the scene. Have you ever played Golden Eye on N64? Do you know the level “The Facility”? It has those bathroom stalls where you have to shoot soviet guys coming at you. It had that exact aesthetic except it was decorated with cheap patio furniture and a giant TV showing about 8 security cameras surrounding the place. There’s like 10 Moroccan guys of all ages staring at me like… “this blonde bitch thinks he can surf?”. I felt out of place but there was absolutely no turning back. There were a few rules in the surfshop, you had to order Moroccan tea and you had to hang out for a second. So I gave the guy some money for my surfboard and they brought me and Mustafa some tea. Mustafa doesn’t have great english so our communication wasn’t awesome but Moroccan tea is amazing so I was down to chill with him. I thanked the kid for the surfboard and he stared at me like I was worthless lol. Mustafa said something along the lines of “I go use the bathroom, don’t leave, you will wait for me, yes?” and I was like “For sure man, no worries”. So Mustafa goes into the bathroom through a door that was about 10 feet from us. Mustafa proceeds to absolutely blow up this bathroom… like out of a fucking Chevy Chase movie or something… Huge farts. Not sure what he ate. Anyways. I was looking around at the other Moroccan guys like “am I the only one hearing this shit???”. No one aknowledged it which made me feel even more awkward. Then, I hear the sink turn on and loud splashing noises come and go for about 15 more minutes. He comes back out, totally soaked, like he just took a shower with most of his clothes on but there’s definitely no shower in that bathroom. At this point, I felt like I overstayed my welcome and nobody could speak english there. We were waiting on the waiter guy to come back and bring us the second surfbaord but I really needed to meet up with some people to go out to dinner, so I dipped out of the dark soviet surfshop in the Moroccan hood. The sun is beating down on my eyes like I hadn’t seen light in days. The paranoia kicks in. I left Mustafa at the shop so he could keep the rest of the surf. Then I had to navigate these crazy ass alley ways… alone… to get back to the main road, I was speed walking if not a slow run lol. I had shared my location with Jas, I look down at my phone and she was like “dude wtf are you doing in the next town over??”. I hit her with the “long story”. Put in my airpods and turned on “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival because for some weird reason it was giving me confidence.
That was the last time I saw Mustafa. I wish him well, solid dude. The life he told me he lived made me very thankful for my home. Morocco is wild.
KTN
May 16, 2024
Two of six weeks in Morocco is in the books. Lovely place with some of the nicest people in the world. I can’t stress this enough: Morocco is safe, the people are kind and the culture is incredibly honest. This place beat me down at first. Trying to work was difficult, the culture shock was real but at the end of the day, it’s helped me understand myself better. I understand Islam better. I understand a lot of things much much better. It’s so enlightening and makes me want to go places in the middle east.
There was a tipping point here… a very specific moment lol. I had the hardest week of chasing workable zoom calls while trying to be apart of the coliving space we’re staying at which ended up being more demanding than necessary. I met this guy, Oliver (who was stealing all of our food and tips, another story). Oliver was out with some newly made friends from the Hostel, including Jas. He said “ride my mountain bike to the bar to meet us and I can ride it home.” Seemed like a solid idea, I could get a nice ride in for a few miles, then take a taxi home with Jas after meeting up with everyone in Taghazout. It’s about 10:00 on Friday night, I just finished work. I hop on the bike and begin my trek down a beach path that hugs the Atlantic. Typically full of beach goers and surfers, it’s not empty at night. I got to a dimly lit area, the bike isn’t great, makes a lot of noise and doesn’t shift well. I hear behind me a dog bark aggressively and it began to chase me. I’ve seen these stray dogs chase cars but not bikes. I kick it into high gear, except high gear didn’t kick because this bike is trash. So I’m pedaling for my GD life as a dog is snarling about 5 feet from my tail. I’m feeling good, starting to lose the dog, until up ahead, I hear a few more barks. At this moment, I was in the “finding out” stage of my bike ride. Here comes about 6-8 dogs, literally sprinting at me from the front. Gang gang. So I have one dog behind me who is to say the least, pissed. With an entire pack of dogs sprinting at me from the front. I’m circled. I notice a small path up to a resort to the side, so I jump off the beach path and hop onto the sidewalk. There are no lights, like almost pitch black. I can hear the dogs getting closer, the pack sounds even bigger at this point, maybe 10 dogs, maybe that was in my head. One catches up to me, I can hear it right on my tail. I start using one foot to kick the dog off as the other foot pushes forward on the pedal. Sweating my ass off, I finally make it to a real road, I literally bunny hop off the curb and jump into traffic. The dogs stop at the road and continue to bark but give up on the chase. In their eyes, they think won and that’s fine with me. I get to the bar and everyone is like “Kyle, why do you look like shit?”. After telling my story, a Moroccan guy we’d be hanging with says “you haven’t had a real Moroccan experience until you’ve fended off a wild pack of dogs”. At this point, Morocco had won and I gave in to it’s insanity.
Todays song is “Wild Pack of Family Dogs” by Modest Mouse.
I love this place.
Kyle
May 9, 2024
Hello world, in Tamraght, Morocco now for a week. A small village north of Agidir. Caught a few nice waves but the rest of the days has been flat. Praying for a swell! Morocco is truly a gem. Quite different than I expected. A mixed bag of pros and cons - Has quite a relaxed culture, everything is cheap, also pretty dirty and internet absolutely sucks, but extremely inspiring. We’re staying at a surf hostel that has a lot of cool people and some very weird ones haha. Met a friend, Hicham, who has opened my music world, you can listen in my spotify playlist - الحرية تجري في عروقي. He’s a motion gfx artist and Berber who’s family comes from the Atlas Mountains. I’m hoping to climb Toubkal in June. I get why Jimi Hendrix would come here for inspiration... the colors that Moroccans use to decorate the world around them is unmatched. Working on a new video that I’m stoked about. Jas has been getting me into meditation as well. I got on instagram for the first time in a week this morning and I was immediately overwhelmed so I plan on staying off that for some time. After 7 years in LA, this trip has made me feel like my soul took a long hot shower. Talk soon!
K
May 3, 2024
I’ve decided to start doing these stream of consciousness-type journal entries, to remind myself of where I was at. Portugal has been something like a dream. My time here has been nothing short of magic and it’s hard to put into words how I’ve been feeling. Travel will always do this to you and the European way seems to ground me every single time. I’m beginning to think this should be an annual thing we do, it’s like a wake up. The hustle culture and American centrism is distracting from the human experience. There are specific places that will do this from time to time - I often feel a similar way when I’m out in Bishop, CA, anywhere Utah or Santa Fe, NM. Somehow, geography and culture can give you space to think more clearly.
I started my journey in Iceland. What. the. fuck. was that? I’d love to spend more time there. Blue lagoons, taking roads freshly built over month old lava runs that are still smoking. Insanity. After a fever dream of a travel day, ended up in Porto, Portugal. This city breathes like nowhere I’ve ever been. In my 33 years on earth, I’ve been all over Europe from Bosnia to Stockholm. There is something special about Portugal. Maybe it’s the affordability, rich culture and kind people. Maybe it’s that I’ve been out of LA for a few months now and my nervous system is resetting. Who knows? We met up with a couple - Will and Lilly in Porto who Jas knows from home. An incredible duo who I am a big fan of. Will is working in sustainability in the textile industry using AI tools. Their product looks like a time machine. Their apartment is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Porto is a total gem.
Something has re-ignited with my partner and I as well. Not that anything was wrong but LA does something to you. Positive and negative but one thing is for sure, it sucks up all of your time and time is all we have in this life. If you find a way to take back your time while living in Southern California, it’s a huge win. These Europeans might not make as much money as Americans but they have healthcare, work less, and spend a lot more time drinking coffee. It’s something my friend Devin has always reminded me of. The rise and grind mentality is super fucking wack, unless you enjoy it of course.
It’s not all peachy though, I’ve been dealing with some family issues. I didn’t cause these issues and they’re not purposefully directed at me but since you love your family, it’s not something that can be totally avoidable. A lot of processing and reflection on how to move forward with challenges that life hands you. What do you face, what do you avoid and what do you bury. I’ve done a lot of burying in the past and like a zombie, it digs it’s way back up to the surface. Yikes, lol.
There’s a video above. I’m going to start posting photos or videos, depending on what was captured. A couple of days ago I arrived in Sintra to go see the initiation well - well worth it, let me tell ya. When we got to the airbnb, this dog looked scary af staring in the door way but of course, he’s a big dumb baby and I’m totally obsessed. Still don’t know his name because this Belgian lady seems to call him something different every time lol. It’s like Tai-tush or Sai-gush or something. Idk. He’s one of those dogs that when you do a fake flex at him, he freaks out and turns into the most playful monster. Love him. Miss my dog Bodhi so much right now but he’s in good hands in Colorado. She’s got a cat and birds too. All of the sudden I want birds!
In two days we head to Taghazout, Morocco for quite some time. If it works out and the internet is good enough for me to work, we’ll probably stay for a month or so until meeting up with a few friends in June somewhere in Europe.
Anyways, enough incoherent rambling.
Todays song is “Steeeam” by Shelly. Also, in preparation for Morocco I’ve become obsessed with Habibi funk.
songs are somewhere around here: https://linktr.ee/endlessunset
Tenha um bom dia!KTN
April 28, 2024
Got film back from some of best friends wedding above. It was an incredible time and am so thankful for them. Time away from LA has made me appreciate these friendships even more than I already did. April 28th is my 34th birthday. I’m a mid thirties dude now? Who am I? Wtf is that?I was 25 last year. Some of my best friends forgot and made me wonder, how many birthdays have I forgotten? lol. It doesn’t matter when you’re vibing in the Douro Valley. Just one of those realizations that we’re all getting older and it becomes less important year after year. Hang on tight! Europe update coming soon. Thinking about venting here and taking time off instagram as I’ve caught myself endlessly scrolling again. Caring about things that don’t deserve my attention but I guess that’s what it’s designed to do. Talk soon.
Today and everydays song is Run that body down by Paul Simon
Kyle Tim
