My Amazon Site Paid for My Trip to Washington DC! (And I Met Nomadic Matt)

byZarina

7K followers

Updated 2 years ago

Sooo... Did you recognize that guy on my cover pic? Did I catch your attention? 😄

Hey guys,

It's been a while. I must say I suddenly got a lot active in my life (work, family, health/physical activities, social life).

In this post, I want to share how my Amazon niche site paid for my first ever trip to the US!

But let's start from the beginning...

Basically I have a friend living in the states that I haven't seen for 4 years.

She was waiting for me to visit her, but during the whole surgery/post surgery period I obviously couldn't.

Recently, she messaged me again saying that it's about time we meet.

And I thought:

1. Hmmm, first, I have the money I made from the site to comfortably travel to Washington DC.
2. Second, she knows my ankle situation and since I still can't walk around the city for too long, we'd just bike around the city.

And it was decided!

I spontaneously booked a ticket for July 19-22.

Guess what happened next?

Another friend of mine who lives in NYC found out I'm in the states and she decided to bus to Washington DC to see me too (and I knew both of these girls would get along just fine).

Unusual turn of events!

I totally felt comfortable with them too, you know, with regards to my ankle.

Aaaaand, I really missed travelling like I used to (as a language student).

Aaaaaaaaand....

I got to meet Nomadic Matt! (Huge travel blogger). More on this later.

Spoiler alert:

It was certainly a great decision and one of the best weekends this year so far!

I'll add some photos here, but you can check out highlighted stories and future posts on my personal Instagram page >>> @zarinapokerbabe.

Quick overview of what went down in DC.

Day 1

Just catching up and having a dinner together at my friend's place.

Lots of catching up and lots of laughter!

And appaently their dog loved me :D

Day 2

Surprisingly, I could easily bike around the city. 10+ miles in 3 hours!

(Walking is hard, biking is not. Even dancing is easier than walking).

Following this experience...

I decided that from now on, I'll try to travel and it'll be more like "velotravel" haha. I don't want to let my current circumstances affect my life in a negative way!

And guess what?

That friend of mine is coming to Ottawa in August and we'll explore the city by bikes together.

(I'm from Toronto, so for me it's just 5-hour drive there).

Day 3

Just spent a rather quiet day with the girls and then we walked my NYC friend to the bus station.

Then my Washington DC friend decided to surprise me.

She knows I love poker so that night we decided to hit MGM casino haha.

She showed me roulette LOL 👇

Now...

We lost $60 and I told her to lead me to the area where I AM good at... the poker tables LOL.

Result?

Bought in with $200 ($100 x 2), left with about $450.

My friend was actually there to capture my biggest win of the night, the "double up", lol.

So...

I made my money back that we lost on roulette and I used the profit to treat my friend and her boyfriend with sushi the next day, before my flight.

Day 4

Day 4 was rather unexpected, spontaneous (well pretty much the entire trip was spontaneous).

The thing is that I gave my friend Nomadic Matt's book as a present, knowing how much of a travel lover she is.

Note: Matt Kepnes aka Nomadic Matt is a huuuuge travel blogger.

She did not know who he is and when she started reading his book and site, she fell in love with his content.

So on Day 4, I was in a bookstore near my friend's work with her laptop, while she was working and suddenly I get a text from her 'yelling' in excitement:

• "Zarinaaaaa, Matt is here in Washington DC and TONIGHT at 7pm he's hosting a book tour!!!"

I mean...

What are the chances I'd be there the SAME weekend nomadic matt was?

And because my friend's boyfriend works in the airport I was supposed to fly off, he said that it's ok to come there 2 hours before the departure, instead of 3.

My flight is at 10pm.

Nomadic matt is at 7pm.

We decided to go for it, see him, say hi, get autographs, listen for about 20 mins... And that's exactly what we did!

A quick shot with Matt presenting:

And then 20 mins later we had to leave for airport.

I must say...

It was a BLAST!!!

It was the first "travel" I did in the last 2-3 years, surgery and the inability to walk back then really put my life on hold.

And now I feel like I'm ready to explore. Again.

I already booked a trip to Ottawa with the same friend, her boyfriend and my sister end of August-beginning of September.

I'm considering Montreal since it's close to me too. (And I know they have tons of city bikes there).

Aaaand I'm about to book a trip to Brazil (probably Rio de Janeiro) next spring, for 2 months, while learning Portuguese in a private school.

Crazy.

I'm so thankful to my friend for getting me out of Canada and reminding me just how much I love travel.

Which was pretty much the reason why I started considering online opportunities and how I came across it back in 2015.

Now that I left my comfort zone and now I'm trying to push more.

And I'm happy I have a website that helps me cover my travel-related expences.

This truly is the beauty of living a laptop lifestyle!!!

Thank you WEALTHY AFFILIATE!! Kyle, Carson, Jay and fellow WA'ers who helped me on my journey.

You guys are awesome.

For more pics and stories, check out highlighted stories and posts on my personal Instagram page >>> @zarinapokerbabe.

And as always, I'll leave you with this image and word of advice...

• Follow the training.
• Connect with people, ask questions.
• Do the work and be PATIENT. It's a business and it takes some time to take off.

Dig your way to success!