Just Another Traveling Soul

Welcome! I introduce myself as Paul and my friends call me Pavel. You must have stumbled onto Tourism Shark! Hope you enjoy your visit and feel free to leave a note! 

I’m currently in my mid 20’s and a traveling soul working remotely through his laptop. I’m a product manager in a tourism company but my passions are spread out from acting and film making to stock trading and real estate. In the end I decided I didn’t want to stop traveling and Tourism Shark was the only justifiable way to do so.

Before we get started with the creation of Tourism Shark, we need to understand how the idea came to fruition. So continue the journey below, with some initial quabber about myself. 

  I was born in a country called Azerbaijan in the capital, Baku. Although a very corrupt company, it has invested into opening up tourism in the city. So if you ask a friend of a friend of a friend, chances are they might know a friend of a friend who has been there.   My community has always identified themselves as Kavkazi Gorsky Jews. We were called Gorsky (from the russian word gori meaning mountains) and also called Kavkazi because we’re from the Caucausian Mountains. Our nationality even has our own dog….well kind of. Regardless, in english they call it a Caucasian Shepard but in Russian it’s called a “Kavkazki Avcharka”. 

My family moved to America when I was five years old. The way they saw it, America was the land of opportunity. Azerbaijan was a predominantly muslim country with a very miniscule jewish population. My father’s logic was simple, when he was a student, he couldn’t go to college in his own country because he was Jewish. Him and his brother had to live In Russia to attend University. My father did not want to limit my education, my financial freedom and my lifestyle. The decision to go to America was clear. Although our family wasn’t exactly well off, we always had bread on the table and I had a rather good childhood in my oblivious bubble. I lived in the same five block radius in Brooklyn from five years old to twenty five years old. 

Lezginka – The Dance of the Gorsky Jews

Growing up I didn’t really try to hold on to my origins all too well. However I will pride myself in learning our national dance when I was little. The dance is called “Lezginka” and in my opinion it’s rather silly. The women are notoriously known to do rather little, just floating their hands around like a drunk who got some real bad wrist pains on the dance floor. The men look like they are angry at the floor for causing their hand spasms- I kid you not it sounds like it looks like. So yeah SUPER PROUD of the dance. Anyways here is an old video I took of my cousins dancing when we were little. 

Russian was technically my first language but over the years I used less and less of it and can now basically only write on a second grade level and speak at a fourth grade level. YAY ME -.-. I joined Kindergarten in the middle of the year and learned English like every real American child- endless hours of cartoons. I got into Hunter College for a full scholarship in academics and the arts (my mediums were theater, filmmaking and writing). Throughout college my hobbies were socializing, partying, and relationships. One of my favorite pastimes translated from college days onto post work life. Bars, lounges and Speakeasies. If you notice, every city has it’s own category for Night Life. Most companies don’t put enough effort into sharing the beauty of the cities Night life. Every city has its own top venues, local spots, and hidden gems. I knew I had to make sure night life was a prominent part of Tourism Sharks. If there was a secret Speakeasy, or a super cool themed bar- i’ll find them so you can explore them! 

I own a motorcycle- her name is Lana and she’s a Suzuki SV 650 2nd gen. I’ve been riding for over 5 years and this year I decided to go on the road.

There is nothing like the sound of an engine roar of a bike perfectly zooming through the highway. With every push on the throttle, the engine roars louder and for a brief second you feel invincible (assuming you don’t spiral out of control and crash after that second is gone). I am a proud owner of a blue Suzuki Sv650 2nd Gen and her name is Lana (not related to Miss Rhoades :P)

You see the black cover all my luggage? That’s my bike cover and what I used to waterproof my stuff. I had everything I would need to survive on the road with my bike (even in the woods). If you wan’t to learn about everything you need for a long and epic motorcycle road trip I’d recommend starting with learning what to pack for your motorcycle trip.

For the record, I have very limited knowledge on the mechanics and engineering of motorcycles. My friend fully serviced the bike for me before the trip and I’ve taken my bikes to get serviced to shops throughout the trip. Getting your bike serviced at the shop is super costly but if you don’t know how to do it yourself, you have to learn or cough up the dough. It is also important to note that because I know so little about the ins and out of motorcycling maintenance on my bike, I still get it checked regularly and don’t skimp out on keeping her in top shape. I think I  have a natural feel for my bike. I can feel if the engine sounds clogged, or if the tires feel skimpy, and plus on some days I spend 3-7 hours in a day riding covering between 200-700 miles. I’m in sync when I ride, total zen. There is a book about two bike riders on a country road trip in which one friend maintains his bike and the other doesn’t know how the thing even works. Check it out if you can. 

I have a passion for stock trading and have been swing trading for over three years. In the last two years. I had faced some really big losses because I refuse to not be an idiot and use stop losses. Nevertheless, I always enjoy chatting about stocks and growing my knowledge in the field. 

The Mission

When I first bought the domain, www.tourismshark.com I wasn’t sure what the site would be. As I started to travel more and more, I kept coming back to this site that I never built. Once I started my motorcycle journey the vision started to become a bit more clear. The site was born with three important core functions so far.

1. To share expertise on the city – everything from budgeting to sightseeing to nightlife. 

2. To provide fellow travelers with tourism deals curated to them

3. To persuade and help unleash the inner traveler in everyone

It was clear to me that living in America I realized most of us are pressured to go immediately to college and then immediately start working. A lot of other countries persuade their younger generations to travel either before or after college. As my friends finished college and started further education or career focused jobs, I sat there restlessly trying to figure out what to do. When I was finishing College, I had a full time gig in a tourism company I was working for. When I graduated they offered for me to continue working with them. So I graduated with a Major in Film and Media and minors in Creative Writing and Psychology and now was working in the hospitality industry (College was clearly not a waste of time…). Although I started as a sales agent when I was still in College and trying to pay for my many nightly bar escapades across Manhattan, I now was the Product Manager for all things in the company.

Once we launched The Sightseeing Pass I started to help with the Business Development aspect of the company. They would send me to different cities to work with different tourism services and try to engage in new business with them. I loved traveling to different cities, getting private tours of different attractions, and becoming a self recognized local expert. I realized that traveling to a city for a weekend was a tease. The company would sometimes send me there for a few days and I would pay and extend my trip to the weekend. Living in different cities for a week at a time, I realized there are so many things the average traveler would not be able to do or less alone even know about it in 3 days. So that’s when I realized I wanted Torusim Shark to be the tell all place for it’s cities. 

In my last year in NYC, I decided to try my shot at Real Estate. I studied and took the Real Estate Salesperson Exam and became a licensed agent (while I was working full time in Hospitality). I quickly learned that I liked the Real Estate Industry but wanted nothing to do with being an Agent. My goal, once I get settled into Austin after my travels, is to buy my first property. I’ll keep you guys updated on the progress! . Tourism Shark tries to break every city into living styles, housing conditions, demographics, costs of living, to help you get a feel of every city.  

Once Covid hit, tourism was dead and so was the industry. Most people were furloughed and most attractions closed. The company had furloughed many and I was one of the lucky few who was able to continue to continue to help operate the company. Living in NYC without making 90K salary is basically impossible unless you plan to live paycheck to paycheck for the rest of your life. I was living with my family at the time and made the decision that I can no longer live with my family during Covid. I made the decision to move to Austin, Texas, where rent (and home sales) are way more affordable and living conditions were favorable. 

Once the company gave me the green light, I was officially a digital traveling Nomad. A few weeks into the trip I realized that there was far too much to explore and I felt like I belonged to the road. Austin, Texas was the end of a journey that could have been done in 5 days and now has become a trip spanning months of travel and included 5 thousand miles already ridden throughout the east coast. Having so many states to see it was a good thing I got creative with travel. Instead of booking different expensive hotels, I found lots of cheaper living alternatives for travelers.

Tourism Shark was finally an idea that was blossoming into formation. As I decided to continue exploring the states, I wanted more and more to get the most of every city. Tourism Shark is meant to become the traveling bible for it’s cities. It’s a long way before it gets close to it, but I’ll travel the world until there’s nothing left to write about. 

One more thing! I try to find the wonders of every city and provide you with the best recommendations, deals, and gems of every destination. These are done for you!  So if there is something you want to hear more of, some kind of service you are interested in, or something you like- let us know!