'Cus I'm only interesting in snippets...
About me:
* Seeker of the peace
* part time chandelier cleaner
* a legend in my own time
* oppressor of champions
* soldier of fortune
* world traveler
* all around good guy (good girl)
* international lover
* casual hero
* philosopher
* wars fucked
* beers wrestled
* equations solved
* virgins enlightened
* revolutions quelled
* tigers castrated
* orgies organized
* bar quaffed dry
* governments run
* test rockets flown
* life president of the liquitarian society Hawaii
life is a waste of time, time is a waste of life, get wasted all the time, and you’ll have the time of your life!
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
The cheap airfare site that I use is called skyscanner.net. You need to finesse it in order to get it to do what you want… but once you get the hang of it you can find some insanely cheap flights.
It is important that your dates be flexible. They have an option that allows you to look for flights for either on a specific date, a specific month, or for an entire year.
You can also type in your origination city and then for final destination you can type in ‘everywhere’ and it will tell you the cheapest flights going during your time frame for well… everywhere. Remember that in Europe things are often relatively close together so take a look at a map and see if you might be able to fly into one city and then take a train or a cheap student bus to the next. Also beware that the budget airlines there often operate out of as airport that is completely separate from the main international airport… that can be a shitty mistake to realize at the last minute.
Sometimes when you select a fair the price will end up being lower (but more often) higher then they originally quoted just because it hasn’t been searched recently. Persist. Make it your bitch.
Just give it a try, it’s been very good to me.
Sum up what you love about traveling in 30 seconds, GO!
I was actually asked this question last night. The best answer I could give is this:
What I love most about traveling is that there is absolute no way to describe the joy it brings to me in under 30 seconds. What truly monotonous travels you must have if you can actually explain it to someone with such a concise amount of words?
So few words will never grasp the feeling you get when you first set foot on soil so foreign to everything you have ever known.
It can’t tell of that nervous energy that runs through you when you have to step up and provide for yourself in a country whose language sounds more akin to something that would come out of an aliens 4th mouth than anything you thought you would experience and have to tackle here on earth.
It can’t describe looking up and seeing ancient architecture whose wonders had only ever leapt out at you from the pages of a book, until this moment.
It can’t tell the stories you learn on the road from like minded people from every part of the globe that come together to shoot the shit with you over a pint of lager in the middle of nowhere/everywhere paradise.
All I can do in 30 seconds is tell you the name of a cheap airfare website and advise that you get out there and figure out your own joy of traveling.
(Source: hawaiiansdonotblog)
Oh and I should note that the only “similar social collective identity” I have experienced was while travelling.
I did not find it within the borders of my country. I found it when I had finally broke those borders down and explored this big ol’ chunk of planet earth. I found it when I discovered that a person can build a tribe of like minded people based around this concept of being nomadic.
It’s not a new concept… but it is one that we seem to have lost for a while. It has regrown through a section of the population that totes bulky backpacks, smelling of the road and quickly discovering how great it is to not have to identify yourself with such a tiny set of kilometers.
Within minutes of meeting a person on the road it is as if I have always shared the same passport as them… even if our languages don’t match up. Quite often this feeling far overwhelms the ones I have felt back home.
So yeah.
I return to my corner.
(Source: hawaiiansdonotblog)
“Travel advice?!?! What… from YOU???”
I get a lot of messages in my ‘Ask hole’ from followers looking for advice about traveling. The best advice I can give you is:
Just do it.
I ‘hmmmmed’ and ‘hummed’ about traveling for so long that it took approximately 3 gazillion years longer than it should have to kick my arse out the door into the great wide world. Stop thinking that you need to know everything before you get out there. I have been doing it for 3 years and only now do I finally accept that I know nothing. That is the best part.
You need to figure it out as you go. Traveling isn’t just about the pretty places you are going to see… it is (pardon the hippy bullshit that is soon to follow) about growing as a person. It is about learning who you are. It is about realising that you are going to be wrong 97% of the time. It is about learning from those mistakes.
I could tell you exactly what to do so that you become a cookie cutter image of the backpacker I am… but that would be largely a bunch of hot air. Every single traveller is different. From the weekend Jetsetter to the travel bum there are any number of right ways of traveling. Everyones right and everyones wrong.
You guys will need to get out there and see which one you are. You will need to get out there and fail and succeed… just do it in your own way.
JUST DO IT.
All that being said I have decided that I would like to write a little bit more about my travels. You guys can take this group of mind rubbish writings however you like:
- Another bit of friendly information you can add to the pile of travel books in the corner taunting you;
- motivation to go on a trip ‘round the world;
- motivation to crawl under your bed and whimper;
- some light reading;
- another thing clogging up your dashboard;
- OR the labyrinthine, sprawling… frankly psychotic thoughts of an attention seeking, self important blogger.
I think the first topic I am going to write about will be “THE BACKPACK” so expect that soon… you know… once I write it.
