Itinerant Londoner
When your friends all seem to having babies or buying houses, what do you do? Stubbornly resist, of course! In a bid to cling to his youth for a little longer, Geoff is setting out on a round-the-world backpacking trip in March 2009. First stop: Mexico.
My Travel Blog Saved My Life
I’ve never been very good at keeping in touch. I expect my Facebook status to skip hand in hand with my Twitter account around the fires of my Flickr pages and the result be that everyone knows just enough. When my laptop allows Skype into its inner quarters, I begin my conversations with “so sorry I haven’t been in touch…” and The Other End routinely console me. My Myspace is slumped in a shiver and a dozen ‘RE: Where are you?’ lie beneath dust and disgrace in any one my three spam-infested inbox’s. Postcards? I’ve sent a couple. Text messages? Reserved for belated birthdays.
Travel and the Financial Crisis: What Argentines Have Taught Us About Survival
Here I sit in the patio of a café in Buenos Aires’s small but vibrant Chinatown, dunking a biscotti into a cup of espresso, an indulgence enjoyed underneath the simple pleasure of a tree’s leafy shade. Life is good. The smells of cocina asiatica waft through the air, and the Spainese mix the cooks speak drifts out through the window. It is hot, hot-hot-hot, but the waiter has brought me two glasses of sparkling water and an extra biscotti as a treat to beat the heat. And it’s working.
At my feet lay the shopping bags holding my boyfriend Nick’s Christmas present: spicy curry powder, dried basil, ground paprika, whole wheat flour, chocolate, home-made granola, and micro-brewed beer. So much less than I would like to give him—our careers here as English teachers do not leave us flush with cash.
Twitchhiker
On March 1st, Paul Smith is setting out on one heck of an interesting adventure: to see how far he can travel in 30 days using only the help and hospitality of Twitter users. The goal is to get as far as possible while raising funds for Charity: Water.
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[F]oxymoron
[F]oxymoron’s trip to India, Thailand and Cambodia may have just come to an end, but his blog is well worth checking out if you enjoy short, snappy prose with a healthy dose of humour and set against a beautiful website design.
Why Learning the Local Language is the Most Important Trip Preparation You’ll Ever Do
All trips require preparation.
Some of you reading this are obsessive planners. You buy more guidebooks than you could ever read, cross-checking, highlighting, circling, dog-earing, and list-making about all the places you’ll stay, eat, and sightsee. You scope online forums for travel advice, putting a black mark through the name of the bar that has closed in Caye Caulker since the guidebook was published, or making the decision that you won’t visit the local market after all—it seems too many travelers have been pick-pocketed.
Some of you reading this consider yourselves spontaneous, living for the moment and priding yourself on your ability to figure out your itinerary as you go along. But even if you count yourself in this group, you’ll occasionally need to do some planning: gathering all the paperwork for a visa or buying a ticket to get back home.
But regardless of which group you’re in, I’ll bet you’re missing out on the most important preparation of all: learning the local language.
The Difference Between Tourists and Travellers
What is the difference between a tourist and a traveller?
It’s one of those quintessential questions among travellers (or should I say tourists?), popping up like a stubborn weed on forums and blogs. But is there even a difference, or are tourists and travellers one and the same?
Here’s how 21 travel bloggers see it.
The Professional Hobo
In 2006, Nora Dunn decided to trade in her comfortable life as a financial planner to travel the world with her partner, Kelly. Their travels have taken them through the United States, Canada, Thailand and Australia, amongst other places.
MyKugelhopf
MyKugelhopf is the blog of Kerrin Rousset, a New Yorker who moved to Zürich halfway through 2008. On her blog, Kerrin indulges and combines two of her great passions in life: travel and food. It’s mouth-watering stuff.
Teaching English in Europe: An Overview
Travelling Europe is expensive, but native English speakers can fund an open-ended world trip through teaching. Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL, ESL, EFL or half a dozen other acronyms) is a time-tested way to work and travel or set up as an expat. Although there is high demand for quality English language teaching throughout Europe, you’re more likely to get a job if you’re an EU citizen.
