The 100° Christmas

Happy holidays!

I went to see the new Star Wars on Monday last week (no spoilers).  Monday cinema tickets are over 1/2 off hence the wait.  I was very close to giving in and seeing it the day it came out but as Yoda would say, "patience you must have."  The movie was great.  I was tempted to see it again the same day but resisted.

On Wednesday I decided to go on a little urban adventure.  The River Torrens runs from the eastern hills, through Adelaide, and into the ocean.  There is a paved trail along the entire river and I decided I wanted to walk it.  My original plan was to go about half way to the ocean and then turn around but when I hit the half way point, I didn't want to go all the way back.  Instead I made the decision to head all the way to the beach and then bus it back.  The hike ended up being about 16.5 km from start to finish which is roughly 10 miles.

I realized when I got to the coast, I didn't really know where I was.  There's a lot of beaches in Adelaide but it didn't take long to figure it out.  I walked north to Henley Beach and then caught a bus back to town.  My legs were pretty tired and a nap was in order.

Here are some pictures along the hike:

Finally made it!

As fun as staying in a hostel for Christmas sounded, Liam's family was kind enough to invite me back over to celebrate with them.  I checked out of the hostel on Thursday morning and headed back to the 'burbs.  It's a very odd feeling with it being hot outside and still seeing Christmas decorations and hearing Christmas songs. Apparently the thing to do on Christmas Eve day is go out drinking so that's what we did.  On Christmas day, we opened up some presents and then had a massive, delicious meal.  It was a great time!  We ended the day in a food coma watching the classic holiday film Die Hard followed by E.T.

I checked back in to the hostel on Saturday.  The two day break was much needed.  Hostel life is getting a little old.  The great news is that next week, I'm moving into a house for 6 weeks!  It's just outside of the city, way cheaper than the hostel, and I get my own big room!  I'm very excited for next week.

To continue the family tradition on Christmas day in the states, I did a video chat with the family and watched them play Bunco via the Internet.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!  Crazy to think it's almost 2016.  I have no clue what I'm doing for New Years but hopefully will get something figured out so I'm not laying in bed watching movies all night.

Have a good New Years!

That's all for now.  Bye.

The Hostel Life

Hostels.  The budget travelers home away from home.  Traditionally offering only the bare basics, they are not for everyone. Much cheaper than a hotel, a hostel is basically like a college dorm.  They tend to be situated in the main areas of a city and offer short term, and sometimes longer term, accommodation for a nightly fee.

Most hostels have a variety of room choices.  The most expensive are the private rooms which are obviously rooms just for yourself or you and a friend.  The price goes down the more people in the room. Typically there are 4, 6, 8, or 12 bunk beds available but I have seen places that have 30+ people in a room. Then there is gender separation. Many hostels will offer female only, male only, and mixed gender rooms.

Then there's the bathrooms.  This really depends on the hostel.  The most convenient is when the bathroom is en suite but more often than not, it's essentially a public bathroom.  Most of the time they're gender separate but I have stayed in one or two where bathrooms are mixed.  

The showers are a big make or break for me in determining how much I like the place.  The best shower of all time was at Hostel Orange in Prague.  The shower head was massive with great water pressure and it felt like being under a warm waterfall.  I reckon the worst was Hostel 5 in Cinque Terre, Italy with Megan.  I just looked it up and apparently they changed it but when I stayed there you had to buy tokens for the shower and I remember them being gross.  Speaking of showers, microfiber towels are the greatest thing ever.  I only just bought mine from Next Adventure in Portland before leaving and I'm in love.  I wish I had it in Europe.  It dries almost instantly and squishes up incredibly small.  Most hostels have towels but you have to pay for them which means many people bring their own.

Almost every hostel has a shared kitchen.  There's normally one or two refrigerators and some shelf space people can claim. I reckon anyone who has stayed in hostels for an extended period of time could win an episode of Chopped.  When you're poor and have limited kitchen appliances/space, you get pretty creative. Most people keep things in labeled shopping bags to designate what belongs to whom. There is almost always a "free food" section of the shelves where people who have moved on leave extra food. Although most people staying at hostels are trustworthy, food theft can and definitely does happen.  I don't think I've been a victim yet but I've heard about it happening to others.  In the kitchen are communal pots, pans, plates, cups, and cutlery.  Once you're finished cooking, it's expected you wash and dry your own dishes by hand and put everything away.

Some hostels will provide free breakfast.  This can range anywhere from a proper hot, cooked breakfast to tasteless cereal and potentially past date milk.  The most common selection is toast, spreads, cereal, and tea/coffee.  I almost stayed at a hostel in Adelaide that does a free pancake breakfast everyday but that was the only thing people liked about the place so decided living in filth wasn't worth it.

Most hostels are social places,  There's normally some sort of common room, often with a TV and various board games more than likely missing a piece or two.  This, and often the kitchen, are the most social areas and where you tend to meet people.  Some places also have an outdoor area which tend to be popular gathering spots.  

The guaranteed questions you will be asked are: 

• "Where are you from?"
• "How long have you been/will be here?"
• "Where else have you been?"
• "What are you doing here?"

Depending on the hostel, WiFi may or may not be a thing.  Sometimes the use of WiFi is free, sometimes you have to pay, and sometimes it isn't even an option.  The more successful hostels always offer free WiFi which can make life a whole lot easier if you're trying to figure out things to do or contact people.

Another thing some hostels do is organize social outings.  This can range from pub crawls to table tennis tournaments to BBQs.  I don't think I've ever participated in one of these but they seem like a good deal.

Security is a topic I get a fair amount of questions about.  You are living with complete strangers who cycle in and out of the hostel on a regular basis.  There's been times where I've gone to bed and woken up with completely new "roommates."  Like I said earlier, most people who stay in hostels are trustworthy and aren't going to steal your stuff.  However, it happens.  Most hostels will provide lockers you can lock your important items in (passport, wallet, phone, keys etc.), although you almost always need to supply your own lock.  Other than that, you kind of have to have the mentality that, although it's rare, you might have something stolen.  As added security, most individual "dorm" rooms have a lock which limits your item's exposure to just those within the room.

So what's the best way to go about picking which hostel is right for you?  It's all about the reviews. Hostelworld is my go to.  Just like everything else that offers online reviews, someone is going to hate something no matter how nice the thing is so don't be put off on a few bad ones.  That said, if I read anything about bugs or mice, it's an automatic no.  Along with reviews, picking the type of hostel is important.  Youth hostels are only for people generally 30 and below, party hostels are very social but will likely not be giving you much sleep, family hostels for, well, families, international hostels are for people with a foreign passport, and the list goes on.

The main things I consider before booking a hostel:

• Good overall reviews (usually 70% positive or more)
• Cheap (I try and stay under $25/night)
• Central location
• Ease of access from airport to hostel
• Free internet usage

And just because it always comes up, no, the movie Hostel is not even a little bit accurate.

That's all for now.  Bye.

Some Solo Travel Blues

As foreshadowed last week, I moved to a hostel in the city on Tuesday.  Although it's only about 15 minutes away from where I was staying, it feels like a whole new experience.  Heads up - I wrote this at two different parts of the week so the mood may change a bit here and there.

The first day I checked in and got some food at the store.  When I got back to the hostel, I didn't really know what to do.  I was sitting outside on the balcony and got a little too caught up in my head.  I've stayed in hostels a fair amount but this time is a bit different.  The hostel is essentially my home for now.  This doesn't happen often whilst traveling but I felt a wave of loneliness.  Going from a family home living with your friend to a hostel with a bunch of strangers is not the easiest transition.

Later in the day, I went on a walk around town and remembered this was sort of how I felt the day I got to Poland.  Krakow was my first solo trip and it took about a day to get over the feeling of being lonely. 

I'm not really clicking with any of the people staying here.  Everyone is nice and civil but I don't see any friendships emerging.  That and people don't stay here for long.  I've gone through 7 "roommates" and it hasn't even been a week.  I tried meeting up with some local friends to feel more social but nothing panned out.

All the other places I've stayed in hostels, I was constantly doing the tourist stuff so there was hardly any down time.  I've collectively lived in Adelaide for almost two months now and so it's kind of a "now what" sort of feeling since I've done the tourist thing.  I have nothing to do during the day besides looking for jobs which gets pretty tedious after a while. 

With not much else to do, I started looking for house shares.  I checked out three different houses.  The first was in a pretty good location and the room was big but found out there would be 7 people living there, including a newborn.  Absolutely not.  The second would have been perfect if I had a car but the bus ride is fairly long getting into town.  The third was in the city and the people living there were very friendly but I just can't commit to any longer term housing until I secure another job.  I'm looking at a fourth place today that would only be for a month which would be perfect.  It wouldn't be until January but it's much cheaper than the hostel, still close to the city, and the online pictures look nice. 

So yeah, a bit of a depressing week but rest assured, I'm doing alright overall.  It's getting better each day and I'm settling into the hostel (which is pretty nice by the way).  I got my first paycheck this week which was exciting!  I'm hoping at this point to almost completely stop using my US card and being reliant on the Australian one.  Another sign that things are getting better is while I am writing this, roommate #8 and #9 walked in from Holland and they seem very nice.

Oh yeah!  There was a pretty crazy thunder/lightning storm last week and this was the best picture I could get/I wasn't patient enough to get a better shot:

It was pitch black when this was taken.  Lightning is crazy.

That's all for now.  Bye.

Traveling: € $ £ Money € $ £

This is going to be a little different.  Because listing out what I do every week is boring to write and I'm sure it's boring to read, I'm going to intersperse some advice/commentary on certain aspects of travel.  I've been at this travel thing off and on since 2013 and if I do say so myself, I've gotten pretty good at it.  I would say about half of it is because of things I've come up with on my own and the other half is advice from people online/in person.  These topics are obviously going to be opinionated.  Take it with a grain of salt.  That said, let me know if you have a different approach to something or have a question about something travel related. I want to try and have this be a little more interactive. I will do my best to answer.  

What's on the agenda for this week?  Money.

Ah money.  No matter how much of a wandering, homeless, nomad you are, you're going to need money at some point to travel.  There seems to be this romanticized idea that anyone can drop everything they're doing and travel (more on this in the future).  As someone who reads lots of travel forums, almost everyday someone is saying how they are just going to "go for it."  Sorry, not going to happen.  In order to travel, you need to have some money saved up or you're in for a bad time.

What are the biggest costs of travel?

• Airfare
• Accommodation
• Eating out/alcohol

How can you save money before travel?

• Stop eating out.  Maybe don't stop completely but definitely cut down.  Yes, this is hard but it really can add up.  Numerous times friends would ask to go out and I would decline.  Thinking about the end goal helps.  Also, use comparisons.  The $20 I spend on dinner could get me a nights stay in a hostel.  That works best for me.
• Don't buy things unless you really need them.  Do you actually need that $200 jacket?
• Here's maybe the saddest one and it goes along with not eating out as much.  Reduce the amount you go out for drinks.  Like food, this can add up quick.  Busting my spine helped with this since alcohol apparently slows bone growth so that was another motivator.
• Not horribly proud of this one but if you have the best parents in the world and you can deal with it, live at home for a bit.  There's absolutely no way I could have afforded traveling if I was paying rent, especially in Portland.

How can you save money while traveling?

• Just like in the work force, the best way is to have connections.  I've been lucky in that both times I've been in Australia, my incredibly generous friends have let me stay at their places for free. On top of that, if you know someone in the airline industry who is generous enough to let you use one of their job perks, do it!  I saved about $1200 on airfare because of this.
• Do a little research and stop spending money when you don't need to!  For example, I do not understand why some people pay substantially more to fly with one airline vs. a much cheaper one. You're getting to the same place and a lot of the time there is no difference between the two. Same goes for accommodation.  I get that staying in a hostel is not for everyone but why spend a ton of money on a room that you're really only using for sleep?  Maybe someone can enlighten me on this.
• Check the exchange rate of the place you're going.  Lucky for me, the US dollar is very strong in comparison to the Aussie dollar.  I had a mini freak out this week when I saw my bank account but realized it was showing in USD and not AUD.  Convert it to AUD and I am much more at ease.  If you don't have massive amounts of money saved but still want to go somewhere, look for places your home currency is strong.
• If you have a subscription/monthly payment for something you won't be using whilst away, freeze or cancel it for a bit.  Be aware of these auto bills that come out of your bank account. The main thing I have to think about is my student loan payments. These take a pretty hefty chunk out of my account each month but there's really no way around it.
• Avoid fees.  Foreign transaction and ATM fees can be killer.  The best solution I've found is open a bank account with Charles Schwab.  This is the best bank on the planet if you're from the US.  They have 0 foreign transaction fees and will reimburse you for any ATM fee you accrue.  That means you can use your money wherever you want for free.
• To get local currency, use an ATM (preferably with your Charles Schwab card).  ATMs will give you the best exchange rate (side note - always choose to do card transactions in the local currency, not your home currency, if asked).  Those shops that exchange money for you will never give you the best rate plus they will charge a fee.

How can you make a little more money before the trip?

• Kind of an obvious one but pick up as many shifts as you can if you work hourly.  I didn't have a lot going on when I wasn't at work so whenever I was sat at home, it was money wasted.  There were times when I was saving up for Australia where I would work 14 days in a row due to covering shifts.  That said, don't work 14 days in a row.  Definitely take a day off here or there to help maintain sanity. 
• This seems weird but one of the best ways I've saved up money is by doing online surveys. Most pay anywhere between 25-75 cents.  The faster surveys pay 10 cents whereas you can sometimes score up to 5 dollars if you put the time in.  The more you do, the better/faster you get at taking them.  The money I made from online surveys went towards buying all the preparation gear ie. new clothes, electronics, shoes, etc. It's not going to make you rich by any means but it will sure help supplement some costs.  Amazon Mechanical Turk is my favorite but I also use Survey Club Research. The best part about surveys is you do them on your own time.  Sitting down to watch a show? Do a couple of surveys and earn a few bucks.

  

  Make it...sprinkle.

• I never did this but I certainly looked into it.  If you have the time, get an additional job.
• This might get some backlash but please do NOT create a GoFundMe page or something of the like.  If you want to have an amazing experience somewhere, you should be funding it (or at least you and immediate family).  Asking your friends and strangers to give you money so you can have a holiday is ridiculous.  I'll give people a small pass who are trying to do a volunteer related trip through an organization, as long as that's what the money is actually being used for and not for travel before/after.

So yeah, there's a little bit I've picked up about travelling and money.  A lot of it is common sense but maybe you got an idea or two. If you have any tips or tricks for using/saving money for travel, let me know!

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Some notable things this week:

• Went climbing outside again but forgot my shoes.  Made for an interesting time but still fun.  We were climbing in a "cave" while it was slightly raining.  Really cool to see the rain whilst we were still able to climb.

  

  Watching the rain and the climbing

• Figured out my next living situation.  I'm moving into a hostel in town for a bit on Tuesday.
• Worked a closing shift at the nightclub last night (was officially "hired" as well).  Got off work at 7:20 AM but found out I'm getting paid about 3x as much as I was in the states (more about this in the future).

That's all for now. Bye.