Trigger warning: pet loss, death Oh, how I hate talking about death. Usually, I just pretend that it doesn’t exist and everyone and every being will always be around for eternity. Like there’s not enough people already telling me that I won’t be around for much longer unless I quit hitchhiking and do something normal instead. Traveling—what a selfish thing to do when there are people at home worried sick about what silly shit I am doing now. Why am I not caring and taking responsibility for my aging family instead? Losing Ashley Last week my mother told me thatContinue reading
travel
Street Harassment Abroad: An Introduction
Share this piece if you think it matters! Keep traveling. We know the drill of catcalling in our hometowns and countries and possibly have set up our own systems of avoiding the everyday comments and ‘compliments’ from strangers on our commute. As women or individuals perceived as women – as a collective – we know and even expect street harassment to happen. Once you travel, whether solo or in a group, things become different. Men scream things at you in a foreign language and instinctively you know that it’s street harassment, but as you don’t understand the exact meaning ofContinue reading
A Letter of Advice to Solo Female Hitchhikers
Dear (self-identifying) women and (aspiring) solo female hitchhikers, I usually don’t have solid advice as hitchhiking is very different from woman to woman. Heck, I don’t even identify as a woman per se. Above all, I don’t think of myself as someone in the position to give you advice, especially the unsolicited kind. While traveling – whether that be by hitchhiking or not – you’ll be in situations I have never encountered. Some of my experiences will never happen to you. That’s in spite of our general similar experiences of going through life (being perceived) as women. The advice I’veContinue reading
AMA: I feel like planning too much is pointless when you want adventure
A new question for my Ask Me Anything (AMA)! This person wrote the following message, which doesn’t really have a question, but I was very happy to receive it. She likes that I don’t do much travel planning: So. OH MY GOD. You are my new hero!!!! I am totally excited for you and I can’t wait till I get a minute to read your whole blog. I have actually never tried hitchhiking before but I want to (I normally travel by motorcycle), and I absolutely love how little you plan and such, as I am the same way, IContinue reading
AMA: When you first started hitchhiking, did you do it with a mate or alone? Any tips?
A new question for my Ask Me Anything (AMA)! This person wrote the following message about how I started hitchhiking and tips for first-time hitchhikers: Hey! I’m going to Europe next July (I’m Australian), starting off in Istanbul then wanting to make my way across to the UK. I’ve been over there before and pretty much just stuck to trains and whatnot but I’m thinking maybe this time hitchhiking is the way to go (not the whole way, I’m not that ambitious and have limited time). When you first started out did you do it with a mate or didContinue reading
No-Budget Travel: Why I Can’t Be Arsed to Budget
Long-term travelers receive the same questions all the time about this dreadful topic called “budgeting your trip”. I am the last person to have solid advice for you because I practice no-budget travel. I cringe upon hearing the B-word and the following nonquestions: “How do you fund your travels?” “What’s your daily budget?” “(How much) Do you save for your travels?” My answer to all of them is either “I don’t know” or “who cares?” This is absolutely the most boring topic of travel, and that’s why I’m usually reluctant to share my views. So here goes nothing: First ofContinue reading
Schönbrunn, Vienna
Checking in on Foursquare at Schönbrunn, Vienna. A long, long time ago, I was a full-time student. In the summer of 2013, I joined two friends on a 10-day road trip through Europe. Our route was from Maastricht, through Luxembourg to Strasbourg in France. Then to Zürich in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, München (Munich) in Bavaria, Salzburg and Vienna in Austria. It was during that time that we made a stop at Schönbrunn castle in Vienna. I was 21 years old and very new to (adventurous) travel. My road trip buddies introduced me to some (by now very basic) tech skills, suchContinue reading
The Best Travel Apps
I was planning to write about ‘the best travel apps’ for a long time, and I’m finally stuck somewhere with WiFi to actually do it. So here we go. Starting with the obvious observation: The last decade has seen some incredible progress regarding technology and so it has affected the way in which we travel. It doesn’t matter whether we go to an all-inclusive resort in Turkey or go backpacking in a crap hostel with bedbugs, We, the (privileged) people who travel have started to expect WiFi and other services everywhere. We bring our own laptop (heavy), tablet (perfect) or smartphoneContinue reading