I miss…
...watching Doctor Who and The Voice on the projector with Rachel and Dave and Iza and Samu and Abel, and just generally hanging out with them
I miss Romania
I'm so jealous that my bestie is back in Romania. Even though it was hot and humid and they put weird things on their pizza (although corn and egg, not all bad!) and I accidentally drank spring water once that I thought for sure would give me hepatitis…. I had such an amazing time.
Lessons from traveling abroad: don't always trust review websites
My hostel in Northern Ireland left a lot to be desired. Between masturbating roommates leading to me sleeping in mildewy staff quarters to seeing the staff constantly mistreated and thinly veiled racism from the man running the place, I thought it was high time to let the world know. HostelWorld that is.
I left a review detailing the situations I found myself in and the conversations I was unfortunate enough to overhear, then repeated the same thing on TripAdvisor (where a man claiming to be the owner belittled every negative review left for him).
Here is the big lesson of the day: Review sites like HostelWorld and TripAdvisor apparently let the owners have a lot of control over the reviews.
Lessons from traveling abroad: negotiating your way out of a bad situation
By far the worst hostel I stayed in during my travels was in Northern Ireland. The accommodations weren't particularly awful, but the environment soon turned out to be bewildering and unsafe…
My first night I went to bed before any of my roommates, despite it being well after midnight. There was quite the ruckus outside the window from a group of guys partying in the courtyard. Eventually the ruckus died down and I was hopeful to finally get some sleep…until the ruckus came in my room. Clearly the group of guys from the courtyard were my roommates. I lay still and hoped none of them would notice me, remembering what I'd learned from previous nights in hostels where I had all male roommates.
No such luck.
One of them shushed the others suddenly and another exclaimed "Holy f*** is that a girl?"
My first night I went to bed before any of my roommates, despite it being well after midnight. There was quite the ruckus outside the window from a group of guys partying in the courtyard. Eventually the ruckus died down and I was hopeful to finally get some sleep…until the ruckus came in my room. Clearly the group of guys from the courtyard were my roommates. I lay still and hoped none of them would notice me, remembering what I'd learned from previous nights in hostels where I had all male roommates.
No such luck.
One of them shushed the others suddenly and another exclaimed "Holy f*** is that a girl?"
Lessons from traveling abroad: Running a race overseas
The first thing to remember when you're planning on running a race any time it requires travel, is to give yourself plenty of time on both sides of the race both to prepare and recover. I arrived in Dublin on August 2nd for the Rock'n'Roll half-marathon on August 5th. This gave me time to navigate from the airport to the hostel and find the crucial places like ATMs and grocery stores the first day without worrying about needing to be anywhere. It also gave me two full days (the 3rd and 4th) to sightsee because I had a pretty good feeling that I wouldn't be up for walking around the city much after running 13 miles. I also gave myself a few days of recovery before hoisting my enormous backpack up and trekking on to another country.
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| And time for selfies with my shiny new medal! |
Lessons from traveling abroad: How to fly Ryanair without losing your mind
Ryanair.
One word that brings up a host of opinions among travelers. Opinions about safety, convenience, cost, most of which are negative. Having flown from Croatia to Ireland with them, I've collected a few tips to keep from having a panic or rage attack if you choose to use them.
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