London 2018

April 20-22, 2018.

April 20.

I'm going to skip Madrid 2016 for the time being and go ahead and get to my London adventure from last weekend, since I'm trying to stay as on top of my trips as possible from now on.

This was a weekend trip we'd booked back in February or March or so when the flight deals were crazy cheap.  We figured a weekend in London with no time off work would be fun because most people wouldn't even consider it, but we're pros at A. traveling on a budget and B. traveling while short on time.  Neither of us had been there in years: 18 for me, ever since a layover from Spain back to the US when I was 14 and it was our first time going back to the US after spending 2 1/2 years in Spain.  So a long time.  I've always wanted to go back because it's London, and why not?

Little did we know the actual adventure we were about to have.  We've now decided that anytime the two of us travel together (my friend/travel buddy will be referred to as "S" from now on to make it easier) it'll be an adventure.

Sevilla 2016

July 15-18, 2016.

July 15.

One of the great things about spending that summer in Spain was being able to see my best friend more often than I would normally, being based in the US and all.  My best friend had notified me early on that she'd be in Sevilla during the third weekend in July, my second week in Castellón.  The family I was staying with had a wedding and were going to be off of work, so I asked if I could go to Sevilla to spend some time with my best friend, whose husband was also going to be in town since some friends of his were going to be in Sevilla, and since it was the same country that my best friend is in, they met up there.  They had a long-distance relationship, her being in Bilbao and him being in Paris, so any opportunity they got to be in the same country for whatever reason they took.  And I really wanted to meet him, so I was so glad to be able to make this trip.  That and the fact that I hadn't been in Sevilla in over eight years, since my family left in 2009 and I was last there in 2008.  Win-win.

The family dropped me off at the train station in Valencia where I could spend the night before getting on the next AVE to Sevilla first thing in the morning.  It was my first time in Valencia and it was only for a few hours, but it worked out.  I stayed at a really nice Airbnb that was a bit of a hike from the train station, but worth it, because I got to see a little bit of Valencia that way.  Not a whole lot, and I'm sure one day I'll go back, but so far so good.

The Airbnb was basically a kind of guest house/hostel situation, but it was nice, and the hostess was glad to have another Spanish speaker, but once she left I got invited to dinner with two of the other renters for the night, two guys from Germany and Austria who were taking a van trip across Spain for a few weeks for funsies.  What made it really interesting was the fact that it was the same night of the coup in Turkey, and the guy from Austria was of Turkish descent, so he had a legitimate freak-out, and we also discussed current events in my home country.  I always feel like I'm tooting my own horn or thinking too highly of myself when I talk about my conversation skills with Europeans, but the fact of the matter is, Europeans really enjoy talking to Americans who know their stuff.  After the madness in the news died down a bit, I went to bed, since I had an early train to catch and wanted sleep.

Bilbao 2016, Part 2

Bilbao 2016, Part 2.

June 6.

I didn't realize how long this would be when I started writing this, but I'm going to keep going and using the same header image, because I can.

Anyway.

June 6th started with a partly cloudy day threatening rain, but it cleared up quite nicely, which worked out great because I'd told my best friend that I really wanted to go to San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, because I hadn't been there in 16 years.  And it's absolutely stunning, completely unmissable.

That morning we walked along the cliffs that lead out over the Bay of Biscay, and it's a nice walk from my best friend's house.  It has beautiful views of the sea and the cliffs, as well as the main port.

Bilbao 2016, Part 1

Bilbao, 2016.  Part 1.

June 1-15, 2016.

June 1.

I'm not going to say "by popular demand" because no one has requested it.  But I've been thinking about it, and figured I might as well.  This trip was a huge deal for me and was a long time coming, as before I started "catching up" on my travels, the second-to-last post I made was me sharing that I was going back after six years.  If you've followed this blog (and me) since the beginning, you know what I mean.

I grew up in this city.  Well, kind of.  I actually spent two-and-a-half years more or less in Leioa/Getxo (lived in Leioa, went to school in Getxo, and my friends lived in Getxo) which is a municipality northeast of Bilbao along the river.  It marked my childhood and my life in countless ways, not least of all because I met my longtime best friend here, who's still managed to be a part of my life despite so much time away.

After going through some dismal experiences in my life that I won't go into (some self-inflicted due to poor decision making and others slightly less so), I really, really needed this trip.  I was working at Toys R Us at the time (R.I.P.) and had two weeks vacation, and booked this trip before I even knew that our department was closing.  And when I found out, in made me even happier to be going.  That train ride to JFK after pulling a half-day at work was one of the most exciting experiences I'd had in recent years, and I'm one of those people who loves the lead-up and travel to the airport in general (I guess I'm weird, but whatever).

So anyway, I got to JFK, albeit a bit early, and sat, and waited for the plane to arrive, board, and take off.

Mexico City

February 2-4, 2018

February 2.

My friend and I have now decided that once a month we're going to go somewhere, anywhere, and she decided to "give" me a trip to Mexico City, and she went to Oslo the weekend prior.  I needed warmth, sun, and Spanish.  She was originally going to go with me but her flight plans fell through, so it was just me.  Thankfully I'm totally okay being a solo traveler, even though the majority of my solo travels involves me going somewhere to meet up with someone.  It helps if there's no language barrier, but I can still find my way around regardless.  Language barriers are non-existent for me in Mexico aside from some dialectal differences, but no big deal.

I had already been to Mexico four years prior on a work trip that took me to Puebla for two weeks, along with a day and a half in Mexico City.  I fell in love with it; Puebla being absolutely gorgeous, and Mexico City was just as fascinating.  I called out sick that morning while at the airport (because it was a 6 am flight), and landed in CDMX shortly after 12, local time.

Martinique

December 8-10, 2017.

December 8.

This trip came about sometime in November, when my friend (the one who showed me around Israel) found super cheap tickets through Norwegian Air to Martinique in December.  Before we went to Israel we were talking down by the shore (that's the Jersey Shore) about a flight to Iceland for $99, and I wasn't willing to book.  She then found the tickets to Martinique after we got back, and told me flat-out that I was not going to balk this time.  The prices were far too good to beat, and I had never been to the Caribbean, so I paid up and marked my calendar.

I called off work, went to the train station to head to Manhattan, where we met up to head to JFK together.  We realized in Israel that we have very similar travel styles, though she's still more "adventurous" than I am in the sense that she's way more of a backpacker type than I am, though we still prefer culture to dealing with tourists and resorts (we are not resort people).  While there's nothing inherently wrong with that, in the course of reading this blog and any future posts I might make, you will definitely see that I do not like the resort/luxury lifestyle.  I'm not bitter about the luxury part, I just don't like the idea of resorts simply because the idea of "all-inclusive" does not appeal to me.  I don't want to just sit on a beach all day and not deal with anything else.  I could definitely spend all day at the beach, but I also want, and need, to experience culture.  It's imperative.  I can't just go to another country or another place with another culture and not see it or smell it.  If I ever do, I could never claim to have been to that place.  Like I took a work trip to Dallas once, and never left the Hilton.  So while I can say I flew to Dallas, maybe that I spent some time in Dallas, I've never actually been to Dallas.

Anyway, I got super excited about this trip because a. it was my first ever trip to the Caribbean, b. Martinique is a French island.  So it's literally like going to Europe, and I can work with that.

I was actually pretty impressed with Norwegian.  It's absolutely a budget airline and they remind you of that, but it's pretty comfortable for being one and they don't pretend to be something they're not.  I also appreciated the free WiFi on the plane, even if it just wasn't very good.  At least it was something.

Israel

October 16-20, 2017.

October 16.

One of the benefits to working for an Israeli company based in New York is that every once in a while, they give us trips overseas.  In this case, as our company celebrated 10 years, they offered everyone in the company the chance to go to Israel for a week (four days for those of us in the Customer Service department, because of course).  Being in Customer Service not all of us could go, but I was one of the first people to sign up because there is no way I'm turning down a free trip to another country.  No way.  And because I got promoted within the department, I was essentially guaranteed a spot on the trip, which was only made better by the fact that my new friend at the company also happens to be Israeli, and insisted I go where she goes, and because she's been to far more interesting places than I have, I wasn't turning that opportunity down.  Plus she's really cool and we've become really good friends outside of a work environment.  Which essentially turned into us doing our own thing instead of whatever it was the company had planned for us.

So I got to work early on Friday morning, my little suitcase behind me, as I took the bus in since there was no way I was paying for parking for four nights.

When we left work we had a shuttle bus waiting outside the office on 7th Ave to take us into Newark Airport, and my friend and I, being the seasoned travelers we are, split from the group once we led everyone through security and grabbed sushi and drinks while we waited for our 10 o'clock flight to board.

India 2017, part 4 - Rajasthan (and Mumbai)

Rajasthan and last day in Mumbai, August 12-15.
August 12.

We left early in the morning, a bit begrudgingly because Agra was by far our best experience in India up to that point.  The guide, the hotel, the city itself far surpassed our expectations.  But we had an itinerary to keep, so we headed off on the national highway towards Jaipur, a cultural and historical capital in Rajasthan, a few hundred miles to the southeast.  It seemed that the city of Agra itself was never-ending, and a few people kept asking when we'd end up on the highway.  My best friend's husband pointed out that we were on a highway.  It was just a national highway, and since the Agra-Jaipur road isn't as touristy as New Delhi-Agra, it wasn't a fancy Western-style highway like the one we'd been on on our way to Agra.  It was basically like driving through back roads, with no lane dividers, so you'd get experiences like this:

Yeah...

Seriously, roads in India technically have the same rules we do in the West (only they drive on the left side instead of the right, like in the UK), only they're really more "guidelines than actual rules", to quote Pirates of the Caribbean.  I really don't think I could ever complain about traffic in New York City or New Jersey ever again.

India 2017, part 3 - Agra

Agra, August 10-11, 2017

The night before we left for Agra, we found out that the Taj Mahal was closed on Fridays.  After going over the trip itinerary we found that our trip to the Taj Mahal was actually scheduled for Fridays.  Now, we may have have been able to forgive the planning for the Red Fort, even though it was only about a week before Independence Day (though they probably still should have known, or advised that it might be closed in the lead-up to the holiday), but it was pretty hard to forgive them for planning a trip to the Taj Mahal on a Friday, since it's always been closed on Fridays (being a Muslim monument and all).  My best friend and her husband were irate.  So we decided we'd go to the Taj Mahal on Thursday, the day we'd arrive, instead of Friday, because that was an impossibility, and you know, it's the Taj Mahal.  We went to bed early, planning for an early start to the day so we could get to Agra as soon as possible, and enjoy the Taj Mahal.

August 10.

India 2017, part 2 - New Delhi

New Delhi, August 7-9, 2017.

August 7.

We woke up early the next morning to head to the Pune airport to catch our flight to New Delhi, way up in the north.  It's about a 3-1/2-hour flight, spanning a couple hundred miles.  India doesn't look that big on a map, but it is quite large.  And I'm from the US, which is still larger.  I think the Europeans were probably a bit more shocked at the size, since Spain is about the size of Texas, and again, Americans have a much different concept on large-ness, since we really do have so. much. space. here that we don't even realize it most of the time.

Anyway, for reference:

Pune is just east of Mumbai, and New Delhi is in the state of Delhi right between the states of Haryana to the West and Uttar Pradesh to the East.

We landed in New Delhi, and the climate changed dramatically.  There was a perpetual gray haze (I actually typed out "graze" because I basically made up a word to describe what it was) with a stifling humidity, with temperatures in the mid-90s (low-40s if you're a Celsius person like most of the world).  Now, I love me some humidity.  Like, people actually make fun of me because of how much I love it.  And even I got to thinking the humidity in New Delhi was a bit much, and we got to stand around for an hour waiting for our tour bus to show up, only to have it be too small for all our luggage (we replaced it the next day).  The bus had air conditioning, and we were all happy campers.

I still love humidity though, and will still take August in New Delhi weather over freezing blizzards any day of the year.

What it looks like to fly from Pune to New Delhi.

India 2017, part 1 - Flight to Doha --> Pune

So it really has been over a year since I've posted anything on here.  Wow.  Okay.

Well, here's my attempt to resurrect this blog from the dead, and bring you something I finally feel like I'm qualified to do, since I left the country four times last year (2017) and I'm on my way to breaking that personal record this year (I think it's a personal record, at least it is pre-high school, where I switched countries so much people still don't believe me).  I'm going to turn this into a travel blog.  Woohoo!

I'm not setting out to make anything viral-worthy or anything like that, just write about the personal experiences I've had while leaving the country.  I feel like some people might actually want to read that, and if no one does, at least it'll just be for my own benefit, because hey, maybe one day I'll actually forget all this stuff or wish I still had that life again or something like that.  Living vicariously through my memories or something like that I guess.

So anyway.  I'm going to skip my trip to Spain in July, not because Spain is boring or anything, but because that was a whirlwind trip that was short for my standards (six days, one being spent traveling) and it was really a set up to the next trip.  India, three weeks later.  So to run this down, my favorite person in the whole wide world, otherwise known as my best friend whom I've known since I was thirteen, got married.  Making me feel like a loser in terms of life choices, but in all seriousness, she's my favorite person in the world and I love her to bits and I had to do everything I possibly could to share in her special day(s) so I went to Spain for a week for her Spanish wedding, and then three weeks later I was on another flight to India (by way of Doha, Qatar), to go to her Indian wedding, since she married an Indian guy.

So here goes.  I'm going to break this up into various parts, because it was a nearly-two-week trip filled with craziness and wonder that if I don't split it up I'll go crazy and you all who decide to read this are going to go crazy too.

Part one, of India 2017.  Flight to Doha, flight to Mumbai, and Pune.  August 3-6, 2017.

Expatriation at its Worst

Mijas

The problem [of money issues in Costa del Sol cities] is made worse by British and other expatriate residents.  Most cannot be bothered to register as citizens of their new home towns, robbing the area of other funds awarded on the basis of how many people live there. Some 300,000 Britons are estimated to live [on the Costa del Sol].  That makes this Britain's fourteenth-largest "city", larger than, for example, Cardiff, Belfast, Southampton or Bradford.  However, fewer than one in ten British residents are registered.  Costa corruption is as much the result of those who came here, enjoy the Spanish weather and hospitality but refuse to accept any responsibility for the place they live in, as it is of crooked politicians and construction companies.

Ghosts of Spain, Giles Tremlett

So you want to move to Spain? Read this first

If you'll now permit me (oh what the hell, it's my blog), I'm going to address an issue that seems to be very important for a vast group of people on the internet.  Those people who seem to be convinced that after college (or after high school...) they will be moving to Spain.  And those people who also have it planned to stay in Spain after they finish their study abroad term in the country; they just won't get on the flight back to the US.

I'm here to burst that bubble, poop that party, rain on that parade.  Because guess what.  You want to move to Spain/overstay your visa?  Good luck with that.  Really.  I'm just going to make something clear here: you have no idea what you're planning.

*Note* This post is geared mainly towards North Americans, since Europeans don't have to worry about anything I'm saying here.  And because everyone I've seen saying things like this is from North America, and not Europe.

Traveling low-budget (you know you can!)

Basically...what I'm about to say will probably make me come off as elitist and bitchy.  Comments that will probably be deserved considering.  It's just one of those topics I get incensed about really easily and that you could say I'm really passionate about.  Not as passionate as the language politics/nationalism debate in Spain, but close.  I'm just generally a really opinionated person.  Make of that what you will.

Anyway, I posted a rant on my Wordpress blog (which this one is going to be substituting most likely, sorry everyone who was really into that one) probably about a month ago about the tourism industry and tourism in general.  I always feel like I'm stepping on people's toes with it, that it's something that really seems to offend people and their sensibilities or whatever so I'm usually pretty hesitant to say these things in person.  Just...hear me out.

Here's the thing.  I'm not "anti" the tourism industry or even the tourism industry in general.  There is a lot of money to be generated from it, which stimulates economic growth, which is a great thing for many countries.  Plus there's the whole traveling bit, and travel is never a bad thing for anyone, no matter how broke it makes you (I speak from experience...I'm still paying for the month-long trip to Spain I took last year).  Experiences outside your home country is always a good thing.  My complaint, or grievance as it were, is more about the attitudes of the people who engage in said activity of tourism.  And not even all people, but the people for whom the tourism industry seems to be most geared towards.  Those people with disposable income who enjoy luxury, who expect to be treated a certain way and who expect things to just be a certain way whenever they arrive at their destination (and sometimes even before they do).  The people who won't book anything lower than a three-star hotel and won't eat at any restaurant unless it's in the Michelin guide and who think that just because they've traveled that automatically gives them "culture".

I'm a huge fan of traveling on a budget.  I'm a huge fan of living on a budget.  I believe that you can, and should travel often regardless of how much money is in the bank, provided you do have means of earning it back and making sure you don't go completely broke of course.  But honestly, I do believe that you can visit a city like Rome or even Paris, known for its luxury and cost, on a budget.  Which certainly sounds great to college students and even career adults who have a comfortable job but would still like to travel.  The thing is, most of the travel/tourism ads advertise luxury.  Luxury cruises, luxury hotels, luxury everything.  They really make people feel that if they're not loaded, they can't afford to travel.

I beg to differ.  It's quite possible to visit a foreign country and spend very little money.  How?  Flying coach.  Using websites like Kayak and Orbitz to find cheap flights.  Staying in youth hostels.  This works better when you're under 25, but there's still the "inn" route; in Spain at least they have what are called "hostales", which work differently from the youth hostels (called "albergues") in that you're not sharing a room with complete strangers.  You're on your own for meals and there isn't any personalized service (i.e. housekeepers, room service, etc.), but they tend to be much cheaper than your average hotel.  For meals, usually that small café or bar down the street will have excellent food for very little money.  In Spain they have these brilliant little things called Daily Menus, or "Menús del Día" in which you're offered a choice of various first courses, various second courses, and a dessert and drink for around 10€ depending on the city/area.  Barcelona and the Basque Country tends to run a little higher, like around 12 or 13 maybe (though you can still find 10€ offers), but you can always catch the metro or the cercanías (local service train) to an outside suburb, at least in Barcelona, and get something.  The food is excellent, cheap, and completely native.  You're eating what the natives eat, and paying as much as they do.  Awesome, right?

I like these options because I'm of the belief that when you travel, you travel to get to know and understand the world.  I realize people are always traveling and doing the whole luxury thing and generally don't seem to give a crap about the country they're visiting except to see the sights, take some pictures, and buy some souvenirs.  Which isn't even inherently wrong.  But my question is...what's the motive?  Are you traveling just to say you've been somewhere and have the pictures to prove it?  Or are you traveling to get to know more of the world you live in, to experience more of its people, its cultures, its ways of life, its color?  Are you just checking cities and countries off a map, or are you genuinely interested in stories, like that time you tried to find your way back to your hostel or inn and no one could speak English well enough to understand you (and for you to understand them)?  To be honest, I've never set foot in a luxury hotel, or anything luxury for that matter, anywhere outside the US.  I don't know what it's like to expect the hotel staff to provide everything for me; I've never been to a spa, never been on a yacht.  I have gotten many menús del día, I have eaten at kebap places because they're the cheapest food you can get that's incredibly filling and just really damn good, and I've stayed at youth hostels in less congested parts of town, where the native language is the way to get around.  And, I'll be fair, I have stayed in hotels with groups of classmates all on the same class trip doing our own kind of tourism.  Though they were also far from four- or five-star establishments.

My point is, ignore the ads.  Ignore the tourism agencies.  There's nothing wrong with a little luxury here and there if you can afford it.  I plan on going all-out for my honeymoon, whenever that is.  But I also know that even with a four- or five-star experience, I'd probably still be out there on the streets at the bazaar looking for random bits and pieces, trying to spark up a conversation with the people on the street, eating their food (even if most of it ends up on my face and hands).  Just because that's how I know how to travel.  It's what I know.  My little brain can't comprehend how people can go places and not have those experiences, and while I try not to judge, I end up doing so anyway.  So I guess what I'm saying is, yes, you can travel abroad.  You can have that cultural experience you've been waiting for.  And you'll probably end up appreciating it far more on a budget than you would if you were to live the high-class life.

Just saying.