Archive for November, 2006

CouchSurf Cologne

Thursday, November 30th, 2006

Since I have started travelling, many of you have been asking about where I stay while travelling. “Do you stay in hotels? Doesn’t that get expensive?” My initial response was “Where do you think I’m staying.. HOSTELS!” Well.. the fact of the matter is that although I know how I’m travelling, I sometimes forget that not everyone has the knowledge or experience that I do.

Hostels are a cheap way to get a place to stay, sacrificing privacy and luxury for a cheap bunk bed. There are two other main advantages.. first is that many hostels provide refridgeration units (aka fridges), as well as cooking facilities and equipment. They’re generally not equipped for baking however.. so if you plan on doing any baking while on the road, I would suggest bringing your own Easy-Bake Oven. I know mine has come in handy MANY times! The other advantage for someone travelling on their own is the opportunity to meet other people. This generally happens in the dorm room, or down at the bar.. however can happen in the kitchen, or even in the shower (I’ve yet to meet anyone in the shower). The good thing about meeting people like this is that you have one immediate bond, James Bond. I mean.. TRAVELLING (although you do run into some serious randoms in some hostels).

Lets pretend a hostel costs about €15, or £15, and a hotel costs between €50-100, or £50-100. You can imagine how the bills add up! Here’s the big question however.. what’s cheaper than cheap? (more…)

Travelling Without Moving

Sunday, November 12th, 2006

Most people who have known me for a few years have known about my plans to travel the world. This has been something that I have wanted to do for years, and although it took me a few more years to get started, those pre-travel years were very beneficial for preparing me for what was to come.

My travel ideology has never been focused on seeing the sites a certain destination has to offer, although this is of course part of it. I’ve always known that a big part of the adventure would be the people that I would meet, and relationships that would form. Recently, I’ve been coming to realize just how integral these relationships would be in the overall picture of what I’m looking to gain from travel.

Most people have heard of the Internet, myself included. It’s a closely guarded secret, but computers are my thing, so when I started thinking about travelling around Europe, I took to the Internet with the plan to meet some people from various places in Europe. These people could then give me some local advice on out-of-the-way places to check out, as well as possibly meeting up with them depending on if we seemed we’d get along in “real life”. (more…)