West Coast Wandering

Canada bade us farewell in the early hours of the morning as we lumbered onto a train and off into the sunrise. I love trains, they are a magnificent beasts that can haul such impressive volumes of people and goods, and I was excited to take a train rather than flying as the carbon footprint is much smaller. On future adventures I would like to travel slightly slower and use trains and busses more for this same reason.

Much as I adore trains, I struggled to love this one through my bleary hatred of mornings. 4am wake ups are not my favourite thing, and are one of the most glaring downsides of public transport – it goes when it goes, not necessarily when you want it to go.

New York, Baltimore and DC – A Whirlwind of Cities

The East Coast of the US of A is a fascinating landscape at the moment. Especially the cities we went to, where protests are still a common every day. It is important to note that as three rather clearly middle class white people we really didn’t have to deal with any of the challenges that others with less privilege would have had to deal with.

In spite of everything, the States still serve up an absolutely glorious array of city vibes, all unique and full of wonderful surprises.

Trying to reduce our waste was probably hardest in the USA and Canada, because we were trying to cook a lot ourselves with very limited storage and refrigeration options. We started off well though, with packed meals for the plane from Greece, because it was just so easy to get delicious pastries and avoid the overpriced, gross, and waste coated airplane food.

Greece – Redefining ‘Old’

What really blew my mind about Athens was that there are things there made by people we consider to be part of ancient civilisations, which used pieces of rock they scavenged from Greek ruins. Even in those ancient times Athens had stuff old enough to be considered already ancient.

That’s ancient squared.

It’s incomprehensibly old.

It’s so old old stuff was being built from it because it was already old by then.

As you can tell – I’m still struggling to wrap my head around the sheer volume of time since the ruins here were occupied.

Another thing that impressed me was how many amazing things there were scattered about the place. You’ll be walking along through a park or down a road and then out of nowhere there is a casual patch of history just hanging out.

These baths are a great example, peeking out from under a road.

Perfect Imperfection – Istanbul

I love spending time imagining while I travel. For me stories are the best parts of history, they bring things to life in a way that transcends time because a story is always the same no matter when it’s read. The context changes though, and makes it unique and personal.

Istanbul had a layer of personal stories for me that stood out for some reason. Those are the stories of my dad walking around the city when he was about my age. Interestingly I’m not sure how many he has actually told me, memories can be funny like that, but they somehow stuck in my mind as ‘dad traveled here’. As I walked through streets I wondered if my dad walked there, and as I stood in old buildings I looked up and wondered how the place would have looked when he was there.

I now feel the need to clarify that my dad is alive and well, because it sounds upon reading the above like he might not be. I’m just missing my family a bit, I haven’t seen them in a few months.

Anyway, on to the exciting bit! Look how gorgeous Istanbul is!

Our hostel put on a delightful, traditional spread each morning where we feasted on fresh fruit, fresh bread, traditional soft cheese a bit like feta, and boiled eggs. We were getting a wee bit bored of cucumber, tomato and bread after having it at every meal through Azerbaijan, but the watermelon was still refreshing as ever.

The view from the little table on the street outside where we are breakfast was of the back of Hagia Sophia!

The Kiwi is Back in the Nest

Hi all!

It’s been a while since I filled you in on what I’m doing with my life, so here’s a wee update.

I’m back in New Zealand!
NZ has a fun little clause in the student loan system that says you are only allowed to be outside of NZ for 6 months before you have to start paying back large chunks of your loan. My contract was an internship contract so money was not really a thing I had, and what I did have I didn’t want to part with. Luckily I managed to negotiate working from Wellington for my last 2 weeks so I made it back with a few days to spare.

Singapore with Minimal Money and Trash

The Economic Intelligence Unit has dubbed Singapore the most expensive country in the world for 4 years in a row, and I had been repeatedly warned that it is not the place for budget travellers. Naturally, I took this as a challenge.

I lived in Kuala Lumpur for 6 months from the end of last year until a few months ago, so was in the best possible location to pop over for a weekend. Unfortunately, my first choice of weekend (with cheaper bus tickets and accommodation) fell through due to a bird flu, which put me out of action for a few weeks (yes it was scary, but the Malaysian medical system is pretty good in KL). This meant I already had to pay a bit more, but it was manageable.

Money, Money, Travel!

I’ve had so many people ask me how I fund my adventures, and whilst I wish there was some magical secret way to make money by simply being awesome the truth is that I work my bum off and forgo many things I’d like to have. It’s about priorities, and I am incredibly lucky to be able to prioritise things the way I do.

Before I get into my recommendations, I absolutely have to pause and address the privileges in the room – mine. I am in good health, so my medical bills are not an issue, I am university educated, so it’s a bit easier for me to find jobs, I have an approachable personality, no mental challenges, and I’m white, so people trust me (also helping me get jobs – biases are the worst) and I have a good relationship with my parents. All of these things help me save money, but even if you can only do one of the things below that is one step closer to your next adventure.

Moving swiftly along, here are my biggest money savers –