- nowhere bound -

fall in love with the world

[nowhereboundd]

Travelling on a Budget - Tips & Tricks!

Hi again!! Hope you’re all wellll. In this post I’m going to share some travel tips that I’ve learned during my adventures and how to budget/save money while travelling!

First offff, my first tip would be to travel with friends. This way you can split a lot of costs! Food, hotels, taxis/ubers, renting a car, gas - you get the idea!

If you’re planning on travelling alone, HOSTELS will be your best friend. Hostels are a fantastic way to meet new like-minded people and make some friends! A lot of hostels also have “common areas” where you can relax and chill. This is also a great place to meet people from all around the world!

Hostels are similar to hotels, except you generally pay for 1 bed in a shared room. A lot of hostels have “female” and “male” rooms, but its usually cheaper if you stay in a “mixed” room. I get that the idea is sketchy at first, but I’ve stayed in many hostels and I haven’t had any issues. Everyone is there for the same reason. Usually all backpackers on a budget. A lot of hostels also have lockers, so BRING A LOCK! (Tip #2) You really never know when a lock is going to come in handy. For our 1 month Europe trip, I travelled with Alex and Jordan, so thankfully we were able to stay in a lot of hotels and split the cost 3 ways. It ended up being cheaper than a hostel and generally just more comfortable and spacious. Because we were on a really fast paced trip we wanted somewhere quiet to sleep because we didn’t have a lot of time to do that :)

My favourite website for booking hotels/hostels is hotels.com. For every 10 nights you book, you get one free, which is nice because you’re saving already on your nightly costs AND getting rewarded from it. If you’re planning a long trip getting a couple nights free here and there can really come in handy! They also always have some sort of PROMO CODES floating around for some sort of discount. Right before paying for my booking I literally do a google search for “hotels.com promo codes.” You usually have to try a couple before you find one that works, but spending an extra 2-3 minutes could save you some money!

This leads me into my next tip. SIGN UP FOR NEWSLETTERS! I know they can be annoying, but they can be worth it! I have a separate folder in my email where all my “important” junk mail goes. I’m subscribed to a bunch of airlines, hotels.com, getyourguide.com (which I’ve mentioned in a previous post and will touch on more in this post, restaurants and so on. Whenever I’m about to book a flight, or a hotel, I also check this folder to see if they’ve emailed me any deals or promo codes. When looking for somewhere to eat, I again, check this folder to see if any chain restaurants are having any promos. Websites also sometimes give you a “new customer” discount when you subscribe, so if you are booking multiple things, subscribe with multiple emails! :)

My next tip/ money saver is to book through budget airlines. Most of these airlines are NOT boujee, but if you’re flying through Europe its likely that your flight won’t be any longer than 2 hours anyway. My favourite way (and the most effective way I’ve found after trying many different sites) to find the cheapest flights is good ol’ google. The thing that I love about finding flights through google is that there’s no extra “fees.” It takes you directly to the flight website and lets you book your flight as you normally would.

Just type into google: destination A to destination B flights. Then adjust the settings (how many people, round or one way trip) then it will show you when that flight is the cheapest and if that price is normal/ going to change before your date of travel.

In my opiniom, this next tip is one of the most important ones. ONLY BRING A CARRY ON! This one is so important to me for a couple different reasons. Firstly, MOST budget airlines allow you to bring a carry on for free (Ryanair does not.) and secondly, you don’t have to waste time waiting for your luggage to come out on that carousel thing. If you’re on a fast paced trip like I was, every second counts! Instead of spending 20 minutes waiting for your luggage you could already be checked in to your hotel or hostel!

I know it might seem a little intimidating trying to fit enough stuff for a long trip into such a small suitcase, which brings me to my next tip! FIND A LAUNDROMAT/ DO LAUNDRY! As I mentioned in my previous tip, there are so many positives to only bringing a carry on with you on your trip. If you’re going on a longer trip, laundromats will be your best friend. That being said, this usually is a pay per use service, BUT it will end up saving you a lot of money in the long run. A lot of hotels/hostels provide a laundry service, but if you’re staying at one that doesn’t, there is most likely a laundromat somewhere around you.

Another packing tip I have is to buy reusable toiletry bottles! You can find these at the dollar store and they are so handy. You can only bring liquids in bottles up to 100ml in your carry on, so buying the empty bottles and filling them up with shampoo/ body wash that you already have is going to save you a few dollars! What I did on my trip, is I bought a cheap bottle of shampoo (about halfway through the trip) when I was staying somewhere for 3+ days. I refilled my 100ml bottle and used the larger bottle until I had to get on a plane again. (If you’re travelling with friends this is a good opportunity to split on a bottle of shampoo and refill all your 100ml bottles!) Shampoo was actually the only thing I ended up running out of, but there are cheap pharmacies all over Europe where you can find pretty much anything you need!

I’ve mentioned this website in a previous post, but getyourguide.com is an amazing place to do a ton of tourist stuff for huge savings!! For example, entry tickets at Auschwitz were $30. Not including the 2 hour ride there and back. For $31 on getyourguide.com, I got an entry ticket, AND transportation there and back. I’ve used this website in Canada, the UK and Europe and I’ve never had any issues (except the one from my previous post, BUT their customer service is amazing and I ended up getting a full refund.)

My final tip for this post is all about USING PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION!!! Almost 99% of the time, public transportation will save you money! Rather than renting a car or taking a taxi, download some train/bus apps and look into buying day passes whenever possible. Google maps is also super good when it comes to travel planning with public transportation. By utilizing public transportation, you get to dive deeper into the everyday lives of the locals, so in my opinion it makes the experience that much more authentic. We visited Santorini, Greece during the “off season” so there were literally no busses running at the time. We ended up renting a car (you do need an international license to drive in Greece) for super cheap, and split the cost 3 ways. For 3 full days we paid around $50/$60. So if you do find yourslef in a situation where you have to rent a car in order to experience everything that place has to offer, I recommend researching all of your options to get the best bang for your buck! Another alternative to taking a taxi is to WALK!!! You see soooo much when you just walk around. Things you wouldn’t normally “go out of your way to see” - might end up being the coolest part of your trip!!

Alright guys, well that pretty much sums up everything! If I think of anything else, I’ll add it in another post :)

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope to see you in my next post!!

↞ to travel is to live ↠

xxoo chels

[nowhereboundd]

Auchwitz Adventure

Hi again! Firstly, I apologize for my lack of posting. I promise you that I have a million good ideas running through my head, but I’ve learned that its easier said than done putting those ideas into actual words. In my last blog post I said that I’d write all about my UK visa, BUT thats pretty boring. I might get around to doing that at some point, but for today I wanted to do something a little different.

In this post I wanted to tell a story - a series of rather unfortunate events - about the time I went to (or attempted to go to) Auschwitz, in Poland. Now before you decide not to read further, no this is not a story about the actual camp -per sey- it is more a story about the trials and errors I went through attempting to get to the camp.

*disclaimer: although this story is pretty funny, I don’t want us to forget how unfortunate and upsetting the events that took place at Auschwitz were. This has been a subject that has interested me since I was younger (I was OBSESSED with Anne Frank) so visiting the camp for me, although extremely sad, was such an incredible learning experience*

So, it all began a few months ago, when we booked a tour to visit Auschwitz. *side note: the camp itself was about 1.5/ 2 hours from the hotel we were staying at* so this tour included transportation to and from the camp, and the entry ticket. Now just to give you an idea, an uber from our hotel to the camp would have cost $180 (one way) and the entry tickets were $30. So for 3 tickets, and a ride there and back, it would has cost $450 total, or $150 each. This tour we found was $32 each and included both transportation and the entrance ticket.

A couple days before the tour (which was supposed to start at 10am) I got an email saying the time has been changed to 8:45am, which was no issue for us. The morning of our tour, we took an uber from our hotel to the meeting place. We knew we were running late, as the email had advised us to arrive 15 minutes before our departure time, but we figured the bus wouldn’t leave without us. Don’t get me wrong- we weren’t THAT late. We ended up arriving at the meeting place at 8:38am, 7 minutes before our bus was supposed to leave.

When we got to the meeting place, there were no people there- which is strange because normally these tours have a few people waiting around. There was also no bus. Weird. We weren’t late? There was no way the bus could have left without us...right? I spent the next 15 minutes calling the tour company, and emailing the person who advised me on the new time. I also called the third party company which I booked these tickets through. I’ve used this site before (getyourguide.com) and I’ve never had any issues. Although the issue here is that our tour was booked for “10am” so we were just “early.” A rep from Getyourguide was now trying to contact the tour company with no success.

THEN, I got this text:

*note the time stamps are all an hour behind, because Poland is an hour ahead of where I am now*

So pretty much after recieving this text we called getyourguide and requested a refund, then started the search for another tour. After standing outside in the freezing cold for nearly an hour, we ended up finding another tour for $50 each which was still significantly less than we’d pay if we went on our own. This tour was leaving in 15 minutes and we were a 7 minute uber away. Cutting it close but at this point we were desperate.

WHO KNEW how much traffic there is in Krakow at 9am.... that uber ride was probably the most stressful uber ride I had ever taken.. the minutes were just going by and we were NOT moving. When we started getting closer, we decided it would be faster to RUN (yes RUN) to the meeting point rather than staying in the uber. So, here are 3 Canadians BOOKING it through the streets of Poland at 9am.

In the near distance, WE SEE A BUS!!! Our tour still hasn’t left! We were right on time!!

Or so we thought.

Here is where the story gets complicated, so try your best to follow and I’ll try my best to explain properly what happened next.

So we meet the tour guide outside the bus, tell him our names, show him our order confirmation, but he says we aren’t part of his tour. I tried explaining that we only booked the tour 15 minutes ago so maybe his system isnt updated? I called the tour company and asked if our bus had left yet. He said yes, we missed our bus by 3 minutes and our tour group was already on route. The tour guide, who was around our age, possibly a few years older, felt bad for all our mishaps of the day and offered to let us hop on his bus to go the camp, for 20zł which is around $6/$7. Of course we accepted the ride, because transportation was our main obstacle. If we got to the camp we could buy our own tickets, and go from there.

Fast foward 2 hours, (Strangest bus ride ever by the way. Words alone can’t explain how WEIRD this tour guide was. We learned his name was Peter, and of course English was not his first language so nothing he said made much sense. And he paused A LOT while he talked. “ummmmmmmm” was essentially the only thing we heard for the whole 2 hours)

We finally arrived at the camp. Peter said that he wasn’t allowed to drive us back or he’d lose his job, so this is where we said our goodbyes and thank yous. He jokingly whispered in Alex’s ear to “give him some muthafuckin money” if we wanted a ride back. Like I said, weird guy.

When we got to the camp, I texted the second tour that we booked (the one that the guy said we missed our bus by 3 minutes) and asked if we could meet up with our tour group and pick up our tickets. He didn’t answer my text, and wasn’t picking up his phone. Screw that. I again, called the third party company I booked through, explained everything, and got a refund.

LUCKILY at the first camp (where the ticket booth was) there were 3 English tickets left. I don’t know HOW we managed to pull it off, but we did! We were finally going to get to see Auschwitz!

Wrong, again.

After buying our tickets we had “secretly” hopped back in Peter’s bus, bus #19, to get a ride over to the second camp, because this camp was outside and it was suggested to do it first so we weren’t visiting in the dark as there was no outdoor lighting. As soon as we arrived at the second camp, we realized there was a certain time on the tickets that we had to enter the first camp, SO we had to take the free shuttle all the way back from the second camp to the first camp.

Now we start freaking out again because we are trying to “sneak” into the camp with expired tickets. We get past security then get pulled aside and have to wait for a manager to print us some valid tickets. After what feels like the longest wait, WE’RE FINALLLY IN!!!

About half an hour into our visit, I start to realize that we don’t have a way home. There is no public transportation, and as I said, ubers were SO expensive. All of a sudden, I got a text!

Feeling hopeful that we could meet up with our tour and get a ride home, I messaged “Piotr”. (I had since spoken with the manager on the phone, who knew we got a refund so he offered us a ride back with our tour, if we paid 20zł each. Fine by us. STILL cheaper than an uber.)

Bus 19. Piotr. PI-TOR.

Yup. Just let that sink in.

The bus that we saw in the distance that morning while running for our lives.. that was our bus ALL ALONG. The one that we paid 20zł for a ride to the camp. The one that the “manager” told me the bus had already left, WHILE WE WERE STANDING RIGHT BESIDE IT!! THAT WAS OUR BUS.

So after this unfortunate discovery, we met back up with Piotr/Peter at the first camp. He felt SO BAD for everything that had happened, and we couldn’t decide whether to be mad or just laugh. Its so unfortunate that its almost hilarious. Piotr took our ~muthafuckin~ money, we hopped on the bus, and got back safely. Another very STRANGE 2 hour ride though. Piotr was telling the group that he used to live on the streets so he knows places that are open late to party. The last thing we heard from Piotr was his wishes for us to have a relaxful evening. Relaxful.

So friends, that wraps up the very stressful story of the time we went to.. or.. tried to go to Auschwitz. We did end up seeing both camps, and in total we spent $30 on the entry ticket, and $15 ish on travel. So in the end we paid less than everyone else on Piotr’s tour.

If you read this far, THANK YOU!! Its super difficult to put a story with so many details and side notes into words. I tried my best to make a funny story out of it rather than a “you had to be there” moment. ALL OF THESE EVENTS ARE ACTUALLY TRUE GUYS. THIS REALLY HAPPENED TO US!

Thanks for reading :) I will talk to you all in my next post, whatever and whenever that may be!

xxoo chels

[nowhereboundd]

Welcome to my Blog!

Hello!

Firstly if you’re here, THANK YOU!

A wise man (my dad) once suggested that I start a blog about all my travels/ how I do so on a budget. So here I am. Thanks dad! As I type this post I am some crazy amount of feet in the air flying from Milan, Italy to Krakow, Poland. (I’ll make a whole post about the trip I am currently on sometime in the near future!)

To be completely honest I have absolutely no idea how this is gonna go, or what direction its gonna go in, but hey - I’ve come too far to turn back now haha. This post is essentially just to welcome you to my blog, and give ya the low down SO without further ado,

My name is Chelsie and I’m currently 24 years old. Since my first ever plane ride back in 2016, I haven’t been able to stop. Seeing another part of the world that wasn’t Ontario was such a life changing experience for me.

Seeing how people in different parts of the world lived on a day to day basis, and how it was so different than how I lived was so insane to me. Every different place I went to I was witnessing all these different cultures, different cuisines and different social norms...travelling is truly the ultimate learning experience!

Before my first trip, I didn’t realize how eye opening travelling would be. I was completely content working at DAVIDsTEA, living my routine life.. until I realized that I wasn’t.

After my first trip, I realized I needed to make some serious changes. I was happy, but not as happy as I COULD have been.

In October 2016, only 3 months after my “life changing trip,” my best friend Celeste and I came up with this crazy plan. We were going to sign up for a (pretty sketchy) job placement company. This company was supposed to find you a job, with accommodation, somewhere in Canada. Possibilities were Banff, Jasper, Vancouver - you get the idea.. some BEAUTIFUL location across Canada. Our placement.... was in Fort McMurray, Alberta. If you’re not familiar with Fort McMurray, give it a quick google search. I’ll wait.

We flew into the Mac the day after my birthday, which was only 5 months after the devastating forest fires that destroyed most of the town. Needless to say, everyone was still distraught, the hotel we worked at was on its way out of business, and it was just weird vibes all around. Don’t get me wrong - we still had fun! Living away from Ottawa for the first time, living with my best friend and having a bunch of other people my age around at all times was great fun but it grew tiring after a few months. We decided to quit, and rent a car to visit some nearby areas (Banff, Calgary, Edmonton) then fly back home. (More on Banff later most likely)

Anyway, moral of this whole story is this: Since that trip to Europe and after living in Fort Mac for 3 months, I realized that THIS was the kind of lifestyle I wanted.

After the Mac I moved back to Ottawa and met an amazing friend I will always cherish (shout out to Liz xo) while living behind a curtain in her living room, working at davidstea, and taking the odd quick trip here and there (during this time I also met another one of my best friends, Emily who is theee best travel partner, luh u girl!!)

Liz and I then moved to Toronto together where I stayed for a year while stilllllllll working at good ol’ DT, and stilllll taking those odd trips (California & Nevada). I was later joined in Toronto by my best friend Mell, (shout out to you too girl xo).

After a year in Toronto, I got on a plane with 2 suitcases and moved to Banff, AB where I worked and lived at a hotel. As you could imagine, this also grew tiring, so after a year in Alberta I moved back to Ottawa, got a job at the Rogers call centre (thanks Kayeleigh xo) and started saving up for my next adventure.

I am now living and working in the United Kingdom on a 2 year work visa! (I’ll make a whole post about this, so I won’t go too far into detail right now.)

If you’ve made it this far, thank you! I really do appreciate it. My next post will be all about my UK work visa, how I got it, how much I paid, what I do here, etc.

If at any point there is something you want me to go into more detail about, or something you’d like me to talk about that I might have missed - let me know :) I’m always happy to answer any questions or anything!! My goal here is to inspire you all to travel somewhere at least once, and to show you that you don’t have to spend tons of money doing it.

Already y’all, thats it for me!! Catcha laterrrrr

xxoo chels