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Full pro set up again this year, with the mega hanging out the back of the A4. Can't wait for some sun and dry trails, sat here with cold toes from today's soaked commute #racing #privateer #elite #enduro #summer #cominginhot #onashoestring #fakeittillyoumakeit #nukeproofbikes #hopetech #4playcycles #seatingtubeless (at Grizdale Forest)
#DoraTheExplorer #roadtrip #Mariveles #bay #beach #Bataan #OnAShoestring
#Jakarta #CityTour #travelling #onashoestring #Indonesia
"Dora the Explorer" Jakarta edition! Hopped on the Jakarta City Tour double-decker bus going around the metro... Why the freaking not? It-is-FREE! Yessss! #winner #travelling #onashoestring #Jakarta #Indonesia
Provpackat väskan och är nästan redo för världen! Lånat en supergrym 55 L rygga av min faster, så jag har en väldigt berest resekompis 🌄✈🚂🌆🌇
Germany on a shoe string - travel tips I've learnt
What is the best way to travel? It's something most people ask themselves before going away, then again some people don't. Speaking from experience blindly pointing your finger at a map and getting someone else to organise everything also works well. There is even a website called “German Wings Blind Booking”, that will give you an inexpensive ticket to a magical surprise destination; this too is brilliant.
However thats not what I was getting at. What I was getting at, is what the best way to travel is (in the at least slightly organised sense of the word); the best way to travel is to live somewhere, as in somewhere else. I'm a Melbournian, currently living in Dresden, studying design and utilising every piece of free time to its fullest. Being a 5th generation Australian, naturally I've seen next to nothing our beautiful land has to offer. Being a 5th generation Australian, naturally I've been to over 50 cities around Germany and Europe.
Firstly let me clarify something, I'm a 21yr old student, I was working one day a week doing graphic design work in Germany earning the equivalent of $11.36 an hour, now about about to start an intern which may equate to 2euros an hour if I'm lucky. I don't get Centrelink, I don't get money from my parents and I'm not on a scholarship. I am however selling drugs. Not really but it would seem like that considering how much of Europe I've seen.
Let me explain in couple words how this all works; live, friends, move, language, stay&play, spontaneous. That didn't make any sense, did it? Let me elaborate;
LIVE: If you're planning on going to Europe for an elongated amount of time; live somewhere, preferably in Eastern Europe where rent costs a half to a tenth of what it costs in Melbourne. This way you have a place to base yourself, to work from, to plan your next adventure and to make contacts in. If you're staying in youth hostels you could spend half as much money, if you had a room of your own somewhere, people don't realise how easy it is to organise. WG-gesucht.de is the best website for Germany, often you can find places here just to rent for a week or two, or a month. Also look into airbnb.com for rooms worldwide.
FRIENDS: make friends! Accept if you're speaking German say “find friends”. Unfortunately the German word “make” also means “to do” I found this out the hard way when I did a presentation to my entire German school in 2009, instead of saying I'd found a lot of good friends I said i'd done all my good friends ...it made the cities newspaper... That however is irrelevant, as an Australian I come from a minority, we make up less than 1% of the world. We're a novelty when we live somewhere else, particularly when we don't act like massive tourists. Having an Australian friend is a novelty, and when you have an Australian friend you invite them to stay with you, when they've traveled 16,000km to Europe. The entire first month I spent in Europe before settling in to Dresden I stayed at friends houses, it was brilliant; not only did I get to catch up with a heap of friends, but I had a local to show me around, was never bored and had a place to stay where I felt at home.
MOVE: there are various modes of transport around Europe, but there are only a few good ways of doing it cheaply. Deutsche Bahn is NOT a cheap form of travel, not in less you go online months before you want to go somewhere and buy a ticket somewhere for 29 Euro, never pay 200euro for a ticket somewhere; this is unnecessary. Instead you should go to www.flixbus.de with this you can travel across parts of Germany for sometimes less than 10 euros. Otherwise look into www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de here you can carpool from Germany all around Europe; it's like a reliable and safe way to hitch hike, that costs a few euros per trip. Or if you prefer the trains (they are actually pretty brilliant), buy a Eurail ticket; it'll save you at least 300eruos.
LANGUAGE: if you're staying somewhere for an elongated period of time, you don't have to learn the language but I'd recommend it. I speak German and I've learnt it from listening, trial and error. It's not perfect but I can understand everything and say almost everything I want to. If you want a real cultural experience and you really want to fit in and make friends then make an effort with the language and everyone/everything will make an effort with you. It is a guarantee for a more positive experience. At the same time learn to laugh at yourself, you'll always make mistakes learning a language. A friend from Melbourne living in France for example, confused the words for cat and vagina and he asked an older woman if her vagina was hungry and if he should feed it. Moments like that you have to just laugh at yourself, nothing else.
STAY&PLAY: youth hostels and couch surfing, these are the two things you should know if you're living on a shoestring. At the same time you should do your research. Youth hostels are great but not all of them. Sometimes it's worth not looking at the photos on the hostels website (they are all lies), but instead reading the comments on bookings.com, so you get a place with warm water, working lights, unstained towels and a smell that is at least something, along the lines of fresh. If its any advice do stay at the Goodbye Lenin in Poland; it was brilliant, but don't stay at the white tulip hostel in Amsterdam, seriously just don't. Couchsurfing.com is the same story; it's great but not always, basically just do your research. For all the young women out there, there are a lot of middle aged men on couchsurfing of whom aren't excepting monetary payments, (no one should be expecting monetary payments on couchsurfing), but I feel like where this is going is self-explanatory; just be careful, i've heard some horror stories. In general couch surfing is great, but personally if i'm using couchsurfing, I do a thorough profile stalk before requesting to stay somewhere. Read the feedback and contact some of the people who left feedback, also check that you have some common interests this way you avoid awkward small talk for the duration of your stay. But if you are not eccentric or confident or easygoing do not use couch surfing, you and your host will not have fun.
SPONTANEOUS: be spontaneous and flexible! When I found out about the Dutch Design Week, I found out just 18 hours before my trip began and I had an unexpectedly brilliant time. I was couch surfing at an environmental designers place in Eindhoven, carpooling with some free spirited germans and meet up with a melbournian later in Amsterdam. When you plan too much your expectations tend to grow too much and often you're just setting yourself on a chain for disappointment. If you say yes in a spur of the moment decision you have no time to create expectations and therefore less chance of getting disappointed!
Ultimately traveling on a shoestring while you're young will be one of your biggest opportunities for learning and growth if you take it up. You can still travel on a shoestring when you're having a middle aged mid-life crisis, but there is a reason youth hostels are called “youth hostels”, when I'm 60 I doubt I'll want to hang out on the couch of /or youth hostel with young whippersnappers. I've learnt more through my 14 months of travel, than I did in my 13 years wearing a stiff white shirt, tartan skirt and tie school uniform, so far its also only cost about 3% of my formal education. Not all your experiences will be pleasant (this is why we call them “learning” experiences) but they'll make you a stronger, more worldly, knowledgable and open minded being.
God morgen Melbourne, god julekveld Norge, god tur meeeg #onashoestring (at Melbourne Airport (MEL))
