Jules of Nature
trying on a metaphor
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Product Placement
Sade Olutola
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Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
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Xuebing Du
#extradirty
NASA
❣ Chile in a Photography ❣
oozey mess
Keni
DEAR READER
taylor price
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noise dept.
if i look back, i am lost
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@thestandbypassenger
I am approaching my twenty-third birthday, which marks the end of the flying benefits I have enjoyed as the dependent of a Delta employee since the day I was born. I have decided to maximize this remaining time by going to a different place in the world every weekend for the next two months. It...
I decided to try for Rio de Janeiro this weekend. I still have a valid Brazilian visa from the time I visited a friend in Florianopolis a few years back. I was in the South and Rio is in the North and the rumor is that the two are like different countries. Supposedly the South even tried to secede...
kutna hora
czech republic
Itchy times
I am absolutely covered in bites from Albanian mozzie bastards. Thank god for the antihistamine tablets in my travel kit.
Lessons to be leant from this.
1. Remember to put insect repellant on 2. Put insect repellant on before it gets dark and they come out 3. Learn lesson from previous nights’ mozzie biting fiesta and put insect repellant on or wake up covered in twice as many bites
Deet away my friends!
Some good advice for combating Albanian mosquitos.
So a llama, a lady, and a cock walk into a bar….
BUT actually, as much as I love all of my neuroscience and math classes right now, I do miss the sliver of my summer that was spent visiting family and exploring Ecuador.
I purchased this tiny bar after bargaining with an indigenous woman in Quito’s artisan market. She was kind, and I think she appreciated my use of Ecuadorian jargon, though my Spanish was limited. The llama, lady, and cock, however, I bought in a town on the outskirts of Quito called Calderon. Many of the locals there specialize in handcrafting figurines like those out of dough. Out of dough!
Despues by Hello Seahorse!
Travel music!
Woes of an Airline Child
I am approaching my twenty-third birthday, which marks the end of the flying benefits I have enjoyed as the dependent of a Delta employee since the day I was born. I have decided to maximize this remaining time by going to a different place in the world every weekend for the next two months. It won’t be the ideal travel situation, as I have lots of busy work from my full class load and LSAT preparation that I will have to do. But I figure that if I am going to be sitting at a coffee shop studying, I might as well be sitting at a coffee shop in some other country. And I will try to get in some sight-seeing/exploring in edgewise.
As a standby passenger, there is always the risk of of not getting on a flight if it is full. If it is a return flight, that raises the possibility of me missing class on Monday. Fortunately I still have a few high-priority “S2’s” left. Each employee or beneficiary is given six S2’s per year, which they can ration as they desire. The priority that seats are assigned to standbys is listed by employment date. An S2 allows a passenger to skip ahead of people with higher priority on the list who are not using an S2. It’s sort of a gamble, though. There have been times when I’ve used an S2 then found out that I would have gotten on even if I had used an S3 (normal priority), and it was basically wasted.
Soooo, I’m trying to decide where to go this weekend. I think that Asia is out of the question because the travel time makes it not worth it to go for just two days. Zurich, Rio de Janeiro, and Shannon are high on my list. I need to decide by tomorrow so I know which flight to list myself on. I think my decision may just come down to the flip of a coin!
You will fall in love with someone who’s cold and always seemingly pushing you away. When all is said and done, they will be forever known as the one person you couldn’t get to love you. Unfortunately, it will hurt and sting worse than the good ones, the ones that chopped up your meat for you and picked out an eyelash from your eye and were nice to your mother, because love often feels like a game we need to win. And when we lose, when we realize we couldn’t get what we ultimately desired from a person, it makes us feel like a failure and erases all the memories of those who loved us in the past. It’s a permanent smudge on your love resume.
The types of people you will fall in love with in your 20s (via creatingaquietmind)
I wanted to see where beauty comes from without you in the world, hauling my heart across sixty acres of northeast meadow, my pockets filling with flowers. Then I remembered, it’s you I miss in the brightness and body of every living name: rattlebox, yarrow, wild vetch. You are the green wonder of June, root and quasar, the thirst for salt. When I finally understand that people fail at love, what is left but cinquefoil, thistle, the paper wings of the dragonfly aeroplaning the soul with a sudden blue hilarity? If I get the story right, desire is continuous, equatorial. There is still so much I want to know: what you believe can never be removed from us, what you dreamed on Walnut Street in the unanswerable dark of your childhood, learning pleasure on your own. Tell me our story: are we impetuous, are we kind to each other, do we surrender to what the mind cannot think past? Where is the evidence I will learn to be good at loving? The black dog orbits the horseshoe pond for treefrogs in their plangent emergencies. There are violet hills, there is the covenant of duskbirds. The moon comes over the mountain like a big peach, and I want to tell you what I couldn’t say the night we rushed North, how I love the seriousness of your fingers and the way you go into yourself, calling my half-name like a secret. I stand between taproot and treespire. Here is the compass rose to help me live through this. Here are twelve ways of knowing what blooms even in the blindness of such longing. Yellow oxeye, viper’s bugloss with its set of pink arms pleading do not forget me. We hunger for eloquence. We measure the isopleths. I am visiting my life with reckless plenitude. The air is fragrant with tiny strawberries. Fireflies turn on their electric wills: an effulgence. Let me come back whole, let me remember how to touch you before it is too late.
“Summer Solstice,” Stacie Cassarino (via vlorin)
Making the money last
In addition to saving up enough money to go on this trip, I am making many steps to ensure that my money goes as far as possible. I’ve been asked many times how it is possible to have saved up enough money to go travelling non-stop for such a long time. Well it obviously involved putting aside a large chunk of my salary away each month and avoid drinking, social and retail temptations for a while (of which there were many), but my approach to travel means that my budget can stretch much further. This is no five star luxury holiday by any means so here are a few tips on how I am able to travel for almost a year on limited funds. Some of these are quite obvious but for people who haven’t travelled much, these tips might be helpful.
CHEAP ACCOMMODATION Hostels often get a bad rap but in reality, there are a wealth of clean and cheap options available that offer a number of perks which make them worthwhile. A dorm room can go for anywhere from $10-40 per night (depending on if you are travelling through Asia or Europe) which is attractive in itself for the budget traveller but many also offer air-con, free WIFI and free towels/linen. The big sweetener many provide is free breakfast. Some might only give you toast or a pastry but if you’re really lucky, some offer a hot or buffet breakfast to fill up on which helps to keep food costs down for the day.
While sharing a room with 4-10 people might not be everyone’s cup of tea, if offers a whole raft of possibilities for the solo traveller. You can make friends, discover the best places to eat and visit, find people to travel with and find out about hidden gems that aren’t mentioned in your travel guide. However if you do prefer some privacy, most hostels offer private rooms that are still markedly cheaper than hotels so you can get your own space but still get the fun atmosphere and the chance to meet like-minded people.
EAT STREET FOOD Many people avoid eating street food in fear of getting food poisoning but it just means they are missing out on the best local cuisine on offer for unbelievably cheap prices! In Asian countries in particular, it is not uncommon for restaurants that offer menus in English to serve up bland food that is ridiculously overpriced. If it seems like a big step into the culinary unknown, just look for places where all of the local people seem to be eating at - it’s often a good sign! Most of these places don’t have menus though so if the language barrier proves a problem when it comes to ordering, just look for a plate of food that someone is eating from that looks delicious and point. Surprise and delight at its finest!
OVERNIGHT TRANSPORT If you have a long journey to make, choosing an overnight bus or train is an affordable way to get from A to B and save on a night’s accommodation! Just make sure you take ear plugs, eye mask, sleeping pills and don’t drink! Toilets can be less than savoury or toilet stops can be minimal. You have been warned! It’s also best to not let yourself be fazed by delays because they can be more common than not, especially in developing countries. Factor in more time if you need to make onward travel connections.
RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH If you have the time, I cannot recommend enough using Trip Advisor reviews, Lonely Planet forums and fellow traveller’s recommendations to help glean advice on how to get the best deals. This not only includes finding out the best tours for the best price but knowing how much you should be paying for things such as taxi’s into town from airports can be extremely useful in avoiding getting ripped off too much.
DOSSING Staying with friends when you can is another great way to help save on accommodation costs which usually ends up being your biggest daily cost. Just make sure you don’t outstay your welcome and be sure to show your thanks by gifting a bottle of wine or doing some cleaning if funds are really tight. If you stay a while, treating them to a home cooked meal or dinner out can be a nice gesture.
Facebook is also a great way to keep connected with other travellers that you have met on the way and can hit up to stay with if you make it to their home town. Just remember to be open to returning the favour in the future if they come knocking on your door!
Couch Surfing is also another great way to get a local experience and save on accommodation. I have never used it myself and have heard mixed reports but the concept is fantastic.
FOLLOW THE EXCHANGE RATE Choosing an itinerary based on how far your money goes in the local currency can help you travel for longer on less money. When budget travel in Western Europe can easily cost $100 a day (on a good day) or $40-50 in South East Asia, and then cheaper again in India and Nepal it’s really not a hard decision to make. The cultural experiences non-Western countries can offer are amazing and you just can’t knock 50c beers. Not at all.
SHARE A ROOM In places like India where guesthouses rather than hostels are the norm, you can save more money by sharing a room. This is simple if you are travelling in a pair but it is also possible if you are a solo traveller. Meeting people along the way in the same budget boat is pretty common so it is easy to broach the conversation of sharing a room. I wouldn’t recommend sharing a room with the first person that comes along but if you do end up meeting people and travelling with them for a while and getting to know each other well, it can a great cost killer. Just make sure that you keep security top of mind.
VOLUNTEER Volunteering offers an enriching experience that you will remember forever. By committing time to a charity for a period of time, it means that you are not spending a lot of money covering distances and many destinations. It’s also extremely likely that you’re not out spending money on partying and drinking. The only thing you are spending is your time which can be priceless. Cheesy but true.
Great ideas!
Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria
Standby travel: Not for the faint of heart
By Emanuella Grinberg, CNN
The mother had less than a minute to decide: Let her daughter go on alone and break up the family, or keep everyone together, unsure when they would ever make it out.
"No, Mommy!" her younger daughter shrieked as the older one looked at her solemnly, eyes pleading to let her go.
"You have to decide now!" said the uniformed attendant holding the door open, voice loud and stern.
This may sound like the dramatic climax of a harrowing tale of escape, and in a sense it is. It's just one of many typical standby travel scenarios, in which passengers are faced with tough decisions in their efforts to snag unclaimed airline seats at deep discounts.
There are two forms of standby travel: One covers most of us, who have paid to reserve a seat and for whatever reason find ourselves trying to get on a different flight. This includes people who get bumped from a flight and those trying to switch to a flight earlier or later in the day.
Then, there are "nonrevs," the term for passengers from whom the airline doesn't earn any revenue, which included the family in this particular scenario witnessed recently at the Zurich airport. This elite fellowship consists largely of airline employees, their families and acquaintances -- the mythical buddy passengers. Technically, they don't buy seat reservations. Instead, they list their names on a standby registry prioritized by relationship to the airline, giving them the chance to vie for remaining open seats after all of the paying passengers have boarded a flight.
Still, the wait could be days, as another family learned last week. Curtis Saxton, his wife, and his two children, ages 13 and 4, spent five days at the Salt Lake City airport waiting for a seats on a flight home to Virginia. The family was flying on buddy passes and couldn't afford to buy seats, Saxton told CNN affiliate KTVX. Finally, after five days without a shower, they lucked out when a KTVX viewer purchased tickets for a flight home.
Standby travel gets harder
With its reliance on ever-decreasing empty airline seats, standby travel appears to be going the way of free food in coach. But savvy travelers with time to spare and the right mindset are still finding ways to game the system into free and discounted flights.
It's hard to quantify exactly how much standby travel has decreased in recent years, because airlines contacted by CNN would not share specific figures on nonrev travel. But interviews with several longtime standby pros suggested that it has become increasingly harder, simply because it's hard to find an empty seat. Travelers might arrive at the airport for the first flight out and wait until the last one. If returning standby, they might end up spending several extra days overseas or flying around Europe to catch connecting flights that will get them closer to home.
However, a bold contingent of nonrevs remains undaunted. You can spot them at the airport watching flight information monitors like hawks, waiting for their initials to appear on the cleared list. But civility is also a requirement of standby travel as part of the airlines' terms and conditions for taking advantage of this benefit. Passengers keep a safe distance from the desk to avoid becoming a nuisance to airline staff, who are their only allies. After all, nonrevs know it's out of their hands. There's nothing anyone can do but wait and let the airline fates shine upon them if there's room and their standby priority ranking is high enough.
It's not for the faint of heart, requiring a vast reserve of patience and a "que sera, sera" attitude. There is no guarantee of success -- often up until the very last second -- which was the scenario this family found itself in one Saturday morning in July. There was only one seat left, and there were three of them. Raising the stakes was the fact that Sunday was a blackout day, meaning whoever was left behind would have to tough it out in Zurich for two days.
'You can't be in a hurry'
"I can do it," the older daughter said as the other started whimpering. "OK, yes," the mother said. Tears welled up her eyes as her daughter skipped toward the jetway without a second glance back. The mother choked back sobs as the door closed, and clutched her younger daughter as she wailed, "Let me go."
"One of the toughest things to deal with is the lack of control that you have over the whole process," said Albert Boquet, associate professor and chair of the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Human Factors and Systems Department in Daytona Beach, Florida.
"You can't be in hurry and you have to be fairly philosophical about it," Boquet said. "If you go in with the mindset and understanding that when things go wrong or you don't get on a specific flight or two or three, you have to be able to say this is part of the game."
There was a time when this manner of standby travel was open to anyone. If you weren't in a hurry, you could show up at the airport or call the airline ahead of time and get on the standby list, agreeing to wait until a flight had empty seats. Boquet did it as a college student in 1981, waiting at the New Orleans airport most of the day until he got a seat on a flight to London for less than half the price of a reserved seat. Even then, getting back posed a bigger problem, and Boquet waited several days before he got a flight back to New Orleans.
Fewer empty seats to fill
That was before airline deregulation, which made seats cheaper and more accessible.
"Now airlines are good at filling seats," Boquet said. "With Internet (travel) sites and last-minute deals and travel agents, it's very rare today to have a flight taking off, especially at a busy destination, with 15 to 20 seats empty."
The risk is great, but so are the rewards: tickets averaging less than half the cost of a reserved seat, or nothing at all for some active employees, depending on the airline. Plus if the open seat is in first class, then you could be flying first class to London for the cost of taxes.
"If one assumes the mindset that travel in general, and standby travel in particular, is akin to a game that one plays, or is a challenge that one overcomes ... then the rewards of the novelty, excitement, and fun of travel are, ironically, all the more rewarding," said travel expert Michael Brein, who flew standby for free in 1984 after winning United Airlines' 50 States in 50 Days contest.
"You know that there are challenges, but there are also the rewards. I think many of us implicitly expect travel difficulties inherent in going standby, so it is, in a way, a sort of 'attitude inoculation.' Somehow, knowing and expecting travel hurdles in conjunction with standby traveling -- and realizing that it is part and parcel -- is somewhat 'arming' and preparing."
Standby travel with conditions
Some airlines offer a form of standby to customers who have already purchased a seat reservation. It's called same-day standby travel, but it sounds more like changing your flight on the same day without paying a fee. It's often restricted to members of loyalty programs and even then, sometimes only to high-priority travelers.
Alaska Airlines' "Free Same Day Standby" program for an alternate flight is available on departure day to certain customers and those traveling between specific cities. Otherwise, anyone else can request same day standby for a fee while checking in online or at the airport. Or you can just call and pay to change your flight, which is what many people end up doing to curtail the uncertainty.
Some airlines still offer standby revenue travel in limited circumstances. AirTran offers traditional standby tickets through its"AirTran U" program, in which passengers 18 to 22 years old can call or go the airport and agree to wait until a seat opens up on a flight.
One airline with less restrictions is JetBlue, which allows all passengers the option of listing standby within 24 hours of a reserved flight for travel between the same cities. Passengers may travel one flight earlier than the scheduled departure on the same day, except when traveling out of a city with one daily flight. Then, you can try to get on the flight the day before.
Of course, "Standby travel is based on seat availability and is not guaranteed," JetBlue says on its website.
A cheaper flight, by necessity
"People who do standby travel normally do so out of necessity rather than choice. For most of us, traveling standby is anxiety-inducing, stressful," said Brein. "It takes increasingly 'rare' people who are equipped to be able to cope with the potentially ever-increasing chaotic mess of their travel-lives that results from standby travel."
Having a backup plan helps, he said, like knowing whether you plan to sleep in the airport or to get a room. Sometimes, travelers find another city to fly out of, leading to all kinds of adventures and misadventures. But those are tales for another day.
Patarei Prison, Tallinn, Estonia
Patarei Soviet Prison, Tallinn, Estonia
The Baltic States
A tour of Patarei Prison.
