Travel Adventures Continues

The day we left camp was the same day that Princess Diana died: August 31, 1997. * That day is forever etched in my mind because there were many emotions present on that day. Sadness because I realized at that time that a great experience has come to an end, but also sadness due to the global news we’ve received. At the same time, happiness because I received a humongous bonus at the end of camp, as well as happiness that the next adventure was to start, YES!

Now, what was the next adventure you ask? Well thank you for asking! A few of the guys bought a beaten up van and wanted to travel 30 days from East to the West Coast. And I had the privilege to be with them for the first week of that journey. 

Beaten up van!

First stop: Buffalo. We wanted to see Niagara Falls and hang with Ishmael who was also part of camp. So we arrived at Ish’ mom, ate the most delicious quiche ever where after Ish indicated it was party time! We piled into the van and went to a hangar where there was already a line waiting outside. Great our surprise when we got out of the van, police came squealing around the corner, blaring horns and flashing lights. It literally felt like in the movies cus Ish yelled Get in get in get INNNNN so we piled back into the van and squared away. We stopped on an overhead highway somewhere nearby and saw some type of action going on at the hangar where the party was supposed to be. Bummer! No party! Nevertheless, we still managed to get back home around 4 AM! 

Niagara Falls

Second stop: Manhattan! Unfortunately, I drew the shortest stick as I was the first – AND ONLY – driver as the others snored their hearts out in the back of the van. Now remember, this was before Tom Tom or Google Maps or GPS or any of that stuff, so it was using those paper maps to get to where we were going and it took around 7 hours of driving time (to include time for getting lost). I had this little cassette transistor radio with ONE cassette, and as I was also tired and on the brink of falling asleep, there was this one song I put on repeat just to keep awake! Thank God we arrived safe and sound in Manhattan for some tremendous sleep time 😀

Third and last stop (for me): Philadelphia! This is a beautiful city to drive through, people were quite friendly and too bad for me I didn’t have much time to be there longer. It’s on my bucket list of cities, that I want to revisit some day! I won’t bore you with the rest of the story – if you want more you can always holler below and I’ll write up another story another day.

For now, this has rounded up my two week’s category of Travel – travel adventures continues is the last chapter. Next two weeks I’ll be talking about money, as that comes back in almost all my stories (I’m sure it does in yours too). Maybe this will teach me something new: who knows! Hope you enjoyed this series.. on to the next!

*For the beginning of this story, feel free to read the previous part here.

travel adventures part 2

It was the summer of 1997. Off I went to Perlman Camp in Pennsylvania. Never been to New York before, so being nervous and excited were are bundled into one when I arrived at Schiphol Airport for my flight. Pakistan International Airlines was the airline which flew us from Amsterdam to La Guardia in New York.

I remember telling my family that I was going to fly with them, and they all told me that they would pray for me! The audacity 😀 but at the same time knowing my conservative family it was a logical response. To be honest, to date, Pakistan air had the best airline food I have ever had!

It was on that flight that I started understanding the power of travel – especially traveling solo. It was easy to talk to others as you are not so preoccupied with your friends or family. You get to experience culture through other people’s eyes and things that you take for granted are not as normal as you believe.

We stayed in the dorms of Colombia University – one of the scenes of the Ghostbusters movie. Taking the subway was high on my to-do list as well as finding a diner but only one of those was realized at that time. You can guess which one!

Taking the greyhound from Penn Station towards Lake Como had me arrive in camp around 7 that night. I did not know what to expect, and I was totally unprepared. I got to meet a group of extraordinary people right away: people from Ukraine, Russia, England, France, New Zealand, Venezuela, Latvia and Ethiopia just to name a few. 

Still in contact to Steve who relocated to Australia… 

One of the rules in camp was: no alcohol! But of course, if you put many 20 year old together… they are bound to mess up, right? That’s what happened one night after we’ve been there for about 3 or 4 weeks. There was a “secret” party. Now I didn’t drink, but I attended the party as it seemed like a fun thing to do. We worked really hard in that kitchen, so one night of innocent laughter and fun wouldn’t hurt, right? Or so we thought!

In the middle of the party, Wex, the kitchen manager, shows up with the head of council. As a result, most of the people in that party got FIRED! The only reason I did not get fired was because they trusted me when I told them that I did not drink and that I was just there for the fun of it.

I want you to Imagine the scene. We started out in the kitchen with about 20 people as we had to make meals every day for around 400 kids and staff. After that party, there were about 12 of us left. And we still had to feed the same amount of people. Had I thought we worked hard before.. Oh my goodness! 

This was the rock I used to sit on during our midday break to catch my breath.

In the end though, we did what we had to do and made magic happen. I met wonderful people in camp and am still in contact with a few of them around the world. I am super grateful for this travel adventures part 2 as it is one major event that has shaped me into the woman I am today.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you about what happened after camp. It involves Buffalo Police force, Niagara Falls, beaten up van and the likes. So stay tuned! What about sharing your travel adventures part 2? Feel free to share your stories!

Photo by AleksKuprFilmz from Pexels

Voluntary travel adventure part 1

In 1996, I saw a flyer in the canteen of the college I was attending at that time asking interested students to work voluntarily in other parts of the world. The moment I lay eyes on that brochure, it felt like my blood started to hum. 

I took the flyer home, and started thinking of ways on how to get into this program. By then it was somewhere in October/November and even though it stated that applications were accepted for the following summer up till end of September, I was convinced that this is what I wanted to do. Why not? It combined adventure AND travel – what could be more exciting than that?

So, I wrote a letter to the organization (remember, email just became a thing so letters were still very much used). And I asked what the possibilities were to join for the coming summer. I heard nothing till end of December when I came home from a dreary day in school. A letter was waiting for me on my doorstep and in it an invitation for an interview! Oh I was ecstatic! Totally forgot how miserable the weather made me feel – the sun started shining on the inside again!

So – in January I went to the interview in Utrecht train station. It lasted maybe 15 minutes where I was to go through the entire interview in English. Afterwards it was kind of an anti-climax because how much can a person get to know about you in 15 minutes?

Then … April 1997 rolled around. I had given up hope ever hearing from them again at least for that summer. I remember as it was yesterday: we had a barbecue on the roof when one of the girls brought me a letter. My acceptance letter that is. I was SO glad that Raylian – my dear friend – cautioned me to not fall off the roof because I was bouncing around everywhere.

Now here’s the fun part, the part that seems to come back in all my stories. I had to pay 695 guilders to participate which would pay for the air travel, lodging for the first 3 days and all the guidance that was provided to go on my adventure. Remember – I was a student. Now where would I be getting that money from? And it had to be paid in a week or two…

Well. I rounded up ALL my past employers (I was a workaholic even then!) asked them for work and worked 2 weeks straight to make that money. Which I did! Perlman Camp? Here I come!

That is the start of my voluntary travel adventure part 1. Tomorrow I’ll elaborate on some of the stories in that summer, the people I met and overall what an experience that has been. So stay tuned!

* Note: as I don’t recall which of the summer camp exchange programs I used, I linked to both organizations 🙂

Travel Adventures

I have to make a confession. This challenge I put myself in has proven to be a challenge indeed! To refresh your memory – I’ve decided to up my game and write on one topic for 2 whole weeks: whatever it is that my heart desires…as long as it’s related to travel.

Pfew! It’s not been an easy week I tell you and there are still three days to go! As it IS my blog I can say “you know what? I’ll just say I tried it and it didn’t work!” and that would be the end of it. However what would that say about my character as well as my ability to push through a challenge? So that’s why today’s topic – travel adventures – is closer to home than all the other 6 posts I’ve written.

When I was a student in The Netherlands, there were multiple times when the travel bug would bite me and no way that I could shake it off. One particular adventure had to do with London.

I got to know this lovely lady from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and she went to live in London. She asked me to come visit, so I asked a friend of mine (Marielaaa come in!) to go with me to visit her (Sabina you remember this?). This was the time before the internet had tons of travel information. We looked for a cheap ticket to London and off we went!

Now thank GOD, that I packed bread and peanut butter in my suitcase [probably my sixth sense? who knows?] because once we got to Heathrow Airport, we had to buy a train ticket to go to where my friend was living. Lo-and-behold. We did not have enough money for a return trip by train! So we panicked. A little. Ok. A lot. Because here we are, two quite innocent girls at the time, not knowing much of the world, stranded at Heathrow Airport!

After much deliberation, we decided to buy a single ticket, and off we went. Now, if I tell you that this was the best vacation we had up to that point, you wouldn’t believe me. But it was. We spent time laughing, just having fun. Ah.. simpler times!

High tea!

Do you have any adventure that you’d wish to share? Let us know below!

Staycation vs Vacation

The first time I heard this term was when I was in college – and someone in my dorm asked me if I’d be doing a staycation this year around. As I came to the Netherlands as a student, and did not really know the country that well, I could understand why a staycation could be beneficial, instead of flying x miles back home as I was used doing every year.

So, the first time I went on a staycation was actually quite … different. There’s simply on other term for it really. 

In the Netherlands you have the NS (Nationale Spoorwegen) which offer trips for days away. (Dagje uit as it’s called in Dutch). So, I thought let’s DO THIS! Bought a dagje uit ticket and on to Maastricht I went. Now Maastricht is a city somewhere in the south and lo-and-behold: it did feel as if I was not really in Nijmegen no more!

Went on a tour, ate at a nice eatery somewhere and as it was a sunny day (I sure was blessed!) spent a pleasant afternoon in the Center of Maastricht and had a blast! Now logic would dictate that as this turned out to be such a great thing to do, I’d go on more of these, right?

Eh… Wrong. Somehow traveling outside of my country of residence has an allure that I can’t seem to shake. Now that I’m living on the island, this feeling has even intensified, while I could easily do a staycation here on the island as well! Going to Westpunt for example in one of the weekend houses there, or Lagun! Ahhh my kids adore the beach there [for the life of me I don’t see what they see but hey! Every one their own opinion of course!].

In short, in the staycation vs vacation battle, vacation always wins. What are your experiences with staycations? Do you do these often? Let us know in the comments below! 

Travel tidbits

Did you know that:

• • For international flights you need to be there three hours prior to flight? This is so they can process everyone on time?
  • Up till 12 years ago your baggage was automatically included in your ticket price?
  • Some airlines still provide meals on board at no cost? 
  • Asia is “quite cheap” for travel? You can expect to pay around €70 per person per day including stay, transport and food?
  • Tourism is one of the financial pillars of Curacao?
  • The Caribbean is a beautiful place to travel as the weather is warm (sometimes super hot!) all year round?
  • Everyone can travel (or insert any other word here) if they put their mind to it?

Anything else that you want to add travel tidbits knowledge list? Feel free to do so! 

Language while traveling

This blog is in English: hmm I’m stating the obvious am I not? Interestingly, English is in the top 3 languages in the world, which surprised me a bit as I surely thought Spanish was after English! What do I know :). Now in relation to traveling, the fact that English is so widely spoken makes traveling easier to some extent. I’ve heard of friends in Asia – shout out to Lina! – who arrived in China and were unable to find their ways in the first few days they were there, mainly due to the language difference.

We are blessed here on the island of Curaçao, that most of us (natives better known as Yu di Korsou) speak minimal four languages (Papiamentu, Dutch, English and Spanish). No, of course I’m aware that if you’re reading this article, you understand English. But I do wonder: what do people do when going to places where English is not spoken or at least not understood? Here are some tips that I’ve found, that could help in this scenario:

1. Let’s start with learning the basic language words like hello and thank you.
2. Writing down important details might also help! Make sure you have addresses of your hotel, airport and whatever landmark you want to visit written down so that you could get there easier.
3. Google translate can be your go-to app, or find a translation app you are comfortable with.
4. If you are traveling for a while in that country, you can also find a local teacher to help you out with the local language.

There are many articles one could read to get more tips and tricks on handling a country where the language is other than those you know.

Do you have any tips or tricks on this language while traveling topic? Let us know as usual in the comments below!

Photo by JESHOOTS.comfrom Pexels

To go, or not to go

That’s the question. Well, life consists of many other questions, but when it concerns travel, this one is mightily important don’t you think?

The reason I’m writing about this, is because it has happened multiple times that I’ve wanted to go somewhere. Started looking around for destinations, looking in the agenda for some lull-time in between clients [hint hint – this never happens in real life!] and then look at the budget to see if we can afford it or not.

As this is a new year and new decade, I have promised myself not to do this any longer: no more weighing alll the drama life throws at us versus going away for a refreshing time off. Looking for a destination is definitely not a problem: do you know how many countries there are in the world? As we live on an island, venturing far away costs quite a penny [would love to visit Africa, Asia, Australia just to name a few], and with a family the bank account would have to be a tad more flush to be able to manage even the plane tickets. BUT it’s on the radar as we are already planning our world trip in 5 years time yay!!

Usually we either venture to the Caribbean itself or to the United States as those are affordable places to visit (see? We touched base on money already) and lends itself easy to manage with no language barrier even for the kids of 5 and 7.

The biggest challenge in answering the to go, or not to go question lies in time-frame. As the kids are in school, we are severely bound by their vacation times. And you guessed it: unless I book a flight 800 years in advance, the prices are astronomical when you are flying in the ‘danger zone’. To give an example, a return trip to Miami from Curacao in the April vacation booked today, will cost $518 per person. Family of 4 (or gasp: 5!) will have to pay over $2,000 and guess what? That’s just for leaving the country!!! Same amount of days somewhere in November with no vacation time for the kids levers at $314 which is around $1,200 so that $800+ difference can be used for lodging, car and what not.

For now, we’ve gotten our eyes on an April vacation so our answer is TO GO. There is no better day than today, because come tomorrow there will be yet another set of challenges.

How do you answer this question within your family? Do you book things way in advance or do you do a spur of the moment type thing? Leave your comments below as usual!

Photo by Bich Tranfrom Pexels

Travel plans

Are you as excited as I am when you think of a place you want to visit? I kid you not, half the fun begins with thinking about where to go, when to go, with whom to go and how long to go for! I can stare at endless itineraries before making a decision to even the place to visit.

Funny story: when researching travel plans, I got to understand that travel plans means something totally different than what I’m making it out to be: “A travel plan is a package of actions designed by a workplace, school or other organisation to encourage safe, healthy and sustainable travel options”. Not exactly what I had in mind: I’m thinking more along the lines of planning your travel aka vacation!

So that got me pondering: how do you decide where to go? Do you often visit the same place or do you wander around the globe? And most importantly, how do you plan such a venture? Also what do you plan? Do you plan only where to go and look for accommodations when you get there? Or do you plan the whole shabam including what you eat when and where?

What we do in my household is plan the trip (usually using Kiwi or Kayak  for cheap air travel and we look at Hotwire or Airbnb for deals on hotel. I’m not yet there where I’ll do hostels, couch surfing and the likes, but I’m warming up to the idea of at least looking into hostels as the plan I have for in five years time would require a bit less financial drainage.

I’m looking at going to my favorite city with the kids during the April break – New York City. A city that never sleeps and who knew: a city which also tailors for kiddos! Planning stage has started.. so excitement is through the roof!

How do you manage your (fun!!) travel plans? What kind of planner are you? let us know in the comments below!