41 Days!

As the day of our departure gets closer and closer, we made some big purchases this week totaling in large sums of money but also cementing the reality of our trip! We bought our Eurorail passes from RailEurope.com. While it isn't necessarily the cheapest way to travel through Europe, it provides relatively flexible travel so we aren't stopped by travel deadlines. We have also started our purchasing of technology. Alexis decided on a camera and I bought an iPad.

While in general I am firmly against iPads as a useless first world technology that functions as an oversized phone or tiny obnoxious computer, here is the one time where buying one seemed useful. Laptops are clunky and heavy when you carry your home on your back, but a phone is hard to type on and even harder to Skype on. Here is where the iPad can come in handy as a bridge between the two. I bought mine at http://stores.ebay.com/Gazelle-Store . This company buys used electronic products, refurbishes them and sells them through eBay at discounted prices. On a student budget, it makes keeping in touch with people from home a whole lot easier.

So the countdown begins! 41 days until we get on the plane and I'm sure the time will fly by!

Love,
Liz

Testing, testing 123

If this works, we'll be able to send updates directly to the blog via email.

How exciting.

Carry on, Gap Year!

I feel it is my duty as a rookie gap-year-er to pass on the knowledge Liz and I have gathered over the course of many months and indefinite hours with the world wide web. The fun and freeing experience of travel is, in reality, the product of much intention, planning, and sacrifice. It is my hope that this post allows aspiring extended-trip travelers to gain some footing, knowing first hand how daunting the preparation stages can be. I'm also hoping to consolidate some of this information for myself...

I must also note that while its common to associate travel and affluence, its imperative to remember, for our own benefit, the abundant resources we have in this age of technology that allow us to travel in a way that is less expensive and more engaging. The tools and links below have aided us in making our 7+ month travels a reality, even with our student-sized budget.

Flights 

Liz found the magnificent AirTreks to book our flights through. This company specializes in round the world airfare, so if you have multiple destination around the globe this is definitely a site to check out. Their trip planner lets you play with your route online and gives you instant cost estimates. When you're getting ready to book flights, you can talk to a travel consultant that, in our experience, becomes a knowledgeable contact and serves as a liaison while you're abroad. Booking flights with AirTreks also comes with one year of travel (and other) insurance, a handsome deal considering the prices you could pay for travel insurance by itself. There are lots of plus sides and bonuses to going through AirTreks - would recommend them as of now!

Another note - in places like Europe it is often cheaper to fly between destinations than it is to take a long train or bus ride. Sites like Ryanair offer inexpensive flights that could come in handy when the magic of land travel wears off.

Accommodations/Activities

The beauty of traveling for less, I've concluded, is this: how much you spend on lodging is inversely related to how close you are to the culture of where you're visiting and the traveling community on the whole. Take, for example, a hotel, a hostel, and a homestay (the three H's!). The hotel is the most expensive and you will be guaranteed a private space (usually). The hostel will most likely have you in close quarters with other travelers and be cheaper than the hotel. Finally, the homestay can be found for free with the help of sites supported by fellow travelers, and features sharing the home of someone who actually lives in the area you are exploring.  If close contact and cultural exchange is not your cup of tea, that's okay. You can still travel for cheap, just don't forget your sleeping bag and tent.

Since Liz and I are seeking the former, the following sites and organizations have been premium. Here goes.

Couchsurfing

Couchsurfing is the ultimate backpacker/traveler site for the culture-hungry and the budgeting. Hosts offer spare bedrooms, pull out couches, the floor, etc., to surfers passing through. You will hear time and again, though, do not join because you want a free stay. Take heed. Do it for the opportunity to meet cool people, build up your network of friends across the world, and for the additional resources they have to offer besides couch surfing, like group forums for European carpools, trip tips, and more. 

HelpX

HelpX is a work exchange website where hosts exchange food and accommodations, usually in their home, for several hours work each day from their helpers. Expectations, tasks, and length of stay vary greatly from host to host. Many past helpers claim that in the time they spent with their hosting family they got very close to one another, a definite bonus. What I like about HelpX is that, unlike Wwoofing, there is only one registration fee that gives you access to hosts all over the world.

staydu
New websites that attempt to make travel more accessible are emerging. One that I've recently been experiment with is staydu, a site that features three ways to stay - 1) for free, a la couch surfing, 2) for a specified amount of money, or 3) in exchange for work. Both hosts and travelers chose which options they prefer and match up accordingly. This site has a nice aesthetic, a points rewards system, and, apparently, a friendly following, since I've already been contacted by someone in India who invited me to stay in their home. Like HelpX, you do have a pay a registration fee in order to get in touch with hosts. If you're into this site, use my coupon when you pay your registration! Enter the code 3638KW when you activate your membership for a discount. Those wishing to become hosts enter 3638HOST.

Other organization I'm not currently using but have heard good things about are WWOOF and Volunteers for Peace. WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) is a network that exchanges room and board for volunteer work, usually on (wait for it!) organic farms. With wwoofing, you chose the country you would like to register with before you pay you fee.
My sister Casey has been involved with the organization Volunteers for Peace  for several years now. Organization and individuals from around the world are consolidated on the VFP website, and volunteers typically pay their own airfare and small fee to live and work with children, the environment, village development, animals, you name it. She has had great experiences with her hosts and co-volunteers in places like Haiti and Costa Rica. Read more on her Words of a Wanderer blog.

Hostels  
I'm no hostel expert, but from what I gather, they are a critical intersection for the young traveling community, where open individuals from all over can converge, talk, go out, share a dormitory, etc. I've come across one traveler blogger who swears by http://www.hostelworld.com/. Others say that the cheapest hostels won't be found online (more true for developing countries). Guess we'll find out.

Packing
So far, this is the most helpful and comprehensive list I've seen of what to bring when you go backpacking. (Internet find credit to Liz.) Its long. If your trip will be too, take the time to read it. After that, don't run to your nearest REI, unless you have a bottomless budget. Research your favorite and needed items online, where they are often cheaper. Altrec has lots of discounted products and extremely fast shipping. Then weigh whether you would like to contribute to globalization by shopping online instead of locally, if you can live with yourself considering how un-environmentally friendly shipping items right to your doorstep is, and whether your trip budget can spare you bringing these factors into account. Someone's been having internal consumer conflicts...

I'm not hatin' on REI. They have a great return policy, reallllly helpful staff, and a worthwhile membership program.

More discussion of backpacking items to ensue, I'm sure.

Budgeting

Ah, the dreaded budget. I avoided it for a long time. Enter Europe budget man. There's a handy little budget calculator for Europe on his website, and he's not lying when he says he will email you back if you have any questions. He says plan on about $1,000 per month spent in Western Europe, but there are always ways to cut this estimate down, i.e., stop partying and use the links above. Wish I could speak more to the budget, but math is not my forte...where's Liz when you need her...

We've accepted that eventually we will run out of money, at which point we will have to return home. We've equally accepted that there are ways to travel that cut down on expenses and get us closer to the cultures we're in. YOU CAN'T BUDGET LIFE CHANGING EXPERIENCE said the liberal arts student.

In conclusion, I hope this preliminary list is informative for those who need it and moderately interesting to inspiring for those who don't. Obviously, we won't know the extent and quality of the services listed above until we are in the thick of it, but that is precisely what this blog is for - keeping y'all updated while we're in the thick of it. Stay tuned for other cool products and services, we learn something new everyday. 

Love,
Alexis

And I quote...

"Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God."
- Kurt Vonnegut


I happened upon this while doing some research. Love it! So, if anyone feels like playing God, we're here. And we're listening.

Post #1

Well, well, well.

Here we are, folks. The date is July 7th, 2012, which means that Liz and I will be embarking on our gap year in exactly 57 days. Time to start up the ole blog! 

I guess it would be appropriate for the first post to include our personal origin story. It all began on the Tufts University email server, where we found out that we were to be roommates for the 2011-2012 school year. Nothing monumental happened in this stage of being cyber acquaintances, except for an agreement that a certain rug would decorate our dorm room. 

Aw. So cute. 

In late August we met in person for the first time. Please see photo evidence to the left. I got to the room first. I had one suitcase and two bags. Liz rolled up a few minutes later with a giant green rug, a green chair, a green lamp, (a green refrigerator later on), and around 47 boxes of clothing, including one roll-away dedicated entirely to scarves. Hopefully she packs lighter on backpacking excursions that she does during college move-in - fingers crossed, everyone!

The rest of our freshman year was a blur of binge drinking, frat parties, and experimentation with psychedelic drugs. Just kidding. Only the first two. We also studied and ate Hodgdon food. 

In all seriousness, I think we both agree that we had the year every college freshman hopes for. We worked hard and played hard. There were bad times and good times. We made  the best of friends and had the classiest gatherings possible in a 14x14 dorm room. 

So why leave? Valid question, seeing as we're happy Bostonians studying mechanical engineering (Liz) and english/gender studies (Alexis). We discussed this very question one late night in February, a conversation that snowballed into our current journey. Don't mind if I rattle off a few highlights from our talk... 

• We were both extremely burnt out academically. Straight to college after high school is a marathon, and second semester we were hitting a wall. 
• Second, after four+ years of striving towards the ultimate goal - to get into a good college - we succeeded. And now we didn't know what to do with ourselves. We needed a fresh motivation, vision, and drive. 
• We didn't want to spend 3 more years (and 150,000 more dollars) studying subjects that we hadn't had time to fully process and imagine ourselves working with. Sometimes, you need to take a step back in order to digest your future. 
• We were realizing that we did not want to participate in the high school to college to work force norm that eliminated valuable life choices from the spectrum. 
• We couldn't bear putting off some serious travel any longer.

These and other reasons made taking a year off make the most sense, although it remains the craziest thing we've ever done. Click here to have the value of a gap year echoed by someone older and wiser in case you're still skeptical. 

That's about enough for a first post, I'd say! To anyone reading this, Liz and I sincerely thank you for reading and caring about our voyage. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or if you would like to meet up abroad, or if you are interested in helping us out along the way, please don't hesitate to get in touch! 

Peace, 

Best, 

Alexis