Welcome

This blog is about me travelling the world. It's about the trips I've done, the trips I will do in the future and the trips that are on my to-do-list. I also try to give some advice upon request, which you can find in the 'Can I help you?' section.

Me

It's always hard to describe yourself and tell a little about yourself, but let's give it a shot. It's not really necessary to dive too deep into personal details, but I'm a guy from Utrecht, the Netherlands in his mid twenties. I've got a beautiful girlfriend who really awoke my underlying wanderlust and really makes me want to explore the world together. Also, I graduaded and got my Masters degree in Linguistics in  2012. 

Travelwise I think at this point of traveling, it's fair to call myself a sort of updated backpacker. I really want to see as much places/cities as possible, but not at all costs. I prefer traveling by plane and I rarely stay in dorms, and I do like having my own room, with own bathroom and so on. I'm interested in places a lot of people won't really consider to a be holidayplace and i rather do two trips to cheap cities than one to an expensive one.

Furthermore I always try to be prepared and I do book hotels upfront, cause I think that saves me both time and money. I do believe in peer-reviews and try never to book a bad (or rarely) reviewed hotel and I try not to waste too much time on local traveling by booking a hotel that's too far from the city center. Especially when it comes down to short trips, i'm more or less an opportunity traveller, when i see a cheap flight to an interesting city, i try to make time for it and to find company to go with me on a trip.

Moneywise I always go for the best value for money, it's fun to sit at a main square, ordering a beer there, but just one or two blocks away, you can still sit in the same sun and see people stroll by, only the beer and the food are half the price. You'll never see me step into one of those overpriced 'hop-on-hop-of-buses', try not to fall for the obvious tourist traps and I try to use the local public transport as much as possible. At the end of the road, if you're in a city where millions of locals use that same public transport every year, it can't be that bad. And it gives a good insight in the city's vibe.

Also, I can't be bothered by the downsides of low cost airlines, especially for short haul flights. It's just a company getting you from A to B, cheaper than any other way of transport than walking, cycling or hitchhiking can do. And yes, the seats aren't that great, they try to charge you for everything they possibly can, but just deal with it or pay more. Most of the time it's just 1 or 2 hours, i've been in local trains where I had to stand for an hour and still had to pay more than a typical Ryanair flight to London.

I'm not the type of tourist that takes shitloads of pictures from a building because some travelbook tells this is the place where in 1683 the major was killed by 12000 outrageous killerbees. I do like to see the most important landmarks in a city but generally, it doesn't cost me a lot of time. I'm not overanalyzing buildings, statues or churches. I don't visit that much museums, but the ones I visit almost all have to do something with the recent history of a country (mostly in central/eastern Europe where after the WW II the communist area started) or some odd museums. I love walking on markets and tasting the local food and use the McDonalds mainly as free toilet. Just me, combining everyday life and a touristic lifestyle in different cities. I'm not a fan of those resortholidays or travelagency flight/appartment combinations to some touristic villages at the coast.