TEN TRAVEL BLOGS I LOVE

I'm glad this post came to life, I meant to share my favorite travel blogs for ages!! To be honest from the hundred blogs I follow only less then twenty are about travels. I dislike to read about the same subject over and over again, even about travels, my passion, my lifestyle. Yeah guys I actually have many other interests, ya know :)

I divided my list in 3 languages: english, spanish and portuguese. You know I'm a very cult person :D So here we go...

TEN CITIES I WOULDN'T LIVE

Even though I'm not a city person I collected ten cities I'd live for one year and now, one year later, I'm living in Lisbon, one of the cities in my list. Does it mean I will try all of them? 

When I travel I enjoy to visit mountains, sea and cities. I believe all places in the World have something beautiful to show you and teach you. My love for cities are mostly building architecture, especially historical or with an unique design (Hello Gaudí), parks, events & activities and PEOPLE. For example I really enjoy New York's people: cultural diversity, good vibe, smiley and friendly, inspiring clothing with unique styles... Well, at least this was my experience. 

During my trips I experienced cities I fell at home whenever I got there (San Diego, USA or Curitiba, Brazil) and some cities I wanted to get out there as soon as possible. All of these cities I'm listing here have their great qualities but they aren't good enough for me to pack my stuff and move. 

New Delhi :: India

BACK TO THE ROAD

Exciting news! I finally booked my flight to Asia next month :) It's going to be a different travel because I "retired" from my backpacking life so I will bring a suitcase ahah Also I will travel only 5 weeks so I have to make the most of it. I usually don't travel less then three months so this time I gotta plan a little bit. And the most exciting thing: I will share this adventure with my best friend Ana :))) I love to travel with my partner Bruno but for a long time me and Ana wanted to go to some different country and explore together. Hopefully we will survive 24 hours together for so long! As a matter of fact we only get to see each other once or twice a year which is not a lot so this time we will make sure we will be sick of each other in a good way, of course. I feel I've been missing a bunch in her life. 

So, where are we going? 

SEVEN REASONS WHY I AVOID INTERNET WHILST TRAVELLING

Image Source

When you travel, you want to keep in touch with your dear friends and family you left at home and internet is no doubt the easiest way to contact all these people. But did you ever thought that while you are skyping 2 hours with your mom you might be missing out your travel?

I try to find a balance between visiting the new country, meet new people, connect with locals, take pictures and internet. After years of traveling I figured out there's one way to do this: once a week staying at the hostel/home and catch up with internet. This way I also rest from all overwhelming walks and visits here and there, take time to myself and do tasks like laundry or reading a book. You might be thinking "What if I travel one or two weeks?" Then yep, take half an hour to be online per day but leave the great and long stories whenever you get home. I usually travel slow so I can have a day off traveling :)

COUCHSURFING IS CHANGING FOR WORSE

Couchsurfing in Rabat, Morocco, with Oualid, a chilled guy with a warm heart. 

Remember when I posted beautiful things about this travelers community called Couchsurfing? (read full post here) Well, my opinion about this website changed dramatically and I'm really sad about it. CS made me a better person, I met wonderful people I call good friends around the World, I saved much bucks that kept me longer on the road while learning about a culture and connecting with locals.

During the year 2014 I had awful experiences with Couchsurfing. Three years using it full on, for the first time I wrote negative and neutral references, I had bad experiences and felt like shit sometimes. 

TEN CITIES I'D LIVE FOR 1 YEAR

If you are around this blog for a while you know that I'm not really a city person. I will visit cities of the World that apply to me or are famous but I don't think I'd live forever in a city (never say never). But in a certain way there are cities out there that are beautiful or I felt a really good vibe as soon as I got there. Do you know this feeling? You smile just walking in the streets and feel you kinda belong there. 

I enjoy to make lists just for the fun and few days ago I wrote a list of ten cities in the World I've been before and wouldn't mind to live for a year... or two. 

LANGUAGE BARRIERS - FUNNY STORIES

During my travels I had really embarassing moments of using body language (aka looking like a monkey) to show people what I needed. Many times looks like they understand me but in the end I noticed that they were only saying yes with their heads and not understanding a word.

Today I'll share three funny stories that happened to me. Hope you enjoy! Happy laughs :D

Story 1. I was traveling in a InterRail across Europe with my cousin and best friend and we arrived in Prague late. We were bored at the house we rent, it was raining outside but we were curious about the nightlife of the city so we decided to explore. As we were running from the rain, we would look at the pubs names but we couldn't understand a thing in check so we just entered a random pub. We ordered some drinks and when we looked around we only could see men. A minute later we figured out we were in a female strip tease club. We ended up staying there until we finished our drinks and actually had a great time! 

NAME 3 IN INDIA... ADVICE FROM LOCALS

Since a bunch of my friends are going to travel to India soon, I thought would be helpful to ask indians about their own country in a easy way: answering all questions with 3 words. Just small tips, an idea of what to do, eat or see... The explore part, the experience and the memories are with you!

Dhanyavaad (thank you in hindi) to all indians who sent me their answers, this information is very useful! Can't wait to go back to India and follow your tips :)

If you enjoyed this "Name 3..." post and you're traveling to any country you'd like to know more local tips, please let me know which country in the comments, maybe I can make another "Name 3 in (insert country) for you and whoever is interested.

HITCH HIKING STORIES: FROM SAN FRANCISCO TO WILLITS

“The bus is only at 3pm? No way, I’m not gonna wait, let’s hitch hike!” This kind of idea we have, you think it’s brilliant but then you go back and you go like “Sh*t!! Why this stupid thought ever came across my mind? WHY?” I’m gonna tell you guys all the details.

INTERVIEW: LIVE THE DREAM AND TRAVEL THE WORLD ON A MICRO - OR NO BUDGET

Hello friends!

To start the week full on you can read the interview by Van from Thrift Core to me! Did I tell you before how much I looooove to be asked about my trips? :D

You can see the full interview with cool travel pictures here. 

I leave you with two questions about my weirdest travel story and my best travel story! Oh boy so many stories to tell my grandsons, I don't need any kids books to help out, my own life stories are enough.

THREE MOST BEAUTIFUL ROADS I EVER BEEN

Mostly of the times we are driving or catching the bus/train roads are boring, you feel like falling asleep, read a book, or drink 2 litres of coffee to keep you awake. Especially if you are traveling in highways, you don't get to see the landscape properly or you don't pass thru any villages. But there are roads out there in our World that make a big difference, they were special and can't take them out of my memory:

Great Ocean Road @ Melbourne, Australia - I almost missed this amazing "place you have to go when visiting Melbourne" because me and other couchsurfers organized 4 days camping but the first hour we got a flat tire! My dear ozzie cousins asked me if I wanted to go on Sunday all day long explore this place and yep! Better a day then nothing ;) It was a pretty trip with many stops, I took million pictures! (Post here)

GREAT OCEAN ROAD IN MELBOURNE

 When writting this post about the most beautiful roads I ever been I noticed that I didn't post about the wonderful Great Ocean Road in Australia... and also, I didn't post any pictures of Melbourne!! What? Melbourne is on my list of "Cities I'd live for a year", that would be possible if portuguese could get the Working Holiday Visa for one year but sadly there's no agreement between Australia and Portugal. Bummer!

MINIMALISM PACKING

Is it an headache everytime you pack? And when you are done with your travel do you figure out you didn't wear mostly of the clothes or use few stuff you brought?

Today I will show you how I travelled 20 days in Europe with a three kilos backpack. Sounds impossible right? But actually I survived and didn't need to buy anything extra!

My first advice is to use a small packback so you have small space, you cannot overload it because there's no space :) I found this militar inspired packpack in C&A store, I couldn't find the real militar backpack or something I liked second hand. This packpack came pretty useful since has four pockets outside and one inside to keep my important stuff like coin purse and personal documents: this is perfect for organization, each pocket has a zipper and they are separated by kind. Example: One has underwear, the other only chargers, other with notepad, pen, map and sunglasses.

Also what is really cool is that during the day I could bring the backpack with me with essentials: leggins, jacket, snacks, cameras...

Want to take a peek inside my backpack?

EIGHT REASONS WHY I ADOPTED TRAVELING AS MY LIFESTYLE

There are many people out there who think I'm crazy just because I don't have a routine, a 8 hours job, own a house and car. I completly understand that traveling is an alternative lifestyle and it's weird just because not a lot of people do that. This is the way I choose to live my life! This is the way I feel happy!

:: The feeling of real freedom :: I wake up whenever I feel like and I go wherever I want at the time I want. There is no boss telling me what I have to do and how I have to do. Also I don't have to worry about paying bills or car insurance, I have total freedom to decide where I'm going to sleep the next nights: renting a house, camping, hostel or CouchSurfing.

:: No routine :: I'm not a routine person, I get bored easily when I follow a routine with timings or when doing every single day the same thing over and over again.

VOLUNTEER WORK IS OVER

"Don't be sad because you're leaving, be happy because it happened". This quote translates every single thought of my mind right now. 

Mostly of volunteer work I've done was charity related, so this is another beautiful experience to add to my life. I didn't know what to do on June, no travels planned, so I headed to Tipi Algarve for 3 weeks to be a volunteer. My job was cleaning the tipis, weeding and make sure the whole place was looking neat. In return I had accomodation and food (vegetables and fruit from the garden included), didn't spend a cent while I was there.

TRAVEL INTERVIEW AT UNCUSTOMARY ART

Today I have exciting news: My very first travel related interview for a blog! Yehhh! It took me like 5 hours to answer all these questions, they were pretty personal and made me think a lot. When I look back I've done so much, I met so many people from different countries, I learned about myself, about others, about many subjects, I explored places that never seen humans, I watched animals in wildlife, I enchanged smiles with many beautiful souls. But this is a process that takes a life time, so still have a feeling there's a lot to explore, visit, learn, share.

VOLUNTEERING IN TIPI ALGARVE

 During the month of June I was a bit lost, didn't want to find a 9-5 job, didn't want to travel so why not do some volunteer work? I told you here before, my life dream is to own a youth hostel so I thought I could look for volunteer work in a hostel, so I can understand how does it work and if it's exactly what I want for my life.

All the hostels I contacted in Amsterdam were full already so I started looking in Portugal and mostly didn't reply so I started looking for a place I'd feel connected with nature. That's when I found Tipi Algarve! This is a completly new concept of tourist accomodation for me. The spot is in the middle of nature but you have both Portimão and Silves cities about 10 kms away, which makes you feel you're not isolated. The tipis outside are gorgeous and inside are glamourous! Sam knows how to decorate and mix colors, it's so cozy inside them. Hopefully I will show you more pictures of tipi's indoors.

SETTING YOUR PRIORITIES AND TRAVEL

Twelve Apostles at Great Ocean Road [near Melbourne, Australia]

Everytime I come back from a trip of months backpacking somewhere I hear the same comments from friends, relatives or random people: "Oh Marta I want to travel like you", "I wish I could travel" and the most famous "I'm jealous of all your travels". 

Nowadays I just reply with a smile but in the beggining I was wondering why they want to travel and don't go for it. And I found the answer: Priorities. It's a matter of how much effort you put on things you really want to do. Also about the money and time. For example, if you want to buy an house or a brand new car or want better education for your kids it's completly normal you don't have the money to travel. Or if you spend your week of work vacation at home because you feel very tired, it was your option! 

ROAD TRIP IN PORTUGAL

 One of my Goals for 2014 was to go on a Road Trip in Portugal, here we are! When you have empty family houses you gotta take advantage of the situation right? Bruno's relatives have houses all over Beira Interior area and we have 2 empty house keys, yuppie!

Feels good to travel differently for a change. This time we have our own car and our own houses to sleep, cook, relax, make friends with neighbours.

LEAVING YOUR JOB AND TRAVEL THE WORLD

Annapurna, Nepal

Sounds crazy. Sounds the end of the world. Ehh actually is exactly what you wanna do but how? Many readers of Shanti Free Bird try to find inspiration to change the way of their lives (or start thinking about it). I'm grateful for all your e-mails, you are so supportive, caring and lovely! Your kind words make me wanna share more and more about my experiences and Life Story. I love you all! 

People live different situations, some are unhappy in their crappy jobs, some are lost and wanna travel to find their way, some are afraid but... there's always a solution.