…a good map, of course.

I would say that I’m pretty good with geography. With the exception of not knowing exactly where some SE Asian countries sit or where certain African countries are exactly, I can find my way around the world.

When I was in Europe, fellow tourists and I would start talking and we would inevitably inquire as to the other person’s nationality. When I said that was American, I would sometimes get shocked looks because apparently we don’t travel abroad much and can only find places like Iraq on a map (and that’s only because we’re embroiled in a war there).

So, in the spirit of becoming more educated about where things are in the world, I’m including a link to a pretty cool map. (It’s pretty cool because, besides being intuitive, once you click on a country it will give you facts like capital, population, per capita GDP, etc.).

So have fun with that…

And if you’re feeling super confident in your skills, then take the TripAdvisor Traveler IQ Challenge. This is good fun! Feel free to leave a comment with your best score… (I haven’t been able to get past Level 10).

So… People ask me all the time if I have any ‘crazy’ stories from the time that I spent over in Europe. Having quite a few, I decided that I’d write one of my favorites to tell and add it to my blog. So here goes…

[WARNING: THIS IS A LONG ONE! PLEASE WAIT UNTIL YOUR BOSS IS AT LUNCH TO READ]

Sitting alone in an empty restaurant with barely a waiter in sight, I was beginning to wonder if I had been tricked. It was my third night in Athens and I had yet to see any traditional Greek dancing – something that I had put on the “to do” list on the plane ride from Paris to Athens. The guidebook that I had in my possession confirmed that this was indeed the place. Earlier in the evening I had dropped by, checked out the menu, walked inside, and verified with one of the employees that this was a restaurant with Greek dancing. He nodded and told me that it started at 9pm and that he hoped to see me here later.

So here I was, a few hours later (I checked my watch for the fourth time) at 8:50pm, and I was alone in this restaurant without a single soul in sight. And why in the hell the waiter seated me in the corner was a bit ridiculous…. I thought about getting up and leaving, but there were a few things on the menu that I thought I might like to try. And anyways, this was the first trip of an 8-month solo jaunt around Europe, so I thought that I may as well get used to being alone.

I scoured the menu and finally placed my order. It was about 9pm at that point in time. I was sitting at the table lost in my thoughts when I heard voices – a lot of voices. Then people started streaming in – and more people, and more people, and more people. So this place that had been empty except for me 2 minutes prior, was now packed to the max with busloads of probably about 200 tourists. They filtered into the seats at the tables, chatting away about the day’s events.

I sat and watched the groups of people chatting for a bit and then went back to my thoughts. I have never had a problem with being alone, but with so many people around me talking and laughing and carrying on, I had to admit to myself that I was feeling lonely. Plus, from where I was sitting, I knew I wouldn’t be able to see so well when the dancing started (because at this point I knew I was in the right place). I wanted to sit at one of the center tables where the tourists were, but didn’t want to impose myself on anyone so I stayed where I was.

A few minutes later the waiter gave me my drink and some bread. I was lost in my thoughts again when a man came up to me and asked me if I was alone. I looked up and saw that he was nice-looking and probably in his mid-forties. Wondering what his agenda was, I answered that I was indeed alone. He said that there was an open seat next to him and his wife at their table and asked if I would like to join them. Seeing as how they were at the center table in prime position surrounded by a ton of people, I notified the waiter I was moving there, gathered my things and joined them.

When I sat down, the man introduced himself and his wife (John and Linda – Americans), and another couple they were traveling with (Robert and Kathy – Brits). They were on their last leg of an 8-day group tour of Greece and they were tired. He explained that before that, they had visited several other countries for business and decided that after working so hard the past few weeks they would fit in some pleasure, and thus booked this trip to Greece.

They asked me why I was there and I told them that I recently moved to France to work as an English language assistant, and that I was on my first vacation. They were in total shock. They kept asking me question after question: “And you’re traveling alone?! How old are you? What made you decide to do this? What do your parents think?”. And by this point in the conversation, others at the table had joined in and were expressing their awe, encouragement, and envy for a girl who actually dared to do what most of them had only dreamt of doing. And I was doing it alone, without fear, and with total confidence in myself.

After relishing in the spotlight for a bit, I asked them more about their travels prior to coming to Athens. “So you said you were traveling around on business… What do you do?”, I asked. John answered that he was a pastor in a church and the others were part of his ministry. “Oh, ok. What church or religion are you affiliated with?”. Kathy chose this moment to pipe in: “We do really cool things…like heal people and stuff. We have a lot of young folks your age becoming members. It’s a really great thing”. Now, I’ve been known to show my emotions no matter how hard I try not to, so I’m guessing that my face said it all because John then said: “But I’m not a freak or anything!”. When he said that, I snapped my face into shape to mask the fact that I was still pondering what ‘healing people’ meant, and also the fact that I never received an answer to what religion they were affiliated with. I politely nodded and had resolved myself to not say anything else about the topic when he added that he invited me over here because I looked like I needed Jesus. At this point in time I had moved on from picturing John healing people to wondering if I should be flattered or offended that I was a pet project

At that moment, about 20 waiters came by and started serving the food. At my table, the conversation was cut to a minimum as everyone was relishing in the delights of their authentic (ok, well, authentic in a touristy way – if that combination is even possible) Greek food.

It was then that the dancing started. A group of 3 men and 3 women began to dance while a band in the background was playing various types of songs. As a group, they danced some of the more traditional dances, and sometimes they split off so that the ladies were doing a dance, and then the men did a dance. They also had a bellydancer there who shimmied her way over to the drunkest guy in the audience and asked him to join her on stage. That served to be quite the treat for the audience as he was not a good dancer, his shirt was sloppily untucked, and his underwear was pulled up far above where his pants were sitting on his waist. It made for a great time. The waiters then brought dessert and the dancers began to come out into the crowd to pull people up on stage with them. As is custom with when people are looking for volunteers, I, of course, obliged.

Bellydancing

When the dancing had finished I sat down, exhausted from the crash course in Greek dancing. The waiters reappeared to clear our plates and bring the bills. Kathy requested that my meal be added to her and Robert’s bill. I pleaded that spending the evening talking to them had been nice enough, but they insisted on paying for me. The waiters collected the bill and I took that moment to thank the four of them for their company, and especially to John for inviting me to sit at their table. They thanked me for joining them and then wished me good luck with my travels and in the future. Kathy then gave me 60 euros to help me on my way. I refused to take it more than several times but they wouldn’t take no for an answer, so finally I pocketed the money. Kathy then told me that I need to open my heart and let Jesus in, and that will be all I need in life. She then handed me more money (40 US dollars because they had run out of Euros) and said that I should take it without protest because they “like to bless people” (And what a fabulous way to do so! Hallelujah!). The waiters brought the bills back to be signed and once everyone had paid they started gathering their things. I thanked the foursome once again for everything and John said that before we all left he wanted to pray for me. Again, I wasn’t sure if I was flattered or not that someone wanted to spend their time praying for me, but because they had given me so much (literally), I silently agreed by bowing my head.

The five of us left the restaurant together, exchanging contact information along the way, and parted ways once we got outside the door. I walked back to where I was staying thinking about the night’s events and how profitable of an evening it had been for me. Thoughts of befriending generous people like that during the rest of my travels around the continent made me even more excited to travel, and I walked back to my host’s house wondering what my future travels would bring.

Contrary to popular belief, there aren’t really any tricks to finding cheap airline flights. I always heard the rumor that airlines post their cheapest flights on Tuesday nights at midnight. Or that they lower fares 16 days before the flight is supposed to occur. And I’m sure there are other random rumors along these lines as well that I haven’t heard. But none of these are true (as far as I can tell anyway).

But with gas prices soaring, more and more airlines charging for your first checked bag, and the economy taking a dip, we’re all going to need any extra help we can get in saving a few bucks here and there.

To help in doing this, I compiled a list of some of my favorite websites that seem to have their stuff together when it comes to finding flights for a decent price. Here we go:

Airfare Watchdog – When you visit this site, you can search for airfares, sign up for newsletters (you select the frequency of how often you receive them) that show you deals on all of the departure airports you enter, and check out their blog on tips and travel FAQs. They offer great deals, and show both published and unpublished fares. It’s good stuff.

Kayak.com – Displays prices from across the web. You can also use this site to sign up for emails that contain fare alerts for flexible travel dates from your origin.

Yapta.com – Lets you ‘tag’ trips and sends alerts when fares drop. They send you information on flight prices even after you’ve booked the trip – and let you know whether or not the airline that you’re flying on will give you a refund for the difference or not. You have to sign up (it’s free) to benefit from the site.

Vayama.com – A great search engine for international flights. I’m easily entertained, so admittedly, part of the reason I like this site is because I get to click on a map.

JetBlue – I had the pleasure of flying on JetBlue just once, but I loved it. There isn’t anything particularly great about their website – I just advocate that if you can fly on their airline you should (spacious room and tvs on all of the aircraft). It’s a really nice airline.

Southwest Airlines – My favorite airline…and I have an equal affinity for their site. You can go here and sign up for their discount “Ding!” fares – which can’t be found anywhere else. They also offer vacation package specials, and have discounts and information on their ‘featured destination’ of the month.

Yahoo! Travel – Nothing special about this site, but it does do a pretty good job in scouring the Expedia, Travelocity, etc. websites and returning cheap flight options for you.

SkyScanner – This site is one of my favorites!! It was my best friend when I was in Europe (truthfully, I’ve never tried it for domestic flights). What I like best about it is how flexible your search options are. If your travel dates aren’t set in stone, then this is a great site. You can fill in your departure and destination airports and just the month, and it will return all of the days and the lowest price to fly during that month. (Just play with it, you’ll get it). GREAT site!!

Well hopefully this helps out a bit. Remember that you can always check out a particular airline’s website to find prices as well – sometimes they offer deals on their own websites and not through the search engines such as those listed above.

If there are any other websites you like, please leave a comment so that the rest of us can take advantage.

Happy flying!

From 2005-2007, I had a second job working part-time as an outside sales rep for a local travel agency. When I would talk to people about travel and hand them a business card, I was often asked what I felt the relevance of travel agents would be in the future. It’s incredibly easy to find information, book hotels, flights, cars, etc. on the internet right now, and the shift towards people wanting to be more hands-on with their travel plans is pretty much inevitable. But even with all of the information that is at our fingertips, I wouldn’t say that it’s time to give up on the bricks-and-mortar travel agencies out there just yet – there can be a lot of advantages in going this route and booking your travel through an agent.

For starters, travel agents have access to suppliers that aren’t available to individual travelers. When I worked at the agency, my favorite supplier for package vacations searches was GOGO Worldwide Vacations. Their website was great, they had a ton of information on the destinations that they offered, and the costs of some of their packages were unrivaled. You’ve probably never heard of GOGO though, as it supports their partners in the travel industry and only allows booking by travel agents. This is just one example of many companies that do this, and the only way to gain access to them and what they offer is to go through a travel agent.

I think that a lot of people don’t go to travel agencies because they don’t want an itinerary dictated to them. Personally, I’m quite the independent traveler from start to finish – I like to research where I’m going, book everything myself, and I surely never want to have an itinerary that I’m required to stick to! But even for those that are like me, agencies can still help out. When I flew to France for my teaching job I booked a one-way ticket to Paris with an air consolidator with my agency for a great price (with the discount having nothing to do with me working there – the travel industry doesn’t exactly work like that unfortunately). So you don’t always have to go to a travel agency for an entire travel package or itinerary – agents assist you with as much or as little of your trip you want.

Travel agents also provide peace of mind. If you’re on vacation and something goes wrong with the hotel, the rental car isn’t ready when you get there, or a storm unexpectedly hits and you find yourself stranded, then you can call your travel agent and they’ll help you out. That’s what they’re there for.

In addition to having access to additional suppliers, being able to find discounts that might otherwise be impossible to find, and helping you out in tough times, travel agents have experience. This is what they do ALL day. They know their stuff. Not only do they have information (from the internet, their suppliers, and their first-hand knowledge) on the destinations that they’re helping you book, but they’ve more than likely sent others to the same place you want to go. So they’re going to know how best to handle booking your trip and the recommendations they should give you. Of course, there are also plenty of websites that do the same thing in allowing travelers to give their feedback of a destination, the hotel they stayed in, or the restaurant they ate at. But as each person is different and is looking to have a unique experience, it’s hard to glean from those reviews how you would feel about that particular place since that person’s expectations and travel preferences could be completely different than yours. As your travel agent will have gotten to know you and what you expect from your travels, they should be able to help out better than these websites can.

Of course, for some, planning the vacation and all of its details is part of the adventure and half the fun. But for others, finding a local travel agency and having them book all of the travel is more relieving than anything. For either category though, it can’t hurt to have an agent at least just check in and see what they can find…

Questions? Comments? Detractors?

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1820358,00.html

I got a kick out of reading this article. It says that, after the Chinese and the Indians, the French are deemed some of the worst tourists around. The article also mentions that the French were ranked second to last place in regards to how they fare as tourists in their OWN country. How funny is that?!?!

All of this reminds me of the time that I was in Rome waiting for a table for lunch at a restaurant. It was a beautiful day and thus, all of the patio seats were taken. Contrary to my normal impatient demeanor, I was actually pretty relaxed that day, didn’t have much of an agenda, and decided to stay where I was and wait there for a table instead of wandering off to find a less crowded restaurant. In front of me, a French couple and their grandson were starting to get a bit antsy. Just then, a large table of people asked for their bill, divvied up their money, and then paid. The Frenchies (as I so affectionately like to call my pseudo-brethren) in front of me were relieved that they would soon be seated…until they realized that the people at that table didn’t seem to have any intention of getting up quickly (quelle horreur!!!). The French couple then started making noises and speaking loudly to try to get the table’s attention so that they would realize that others were waiting and leave.

I found this highly amusing. First, I’ve never seen French people in a hurry at a restaurant. Never. Ever. When you’re in France, you sit down…wait…get a drink…wait…order bread…wait…order your meal…wait…wait…wait…eat meal…wait…and you get the picture. Seriously, that’s how it is. So I’m not sure why that family expected things to be different than in France, but apparently they did. Second, I just thought that it was quite the odd moment, since I’m both impatient and American (as we’re not used to waiting for anything – time is money, ya know). But I was cool, calm, and just hanging out. I remember thinking that the 7 months that I had spent living and traveling around Europe thus far had really affected me…and it was a great feeling.

Also, the article goes on to mention that the French are some of the least likely to try to speak another foreign language. God bless them, but they just CAN’T. The students that I had spent time teaching were, overall, really bad. Really really bad. Some had been learning the language for years and could barely string a sentence together. (Of course, there were some really amazingly skilled students, too – don’t misunderstand that).

And by the same token, it was surprising for me to read that Americans were voted #1 in trying to speak another language. I don’t know about that, but maybe we’re coming around on the language thing. Kudos to my fellow Americans. I’m getting teary-eyed, that’s how proud I am.

Having said all of that, to answer the author’s question about whether or not the findings of this survey will make the French want to improve their behavior…well…personally, like with everyone “needing” to learn English to speak to Americans, I think it might be easier for the world to adjust.

I’m Natalie, your hostess. I figure that I’ll mention a few “about me” sort of things, and then tell you what you can expect in reading this blog.

I’m 26, and currently slaving away in America’s Corporate World. Well, I don’t exactly slave away – I suppose I AM making this blog post during normal work hours (and making a mental note to self not to give any coworkers my blog address). But nevertheless, I’m at work 40 hours each week and only get 2 weeks of vacation each year – which, to me, means that I’m overworked regardless of what I actually do when I’m at work.

Anyways, I LOVE traveling and anything that comes with it. The travel bug bit me back in 2003 when I stepped foot off of North American soil for the first time to visit a friend in Paris for 12 days – where I had the time of my life. I was, however, able to suppress my wanderlust for a bit after that. I graduated from college in 2004 and went to work for a few years at a small, local software company. When I realized how unhappy I was with my job, I started looking at other options. At some point during my search for a new job, my wanderlust fired back up, I applied to work as an English assistant in France, got the job, and in September of 2006 took off for 8 months to live and work in Europe (more specifically, Epernay France).

During that time, I had the good fortune to teach at a school with great kids, make a decent salary, and live for virtually nothing. I had a 7-month contract with 6 weeks of paid vacation, and bosses that worked with me and scheduled my classes around my desired travel schedule. So after exactly 8 months of living in Europe, I came home (May 2007) after having been able to visit 14 different countries and countless cities within them. It was the experience of a lifetime and I’m so grateful to have had it. (If you’re interested in reading about this trip, I did keep a blog during those travels, and it can be found here: http://frenchwannabe34.livejournal.com).

So now I’m back to the grind and the urge to travel is nearly killing me. Luckily, I work at an international company, and I’m making slow moves (I can’t be too eager, as I haven’t even been in my current position for one year yet) to try and get transferred to our Lisbon, Portugal office. So that’s what I’m looking forward to and trying to occupy my mind with right now.

In the meantime, I figured I’d start this blog, write about travel, and hope that it gets me somewhere. I’ll be writing about travel experiences, I’ll put some stories up, I’ll add some tips, probably do some travel website and guidebook reviews, and who knows what else. Feel free to make comments and ask questions, and I’ll do the best I can in helping out or pointing you in the right direction.

It’s gonna be fun. Thanks in advance for tuning in. Enjoy…

~Natalie