#NotANerd: Ready, set, EXPLORE! (An in-depth examination of life in a hostel)

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Lindsay. She's crazy ... and bat shit ... and I love her for it! For reals, she hitchhiked across various African countries!!! The girl is a whackadoodle noodle, but not at all a nerd. That is where I come in handy- I'm Lindsay's navigator on adventures. See, I show her how we get places via google maps, and she reminds me to stop tweeting and look up every once in a while. It's a match made in nerdy/non-nerdy heaven. That being saiiiddddddd ... she lives her life on the road and wants to offer her travel advice to all the nerdy folk out there that may be looking to do the same. Hit it Lindsay!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @LindsayMC

Yesterday Jen asked me a few questions about hostels in prep for her New England takeover and today, she came back with a few more... and it dawned on me- even domestic (read: in the US) hostels are still pretty foreign to most people. Well, I’m here to help! I’ve stayed in hostels since I was 16 and travelled all around the world so I have a really good understanding on what makes hostels tick, what to do, what NOT to do and where to go. But first I want to explain how freakin’ awesome and amazing hostels are so you understand why you should consider staying in one.  

1.    Price. Hostels are cheap. Some even dirt cheap (and some not so cheap but we can get into that later.) Traveling solo or even with a friend, you would be hard pressed to find any accommodation as low in cost with as many amenities as your typical hostel. Which brings us to...

2.    Fun! Hostels are fun, seriously seriously fun. Those ‘amenities’ mentioned in 1. can be anything from a rocking bar inside the hostel to pool tables, grills, a full kitchen, swimming pools, community guitars- you name it, I’ve probably found it for free (or cheap) to use in a hostel.

3.    Location. Hostels cram a bunch of people single room with bunk beds (you can pay more for a private room but why would you?) which means they bring in some cash during busy seasons which really means they can afford the high rents in busy, “travel destination” locations. This a. ROCKS because you are in the middle of some awesome city and b. means the hostel is usually somehow or another accessible by public transit which is always great too. 

4.    The Staff and other Backpackers. 80% of traveling is the people you meet and same goes for staying in hostels. From the young, vagabond staff to other travelers staying in the hostel, everyone is there to have a good time. Most hostels have activities set up from city tours, pub crawls, themed dinner nights and even open mic nights to bring everyone together but even without all of that fun activity stuff, staying in a hostel is an amazing social experience that you just don’t get at your local Motel 6.

There are hostels all over the US so even if you just want to plan a rowdy weekend getaway by yourself or with a few friends, there is probably a rockin-good-time (and sometimes totally-chilled-out) hostel much closer to you than you think.

If you wanna check out hostels in your area, I recommend www.hostelbookers.com because of their rating system (you can get a better idea of what to expect before you go.) I can play around on that website for hours, looking at prices and rating of where I want to go and what activities the hostels have planned. It’s rad. Go ahead and check it out. Really. I’ll wait...

Welcome back! I’m assuming now you are super stoked to finally plan that crazy weekend trip with your best girlfriend so I’ll give you a few tips on what do to when you get there.  

Backpackers usually stay in hostels and backpackers are called ‘backpackers’ because they (usually) carry a backpack... not a suitcase. Hostels are notoriously NOT roller suitcase friendly. There are typically stairs (if you are physically disabled there are certainly options here though) and tight quarters. If all you have as a big ass roller suitcase than by all means, take that but if you have carry options of a duffle bag and a backpack instead, I would recommend that simply for easier mobility.  

You need to lock your shit up. No, hostels are not the hangout places for shady characters and thieves like some people have made them out to be but here’s the deal- just like you would lock your car even if you live in a safe neighborhood, you should lock up your stuff, even if you’re in a safe hostel. There are a few ways to do this. Most hostels will assign you a locker with your bunk bed that you can put your stuff into and most of the time it is in the same room as the beds. It’s super convenient but you NEED TO BRING YOUR OWN LOCK. Let me repeat that, for 98% of any hostels that you stay in you will NEED TO BRING YOUR OWN LOCK. A little combination lock from Target is really all you need. I personally use a little Burton snowboard lock that stretches so I can lock it around my pack on trains or buses but totally anything will do.

Kitchen Etiquette. An awesomely amazing thing about most hostels is access to a full kitchen. Not only is it a really fun way to meet people (in the AM cooking breakfast, at night making beer munchies) but it is also super super super convenient (can you say, beer fridge?!) Check out what’s stocked in the kitchen before you go shopping so you know better what to buy. A lot of time, people will stay at the hostel and leave whatever extra food they bought behind which usually becomes a communal food supply. Anything from bread to condiments to boxed meals- you can totally score big in the hostel kitchen. Most stuff will be labeled or marked and obviously, don’t take anything that’s not yours but it’s safe to say the huge ass container of generic brand peanut butter that’s not specifically labeled “STAFF” is fair game. Always clean up after yourself (cleaning supplies provided) and label your stuff with a Sharpee or Post It... and I always write “COMMUNAL” or “Up for grabs” on the stuff that I leave behind.

Lock Outs and “Work to Stay”. Some hostels have something called a LOCK OUT which is anytime during the day that the staff basically kicks out everyone in the hostel for a few hours to clean and prep or whatever. Lock Outs are usually boldly stated on whatever you sign to check in and I have to say, they are not common in US hostels and seem to be fading in Europe as well. Some people get all bent out of shape about Lock Outs but I figure as long as it’s not before 10am, who cares? A little forced sightseeing never hurt anyone (and that’s kind of why you’re traveling, right?) “Work to Stay” is a really cool thing about hostels too. Work to Stay means just that. If you are planning on staying in a place for a week or more, sometimes you can talk to the staff there and set it up that you work a few shifts in return for free room and board. Super super money saver and it gives you a whole new perspective on where ever you’re traveling through as well. Admittedly, that is more of an “experienced” hostellers’ thing but still rad.

The Layout and What to Bring (that’s different from a hotel)  
Hostels come in all different shapes and sizes (isn’t that cute?) and I love them all. Your average hostel is pretty predicable though so let me walk you through one...

Most hostels have a courtyard or outdoor space set up with some sort of chairs and tables and a grill. The courtyard is where everyone meets up and chills at night either before they hit the bars or if money is tight, they just hang out there all night. If you want a quieter hostel experience, request a dorm room away from the outdoor area.

Lobby/ Front Desk. Hostel lobbies and front desks are super laid back so don’t expect a door man or even any help with your luggage. The staff is usually some 20-something who came to visit from some foreign place and never went back and almost always they are super nice and helpful.

Dorm Rooms. Down the hall from the ‘lobby‘ (if you can call it that) will most likely be the dorm rooms. The rooms vary as much as the hostels themselves with 2 to 12 bunk beds, single sex, shared (which means both guys and girls) and even private if you want to pay more (again, why?) You walk into your little assigned room and throw some clothes on a open, clean bed, sometimes tape the little paper they gave you on the bedpost and BAM- you’ve claimed your bed (if the bed number wasn’t already assigned, those are the really organized hostels though.)

Bathrooms. Think college dormitory bathrooms. Shower stalls that you walk your little shower bag or caddy to, stalled toilets and usually outlets by the sinks to shave and blow dry your hair. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the cleanliness of most hostel bathrooms. Some people wear flip flops in the shower, some don’t. Some people walk from their dorm room to the bathroom in just their towel, some change in the actual bathroom. Whatevs.

Community Rooms and Kitchen. Aside from the outdoor area, front desk, dorms and bathrooms, the communal rooms are a toss up. A hostel in Hollywood has an upstairs bar with lounge couches, a big screen TV and fooseball table. A hostel in Amsterdam has a pool table, bar and “smoking room” complete with a communal bong and beanbag chairs. Some hostels have night clubs, some have computer rooms, usually you can get an idea of what the hostel has from their website but if not, it’s just going to have to be a fun surprise!

What to Bring. When you pack, pack kind of like you are crashing at a friend’s house. Bring your own toiletries and towel but almost always the hostel provided bedding (it will be boldly stated if not the case.) Bring a lock and your sparkling attitude and you’re set!

Ready, set, EXPLORE!  

If you have any other questions or comments, please feel free to hit me up on Twitter- I would love to help!

#yaylife

#TrueStory: Backpacking + Dating = Bad News Bears

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Lindsay. She's crazy ... and bat shit ... and I love her for it! For reals, she hitchhiked across various African countries!!! The girl is a whackadoodle noodle, but not at all a nerd. That is where I come in handy- I'm Lindsay's navigator on adventures. See, I show her how we get places via google maps, and she reminds me to stop tweeting and look up every once in a while. It's a match made in nerdy/non-nerdy heaven. That being saiiiddddddd ... she lives her life on the road and wants to offer her travel advice to all the nerdy folk out there that may be looking to do the same. Hit it Lindsay!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's Lindsay MC

My then boyfriend and I stayed at an amazingly romantic camping hostel in Figline, Italy. We took a bus through the Tuscan countryside to an little town where we were picked up by a miniature train to take us to the hostel grounds. There was a sparkling pool, picnic tables shaded by olive trees, a country store with local cheese and wine and even a lantern lit restaurant. The ‘rooms‘ were little bungalows and couples sat outside, strumming acoustic guitars and drinking red wine surrounded by citronella candle light. During the day, we could rent a bike and explore the nearby town, take a vineyard tour, go horseback riding or even just lounge at the pool that overlooked the rolling hills of Tuscany... and maybe we would have, if we hadn’t spent all of our time fighting with each other- Insanely Important Lesson ... Don’t Date and Backpack.

The most efficient way to ruin a perfectly good relationship is to take it overseas. Add sleep deprivation, a super strict ‘backpacker‘ budget and a possible language barrier and you might as well register yourself on OkCupid before you even leave home. Along my travels, I have met a number of couples backpacking together- some of them seemed blissfully happy and some of them were at wits end. After talking with them and learning from my own experience, I think there are definitely ways to make a relationship travel friendly... you just have to put a little more thought and effort into it before hand.

1.)  You need space even when you’re 3,000 miles away from home. If you don’t spend every waking moment with your significant other at home, why would you expect to spend every waking moment with them abroad (and not want to kill them?) Allow for some time a part. This actually ended up being a really good thing for my then boyfriend and I while we were staying at a hostel in Rome. He went a bar to watch a World Cup game with the other hostel guests and I wanted to get some sleep. I woke up to a staff member of the hostel routing through peoples things. I guess he didn’t see me sleeping in the corner bed, nothing ended up being taken but we checked out of the hostel that night. I will be posting about Sketchy Hostels to Definitely NOT Stay In... but that’s a different day.

2.)  Have a Communal Travel Fund. There are few things more frustrating than spending money when you don’t want to (he needs to sit down and eat big meals three times a day and you are happy snacking) or not being able to do what you want because of money (you want to go to an art museum, he doesn’t want to pay the entry fee) which is why any couple traveling together should have Communal Travel Fund and talk about budgeting before you hit the road. Each person puts money into the fund that money is used for hostels, meals together, admission fees and transportation costs. By making necessary costs ‘We’re in it together’ instead of a individual ‘My budget, Your budget,’ so you can fight about where to eat and what you want to do instead of dollar amounts- which is always nice.

3.)  Have fun! Traveling is a great way to see the best in your girlfriend or boyfriend even with the unexpected frustrations.  Try to make the best out of crappy situations and when temperaments begin to flare, don’t feel stuck with each other just because you’re in a different country. Take some space and try again. The new things you learn about each other and the memories you make can ultimately strengthen your bond and help you appreciate each other even more.    

Now I don’t necessarily think that backpacking was the reason for my pervious relationship demise, it was more of a catalyst, expediting the inevitable. However, I do think that I have now learned enough to keep us at least on speaking terms until the flight home next time. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see until after I travel with a new boyfriend and report back... but don’t hold your breath.

Good luck out there! =)

#nerdsunite

#NotANerd: Confessions of a Broken Heart

Editor's Note: Nerds, meet my buddy Lindsay. She's crazy ... and bat shit ... and I love her for it! For reals, she hitchhiked across various African countries!!! The girl is a whackadoodle noodle, but not at all a nerd. That is where I come in handy- I'm Lindsay's navigator on adventures. See, I show her how we get places via google maps, and she reminds me to stop tweeting and look up every once in a while. It's a match made in nerdy/non-nerdy heaven. That being saiiiddddddd ... she just went through a super gnarly breakup, and kinda wants to talk about it. So, there ya go! Hit it Lindsay!

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's Lindsay Mc

So, I’m a really optimistic person. Like really really Always On The Sunny Side, Smile Like You Mean It, It’s Always ‘All Good’ optimistic but this June I got the shit kicked outta me. Seriously. I’m gonna do a quick recap so you can see where I am coming from and so I can move the hell on and get on to the good stuff that is happening (and is ALWAYS happening but is sometimes just hard to see.)

Three AMAZING things that were rocking my life-

I had an absolutely wonderful boyfriend who I was totally in love with… and I know you don’t know me very well but you will quickly find out that I am not ‘that girl.’ I live by the relationship motto of Easy Come, Easy Go, ‘Let’s play and learn from each other and move on.’ I’m not into commitment, I don’t get wrapped up, I don’t fall in love and I definitely don’t get heart broken… 

I had signed with a pretty damn awesome television production company to help develop and sell a travel show that I had created. I had an amazing agent from an amazing agency negotiate my contract and all signs were pointing to Go on this baby getting sold to a network by the beginning of summer which means I would be the creator, host and producer of my very own travel television show- Sweet! 

I had moved in to a bomb ass beach bungalow with one of my best girls and her boyfriend. We all grilled out and watched movies from a projector on the side of our house which was about 6 blocks from the sand and 2 blocks from the bars- life was gooooood. Could things get any more perfect?

Wrong question to ask. 

Shit hit the fan and the entire structure of my life fell apart in three short weeks. My girl and her boyfriend broke up and he moved out leaving a chunk of the rent to be paid, the landlord raised the already high rent which suddenly meant that I could no longer afford to stay there. I had put absolutely all of my energy and time into getting my show off the ground with the production company and without any warning, things completely stalled. We were suppose to be taking meeting and in constant communication to get prepped and ready for a sale and *crickets* on their end with our contract expiring that month. WTF?! Okay, dammit.

Those two things alone were pretty tough to deal with- realizing that I would soon be homeless and having my dream pulled out from under my feet was obviously disheartening but I have dealt with worse… maybe. I also should know the nature of show business by now and to never get my hopes up (and never let them fall down, the trick to staying sane in television is to always stay even keel ‘cause you just never know) and living in my car is no big deal for me. I’ve hitchhiked and backpacked all around the world with much less, I have friends all over California that I have been wanting to visit and stay with and it’s not like a have a job that I have to stick around LA for… so okay, things kinda sucked but they really weren’t that bad. 

And then a curve ball… the stupidest, most unexpected, W-T-F?! curve ball in the whole wide world.

My boyfriend broke up with me- AND I ACTUALLY CARED.  

T and me started dating while we were both living up in Big Bear for the winter. He worked Patrol and I was a snowboard instructor for the mountain and we lived together with a few friends in a cute little house, walking distance from the slopes. Us dating was totally unexpected and our relationship started off as friends and roommates and extremely quickly turned into a Boyfriend/ Girlfriend living together situation. We lived together for 6 months and did the long distance thing for 2 more once we both moved back to our respective Summer locations (Venice Beach for me and Solvang, in his parents guests house for him.) Our relationship was awesome. It really was. So so fun and easy and I felt so… understood. It was serious but casual, carefree but deep. I knew from day one that he was not ‘The One’ but he was amazing and I was still very very in love with him. I had gotten to know, love and absolutely adore his family and we had made plans to go camping at the Grand Canyon this summer and talked about what we would be doing next winter. We maintained our relationship with phone calls, texts and photos and visited each other every chance we got (and neither of us have a real job so we had a lot of chances) so I was completely floored when he broke up with me… via text message. Text message. Really? And the reason is even more absurd than the vehicle- He was breaking up with me because I am a vegetarian and he wanted to hunt. Wait, what? Yeah, you read that right. WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK!? Seriously. Even while writing this, I can’t wrap my head around the silliness of this surprisingly painful situation. After I was done being shocked and then pissed, I was hurt. Really really hurt. All and all, we only dated for a little over 7 months but when you live Minute by Minute like I do, 7 months is an eternity… and it’s all over without even the decency of a face to face conversion? He couldn’t even Skype me for this?

And that was the final blow.

I lost my shit. 

I had been wondering where the bottom was as things started to unravel with my living situation and my show but until I had by heart broken, I knew I hadn’t actually touched it. The trifecta of shit had finally hit- my security was wrecked by having no place to call home, my dreams were crushed by a stall and lack of momentum with the show and my heart was completely trashed the one guy in my life right now who was suppose to make everything feel all better. Talk about the perfect time for a break down. 

Bottoming out fucking sucks. It’s terrifying, it’s debilitating. It’s empty and heavy and makes you feel like someone is standing on your chest and you just can’t breathe. It’s the feeling of hopeless and being alone as well as being completely over and underwhelmed somehow at the exact same time. I feel like a whiny little bummer chick even typing this but it’s important for you guys to understand and if you have gone through it personally, to relate to.

But with all that being said, there is something wonderful about touching bottom. When you touch ground, you at least know where you are and once you adjust to the weight and pressure, it’s cliche but calming to know that the only place you can go is up. Losing everything is actually incredibly freeing and once you get your footing, the bottom is the best place to push off from so you can rocket back up to the top (or so I hope.)       

When it comes down to it, I can only be thankful for the opportunity tear down my life and personality so I can rebuild and restructure ultimately for the better.     

So there you go. That’s my shit. Here is where I am and that was where I was at. I am homeless, boyfriendless and production companyless. Talk about a perfect time to rebuild.

#thatisall

#NotANerd: Confessions of a Broken Heart

Editor's Note: Nerds ... meet Lindsay. Lindsay is my bat shit crazy buddy that had the friend who knew the dude that owned the pot farm in Northern Cali (read more about that adventure here). This chick is insane - I know, I know, it takes one to know one ... I'll own it. That being said, Lindsay and I are total opposites with the same free spirited personality. For reals, she's totally hardcore with everything in life except getting her nerd did. Dudes, it was hilarious, I was tweeting, emailing, and working from my Droid Charge on the way back from NorCal and every 15 minutes she would say, Jen look up! You have to see this!! We're a great team because we're both so alike while remaining super different. I'm going to help Lindsay start to understand tech - she just got a tumblr!!!!! And she's going to help ground me and serve as a reminder to look up every once in a while. I'm excited to have her in my life ... totally am. Either way, Lindsay just had her heart broken by a duderino like the day before we left for our trip. I asked her to write about what she experienced ... and here ya go!

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's Lindsay Mc

I was recently dumped by my boyfriend because I am a vegetarian and he wants to hunt. Yeah. Seriously. Besides the fact that the whole situation is ridiculous, I really can’t believe that I didn’t see it coming.

We started dating almost as a fluke. We were friends that had a previous fling who decided to move in to a house together with a few other friends up in Big Bear (a ski and snowboard mountain in southern California.) Literally, two nights after I moved in, we drank too much cheap whiskey, make out and I claimed ‘my side’ of his bed and moved in to his room for the rest of the season. It was an interesting situation that was unexpectedly awesome. We got along great and honestly, there isn’t shit to do up in Big Bear in the winter besides snowboard, drink and hook up so it was the perfect time to fall into a new boyfriend. I, in no way was looking for a relationship but things with T were so effortless. He was one of the nicest guys I have ever met and I loved doing stuff with him, from making dinner to taking day trips off the mountain to fight cabin fever to just taking laps snowboarding. One time, I remembered that I had left my yoga mat outside in the windy, snowy cold and he jumped up out of bed and brought it inside for me with out me even having to ask! Not only was he amazing in those ways, but he intuitively understood me in a way that no guy has ever gotten me before. Needless to say, I was smitten.

We took a bunch of trips to visit his family in Solvang (which is 5 hours from Big Bear, right outside Santa Barbara) and I fell completely in love with his family. T’s parents are hands down two of the most amazing people that I have ever met and I absolutely loved every minute I spent with them. I was totally cool with the idea of having a commuter relationship once summer came, where we would be three hours away from each other with me living in Venice. It’s all good, “love conquers all,” right?

Me and T were perfect all winter long. We never fought (we ‘disagreed’ but we always talked things out before anything ever escalated) we had extremely similar temperaments, sometimes we partied, other times we stayed in and all and all, it was a pretty freakin’ stellar relationship.

I was in the process of writing T into my life but I kept saying “If we make it through the summer…” because a relationship is easy when there is nothing else to do but if we made it through the summer, I knew it would be huge. I knew that being up in Big Bear and snowboarding every day diluted our personalities. I am a slightly different person in Big Bear than who I am in Venice simply because of my surroundings and daily activities. I knew from meeting T’s family and friends back in Solvang that he was different as well. What I was curious about was, would our summer personalities be as compatible as our winter ones?  

T is a ‘cowboy’ in every sense of the word. He grew up on a farm, goes to rodeos, knows how to drive a tractor and he definitely won’t be voting for Obama in the 2012 election. I’m from Virginia and went to school in North Carolina so I understand the mentality and I have a soft spot for southern boys. That being said, I’m pretty hippie-ed out. I’ve been a vegetarian since I was old enough to tell my parents I don’t want to eat meat, I spend a lot time looking into and understanding far out concepts and ideas and I’m really getting into yoga and meditation.  

We had very different interests but we were operating from very similar moral compasses (or so I thought.) I loved the fact that we were so different and I, from the bottom of my heart, enjoyed what made who we were. 

The cracks started to show a month into T being back in Solvang. It seemed that back in his hometown with his hometown friends, T was a different guy. Without the laid backness of snowboarding and our mountain friends, me and T had very different ideas of what ‘fun’ was. His late night texts were regularly incomprehensible (gotta love drunk texts) and what ever little time I did get him on the phone to catch up, he rushed me off the line. While I was at the beach, working on stuff for the show, and grilling out with friends and surfing, T was getting black out wasted on “$200,000 dollar boats” with his little Rich Kid Friends accompanied by fake-blonde, fake-tanned, fake-boobed chicks and posting things like “GOING HUGE!” on Facebook. 

Apparently, in Solvang, my boyfriend is a douche. 

A few days later, we got in an argument over him wanting to go party on the lake and me wanting to go to a Dispatch concert and little did I know at the time but that would be the last full conversation of our relationship. Miscommunication was taking over, things were starting to get heated and I tried to break the tension with a Big Lebowski quote “This aggression will not stand, man” and it went right over his head. We opened the relationship up. 

Our entire relationship, I in no way ever thought that T and I were meant to be. My parents are happily married after 27 years together and my mom always told me that “When you know, you know”… and I didn’t know with T. But then again, “I don’t know” was SOOOO much closer than I have ever gotten with any other guy (which is usually “Absolutely not”) so I started thinking, what if my “I don’t know” is “I Know”?

With all of this, you would think that I would be okay with him finally sending me an ‘It’s over’ break up text… but I wasn’t. I had never been broken up with before and I NEEDED to work it out. Love conquers all and I LOVED him. If I could just talk to him face to face, if I could just touch his arm while he was talking to me, if I could just be with him, we could work it out. But I didn’t text him because in my heart, I knew he didn’t want to and I was crushed.  

At the bottom, I called my best girlfriend Chevas and broke down “Maybe I do want to live in Solvang, work at his parents bakery, let him hunt and be happy with T” What was so bad about killing a bunny anyway? I could live in the country! 

And then I realized- I had lost my damn mind. 

And I started laughing. Seriously. In the middle of my tear-filled speech, I heard what I was saying and I started laughing. 

It was done. We were done. Love is blind, sometimes borderline delusional but it’s going to be fine and I am okay. Phew. Holy shit, shake it off. 

It scares me how distorted things can get when powerful emotions are involved. It scares me that I might have been willing to settle and give up on my dreams and love of living in LA. It scares me that I was willing to possibly compromise one of the longest commitments that I had made to myself ever over a guy (my vegetarian lifestyle.) But most importantly, it EXCITES me to think how amazing it will be when I meet the guy who I’m meant to be with… and I won’t have to.

#TheDudeAbides