travel notes from someone infected with the travel bug

Hostel Review

nikki_morf — Fri, 12 Jul 2013 11:34:00 GMT

So I've decided to review a couple of hostels that I have stayed in over the past few years. These are only a few mainly cause I cant remember all the names!! I'm gunna write bout my favs 1st then go down the list. So far my fav has been the La Maison Du Patriote. I have written about this in my previos post 'the rest til now' so I wont go on about it to much now. I will say that this hostel isn't for everyone, it can be noisey, the floor creaks, there are only 2 showers and 2 toilets, and if your fussy with beds like me they are a little hard. Your probably asking why the hell this is my fav hostel then. Well for me atmosphere, security, and staff

http://www.lamaisondupatriote.ca/La_Maison_du_Patriote/Accueil.html

http://www.timeshostels.com/hostels/dublin/collegestreet

http://www.lamaisondupatriote.ca/La_Maison_du_Patriote/Accueil.html

http://samesun.com/backpackers-hostels/vancouver/

www.hihostels.ca/westerncanada/169/hi-vancouver_downtown.hostel

The rest til now

nikki_morf — Fri, 12 Jul 2013 11:26:00 GMT

So this is in continuation of my previous blog...I'm new at all this blogging stuff so please forgive me if I get it wrong, or don't forgive me whatever!!

I went to Vegas as my stop over, right. As I said it was so overwhelming going there on my own. I patted myself on the back plenty of times for this as I am bout as gutless as it gets when it comes to doing this on my own. I always feel like people know that I'm alone and they are judging me 'see that woman sitting there all by herself looking like a loner, she's covering it up by reading a book but we really know she has no friends!!' Bullshit! I have friends. But the only way you can beat your fears is by doing them right so I think I did bloody good by conquering that one. I still have my moments where the ol' fear creeps back over me like a dirty smell, I can't go to dinner by myself but I can go to lunch. Why is that different? please tell me and tell me that I'm not the only one! So anyway I digress (I will tell you now and apologise in advance cause I'm sure this isn't the 1st time and I know it definitely wont be the last!) I lost a bit of money at the casino's, easy done I assure you. Why is it easier to lose American cash than Australian cash? Although I will freely admit that when I go on holidays I become a lot more lose with my funds. Do other people do that as well? I mean I'm not the most careful spender in the world anyways when I'm at home either but I just get so free with my money in another country.

From Vegas I flew into Montreal, Canada. When I arrived it was raining joy! I had to catch a bus to the hostel from the airport and I was not looking forward to the walk to find the damn hostel in the rain. Leash had already arrived earlier in the day so she was hopefully waiting for me there. I managed to get on the bus, then to try and work out which stop I needed now that was a bit of a mission. See Montreal is a French speaking city and I don't speak French and I don't have a phrase book -EPIC FAIL! Luckily most residents of this fine city speak English so I snagged one of the other passengers and he told me the stop...I jumped off with my 19kg backpack, my daypack, and my camera bag (note to self reduce the amount of shit I take overseas!) and proceeded to walk about a km down St Laurent Blvd at 2230 in what I presumed was the right direction. Now that I think about its very risky...never know who your gunna meet. Well I met these 2 young sailor boys who were in town for the night and were heading my way (apparently) to another pub in Vieux Montreal so they kept me company and directed me in the right direction. Don't you just love random meetings of random people when you travel? I mean they probably helping me out of the goodness of their hearts, definitely wasn't because of my good looks! Maybe it's the Aussie accent. But I found the place and my name was on a letter on the door which provided me with a code to get in...

Destination: La Maison du Patriote (http://www.lamaisondupatriote.ca/La_Maison_du_Patriote/Accueil.html)

La Maison du Patriote

This has to be hands down my most favorite hostel ever so far. The atmosphere and set up of this place really nails it. Its not perfect, it has quirks and perks. There aren't enough showers/toilets, the floors creak when people are upstairs kitchen is tiny. But all that makes the experience!! Really it does. The staff are so friendly and have such great advice on coffee shops, and free things around the city. they have a blackboard with a map of all the things close by that you need to know bout, the best coffee! and the supermarket, the transit centre. I really loved it! plus the beds weren't to hard (I am going to freely admit that I am both a bed and coffee snob) Leashy and I really enjoyed the stay and met some awesome fellow travelers (2 who joined us on some adventures). The security is great here, as they give you a unique code according to your booking to get in the door and they don't have managers there overnight so it means you don't get wanderers off the street at random hours. So if you do decide to go then make sure you book ahead...

I met up with Leashy loo and managed to meet a couple of people in the little kitchen they had. Offered me a beer beat thing ever!!!

More about me

nikki_morf — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:18:00 GMT

So to continue from my little blurb earlier. I am a 29 yr old girl (I say girl cause i dont believe I'm grown up yet) who has 2 jobs in the gold coast. 1 of those jobs I love as I work at Dreamworld and it is the place of FUN! the other, hmmm blah, so I have decided that its time to change things. I was sick of feeling low and angry. I have debts, most of them are from all the traveling I have done. So I need to get my fat arse into gear and save up some cashola to head off on some more adventures. It's a disease I have decided and as a registered nurse I do know a little about diseases.

This little problem all started when I was in my last year of high school pondering on what I would do for the rest of my long and fruitful life. See i always wanted to travel I knew that. I would forever dream about the world outside of my tiny small town box and set of on epic adventures in my daydreams and drive my teachers batty. my perfect escape was books so i guess that helped foster my escapes as well. So in those all important moments in time where it is somehow sooo important to decided you life at the ripe old age of 18 (have those lovely teenage hormones don't help either) you are forced to make uninformed decision about university and life all that good stuff. my step mother told me i would make a good nurse, so I laughed in her face and scoffed behind her back, thinking she doesn't know me and continued to think. someone else then told me I would make a good nurse. oh really?? and as it didn't come from the woman who had married my father (another story here) it was food for thought...then came the clincher, the money is good and you can travel anywhere in the world with it. BINGO!!! golden words to my ears. so it was decided. I changed all my subject at school so I could get into university, passed with flying colours (barely) and got in to uni; studied and partied my arse of for 4 years. I failed a semester see! And then WOW my registration came through and I threw my preverbal hat in the air and i was out in the wide world of nursing.

So fast forward a few years, after i lived and worked in Melbourne then headed on up to tropical Queensland to where my family had settled and the urge to head off overseas, which had been silently sitting there in that special place in the back of my head, was creeping its way forward to make its presence know. See at this stage it hadn't morphed into the disease it is now but was a tiny little travel parasite the was slowly getting fed by more and more travel pictures and stories from friends, family and random strangers I stalked on Facebook (no one is ever safe!) I fed the little creature on my 1st International trip to Bali. I went there with a fellow health professional in the form of a Emergency Department Dr, Miss lovely Kerri. I figure between the both of us we'd have the medications and health shit covered. I discovered a whole new world beyond the borders of Australia and thirsted for more (damn that travel bug). We got the Bali belly, and alcoholic gastritis, which by the way doesn't go away if you continue to drink on through it. If it was alcoholic we drank it! We had fun, we fought and am I'm pretty sure hated each other for a bit.

I then come home to ponder about all the other places in the world I could see and experience. another few months past and I was getting restless. Got my tax back and it was a significant amount just sitting there quietly whispering to me 'take me away, take anywhere overseas and spend me' I tell ya once you have that going through your head its kinda hard to get rid of it! So I put the call out on Facebook (where else?) to see if there were any takers for a trip overseas. I mean really why not? I'm awesome! One of my colleagues son's took up the call and we embarked on a ritual journey that most young adults do. Contiki!!! bhahahahahahh its exactly how everyone tells you. Most people are quiet young between the ages of 18 and I'd say 23, and most of them drank every single night, gah here comes that alcoholic gastritis! and there is always one person the the trip that gets sick, yep that was me and I got the whole bus sick too!! damn knew I shouldn't have smoked all those joints in Amsterdam but seriously when in Rome right? We managed to shove 8 countries in 12 days, visit some of the most amazing historical sites in the world, not to mention the unmentionable sex show and spend 7 hours a day on a bus. But it was an amazing experience and I totally recommend it to anyone, as long as your between the ages of 18-32, but only as a starting point to travel. Its a stepping stone in the whole scheme of things, its a small glimpse of what there is out there to explore. I'm so glad I went on it. I had a friend who was living and working in London at the time so I caught up with her, she was fantastic, a shout out to Jess for that. She had an oyster card and a underground map ready for me with the stops marked out for all the touristy things. It was a God send. Post Contiki Jaryd and I managed to see Scotland, well Glasgow, and Dublin. We had fun, we fought and I'm pretty sure we hated each other.

So I couldn't get the annual leave I wanted to do this trip so I quit my full time position. Yep pretty crazy hey. But in the wide world of nursing there are always jobs going and at this time I know had about 2 yrs in an emergency department and had gotten a few extra skills. So I went causal and applied for a nursing agency. I went on a contract to a small rural town after I returned from Europe. I continued to do agency nursing and become a little but of a blonde nomad for a while using Hervey Bay (mums house) as a base and fed my little parasite some more travels in my own backyard. Thrown in here over the past few years since my Europe trip is a couple of trips to Melbourne and country Victoria, seeing people I went to school with and family. Some trips up north to Townsville, working in an Aboriginal community in the cape, working in Mackay and experiencing the gateway to The Great Barrier Reef- all I can say is WOW. Airlie Beach will always be equated to a bloody good time in my mind. So once again this little ticking time bomb inside of me was just tick tick tick ticking away. To what you ask? Well my best friend Aleasha and my brother broke up (another long story) and I happened to mention a wish to go see the big wide world of Canadian winters (I think it was the hot snowboarders that drew me there! Have you seen them whew enough to melt the pile of snow your standing on!) and she agreed with this need, so then the boring life of saving money began, again. I had many moments where I wished I would somehow magically come into some string-free money. I have had this dream for a while and the plans had been brewing for a couple of years. We decide to do a working holiday and after extensive research, which proved very misleading, joined up with The Global Work and Travel Company. We flew to Vancouver in November 2011 and after a stressful week in Vancouver thinking we would not have a job, managed to snag one each at this little unknown ski resort in northern BC, called Powder King.

Small family run business with the most EPIC powder runs and back country! though I don't have much to base it one hahaha. We had a ball with lots of adventures including a few midnight runs up the hill in the groomer to smoke some Canadian weed. and I seem to recall sometime spent getting drunk in the ladies bathroom when we were in freeze down and couldn't get off the 'island'.

Oh the things you do to entertain yourselves when you have cabin fever. I had to depart from the big white land before my time was up as I was maid of honor for my other best friend. the bonus being that her wedding was on a week long cruise around the South Pacific, Noumea, Ilse of Pines, and Vanuatu. Not bad heh? get home from one holiday and then go on another? I love my life!!!!

As the Canadian adventures weren't quiet finished I booked flight outta Australia, via Las Vegas baby! hahah one night there by myself was so overwhelming! I felt so shifty walking the streets sipping on my alcohol! and lost money too ahhhh so easy to do!

but at the moment gotta go do work so this story is TBC

what to do?

nikki_morf — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:12:00 GMT

cue dramatic music!

I have a severe case of itchy feet. After doing the typical Australian thing and partaking in a Canadian winter (I had a fucking awesome time by the way) I decided it was time to grow up and act my age and become the responsible adult my mother always hoped for. So I moved to a lovely, but expensive, apartment in the Gold Coast. Got a job, well two actually and proceeded to live it up. I slowly realised that I wasn't happy. Mainly due to work but also felt there was something missing. Just the other day, after speaking with a colleague that is heading off on an epic adventure around Europe and imparting some very useful advice to her I realised that I was travel-sick. I had developed a severe case of the travel bug and as a respected health professional I have, after extensive research, prescribed a trip away...anywhere! so that's the next step.....