By Gabi Logan

For independent travelers, WWOOFing is an ideal way to travel slowly and inexpensively and learn something along the way.

But what is WWOOFing? How do you do it? Why on earth does the word have two ‘w’s?

What is WWOOFing?

Officially, WWOOF stands for “World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms,” but among travelers and hosts, the older name “Willing Workers on Organic Farms” persists, emphasizing the very human component of the organization. Volunteers work for free (sort of) for organic farms all around in the world, from Turkey to Taiwan to Tonga.

In its early years in the U.K., the organization was known as “Working Weekends on Organic Farms” and focused more on giving city dwellers an opportunity to get out into the countryside and support the organic movement. Short stays taught visitors about the movement, but weren’t the ideal situation for farmers, who were investing a lot of time teaching volunteers who were only around for one weekend.

Reflecting this need, the organization shifted away from directly organizing trips for volunteers and toward individual long-term farm stays, acting more as a resource facilitating the connections between volunteers and farms. The organization briefly adopted the name “Willing Workers on Organic Farms,” but governments took issues with people “working” on farms without work visas, and the name changed to its current form.

Today, volunteers organize their own farm stays, contributing their work to organic farms in exchange for meals, a place to stay, and training from in ecologically-sound agriculture.

WWOOFing Terminology

If you visit any national WWOOF organization, you’ll find that very specific terminology has evolved to describe these unique arrangements.

“WWOOF” is the name of the international organization overseeing all national WWOOF chapters, but is used primarily as a verb, describing the act of organizing and going on a farm stay or the work itself. For instance, in Italian, you can say you “fare lo WWOOFing” (do WWOOFing).

The farms, vineyards and orchards where volunteers stay are called hosts, similar to an immersive language-learning homestay. The volunteers themselves are known as “WWOOFers,” which may sound a bit like an onomatopoeic name for canines, but actually sounds much more charming in non-English accents.

Who Should WWOOF?

The main requirement for WWOOFers is an interest in organic farming practices. The organization emphasizes that this is not just a way to arrange a cheap vacation. Beyond that, you need to be okay with roughing it and physically able to complete manual labor tasks.

Some hosts provide nicer accommodations than others, in a guest house, private apartment, or hotel room if they run a hotel on site. But these opportunities are more the exception than the rule, and many hosts offer simple campers or tent sites for WWOOFers. If you have a real need for multiple hot showers a day and modern, indoor accommodations, you’ll need to really screen the hosts.

Likewise, the work WWOOFers perform is not equally demanding in all WWOOFing locations. With some hosts, you can work primarily in the kitchen canning jams or making herbal tinctures, but other larger farms may have odd jobs like building a shed or a stone fence that WWOOFers need to help out with. If you have any serious physical limitations, let your prospective host know in advance so they can decide if you’re compatible with the work at their farm.

What do WWOOFers do?

If you envision riding around on tractors and milking cows when you hear “farm stay,” you’ve only imagined a small part of the possibilities of WWOOFing. In some areas, hosts fit into this pastoral farm mold, but more often than not, hosts are small, independent operations specializing in a one product or type of agricultural output.

You can learn to make goat cheese in the Alps, blend pinot noir in Australia, run an agrotourism school in the south of France, harvest olives and make olive oil in Portugal, build irrigation systems in Ghana, heard cattle in Argentina, or grow papayas in Hawaii.

The basic premise remains the same no matter where you go or what kind of agricultural operation you visit: WWOOFers work roughly five to six hours a day five days a week for their hosts. Early mornings are typically the norm, so you may work from 7 am or 8 am till lunch at 1 pm or 2 pm or put in a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the evening in hot climates with stifling midday heat.

Where Can You Go?

WWOOFing is an ideal vehicle to explore both developed countries and developing destinations that are difficult to visit independently, including many countries in eastern Europe, the Caucuses, and Africa.

More than fifty countries have their own national WWOOF organizations, and another 50+ are on the independent list, meaning there is no national administrative body, and you can WWOOF there with a membership from any other country. For a full list of the countries that currently host WWOOFers, check out the national organization list (http://wwoof.org/natorgs.asp) or the independents lists (http://www.woof.org/independents.asp).

How Do You Sign Up?

First things first: pick the country you’d like to WWOOF in.

One of the main downsides for travelers looking to WWOOF is that you have to sign up for each national WWOOFing organization separately. So if you are trying to assemble a year of WWOOFing around Europe, you’ll have to sign up separately for membership in the British, Swiss, French, Spanish, Greek, and Italian organizations.

After providing your biographical information through the national organization’s online form, you send in a membership fee, typically around $30-$40. Many countries accept payment by Paypal these days, but for some countries, you’ll have to factor a few weeks for your check to arrive into your travel plans.

Once these materials have been received by the national WWOOF administration, they’ll send you a host list and a membership card. You can’t begin a WWOOFing trip without your membership card, and many hosts will ask to see a copy of it by email before accepting your request to stay with them.

***

Many national WWOOFing organizations have a list of opportunities you can browse for free before signing up for membership. Take a look through some listings in Brazil (http://www.wwoofbrazil.com/pre_host_farm.htm), Kazakhstan (http://www.wwoofkazakhstan.org/hosts/), and Italy (http://www.wwoof.it/gb/list.html) to get inspired.

Gabi Logan is a freelance blogger and travel writer. While renovating a Ligurian farmhouse on a recent WWOOFing trip, she finally found a way to put her Italian literature degree to use: bonding over Dante with her hosts.

Meet Jonas Studer, a primary school teacher from the small town of Brugg, Switzerland. For the last decade he has been crossing the world in search of the biggest, badest, and most exotic waves. It wasn’t until after years of traveling to surf that he began to “see things” other than waves. I caught up with him for an interview on a non-surfing leg of a trip to Malaysian Borneo.

GN: I’ve heard of Swiss hikers, mountaineers, ice-climbers…but surfers? No. How does a person from a mountainous land-locked country develop a life-long obsession with surfing?

JS: The first time I saw a proper wave was in my friend’s brother’s bedroom. We were young. It was a poster of Hawaii’s Back Door. We were sneaking into to his room to look for any evidence of girls that we could find. Instead of girls, we found surfing.

When I got a little older, I learned to surf “static” waves in rivers. At 14, we had raised money for a school trip to Barcelona. Due to a measles outbreak, the trip got cancelled. But some of us wanted to salvage our summer holiday. One of our classmate’s fathers invited us to his beach house in Brittany, France. We ended up using the money we raised for surfing lessons.

GN: Where are some of the destinations you’ve traveled to surf?

JS: In South America I surfed on practically every beach from Ecuador down to Santiago, Chile. In Central America I hit the waves in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. Also, Indonesia, Australia (including Tasmania), New Zealand, and Hawaii. Closer to home, I’ve surfed in France, Portugal, the UK, Italy, and Morocco. And there’s one more place…but…I can’t tell you. It’s a secret.

GN: The question I always ask? Does your passion drive you to travel, or is traveling the driving force? In other words, do you travel to surf or surf to travel?

 JS: I definitely travel to surf. But traveling is a nice “side effect”. I thank my girlfriend Camilla for helping me to begin to see things when I travel. In fact, my first trip not to surf was to Bolivia and it was an incredible experience.

GN: Do you always travel with your surf board? How do you transport it?

JS: The surf board is a big pain to transport. My biggest board is 6 ft. 4 in. Some airlines charge extra for surfboards. British Airways does not allow them. You can find information like that on surfline.com.

GN: Has surfing brought you closer to locals or the local culture of the place you were traveling?

JS: For surfing, many times you have to trek to remote places. This has meant that I come in contact with a lot of locals and consequently have spent a lot of time hanging out with them. In Morocco, I took a car about two or three hours south of the touristy area to a predominately Berber region.

GN: How do you compare surfing in surfing cultures, say in Hawaii or Australia versus non-surfing cultures like Indonesia?

JS: In countries with a large percentage of surfers, everything seems to revolve around surfing, so much so, that it can be annoying. It attracts not only considerate surfers, but also the arrogant and selfish crowd.

In a place like Indonesia, you meet independent travelers that have come to surf and they tend to be much more open minded.

GN: Where are some surf destinations that are at the top of your list for the future? How about your favorite places to revisit?

JS: Indonesia is definitely on my list to revisit as is South America, predominately because of the combination of the waves and the culture.

I’d love to surf in Mozambique and Ireland at some point in the future.

GN: Thanks so much for the interview!  Keep in touch during your future surfing adventures!

Interview compiled by Stephen Bugno

By Beau Miller

“It’s governed by a council/ All good souls and wise./ They’ve only $5 for armaments/ And the rest for cakes and pies.” -Pete Seeger, “Andorra”

As your attorney, I advise you to rent a fuel-efficient automobile and drive at top speed to Andorra, but before you start packing the trunk with ether, Wild Turkey, and limes—stop. And think. Absinthe in Andorra is as abundant as the mountains, and at 3 Euro a liter for a bottle of the Green Fairy, you have more room for the Acapulco shirts and handguns. Now for the gory details. You have to go through France or Spain to get there. No public airports in Andorra, just curving stretches of finely-manicured highway being skillfully navigated upon by peace-loving Andorrans. Here I take the risk of coming off as some pretentious jackass, and I invite you to do the same. Because somewhere, in gritty Williamsburg, Austin, and Portland bars fair-skinned hands will tremble around their cans of PBR and filterless Luckies with borderline-uncontrollable desire as you utter one of the most powerful combination of words in modern English, “When I was in Andorra…”

Undoubtedly there will be those who, while able to identify the finer points of bicycle restoration, are unable to locate Andorra on a map or think it would be a great name for a band nobody’s heard of yet. Therefore you must arm yourself to the teeth with information. Skip the CIA Factbook because I’m supremely confident that they got their information from Pete Seeger’s 1960s love ballad about Andorra. However, recent developments must be taken into account in order to rightly appreciate the evolution of Andorran sagacity. Since the 1960s, it would appear that Andorra’s approximately $5 defense budget has been decreased. By approximately $5. It now delegates responsibility for the protection of its people, cakes, and pies to Spain and France. Though, the French, it would seem, are envious enough of their Catalonian neighbors and the unrivaled quality of their queso-induced siestas, that they keep a jab at Andorra holstered and at the ready for whenever mention of this tiny Pyrenean utopia is mentioned. “What does one do in Andorra?” the joke-teller will inquire. When met with a shrug of the shoulder or the oral imitation of the sounds of quick, satisfying flatulence (the preferred method by which many French exclaim their befuddlement), the joke-teller will go for the throat: “On dort!” In English, the punch-line translates to “One sleeps,” but in French it is a clever play on words, as it is pronounced exactly as locals pronounce the name of their nation in Catalan (Andorre). Yes, one sleeps, but only after one has had their fill of outdoor activity, paella, and strong drink.

Make for the campsite of your choice. In a country 176 square miles, it’s hard to get too far out of an Andorran city, but what it lacks in seclusion, it makes up for with its ability to provide a perfect cocktail of European caravanners. Anywhere is close to the capital city of Andorra la Vella and its tax-free shopping, and if not traveling solo, “bungalows” offer cheap accommodation, with separate bedrooms, shower, and a kitchen/absinthe-drinking arena perfect for discussing the social commentary of Celentano’s “Yuppi Du” (Youtube it). Though as the propietari of the Camping Pla confessed to me, the shower is not quite big enough to fit all your friends in at once. It can be hard to find a “cheap” plate of local grub, but you get what you pay for, and a plate of local paella and a bottle of house wine split with a camarada will leave one immensely satisfied. For keeping to a budget hit up the Andorra 2000, the bastard step-child of Walmart and a medieval public market, for its cheap and affordable selection of any type of alcohol under the sun, the legs of any standard livestock you might desire, and a tremendous array of cheeses. Nutella comes in buckets.
Initially drawn to Andorra as part of the search for either a setting for a setting for workplace team-building exercises or mass destruction, the US State Department, in 2003, estimated the average daily cost of a stay in Andorra to be $226. This raises significant questions. How could four exuberant young go-getters in a brand-spanking-new Ford Fiesta make the 1,500 km, round-trip journey from Lyon, France to the illustrious Camping Pla in Canillo, Andorra, spend two nights in a bungalow, and return with a trunk full of Absinthe, Andorra-stenciled lighters, pens, fridge magnets, and the country’s Euro-style, ovular, white “AND” stickers (which identify the owner of the property upon which said sticker is affixed, as a pacifist pastry eater who will survive both nuclear holocaust and the subsequent zombie apocalypse thanks solely to Andorra’s “under the radar” status) all for the low, low price of approximately 120 €, for transportation, food, lodging, and party favors? What kicks were State Department henchmen getting in Andorra? Maybe they should be writing this article.

All in all, Andorra offers an affordable feast for the soul and all senses. It takes a special kind of person to reach this Shangri-la of the Pyrenees, an even more special person to throw the proverbial boulder in the figurative pond of its quiet mountain towns, and a rare breed of animal to successfully arouse the (wander) lust of those susceptible to stories of raucous adventures in countries they weren’t quite sure existed.

To do it right, go in June, just before the tourist season picks up. By beating the rush, you guarantee yourself a wide berth to roam about Andorra spontaneously and irrationally, and you are more likely to succeed in finding lodging only a short stumble away from local bars and restaurants. July and August bring in the summer hordes before the short fall and the ski season. Accommodations and other information are easily found on Andorra’s tourism website. Andorra is perfect for a weekend experience, but its mountain walls start to close in and the rental car will get restless for any time longer than that. And for God’s sake, don’t go during ski season.

Beau Miller holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from Syracuse University and is America’s greatest long-distance driver, having recently learned to drive manual, at 29 years young, on the way to Andorra. This is his third article for GoMad Nomad. His previous dispatches have been from Nepal and Oman.

Entering Andorra le Vella, Andorra's capital.

The view from an alleyway in the bustling metropolis of Canillo, Andorra

Stopping to enjoy the great Andorran past-time- hitting snowballs with a stick

Bungalows often include wifi, kitchen, and showers

Andorra's reduction in defense spending has allowed it to increase its budget for the arts

All the comforts of home...

By Noel Lau

“There’s no cheap way to get to Machu Picchu,” said the guide who was trying to sell me a tour. Seeing Machu Picchu had always been a dream of mine but I wasn’t going to join a tour. Getting to Machu Picchu can put a dent your pocket. I was at the end of my South American trip, so I couldn’t afford the expensive Inca trail nor did I want to cheapen my experience there by taking the train.

The ruins close up: Terrace planting field on the left, temple in the center and living quarters on the right.

Arriving in Cuzco, I set out to find information about an alternative route I’d heard from other travelers. I found that it’s quite easy and straight forward; I could do Machu Picchu in two days. So that night, I went back to the hostel to pack a small bag and left my big one at the hostel. Most hostels allow you to do that without extra charge.

The Alternate Route

The next day I left quite early to catch the 7am bus from Cuzco’s Santiago bus station to Santa Maria. There are departures every 15-30 minutes. The bus ride usually takes around 6 hours and cost 15 soles ($5 US). However, since it had rained heavily two days earlier causing some landslides, my journey took eight hours. Besides two German travelers, most of the people on the bus were locals returning to their villages after doing their business in Cuzco. Women and men with gurney sacks and shopping bags squeezed their way into seats, while salesmen came on board and talked for hours selling all kind of medicines and goods.

Local women selling food on wheelbarrows by the side of the road.

At around 12pm the bus stopped at a small roadside village. We got off the bus to be greeted by local women and children selling cheap ($ 1-2 US) and delicious food on wheelbarrows. There were passengers from other buses and lorry drivers too. The whole road was blocked for us to have lunch. It soon became a market place with people standing, sitting and squatting in the middle of the road enjoying their meal.

I arrived in Santa Maria just after 3pm. It’s a tiny crossroad hamlet with a few shops and restaurants. There are combi (shared taxi) waiting to take people to the nearby villages. The one I took cost 8 soles ($3 US) and took 45 minutes to the village of Santa Teresa. As this alternate route becomes popular, drivers will charge foreigners more, so make sure you bargain and check with the locals if they are paying the same. The road to Santa Teresa is unpaved and there are many blind corners. My heart stopped every time the car turned a sharp corner or drove close to the edge to let on-coming cars through; it didn’t help that I was sitting at the window and could see the 200m drop to the ravine below.

When I got to Santa Teresa I took another combi to Hidroeléctrica (the hydroelectric plant and the last train station) for 4 soles ($1.50 US). Since there are not many people going there, it could be a long wait to fill up the combi. I was lucky to be with the two German guys and we found an old man going that way as well so we got to Hidroeléctrica in 30 minutes. If you don’t want to wait, you could walk there in two hours. And if your timing is right, you could hitch a ride with the lorry that takes workers to and from the plant. On my return trip, I hitched a ride this way from the plant to Santa Teresa.

Me at the beginning of the track along train track to Machu Picchu village.

From Hidroeléctrica, you could take the train for 18 soles ($6 US) and in 30 minutes you’ll be in Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu village), but there are only 3-4 services a day. Or you could walk along the train tracks for 10km to get to Aguas Calientes.  We decided to walk. We chatted, enjoyed the view and saw some small ruins. When it got dark, I was lamenting for missing out on seeing the scenery but then fireflies came out of nowhere and accompanied us all the way. I felt like I was in a fairy land. That really made my day.

Shoestring Accommodation and Food

We arrived in Aguas Calientes just after 7pm tired and dirty. We went straight to the Tourist Office to get the entrance ticket for Machu Picchu. It costs 126 soles ($45 US) for adult and 63 soles ($22 US) for students with ISIC card. At night Aguas Calientes is like a well-lit amusement park surrounded by dark imposing Andean Mountains. There are hotels and restaurants to suit all budgets, however finding something for shoestring budget proved to be a challenge. Finally we found a room for 12 soles ($4 US) each at Hotel No.1. There’s no street name, so to find it, go up the street where the Tourist Office is and take the 2^nd right turn, you’ll see it at the end of the street on your left just before the river. But the hot water was out so after a freezing shower, we went out looking for food.

Macchu Picchu from a look out point.

Not wanting to pay $10 for a meal, we decided to explore the little village. On the next street just behind the hotel, we crossed a bridge and found ourselves surrounded by locals, there were no tourists at all. We entered a simple but nice restaurant and had a set meal for 8 soles ($3 US); it was delicious and filling, just what we needed after a long day. As not many tourists venture to that part of town and it’s where the locals hang out, things in the supermarket are cheaper. We bought our snacks there for the climb to Machu Picchu the next day. You can’t bring food into the site, but bottled water and snacks are allowed in a small backpack.

Climb to the top

I woke up at 4am and had a small breakfast before setting out. The gate at Puente Ruinas only opens at 5am. From there it’s a steep climb to the top. It took me one huffing-and-puffing-hour. I stopped many times to catch my breath; even chewing coca leaves didn’t help.

Me on top of Wayna Picchu with Machu Picchu below.

Alternatively, you could catch a bus near Puente Ruinas for $7 (one way). The first one departs at 5:30am. There’s usually a queue so make sure you get there early. In high season, I was told that people start queuing at 4:30am.

Your Machu Picchu ticket also allows you to go to Huayna Picchu. But since they only allow 400 people to climb daily, it’s advisable to get there before the many bus loads of people. I was really happy to find out that I was among the first 400. Although it’s another hour of steep climbing from Machu Picchu, the view from up there was spectacular and make Machu Picchu look small and ant-like.

The Return

Machu Picchu far exceeded my expectations. I was so happy and smiled like a fool the whole time I was there. It literally took my breath away. I was there during low season and I was able to find moments and places to be alone to feel the mysteriousness of the place. After spending more than six hours drinking in the amazing sights, it was time for me to leave.

Getting down was much easier. I was back in Aguas Calientes in less than an hour. After a much needed lunch and before starting my return journey, I rested at the main square watching the goings and comings of the people. I saw a local woman combing her daughter’s hair outside her small restaurant as they waited for their first customer; I saw an old European couple, tired and dirty after conquering Machu Picchu, enter an overpriced western restaurant; I saw children in their school uniforms chasing each other without a care in the world; I saw two young Japanese ladies smiling as they looked at photos they had taken. It was hypnotizing. Reluctantly, I started my journey back; the same way I came.

However there is an alternate route: walking along the train track in the other direction, towards Cuzco, for 10 hours to Ollantaytambo. From there, you can take a shared taxi for 10 soles ($3.50 US) back to Cuzco. I was really tired and couldn’t imagine walking another 10 hours.

The going was slow and in Santa Maria, I had to wait four hours for the next bus. I was so exhausted I fell asleep on a bench next to a sleeping old man. I finally reached Cuzco at 2am. Lying in bed overwhelmed by fatigue, a sense of bliss and contentment washed over me. After fulfilling a dream, it was time to dream another.

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Noel Lau has been traveling and working his way around the world for the past decade. Most recently he has been living in Colombia after a year of slowly crossing the South American continent by bus, boat, and plane. He blogs at Wander2nowhere.com

By Avery Sumner

I’ve got a full bladder and a thread thin polyester blanket stretched around me. I can’t reach the valve for the cold flow of air pouring over my seat and I can’t get up to use the bathroom because there’s a half eaten microwaved meal on a tray table locking me in place.

Wine barrel airplane. Now that's alternative energy! At Mas de Gourgonnier, an organic vineyard in Provence making a good quality boutique wine as well as olive oil.

Each time I take this flight between France and the United States I wonder how it is I paid (in my free lance world) the equivalent of one or two months’ salary for these conditions. The misery isn’t even rewarded with a rich tale to recount or reflect on later. It’s just a sterile, uncomfortable and really damned expensive experience. Add to that the massive environmental costs of the flight and the fact that if this plane goes down the likely-hood of survivors is, well, unlikely, and voila, you see the inspiration behind this article.

Though I haven’t found an alternative to the flexibility of ocean-crossing flights, I have found some general flying alternatives that make me feel more comfortable about the possibility of these being my last moments. So what could be better than cramming myself on a jet in the final hour? How about cleating the halyards of a sailing vessel headed toward somewhere far, or resting under a blanket of stars so thick I think I can see tomorrow.

Our bus travel in Senegal. Rough going but so much more fun than the sterile airport!

If you share my sentiments, maybe you’ll appreciate some of the alternative ways I’ve found to travel.

Freighter

A good option if you have time and a flexible budget. Contrary to popular belief, traveling by freighter is not cheaper than flying. Freighters generally cost around 100 € a day. From where I live in France to an eastern port in the United States I can pretty much count on 10 days. So for about 1,000 € I can get home one way. My last round-trip flight from Barcelona, Spain to Cincinnati, Ohio cost around 600 €, a big difference from the 2000 € a round trip freighter passage would have cost me.

But if I chose to go by freighter I’d be paying for ten days at sea with meals and room included. In essence, a cruise of sorts, with the added bonus of getting me where I want to go. A friend married to the captain of a working ship recently took her first voyage with him. She wrote me saying:

I had the most relaxing and pleasant three months perhaps of my life – sleeping, eating, reading, walking on deck and seeing the beautiful ocean, seas, gulfs, clouds, sunsets and sunrises as a regular part of my daily life. I also enjoyed watching the ship’s activities as we traveled through the Suez Canal and around the Middle East in the Red Sea, Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea.

Most people who travel by ship do it as a cheap way to get away for extended periods. A few books with such accounts are:

Travel by Cargo Ship by H. Verlomme
Running Away to Sea: Round the World on a Tramp Freighter by George Fetherling,
Around the World by Freighter by Bob Hartley
Bureaucrat to Tramp: A Freighter Cruise Adventure by Kenneth M. Peterson
Also the blog: http://goingeast.ca/blog/http:/goingeast.ca/blog/category/freighters/

But if you’re interested in booking a ship in place of a direct flight to a destination of choice, you’ll have to be prepared to pay more, plan more and relax more. Bookings need to be made at least six months in advance and even then, your departure could be delayed as ships change schedule according to unanticipated need.

So for my once a year trip back to the United States I would need to pick a date well in advance and then be prepared to spend 20 days at sea (round trip) with about a week’s wiggle room on either side to account for delayed departures. As difficult as this may sound, it’s entirely possible. The managing director at The Cruise People Ltd [Trans-Atlantic Passenger Ship Service] recently wrote me, “By the way we have a few regular clients in France and we have regular commuters by ship, one of whom does so to/from Australia and another to/from Singapore.” Sounds like I need to get my spontaneous life in order and join the ranks of responsible folks committed to an air-free lifestyle.

Two of the most helpful booking companies in my efforts toward this direction have been:
http://www.cruisepeople.co.uk/
http://www.freightercruises.com/

You can also book passages directly with ships. The friend I mentioned above told me, “I read that French Container Carrier CMA CGM of Marseilles is offering voyages around the world (or parts thereof) on six of their medium-sized container ships.” Going to your nearest port might also prove fruitful.

Another helpful site is http://wikitravel.org/en/Freighter_travel

Sailing/Crewing

One of the most energy efficient ways to travel is with the wind. Better known as hitchhiking across oceans, travelers wanting to crew on sailing vessels have to work to find the ride.

Berths can be found on charter boats, boat deliveries, cruising sailboats and on boats making ocean crossings, circumnavigations or year-long voyages. The most important thing a would-be crew member has to offer is free time as few people can just take off and leave a job or family for weeks of sailing.

The largest marina in Europe is in La Rochelle, France

Crew posts out of New England, Scandinavia and England can be found in sailing magazines and local yachting newspapers. But the best place to look for positions are at the ports where sailors often set out for ocean crossings or where they stop to re-provision. The key is being there at the right time.

The best ports and seasons are:

• Gibraltar from October to December for Atlantic crossings, April to June for heading into the Mediterranean (also Malta, Rhodes, and Piraeus have similar seasons)
• Canary Islands from October to January to cross to South America and the Caribbean
• La Rochelle in France is home to the largest marina in Europe, could be a good place to find rides to the Canaries or Gibraltar
• Antigua, Barbados, St. Thomas and Puerto Rico from October to November
• Panama any time of year, May for west-bound boats
• Tahiti around July 14
• Singapore and Honolulu, months depending on direction desired
• Miami, San Francisco, Long Beach and San Diego for charter boat posts
• Beaufort, NC is a famous jumping off spot for sailors headed into the Caribbean
• Floyd’s Hostel and Crew House in Fort Lauderdale, FL is good for jobs and crew posts
• Fort Pierce, FL boasts the cheapest marina fees on the east coast of Florida, a good place to find sailors doing work to their boats preparing for long winter cruises

The beach at the marina in Dakar, where world sailors moor for cheap.

Expect to spend two or three weeks at each port searching for a crew position. One way to lessen the cost of hanging around a port is working on a yacht in the harbor. You can get paid for varnishing or painting while gaining a good reference for a would be skipper looking to take you on as crew.

Things to consider before signing on to crew:

• Do you have enough extra cash for airfare home should you find yourself in a bad situation (Most major airlines give a 25 percent discount on one-way fares to seamen/women repatriating? You’ll need proof that you’ve been removed from a vessel’s crew list at a foreign port).
• Can you get along with a crew 24 hours a day for weeks on end?
• Why is there a vacancy on the vessel?
• Will you be charged for food and fuel, if so what is your share?
• What will your duties be?
• Is there a written contract for the exchange?
• If you’re the only woman on board, have you made a few short trips with the crew before taking off for a long voyage?
• What experience does the captain have?
• What shape is the boat in?
• Are you traveling light, with only one bag or back pack?

For more advice get a copy of Lin and Larry Pardey’s Self Sufficient Sailor.
The chapter Hitchhiking across Oceans is very detailed and full of personal experiences.

Mailboats

For island hopping voyages, a great way to see local life is to travel by mail boat. They’re slow going, but the price is right and the vantage point about as real as you can get. A good place to try this traveling style is in the Bahamas where mailboats reach the most remote out-islands in the chain. http://www.bahamas-travel.info/mailboat.htm

Over Land Travel

It’s really hard to resist dirt cheap deals through European airlines like Ryan Air and Easy Jet or US companies like Jet Blue. I know, I could fly to Morocco for 50 € tomorrow if I wanted. It takes a genuine commitment to traveling with a conscience to decline such offers. Just consider the gigantic carbon footprint left by jets and the insulated poor quality of experience you get from them. Remind yourself why you’re traveling in the first place and you’ll easily bid adieu to jets for good.

Train Jaune here in the Pyrenees. It's a slow going electric train that dates from 1910. It runs along the mountain sides offering stunning views.

Though expensive, nothing beats the comfort or adventure of traveling by train, especially super fast trains like the TGV in France. And if you do your research, buses can often be quite economical. In my department in France I can take the bus anywhere I want to go for 1€. Though not necessarily the fastest mode of travel, the experience is almost never dull.

If you simply can’t afford mass transportation prices, ride-shares are economical and gaining in popularity. Unlike hitchhiking, where timing and benevolence are chance, ride-sharing is a planned carpool with everyone sharing gas expenses. Sites like Craig’s List in the United States, Allostop in France and Mitfahrgelgenheit in Germany are good places to start. Often times independent local bookstores, coffee shops and natural food stores will post ride shares on bulletin boards.

But if time is no consequence, the richest traveling experiences are always on your own power. When you know your traveling lifestyle is sustainable for budget and planet the choice is easy.

Get inspired to pedal

Bikes in Burgundy at the hotel Le Cep.

http://www.adventurecycling.org/
http://www.pedouins.org/history.html
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/euhansen.html#rollyourown
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/?

Get inspired to walk:

http://www.ffrandonnee.fr/
http://www.go4hiking.com/news/a-very-long-walk.html
http://www.appalachiantrail.org/site/c.mqLTIYOwGlF/b.4805859/k.BFA3/Home.htm
http://www.cdtrail.org/page.php
If You Only Walk Long Enough by Steve Cracknell
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail By Bill Bryson

Contributing writer Sally Kay has been traveling through South America for 17 months, from Ushuaia, the southernmost tip of Argentina, all the way to Cartagena in the north of Colombia. She has covered many of those miles by hitchhiking.  I was about to meet her in Colombia but she got temporarily held up in Ecuador after being robbed. I was intrigued by her hitchhiking, especially alone as a woman, and I wanted to bring her story to our readers. So she answered some of my questions via email.

Sally Kay above Santiago, Chile

GN: First, the stats: How many times, roughly, have you hitched? How many countries? What was your longest ride?

Sally: I’ve probably hitched about 100 times, give or take, in seven countries.  My longest ride was with a friend across Argentina from Rosario, in the east almost to Salta in the west. When the truck driver stopped for the night we unrolled our sleeping bags and slept beside the semi.

GN: How many years have you been traveling like this? When was your first hitch?

Sally: I am relatively new to hitching.  My first ride was in 2009, but I was hooked from the start.

GN: The question most people want to know: Are you ever scared hitching as a female? Do you usually hitch with a male companion or another female? Is it safe?

Sally: I have been in slightly uncomfortable or awkward situations, but nothing scary.  Like anything else, I think it’s important to be safe about it. I have hitched alone and with another person without problems, but it really is safer to have a partner while hitchhiking.

I don’t think it’s unsafe for a woman to hitchhike alone during the daytime (depending on the place) and by no means would I advise against it, but a woman and a man together is definitely the best combination.  Whether or not you are actually a couple doesn’t matter, it gives that impression and discourages awkward overtures.

GN: I am biased about hitching in my home country, the U.S., because I think can be more dangerous than other places. Have you ever hitched in the States?

Sally: I think that it is more dangerous in the States.  I have thought about it, but the closest I have gotten to hitching in the States is Craigslist rideshares. The main reason I say this, is that while people will tell you hitching is dangerous all over the world, in South America people who do hitch, recommend it. In the States, hitchhikers have warned me that it is too dangerous for a girl alone.  There is also the added problem that hitching is illegal in many states and police will often fine hitchhikers.

GN: What was your easiest country for getting rides? Your most difficult?

Sally: Chile was probably the easiest country to get a ride in. The roads are wonderful, many people have cars, and everyone seems willing to give hitchhikers a ride. I hitched from La Serena on the west coast to Mendoza, Argentina in a day, getting one ride after another.

Colombia was by far the most difficult country to get a ride in. Though Colombians are wonderful people there is still a fear of kidnappings and guerillas. The government even has run announcements warning drivers not to pick up hitchhikers. This sadly makes hitching in Colombia almost impossible.

GN: Any stories of over-the-top hospitality?

Sally: That’s part of why I love hitchhiking.  It’s pretty standard for truck drivers to buy hitchhikers meals when they stop to eat, which is always nice.  I have had truckers offer to pay for bus tickets when we weren’t headed to the same place. I have had truckers invite myself and a hitching partner sailing with them.

I think probably my favorite over-the-top hospitality experience was traveling with a friend.  A truck driver called ahead to the city we were visiting, found us a hotel room, and paid for our accommodation.

GN: What has been the most frightening part of hitching; when were you worried the most?

Sally: I have been pretty lucky and haven’t had any really frightening experiences.  Once I hitched with a trucker, it was pretty far, but I thought we would make it to our destination before nightfall.  Much to my surprise he pulled over and stopped for the night and ended up making advances on me.  It was extremely uncomfortable but I told him quite firmly that I wanted no part of that and wanted out of his truck.

As soon as he realized I was serious about it, he apologized profusely and was extremely embarrassed, but it could have gone quite differently.  After that, I never hitched alone after dark or on extended trips where there was any possibility the driver would stop for the night.

GN: Why Hitch? Are you trying to save money or just after some adventure?

Sally: Hitching is more than just a way to save money.  It is a great way to meet some extremely interesting people you wouldn’t otherwise encounter, see a different side of countries, and some amazing nature along the roads.  It is also wonderful to see how kind so many people are, hear their stories, and get an entirely different perspective on life.

I hitchhiked with one miner who had grown up in a family so poor the nine children had to share four pairs of shoes when they went to school.  Half the children had morning classes and would bring the shoes back for the other children to wear in the afternoon.  Not only did the miner have fascinating stories, but he took me and my travel partner to the mine he worked at and let us stay in this amazing house made completely out of salt, with salt tables and benches!

GN: Any advice to anyone out there, especially for females who are looking to travel by thumb?

Sally: There are a million ways to hitchhike, but I’d be happy to give a little advice to help get some new hitchhikers started.

• Do not get into a truck if you get a bad feeling about the driver or the vehicle.

• Bring a map with you. That way you will be able to see the best route to where you want to go.

• Starting early is another good idea, especially for women, but for men as well. Drivers rarely pick up hitchers after dark, and with good reason. You and the driver want to be able to see one another.

• Smile, do a dance, look the driver in the eyes, and make yourself stand out.  Drivers want to pick up hitchhikers who will be good company and pass the time.

Sally has written Ten Things she should know before couchsurfing: Tips for Women and A Hitchhiker’s Guide to South America for GoMad Nomad. She blogs at: Adventuresse Travels

Interview by Stephen Bugno

By Sally Kay

The Couchsurfing Project is a great tool for the curious and thrifty traveler.  The project idea is a cultural exchange in which members are the type of people who want share their culture and to learn about others.  Couchsurfers want to get to know more than just the tourist attractions: they are travelers, not tourists.

I have been a member for almost three years now, surfing, showing people around my city, and hosting.  As fantastic as couchsurfing can be, there can be a dark side too.  Because of that, as a woman, especially if you are a woman traveling solo, you do need to be careful.  In some countries, in the Middle East for example, it is better to couchsurf with women.  However I do not like to limit myself as far as hosts.  Here are a few guidelines to make your experience the best it can be.

A couchsurfing party

Read your potential host’s profile carefully

Couchsurfing isn’t about getting a free place to stay; it’s about cultural exchange, getting to know the real place.  Don’t send a request to people you don’t think you’ll get along with.  Everyone has different criteria for choosing hosts, but I try to contact people who share my interests, have hobbies I find interesting, seem like I could learn from, or who would just be fun to spend time with.  Traveling is a lot more fun when you’re with people you like.

Only contact members with filled-out profiles

If a person hasn’t taken the time to fill out their profile, they probably aren’t the best choice for a host (or for a guest).  How can you tell what interests you share, what their views on life are, or really anything about them unless they have filled out their profile?

Only contact people with pictures who have pictures

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.  If a member hasn’t taken the time to upload a picture then one has to wonder why. (Editor’s note: you also want to make sure the picture is the same individual you meet in person)

Read over the Couch Information

This tells you what the bed is like, if you’ll have your own room, and what the sleep set-up is. It is couchsurfing, so you shouldn’t expect to have your own room, but I stay away from men offering to share their room.  Even if there are two beds in the room, I feel like it’s best not to tempt fate.

Make sure your potential host has references…

and read them carefully.  References are there as a safety measure, and you can learn a lot about a person from them.  Sure, everyone starts out without references, but for a woman couchsurfing alone it’s safer to send couch requests to hosts with good references.  If you want to be extra careful then look at the profiles of the people who’ve left the references.

Vouching

Another safety measure in couchsurfing is vouching.  It signifies the person vouching for the couchsurfer trusts that member.  Members who are vouched for are safer to contact.

Stay away from male hosts only offering couches to women

There are always exceptions, but often when a man puts “preferred gender” as “female” this means that the man is using couchsurfing for the wrong reasons: to meet women.  One of the first rules of couchsurfing is that it is not a dating website.  Of course romances can happen; sometimes there is chemistry between two people.  However, if the host assumes something romantic will happen with their guests, tries to manufacture a romantic connection, or feels that the guest is in some way obligated to him, then that is definitely not okay.

Always trust your instincts

If anything gives you a bad feeling about a profile, then don’t send a request.  Intuition is a powerful thing and it is always better to be safe than sorry.

Stay with families

I prefer to stay with women, or men living with their family.  Living with your family into adulthood is extremely common in many countries, and the families are generally extremely kind.

Talk to your host first

Send a few email exchanges back and forth, chat on Skype or MSN messenger to get to know your host a little before staying with him or her.  At least for your first few times couchsurfing.

If you don’t feel comfortable in a place then leave.

Go to a hostel or check into a hotel. If something in the back of your mind says that this isn’t the right place then listen. Just because you’ve sent a couch request does not mean that you are obligated to stay the exact number of days requested.  If you feel awkward telling them the truth, then invent an excuse, but always remember: your safety is first.

By following these guidelines and by using a little common sense, you’ll have a fantastic time.  In fact, I find that couchsurfing is actually a safer way to travel; you have a friend wherever you go.  To make things better, you are under the auspices of a savvy local who knows his or her way around the city, give you advice, and want to help.  So what are you waiting for?  Get couchsurfing!

After graduating from the University of Kansas’ school of Journalism Sally hit the road and hasn’t looked back.  She has explored Europe, Africa, South America, and North America, lived in Slovakia, Hungary and Argentina and is currently traveling in South America. She writes about her adventures in the blog www.adventuressetravels.wordpress.com, has had articles in various online travel magazines, and is a travel guru for the website Tripeezy LLC.

Recently I’ve been increasingly interested in those travelers whose intense interest, hobby, or profession take them around the world. Be they surfers, chefs, farmers, artists, or hunters; they go to far off places to see how their specialty is done in that particular place.

I met Ben Tobin trekking in the High Sierra of California this summer. He’s the assistant cave technician (or caveman as he likes to joke) at Sequoia King’s Canyon National Park.  Whether he uses traveling as an excuse to go caving or caving as an excuse to travel, he’s been exploring caves around the world for more than a decade now. I asked him about the places caving has taken him.

Ben at the bat monument in Austin, Texas

GN: What places have you been caving?

BT: Kenya, Greece, the Bahamas, China, Mexico, and throughout the USA at various National Parks: Wind Cave in South Dakota, Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, among others on both public and private land.

A current obsession with a lot of American cavers is China, so I took a trip there with some colleagues a couple years back. In Kenya I saw some lava tubes. Greece was for an international caving conference. And most recently, some friends and I took a road trip into northern Mexico to go caving.

A large chamber in San Wan Dong (Ben holding a flash in the far distant part of the room), in Chongqing, China Photo Credit: Hazel Barton

GN: Do you meet any cavers in the countries you’ve visited? Do you connect through your common interest?

BT: One of the most enjoyable parts of caving in other countries is meeting cavers and other locals. Caves seem to provide a good focal point to expand our understanding of one another. Typically, locals (non-cavers) think that we are crazy for traveling around the world to crawl into a little hole in the ground. But in many ways, that provides a means for more meaningful interactions.

GN: Do you have any funny stories?

BT: We were in a remote region of Hunan Province in China, living with a local farmer, exploring and mapping some nearby caves. It was a group of six cavers from the US and Britain along with three Chinese cavers. Every day we returned home, exhausted from spending the entire day caving—crawling, climbing, hiking around—that we would have a few drinks, crash, and crawl into our sleeping bags for the night. Well, apparently one family in the village ended up calling the police to find out if we were legally allowed to be there.

The police arrived to investigate and asked us for our passports. Because we didn’t really understand what was going on, we all began to grow nervous.

Apparently a neighbor had reported to them that we were “really strange” and would “go crawling in the dirt all day and then not take a bath and then get into our sleeping bags to marinate in our own stink.”

Ben climbing out of cave #196 after a mapping and exploration trip in Chongqing, China Photo Credit: Hazel Barton

GN: What is the attraction to climbing into these sometime dangerous and small spaces in the earth?

BT: What gets me excited about caving, I think, is the same thing that got explorers energized about traveling to uncharted lands, the unknown. Not only are we exploring passages that people may not have ever seen, but understanding how these places work. Understanding the life that’s there, the ecosystems that have developed, and generally understanding more about this part of the world that we don’t know too much about.

GN: What’s the difference between spelunking and caving?

BT: My personal definition of the two and one I think is held by most cavers is this: People who go into caves generally fall into two categories. There are those who understand the unique delicate nature of caves, as well as some of the inherent danger of these places, and those who don’t understand that. People who enter caves and are prepared for the environment they are entering (both for their own safety and the safety of the cave) are cavers. Spelunkers are not prepared and often do not recognize the importance and unique beauty around them.

GN: Do you travel for caves or do you cave to travel?

BT: It entirely depends on the situation. Some places the caving is so enticing that that is the driving force behind going there. Other times it’s the culture and environment of a place that provides a really good excuse to travel to the cave.

Quan Kou Entrance: Ben with two other cavers entering a cave named Quan Kou Dong, in Chongqing, China

GN: What are the best regions of the world for caving?

BT: World caving hot spots right now depends somewhat on the type of caving people like. If you are into cave diving (SCUBA diving in caves), then the Yucatan of Mexico is probably the place to go.

China is hot right now because of its mostly unexplored caves and the opportunities to map and discover these areas.

For vertical caving (using ropes to lower yourself into caves), Mexico and the Caucasus are on the top of the list.

The United States is actually a substantial caving destination. Some of the longest known caves are located here. Mammoth Cave is the world’s longest with over 360 miles of mapped passage and Jewel Cave comes in second with 150 miles.

Southeast Asia up into China has some of the largest rooms and passages in the world. I know cavers who enjoy these areas not only for their caving, but for the environment they are located in. In a place like Borneo, for example, you are surrounded by tropical rain forest as you hike around looking for cave entrances.

GN: What areas are on your must-see list?

BT: My must-see list is way too big. Currently, I have an obsession with marble caves, which are much less common than those made of limestone. In addition to California, there are marble caves in Norway, Madagascar, and New Zealand that I would like to explore.

I’d love to return to China as well and also check out some caves in Southeast Asia. And the Pantanal in Brazil is a place I’d like to investigate too.

But basically if there is a country that has potential for caves, I have a lot of interest in going there.

By Sally Kay

South America is a huge continent, and a lot of backpackers want to hitchhike through it.  But in this vast continent every country is different, so hitchhiking can vary quite a lot.  Here is a rough guide to hitchhiking in the different countries of South America.

Argentina

The author hitching in Argentina

Argentina is a wonderful country and hands down one of the safest and best countries for hitchhiking.  You may occasionally have to wait a few hours for a ride, but one always comes along.  Argentina might not be quite as easy as Chile, but it is still one of the best countries to hitchhike in South America.  It’s a good thing too, because bus prices in Argentina can be quite expensive.

Bolivia

In many ways Bolivia is a backpacker’s paradise.  Unfortunately, it is one of the poorest counties in South America.  Because of this there are very few privately-owned cars and hitchhiking can be extremely difficult.  The busses, trucks, and public transport are extremely cheap and would certainly be an easier option in this country.

Brazil

Brazil is far and away the largest country in South America and one of the most expensive, but hitchhiking here is hit or miss.  I have had a truck driver offer me a ride all the way to Rio from Santiago de Chile, but often people have terrible luck finding a ride even a short distance.  Brazil is also not one of the safest countries and I would not recommend solo travelers tackle hitchhiking there.  On the other hand if you are trying to save money, Brazil’s bus prices are astronomical and the country is huge.  It might be a good idea to look for a hitchhiking partner to come with you on your tour of the vast expanse of Brazil.

Villa Traful Argentina

Chile

Chile is a fantastic country for hitchhiking.  People pick up both male and female hitchhikers quickly and are extremely friendly.  Often they will buy lunch, pay for the hostel or hotel they drop their passengers off at, and take passengers right to the address they are going.  Even though it is a relatively safe country, I still wouldn’t recommend women hitchhiking alone, especially at night.  Still, with Chilean bus prices quite expensive hitching is a good option to consider.

Colombia

Colombia is an amazing country.  The people are friendly, open, caring, and welcoming; it is unquestionably one of the friendliest countries in South America.  On the other hand, Colombia is one of the hardest countries to hitchhike in. Though people do have their own cars and transportation is more expensive than neighboring Peru or Ecuador, rides are few and far between.  Though the guerilla is chiefly under control and the country is relatively safe, the country’s violent history is fresh in peoples’ minds.  Because of this, many Colombians remain leery of picking up strangers on the road.  The government also has run ad campaigns discouraging citizens from picking up hitchhikers which does not help.

If you do decide to hitchhike in Colombia, remember not to offer or accept food or drinks.  (this does not apply to being taken to restaurants) In the past, kidnappers have used drugged drinks to capture their victims and sharing your water will not be taken kindly.

Hitching with a friend through South America

Ecuador

Busses in Ecuador are not expensive, about USD $1/hour, but it is possible hitchhike there.  You  might have to wait a while for a ride, but someone will pick you up.

Peru

Peru is another of the poorer countries in South America.  Because of this, though it is possible to get rides, people will often ask you to pay for gas.  Many truck drivers will even go so far as to ask passengers for a fare, supplementing their paycheck by giving rides to backpackers.  Busses in Peru are reasonably inexpensive and rather than wait hours for a ride that you will probably have to pay for anyway, the bus might be a better option here.

Uruguay

Formerly a province of Argentina, Uruguay continues to be similar in many respects, kind of a mini-Argentina if you will.  The attitude towards hitchhiking is one of these many commonalities.  Though Uruguay is a tiny country, it is up there as one of the safest, easiest countries in South America to hitchhike.

Venezuela

There are varied reports of hitchhiking in Venezuela.  Some have tremendous luck while others struggle.  As a US citizen I am reticent to go to Venezuela and even more hesitant to hitchhike there.  Because of Chavez and his problems with the US government, if US citizens choose to travel to Venezuela it is easier, faster, and safer to take busses.  But don’t take my word for it, if you are comfortable and confident with it get out there and prove me wrong!

After graduating from the University of Kansas’ school of Journalism Sally hit the road and hasn’t looked back.  She has explored Europe, Africa, South America, and North America, lived in Slovakia, Hungary and Argentina and is currently traveling in South America. She writes about her adventures in the blog www.adventuressetravels.wordpress.com, has had articles in various online travel magazines, and is a travel guru for the website Tripeezy LLC.

By Hope Nardini

Portland is plastered with “Keep Portland Weird” bumper stickers, t-shirts, and even billboards. It’s one of my favorite cities to visit, because there is always something strange and crazy right around the corner. From “zoo bombing” on kiddie bikes to setting your taste buds on fire with habanero cheese fritters, Portland will not disappoint even the most reckless daredevil.

Photo credit: Gwyn Fisher

Woodstock Mystery Hole

When’s the last time you shimmied down a mysterious hole in the ground suspected to contain artifacts from an ancient civilization? The Betz floods swept the Northwest after the ice age, and sediment buried the land under layers of hardened rock. The mystery hole is like a telescope into the past. When a family discovered it in their backyard blackberry bushes, they were shocked to find such rock formations as the Giant Double Arch and the Gaping Tunnel. You’ll have to sign a waiver, but you too can experience this strange discovery. The Woodstock mystery hole is just two miles west of I-205, and you can find out more information at http://www.barronmind.com.

See Dead People

How do you feel about walking through seven miles of creepy hallway and chilly basement? Would you be even more spooked if you were walking among the dead? Although the Portland Memorial Mausoleum is now closed to the public, they do have special tour days periodically. You’ll see old Victorian architecture, crypts, urns, and notes left for the deceased. As you descend in the mausoleum, the place gets colder and creepier. Can you handle the mausoleum? There’s only one way to find out. The Portland Memorial Mausoleum is on 6631 SE 14th, and you can call  503-236-4141 to find out their next public tour date. Check www.wilhelmportlandmemorial.com for more information.

Run Barefoot…and Naked!

Portland is not a city for the conservatively clothed. There are barefoot, clothes-optional races available in Portland year round. Barefoot running has been a developing trend, since many runners claim they are more alert and build stronger leg muscles without footwear. In Portland, some runners take this trend to an extreme and forgo any athletic wear at all. Barefoot Beach Runs in particular are about four miles of sand trails along the Colombia River. If you’re interested in participating, check out the Fig Leif 5K website at http://figleif5k.blogspot.com.

Go Zoo Bombing

Photo credit: Barjack / Keary O

Don’t worry, zoo bombing doesn’t actually involve bombs. Rather, zoo bombers are adults and adolescents who race each other on kiddie bicycles (and sometimes tricycles) down the hills next to the Oregon Zoo. They go pretty fast, which means scrapes and bruises are common. It’s one of the most dangerous things to do in the city, and some kids get seriously hurt. The regular zoo bombers leave a pile of minibikes at their meeting point in front of 13th Street and Burnside. The group meets every Sunday at 8:30pm. If you’re up for the challenge, you can find more information at http://zoobomb.net.

Great Balls of Fire

If you think jalapeno fritters need a little more kick, you have to try Salvador Molly’s Great Balls of Fire. These habanero cheese fritters are served with several glasses of water. They were originally created for Oregon Heat, a Portland non-profit organization that helps raise money for low income residents having trouble paying off their heating bill. If you can stand the heat, you will be added to the Hall of Flame. Salvador Molly’s is located at 1523 SW Sunset Blvd, and is open seven days a week. Check it out at http://www.salvadormollys.com/OurWorld/GreatBallsofFire.html.

Portland is a thriving city with a laid back attitude. Next time you’re in the area, bring out your adventurous side and keep Portland weird with these five crazy activities.

Hope Nardini is a Connecticut native who is currently bouncing around in the Andes. She has traveled to over 20 different countries, but she fell in love with South America after studying abroad in Buenos Aires. Nardini did research on immigration policy in Quito, Ecuador this summer and will be interning in Peru with an educational development non-profit this fall. When she’s not haggling at South American markets or dipping her hands in a jar of dulce de leche, Hope enjoys playing ultimate Frisbee, watching documentaries, and looking for the next big adventure.

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Dear GoMad Nomad:

I’m low on cash but still want to travel, what should I do? Go into further debt and live life in the moment, or do the prudent thing and save up my money?

-Broke In Brooklyn

Dear Broke in Brooklyn:

My first advice is to get the heck out of Brooklyn! You’ll save up more money living in the sticks. But, yeah, yeah, I know you want to be at the epicenter of Hipsterdom.

Anyhow, to answer your question: Don’t go into debt! But…you can still travel on very limited funds. The options are limitless.

Since you don’t have money, I’m assuming you have time.  You can spend that extra time that you normally spend nursing PBRs on Bedford Ave, researching and planning out your travel.

First thing you’ll have to understand about cheap/budget travel is that it happens very slowly. You’ll have to opt for the pueblo bus over the bullet train; and if you’re going to hitch, you’ll have a lot of time to perfect your hacky sack skills while waiting for your free rides. So I’d reserve anywhere from two months to a year for this expedition.

If you just happen to have graduated from college and don’t know what to do, check out this fantastic post over at Almost Fearless.

Since you have the time, I would highly recommend volunteering, “helping,” working, and temporarily residing in the places you plan on visiting. This will allow you to actually experience the place and get to know the people you have traveled so far to visit.

Volunteering

This one is tricky. You want to avoid paying a fee to volunteer. I don’t mind helping others, but I don’t like to have to pay for that privilege, and neither should you. Check out these awesome articles for low-cost or free volunteering opportunities in Nepal, the West Bank, and Spain. Transitions Abroad Magazine is also an incredible resource for volunteering abroad info.

Help Exchange

Before I started teaching English in Madrid, I almost took a gig helping an English couple in Brittany restore an old train station into a B & B. I would have helped them for four hours a day and they would have fed me and given me a room in their home. The rest of the day I could spend working on my writing projects with the help of their wireless internet. I used Help Exchange to connect with these people in need of a helper. But the dream was never realized.

Working

Get to the Caribbean or cross the Atlantic while working aboard a yacht. Skippers in ports far and wide are always looking for a crew that preferably speaks their language and may or may not have sailing experience. Good sites to connect skippers and crew: Crewfinders, Yacht Crew Register, or Dovaston Crew.

Temporarily Residing

A great option is house sitting. I kind of want to make a career out of this, except it doesn’t pay very well. Why not take care of the perritos and water Señora Torres’ garden for the month August while she’s vacationing at her other home on the Canaries? You’ll probably need a good reference before strangers will entrust you with their home and animals. Use Mind My House, House Careers, or House Sit World.

So if you combine a little traveling in between some of these ideas, you’ll have a well-rounded trip.  Use couchsurfing for accommodation read up on hitchhiking before you leave.

-Stephen

By Stephen Bugno

I want to address the fact that, although GoMad Nomad readership is primarily budget, independent travelers, they are NOT all broke twenty-somethings. So I want to talk about the Couch Surfing Project, and how it’s for all ages. It is, however, only applicable for people who are interested in meeting other people.

Sailing with my couch surfing host in La Rochelle, France

Am I not too old for this?

No, you aren’t too old. Although only 3% of couch surfers worldwide are between the ages of 50 and 69 (72% are between the ages of 18 and 29) it still adds up to 70,000+ participants over 50, as the total number of worldwide couch surfers is almost 1.7 million. And with 75% knowing English, you shouldn’t have a problem finding a host whom you can communicate with.  When you perform a search looking for a host, you are able to narrow your search by age or gender. And if you are reading this post, you are computer savvy enough to register for couch surfing and fill out your profile.

But I don’t like sleeping on couches

The second issue: sleeping on couches. After three years couch surfing around the world, I’ve only slept on actual couches a few times. Sometimes I’ve had my own bed, my own room, and I’ve heard stories of couch surfers having their own house! In Amman, Jordan, our host put a friend and me in a new, furniture-less apartment he hadn’t moved into yet. Every situation is unique. When reading a person’s profile, you’ll be able to see what kind of accommodation they are offering: futon in a private room, sharing a bed in their bedroom, or whatever the case maybe.

couch surfing in the Welsh countryside

What do I owe my host?

You aren’t required to give your host anything. And they are not expecting any remittance. You may want to show up with a bottle of wine, treat them to dinner or a drink, or cook for them. There have been certain times traveling when I was financially inadequate and could only offer my in-kind contribution of making their house/apartment cleaner than I found it.

On the other end of the spectrum, you shouldn’t expect anything of your guests except common courtesies and respect of your living space and lifestyle.

Do I have to host?

You don’t have to host visitors, you can only host, you can do both. It’s up to you. You are able to set your status on your profile. If you can’t host, just change your profile to “no”, “meet for coffee or a drink”, or “traveling at the moment”

I prefer to sleep in hotels

Fine. Stay at a hotel. Couch surfing is still useful for you. You have the option of searching people who can’t host or would just like to meet up. I’ve met a guy in Tomar, Portugal for a coffee, several couch surfers in Stockholm for evening drinks, and spent the entire São João festival in Oporto, Portugal with a couch surfing group meetup.  In Bordeaux, France a young Bordelais lead me around the mostly 18^th century city, for a tour. The possibilities are endless. Maybe you want to do a language exchange or meet people to play music; just include that in your search terms. I know of a blacksmith and a bookbinder who recently left for Europe looking for Europeans who did similar work. I suggested couch surfing to them. Register, fill out your profile including a picture, set your status, and start surfing.

Will I save money by couch surfing?

Couch surfing may save you money. But do not use couch surfing only because you want to save money. Most of the time your host will introduce you to friends and you may go out for the evening and spend more money than you planned. Couch surfing is about meeting people, connecting, sharing similarities, celebrating differences, learning, enjoying life. If you couch surf in a place like Olso, Norway or Tokyo, Japan, you are bound to save money. But use couch surfing with the intention of meeting new people.

Is it safe?

There are some checks in place in order to make couch surfing as safe as it can be, namely an identity check and location verification. Listed on a person’s profile are the references that every couch surfing member can leave after meeting, hosting, or surfing with another member. There is also a vouching system in place. In almost 50 couch surfing experiences, I haven’t had one that I would consider not safe.

Give it a try

Couch surfing has enabled me to meet some amazing people and have experiences I wouldn’t have had otherwise.  I’ve sailed with a host who is a skipper in La Rochelle, France and stayed in a hamlet in the Welsh countryside. And you don’t always end up with a host from the country you’re visiting, which can really add spice to your travels. I’ve stayed with a New Zealander in London, a Brazilian in Portugal, an American in Syria, and a Hungarian in Berlin.

I’m not the type of traveler who can show up in a strange city, pop into a bar and walk out with five friends two hours later. Couch Surfing helps me have a new friend in town the moment I arrive.

CouchSurfing is an international non-profit network that connects travelers with locals in over 230 countries and territories around the world. Since 2004, members have been using the system to come together for cultural exchange, friendship, and learning experiences. Today, over a million people who might otherwise never meet are able to share hospitality and cultural understanding.

Stephen Bugno has couchsurfed his way through Europe and beyond simply to see how people are living. His writing has appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Seattle Times, and Transitions Abroad magazine. He blogs at: Bohemian Traveler

Read the article: Volunteer in a Himalayan Village

click photo for a Nepal and VEC slide show

By Beau Miller

Volunteering in the Himalayas has never been more accessible, affordable, or important.

“As dew is dried by the morning sun,

So are mankind’s sins at the sight of the Himalayas.”

-         The Puranas

In this world there are mountain people and there are beach people. This one is for the mountain people and for the mountain people who don’t know they’re mountain people. There aren’t a lot of chances to live in an honest-to-God Himalayan village these days. Here’s one: Village Environment Community Gangkharka (VEC), a small NGO with a long name.

Based out of Gangkharka village in Helambu, Nepal, this organization has ten years experience performing healthcare and education projects, as well as sustainable development and heritage preservation. Helambu is a neglected region of Nepal, and VEC is the only NGO working in the area. While much of Nepal’s aid money goes to the Everest region, Helambu twiddles its thumbs. Or at least it has until now.

VEC built a school in Gangkharka last year, in the face of an exodus from Himalayan villages. Its president, Dorjee Netup Sherpa, a former trekking guide, has committed himself to the development of his home region. His commitment shows from the very moment he meets you at the airport in Kathmandu.

photo credit: Anna Tomasdottir

Where is it?

Helambu is located about fifty miles north of Nepal’s capital city, Kathmandu. But it takes about ten hours to get there on the windy mountain roads—four-and-a-half by jeep or bus, and the rest on foot. Perched on a Himalayan mountainside is Gangkharka, a tiny village whose extinction in the near future might have been guaranteed if it weren’t for VEC. Now it’s the site of a boarding school with 108 students, ages 4-15, and a full faculty and staff, including a Buddhist lama who teaches the students Tibetan and meditation.

Distressed by the lack of jobs in Kathmandu and unwilling to go abroad, many families originally from the Helambu area are now returning to Gangkharka and nearby Bangdang village, encouraged by VEC’s progress.

Volunteering

Volunteers with VEC can fill any number of roles in Gangkharka, and they can do so without the costly program fees of volunteering with many other organizations in Nepal. For about three dollars a day, volunteers are set up with a host family close to their volunteer placement. They are given Sherpa or Nepali language lessons to help ease communication, and they have the opportunity to leave a very tangible and positive contribution to the lives of the Helambu Sherpa, Tamang, and Yolmo populations.

Volunteers can choose between teaching at the Pasang Memorial Community Boarding School, Gangkharka’s first and only boarding school, working on the village’s organic farm, or serving as a member of a team of medical volunteers. Opportunities abound. Any number of projects could be going on during a volunteer’s stay. VEC currently has funding proposals being reviewed for a new addition at the school as well as for the micro-hydroelectricity installation.

The organization is also working on creating athletic fields for the students at the school, so coaching may also be a possibility. Another project VEC is working on is the Helambu Histories project. Teams of volunteers and VEC staff, as well as some students from the boarding school will be interviewing elders in several Helambu villages to talk about their life experiences. The goal is to gather folk stories and the unique perspectives of Helambu people on crucial events in the region’s history, such as the Chinese invasion of Tibet and the increased contact with the West.

Upon arrival in Nepal, volunteers are met at the airport by Dorjee or a VEC staff member. Housing is coordinated prior to arrival, and a VEC volunteer has the chance to unload and rest before receiving an in-country briefing with VEC staff. Then, early one morning on an agreed upon date, the volunteer(s) and a guide make the trip to Gangkharka. The trek to Gangkharka is not terribly strenuous, but it is recommended that volunteers be in reasonably good physical shape. Gangkharka’s altitude is lower than that of Denver, Colorado, but it is possible to go as high as 14,000 ft. if one takes advantage of the discounted trekking available to long-term volunteers.

There is currently no internet in Gangkharka, but volunteers schedule guided trips to Kathmandu and relative civilization. There is a landline phone at the school where calls can be received, but otherwise volunteers may find themselves without many of the 21^st century comforts they are used to. There are bathing facilities available, if one considers a small shack with a big pot of heated water a bathing facility.

Why Volunteer Here

In Gangkharka, a volunteer’s time is rewarded with spectacular views of the Himalayas and a unique opportunity to live in a community renowned for its hospitality. What little the host families have, they share. Sitting inside a tidy, if more than a little smoky, Sherpa home, there will be plenty of opportunities to acquire a taste for the butter tea for which Himalayan communities are (in)famous. Few people on earth can make a stranger feel more at home than the people of Gangkharka—though a volunteer may find life more difficult to bear during the summer monsoon season.

The development work conducted by VEC may be a last ditch effort to preserve Helambu communities like Gangkharka. The culture is facing its greatest crisis as many parents pursue job opportunities overseas, leaving their children in the care of boarding schools often much less keen to the idea of cultural preservation than the school run by VEC. Instead of the colorful pullover jumpers, smart little ties, and shiny black loafers that constitute many school uniforms in Nepal these days, the students in Gangkharka where traditional Himalayan dress: chubhas for girls and Tibetan-style tunics for the boys.

The potential for sustainable development gives Gangkharka an advantage to ensure this can happen, and international volunteers have the opportunity to contribute to its revitalization and the preservation of a culture that has long captured the imagination of the West.

If You Go:

Website: www.vec.org.np

Recruiter/FAQs: vecvolunteers@gmail.com

There’s a $75 processing fee for VEC (airport pickup, guide, housing coordination, language lessons, etc.). The $3 a day goes directly to the host family.

Beau Miller is a Master’s candidate at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs. He has worked as a volunteer Project Manager for VEC, and his writing has appeared in The New Brewer and Adbusters.

By Stephen Bugno

Learning vacations are now more popular than ever; from Thai cooking schools to studying Spanish in Guatemala to practicing meditation in India. But how about somewhere a little closer to home and a place you can still get a rich cultural experience as well?

The answer: The John C. Campbell Folk School. Whether it is mountain dulcimer, digital photography, or quilting, you will find something of interest among the 860 courses offered.

Located in the scenic hills of western North Carolina, the school, a registered non-profit situated on a serene 300-acre property in the hamlet of Brasstown, specializes in courses rooted in the traditions of southern Appalachia. But it offers a fine selection from other cultures of the world as well.

I initially made the trip to Brasstown for a week-long Southeast Asian cooking course. The class tackled the appetizers, main courses, desserts, and drinks of Malaysian, Indonesian, and Thai cuisine. “And we cover Indian and Chinese as well, because they are the foundations of Malaysian cuisine,” added our instructor Mary Lou Surgi. She would know, too, having lived in Southeast Asia for several years following a two-year stint as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malaysia.

Based on the concept of the Scandinavian folk school system, the Folk School is geared towards the development of individuals and their communities by offering courses in performing arts, agriculture, and crafts. Since 1925, the school’s well-established reputation has attracted both students and instructors from across the U.S. and even from overseas.

After my course finished, I ended up staying a couple more weeks after meeting lots of friendly folks. The overwhelmingly positive attitude by both students and instructors alike really grew on me.

And I’m not the only one. “One of the best things about being at the folk school is the community in Brasstown. Everyone is so willing to help out with whatever you might need and everyone gets together to socialize often.” says Emily Derke, a 21-year-old from Minnesota.

She came for a nine-week work/study program, and reckons it might not have been enough time. Work/Study students live at the Folk School and in exchange for each two-week work period, they take a one-week class of their choice. This provides an alternative to paying the normal registration fees and allows you to linger in the community longer and become a temporary local.

It isn’t by chance that such strong community bonds grow here. The recipe: plenty of knowledgeable, creative, and passionate people mixed together with lots of positive energy. Simple things like having home states printed on nametags, helps everyone get into conversation at mealtimes.

Another alternative to coming as a student is applying to become a host. The student hosts live at the school for a six-month period, and are responsible for making sure that students have a good experience. In exchange, student hosts may take classes each week. At any given time there are two hosts. They can be found running around the campus doing odd jobs like answering phones after hours, carting tables and chairs for events, or making mealtime announcements.

Most people, however, be they professionals from Atlanta or Raleigh or die-hard knitters from Vermont, come for the week or weekend-long courses.

Although he was busy teaching for the week, I found time to catch up with Norman Kennedy, a world-renowned weaver and folk singer. During an evening program we listened to him sing traditional Scottish songs. “They used to sing these while they were working in the mill or factory” he explained. Surprisingly, audience members jumped in when they could to enhance the chorus. No doubt he’ll be back for Scottish Heritage week at the end of the summer.

After a needs assessment in the rural south in the early part of the last century, John C. Campbell and his wife, Olive Dame, talked of establishing a school based on the concept of the Scandinavian folk school system. The school would be an alternative to the higher-education facilities that drew young people away from the family farm.

John never lived to realize their dream, but after a visit to Europe in order to study the folk school system, his widow and her friend, Marguerite Butler, established this one in 1925 in his honor with popular local support and in-kind contributions. Nearly a century later, the Folk School continues its mission towards the development of individuals and their communities in a non-competitive environment.

The Folk School earned its spot in National Geographic’s 100 Best Vacations to Enrich your Life and I was amazed to find young and old, from all economic classes mingling and sharing genuinely good times together, be it at meals, walking around campus, or hand-in-hand on the dance floor.

One of the unexpected pleasures of the week was an introduction to contra dancing. After being dragged onto the dance floor against my will, it only took an hour before I didn’t want to leave. The live old-time music and dance caller was definitely the highlight.

Also part of the weekly program is Friday afternoon’s much anticipated “show and tell.” It’s a time to gather and show off the fruits of the week’s labor. As I drifted around the room with samples of quickly-disappearing vegetable curry puffs, I admired the quilters’ patterns, the woodcarvers’ creations, the elegance of the stained glass, and enjoyed a live performance from the mountain dulcimer class.

During my few weeks in the area, I acquired a greater understanding and deeper appreciation for traditional Appalachian culture. Besides the contra dance, I also caught the Asheville-based old-time string band Blue Eyed Girl for a fantastic show, featuring local, Annie Fain Liden on the banjo. The community gathers for free weekly concerts of bluegrass, old-time, or folk music.

If it’s foreign culture you’re craving, consider Bonsai pruning, Scandinavian blacksmithing, Italian cooking or one of the themed weeks, like Scottish or Scandinavian Heritage.

Originally I went to learn a cooking tradition from half-way around the world, but ended up taking home an appreciation to the Appalachian culture that I didn’t even know existed in my back yard. And I took with me the much more important lesson of the importance of how a sense of community can enhance our life back home.

If you go:

The John C. Campbell Folk School is located in Brasstown, N.C., about a 2-hour drive from Atlanta, and offers 860 courses rooted in the traditions of Southern Appalachia and other cultures of the world. A free history center and archives, free weekly concert series, seasonal festivals, bi-monthly dances, a craft shop, and nature trails are all located on the premises. If you are not taking a course, the school is open to the community and welcomes visitors for self-guided studio tours. Courses are offered all year and run from $512 for week-long and $290 for weekend courses, plus materials fees. Room and board starts at $402 for 6 days. For more information see www.folkschool.org.

Stephen Bugno first journeyed to western North Carolina in early 2009 and hasn’t left yet. His writing has appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Transitions Abroad, and the Matador Network.

By Stephen Bugno

First, what exactly do you mean by the “the backpacker’s scene”?

We’ve all been there. The crowded hostels of Europe. The well-beaten path along the Turkish coast. Khao San Road or Jalan Jaksa’s traveler’s ghettos. You’re getting tired of spending so much money to be so far away from home only to fritter away much of your time drinking and talking your next travel move with other western backpackers.

A sheep hearder in rural Kazakhstan

Getting beyond the backpacker’s scene is getting off the well-trodden path. It’s taking the path lesser traveled. It’s losing sleep, taking chances, having more encounters. It’s moving out of your comfort zone.

So how do I get beyond the backpacker’s scene?

Choose your destination wisely.

Don’t go to the Greek Isles during the summer. Go to Kyrgyzstan instead. You want to lose the tourists and even other travelers as well? You want fewer backpackers? Don’t linger in Bangkok. You want to actually have to use your phrase book? Go to Mongolia or the Republic of Georgia or Syria. If you do end up going to Florence in the high season, you’re going to have to get creative in order to circumvent the hordes of retired American tourists and generate a unique travel experience for yourself.

Ditch your guidebook.

I know it sounds like a drastic measure to take, but guidebooks do a good job of keeping all of us tucked snugly in at friendly Mohammed’s hotel in Amman. It points us in the direction of that delectable, authentic, and inexpensive café downtown that all the German’s are eating at. Remember how you met that couple from New Zealand in Damascus and ran into them again in Cairo a month later?

Bring a tent and sleeping bag.

Camping in Nagorno Karabakh

When you carry a tent, you have a place to sleep wherever you are at the end of the day. Especially in a place like Norway, which has a law that allows you to camp freely in the wilderness. Even when this law doesn’t exist, many times you can get away with setting up your tent just out of sight. Traveling with a sleeping bag allows you the opportunity to crash at a bus or train station or even in a city park if need be. Often times when locals see your desperation, they’re more likely to invite you home.

Don’t plan so much.

Not having a strict plan allows for improvisation in your trip. Allow spontaneous decisions to come to life. Go home with people you just met. Stay an extra day at your new friend’s apartment. The most memorable part of your travels are usually those unplanned.

Get online.

Cycling around Copenhagen with a Dane

Sometimes planning is good. Sign up and use a web site that connects travelers with locals. Try Couch Surfing or Hospitality Club to keep you to stay away from hotels and hostels and into the homes of locals. Then you’ll be walking in residential neighborhoods you wouldn’t normally be in and riding bus routes that tourists don’t usually ride. Your hosts know the best places to get coffee, pizza, or kimchi. And these nice people will most likely introduce you to their friends. You all of a sudden know 12 people in Cork and you just arrived.

Get on the bus.

Carry a good map. Ride to the outskirts of the city. Get off the bus. Walk. Throw away your map. Don’t worry about getting lost. Someone will help you find your way back.

Don’t always take reliable or quick transportation.

Cancel your domestic flights. See the countryside the way it’s meant to be seen. Don’t take the inter-city express bus. Get on the pueblo bus. You might lose some sleep, but you’ll be riding next to Guillermo the farmer and his newly hatched chicks while stopping in every village between Porto and Madrid.

Stick up your thumb.

Don’t listen to those naysayers who tell you it’s dangerous. Sure it can be, but so can taking the bus or flying. People like company in their cars. Stand on the on-ramp, put your pack in front of you, and take off your sunglasses. Stay positive. Before you know it, you’ll be in Bordeaux and will have met several French people that you may or may not have understood a single word with.

Get out to the countryside and small towns.

Show up in a town that has nothing of touristic interest. You will actually meet a local. The conversation with babushka might start by her asking why in God’s name you have come here. Don’t do a whirlwind tour of the European capitals. Sure, visit Moscow, but ramble through a string of Russian towns that you will never remember the names of.

Stay a while.

If this technically moves out of the realm of traveling and into vagabonding, so be it. Linger to absorb the local culture. Organize a few weeks exchange in Switzerland using Help Exchange. Volunteer on an organic farm in New Zealand with WWOOF. Teach English in Madrid or rural China. Take a cooking course in Thailand or study meditation or yoga in India. Do a long-distance walk or pilgrimage. Do a cycle tour of Nova Scotia.

Stephen Bugno has been traveling and teaching English abroad for the better part of ten years. His articles and essays have appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Seattle Times, and Transitions Abroad magazine. He edits the Gomad Nomad Travel Mag and blog at Bohemian Traveler.

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by Gilbert Carlson

Have you ever had the desire to be totally liberated? Wanted to hit the road with only a few things in your backpack, little or no money, and trust completely in the world around you? Travel not caring where you sleep, how you move about, or where your next meal will come from?

This guide to carefree travel is based on an overland trip from Palestine to Paris, focusing mainly on the last part, which took three friends and I through the Balkans, Italy and Germany before reaching France.

The trip was motivated mostly by necessity; we had to make it home on an extremely small budget since we had spent the past few months volunteering. One of the self-imposed conditions was to keep a two Euro limit on accommodation every night. The other was that transportation would have to be kept in the same proportions—that meant hitch-hiking most of the way.

When traveling long-term in this manner, it is necessary to first eliminate the negative anticipation otherwise referred to as worrying. The needs that a traveler usually worries about are essentially transportation, accommodation and food; assuming safety is not an issue. Carefree travel eliminates the first two and very often the third. The main requirements are optimism, creativity and a tent.

Carefree travel is very much a faith-based concept. The traveler must believe in himself and the world around him. Remaining optimistic is crucial. For those who favor realism to optimism, keep in mind that reality is your worst enemy. The minute you start believing in reality you’d better go book a flight and a hotel room. That is to say give up.

This form of worry-free travel only works for those willing to walk out randomly into an unknown situation and trust their luck and the good nature of other humans to take care of them.

The trip: How we did it

The free-spiritedness really kicked off with our meeting point in Bulgaria. After a few days together in Istanbul, the four of us had to split up and arranged to meet at an Ace of Base concert in the very small town of Lovech, in central Bulgaria. Our meeting time was as vague as our meeting point. The instructions were to be in the town by early afternoon and be as visible as possible.

All this turned out to be completely unnecessary as we all naturally met up near one of the beer stands at the town’s festival. So there we were in a small town in Bulgaria where we knew absolutely no one and had no plans beyond the Ace of Base gig. We never once thought about accommodation even though we were in a mountainous area in early May and only had a two-person tent and two sleeping bags for the four of us.

We met some Bulgarian ravers who invited us to a weekend-long house rave party with drum and bass playing all day and all night, an endless supply of alcohol, as well as strange characters and language barriers. We walked out of town the next morning, found our highway and hitched to Sofia.

Our plan had been to get to Skopje that night, but after a bad decision in one of the cars we got stuck on the ring road. We ended up spending the night in Sofia with a last-minute-arranged couchsurfer and hitched out the next morning. Leaving Sofia was slow and painful and we thought we’d never make it to the capital of Macedonia before nightfall.

We arrived at the very quiet border crossing in between Bulgaria and Macedonia in the late afternoon. The sun was getting low and the altitude meant the air was already a bit chilly and there were not many cars traveling this road. All signs pointed towards a cold and uncomfortable night in the mountains. We walked through the border crossing and looked around at the mostly deserted shops and buildings welcoming us to Macedonia. After a couple minutes on the side of the road a car took all four of us all the way to Pristina, which was our first-choice destination before reason made us opt for the more realistic goal of reaching Skopje by the end of the day.

These stories may sound like a series of lucky breaks but it’s interesting to consider that they all took place in the same 48-hour period which also happened to be the very beginning of the most absurd and random leg of our trip. To say, upon reaching Pristina, that we felt unnaturally lucky is an understatement.

How to liberate yourself while traveling

By traveling free, and I mean truly liberated, you are detached from obligations, reservations, hassles and other related problems. But how to get to this state?

Determination is key. Things don’t come easily when you rely on other people’s generosity for your necessities. Things might not even come at all but you still have to hang in there. Hitch-hiking is the most random and unreliable means of transportation and waiting for a car may keep you on the side of the road for as little as five minutes or as long as five hours.

Flexibility is a must. Accommodation may turn out to be a spare room in somebody’s house, a hotel lobby’s couch or perhaps a field in an empty lot. The uncertainty is what makes it exciting. It also makes it difficult for those travelers who expect everything to be handed to them. Of course we want the world and we want it now, but if now is five hours from now you’d better find a game to play on the side of the road.

Creativity one of the essential prerequisites to carefree travel, after optimism. Creativity comes in handy in every situation. You have no car, no house and no food and you have to make one or all of these elements appear. The important thing to keep in mind is that everything you need is out there and available. In any given city at any given moment there are empty rooms, almost every car has an empty seat in it, and every restaurant has extra food or leftovers waiting for you. All you have to do is figure out how to cross that bridge that separates you from what you need.

Obviously, things won’t come easily, at least not quite as easily as if you were to book ahead and pay full price for them. Being creative means being able to come up with unconventional ways of obtaining things. It means coming up with a quick story when required and being able to communicate on little or no common language through ideas and signs. Creativity allows us to overcome all the challenges that can’t be ignored.

Don’t be shy. In many situations all you have to do is ask. We walked into a Pizza restaurant in Pristina asking for free food and were served fresh hot pizzas made just for us. We asked a bar owner if we could stay after closing time to sleep and he let us. We asked internet cafes for a couple free minutes and they let each one of us use a computer for more than an hour. If you don’t ask, people won’t think to offer. We were sitting outside a mall in Croatia on our way to Venice when a man walked up and offered us rooms for rent. Instead of just declining the offer I randomly asked him if he was driving to Venice in the afternoon. There was absolutely no reason to believe he might be and as it turned out he wasn’t, but after a couple minutes he came back and offered to drive us to the first rest area on the highway. That ride saved us hours of waiting in the suburbs of Zadar.

Lower your standards. Chances are you won’t be getting a shower and a hot meal every night. You’ll probably sleep outside many nights and go several days without washing. Most personal hygiene can be taken care of with a bottle of water, but you have to learn to live without showering for days at a time. Travelling near water is a good way to ensure basic hygiene. Lakes, seas and rivers are great to wash in if you’re traveling in warm climates. Sleeping outside is not as bad as it sounds, especially when the weather is nice. In Trogir, Croatia, we found an open building and borrowed cushions from the nearby cafes. It turned out to be one of our most comfortable nights. Keep your expectations low and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what comes your way.

Travel light. Anything beyond one change of clothes, a sleeping bag, tent and a basic set of toiletries is excessive. Unfortunately, we had two hookah pipes and three guitars for four people, but things would have been a lot easier with just the minimum. Keep in mind that you will be carrying everything on your back, throwing your stuff into and out of cars all the time, and during some rides you’ll have to hold your stuff on your lap.

Why travel this way?

One question I feel obligated to answer after giving all these tips for carefree travel is: why do this to yourself? Why wouldn’t you just get a job and save up the necessary money to go travelling in a more comfortable, typical way?

The most important benefit is the feeling of liberty that comes with such an experience. Rarely have I felt as free as when I found myself standing on the side of an unknown road in an obscure country with no local currency in my pocket, no knowledge of the language, and no sense of direction or time. Nowhere to be, nothing to do, no deadlines to meet, trains to catch, or bookings to confirm. When you know that you’ve just traveled a certain distance in one direction but you could turn around and go another direction and it wouldn’t make any difference to anyone, you know you’ve reached a certain degree of freedom that few people will be fortunate enough to experience in their lives.

The second major benefit is all the opportunities that arise only for the , carefree traveler. Could I have gone fishing in the rivers of southern Kosovo and spent the night in a farm in the mountains if I’d been taking trains and staying in hostels? Would I have spent the night in a sixteenth century monastery in Montenegro if I hadn’t been picked up by an Orthodox monk on a small country road? Would I have met so many interesting people if I hadn’t had to walk up to them and ask for assistance? On this trip I experienced a lot more of the Balkans than I would have, had I travelled like the typical Euro-rail-pass-carrying backpacker.

The third benefit is the complete absence of hassle. No longer do you have to get up early on your last day in a city to make it to the airport in time. You don’t have to find out how to get to the airport nor how much it will cost you. You don’t need to worry about making it to your hostel before they cancel your reservation. All these problems come with conventional travel and make it painful at times.

The fact that this way of traveling happens to be a very cheap way of doing things is a benefit, but in comparison to the other advantages, it seems so minuscule that it is hardly worth mentioning.

Is carefree traveling for you?

You don’t become the ultimate carefree traveler overnight and it isn’t a philosophy that everyone will embrace. But if you already have a tendency towards detachment from objects and you enjoy peace of mind more than a warm shower, then you should get used to it pretty quickly.

You’ll probably want to phase into it gradually: first by replacing overland flights with buses and trains, then switching to hitching when you can. Then you’ll start replacing hostel nights with couchsurfing, camping or urbancamping.

Before you know it, you’ll be wandering the streets of a city you’ve never heard of looking for cardboard and a bus stop to sleep in while looking forward to hitching to a lake the next morning to take your first bath in four days. You’ll find yourself sitting by the lake on a sunny day with nowhere to go that day and you’ll lie in the grass, stare at the sky and think to yourself “life is sweet!”