Not all who wander are lost...

I have had mixed experiences with hostels so I figured it's a good topic for a post. A hostel is just like a hotel, but instead of getting your own room with a bathroom, you are in a shared room with other people and the bathroom is not, typically attached. Think summer camp.  There are obviously different levels of hostels. My first experience was The Van Gogh Hostel in Amsterdam, and it was great. We had a double room, which came with two single beds, nightstand, private bath, and (desk/tv). We had a leak in the shower, but that was not an issue they could have been foreseen.  I've also had really bad experiences in hostels. When I was in Prague, the hostel we were at was a party hostel. I was with a school trip and couldn't change locations and one of the girls in my mixed room was so drunk she kept vomiting in her bed. It was so bad I was actually sick because of the sounds and smell.  I learned my lesson (or so I thought) and my next hostel was in a smaller ro...

Portugal I realized I never posted about my Christmas 2018 trip to Portugal and Morocco, probably because I didn't enjoy it very much. Granted, I met up with some nice people, but I also stayed in some sketchy places and burned my foot so bad I couldn't walk, so yeah, not my favorite trip. So, let's start in Lisbon, which is very pretty, very hilly, and very closed over Christmas. Yes, I knew that going in, but I didn't realize how closed. As in I ended up eating Christmas dinner at the local Christmas market and missed church, because apparently it was only at 8am. Oops. So, fried calamari, apple cider, and chorizo for Christmas dinner while hobbling up the hill to my hostel where I sat in the rec room watching Kung Fu Panda with English subtitles. Yeah, not so much fun. How did I burn myself? Well, it was so cold and damp in my room with no heater that I shoved a hand warmer in my socks and gave myself a chemical burn. Which kinda screwed me for the next day wh...

I wasn't planning on going to Poland, Estonia, or Finland, and especially not in 0 and - degrees, but a friend was working in Estonia and said come visit, so here I am with countries 26-28 and my furthest Eastern European country! Claiming Poland might be a stretch though, as I missed my connection (thanks LOT Airlines) and ended up spending 6 hours at the airport, but after 6hrs, I'm claiming Poland! The layover in Warsaw kinda screwed up my visit time a bit, but ultimately I came to see my friend and hang out, and that's exactly what I did. The airport does have these great info posters telling you all about the various areas in Poland though, so if you wander and read them all you get a bit of history. My first full day in Estonia was spent exploring the Old City in Tallinn. Multiple museums and churches later I made us dinner in her Airbnb and then we went out for drinks at the Cave of 100 Beers. Ironically, we both had a local cider...