Travel Posts

One of my favourite aspects of travelling is the process of arriving in a new destination. It doesn’t really matter how much research you do online before getting there, the actual experience of seeing it for yourself for the first time is always unique and usually unexpected. Almost always a place is better in person that you imagine in your head after doing research, but sometimes it takes a little time to overcome your first impressions after arriving. For example, both me and a friend of mine thought Buenos Aires was fairly dirty when we first arrived. But it’s the type of city that grows on you over a few weeks while you discover all the little aspects of the city that make it appealing. Often though I usually think a city is much better in person when compared to everything I’ve read about it prior to arriving. That’s one […]

The following is an excerpt from my FREE Travel Book. If you’re like to learn more travel tips like these, sign-up to receive my travel book as soon as it is released. Every time I tell my mom about some of the places I’ve recently visited, she seems to reach as though I just barely escaped being killed or taking hostage due to all negative media that certain parts of the world get on the local news. The truth is though that in much of the world it’s just as safe as it is in your part of the world. But crime does happen from time to time, and many criminals purposefully target tourists. In almost all cases the type of crime is simply petty theft – stealing a camera that was left on a table while someone went to the bathroom, or lifting a wallet out of someone’s back […]

Prior to visiting Barcelona for my first time this year, I had no idea who Antoni Gaudi was. But after spending a few days in Barcelona visiting architectural sites, it’s pretty clear what a revolutionary architect he was. Park Güell Antonia Guadi was a Catalan architect whose various works in Spain have become extremely important, and draw huge crowds of tourists each day. While not entirely appreciated when he was alive, several of his works have now been classified as Unesco World Heritage Sites and he is one of Spain’s most revered architects. The first of his creations we went to visit was Park Güell. Our apartment was close enough Park Güell to walk to, but the nearest Metro station is Lesseps. Even from there though be prepared to walk for about 20 minutes, with the last part uphill. But don’t worry, the park is well worth the hike. Inside […]

One of the most impressive geological formations in the world are the Cliffs of Moher located in County Claire, Ireland. Located approximately an hour drive away from Galway, it’s an easily accessible location in the beautiful Burren region of Ireland, which has an eerie resemblance to a moonscape. I visited the Cliffs once in 2011, but unfortunately it was foggy and didn’t make for very nice photos. Thankfully I got a chance to go back again yesterday and got to see the Cliffs of Moher with much better sunshine this time. If you’re going to visit the Cliffs of Moher, I recommend giving yourself a window of a few days so you optimize your chances of having nice weather for your visit. When it is cloudy and foggy the view isn’t nearly as impressive, so definitely hold out for a bit of sun if you can. Near the highest point […]

I’ve been bouncing around Galway for a week now, and one thing that surprises me compared to a lot of other countries I have visited is how hard it is to find free WiFi. Lots of places seem to offer it on the internet, but when you actually show up to use it you typically only get 20 minutes for free via BitBuzz or Boingo. As someone who typically works remotely as I am travelling, 20 minutes just doesn’t cut it. Thankfully I found a pub in completely free WiFi in Galway: The Front Door. So while I typically prefer to spend my days working in coffee shops, for the time being I’m upgrading to beer-filled days due to the free WiFi here. So if you are visiting Galway and looking for a place to sit down for a bit and get reconnected with people back home, or possibly even […]

Back in high school I signed up to take English Literature, which for me at the time was a rather unusual departure. One of the reasons I decided to take the plunge was due to the rather passionate sales pitch by the teacher at the time, Mr. Chadsey. As it turns out, it was one of my most enjoyable courses ever, and many of the poems and prose I read at the time has stayed with me throughout most of my adult life. One play we read at the time was The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. Due to the controversial (at least at the time) life of Oscar Wilde, the play didn’t get performed much while he was alive. But it’s become a bit of a classic since that time, and he’s now recognized as an important playwright. It turns out that Oscar Wilde was Irish, something […]

Many people don’t realize that if they are in another country that they will often have to pay for all their medical expenses out of their own pocket. A simple visit to a doctor’s office probably won’t set you back too far in most countries, but being hospitalized can potentially bankrupt a person in certain parts of the world, such as the United States. I had a friend who got into a scooter accident in Thailand years ago, and only avoided hefty medical bills thanks to the travel health insurance he purchased before leaving Canada. So without a doubt one of the first items that should be on everyone’s to-do list for an upcoming trip is to either insure that you have adequate travel health insurance for your trip, or purchase travel insurance before leaving. Check For Pre-existing Coverage If you have a higher end credit card, often one that […]

Anyone who has flown across a few time-zones knows just how inconvenient jet lag can be be. You either arrive in a new destination exhausted, often unable to sleep, or find yourself walking around a new location in the middle the day like a zombie. Fundamentally jet lag occurs because your body’s internal clock is out of sync with the time in the new location after you arrive. While you can observe jet lag whenever you cross a time zone or two, it’s usually more prevalent when flying between continents. The worse jet lag I ever had was coming back to Canada from Ireland a few years ago. While normally I just feel a bit groggy for a few days, that trip caused me to feel absolutely crappy for more than a week. I would have the urge to sleep during the day, and spent most of the night tossing […]

One of the first items I try to tackle whenever I hit a new country is to get a pay as you go SIM for my iPhone. If you are on a budget it’s something that you may not want to do, but I find having data on my phone invaluable for various reasons. Last time I was in Ireland, I opted for a Vodafone SIM card for my iPhone. I remember at the time it was reasonably priced and gave me 100MB or so of data. Since I was going to be in Ireland for a month though, I wanted to have more data. I look at Vodafone’s pricing, but it started at around 40 Euros for the month for 1GB worth of data. A friend of mine recommended O2 instead, so as soon as I arrived in Galway I went down to the O2 office to price out […]

Last year while in Paris I decided to head down to the Louvre, one of the finest museums of art in the world. While there are several masterpieces there, one of the most valuable paintings in the world in also displayed inside the Louvre: The Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa, or La Gioconda, is a painting by Leonardo da Vinci, and is thought to be a painting of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo. Part of the painting’s appeal is the beautiful Tuscan background and the enigmatic pose of Lisa in the painting. Prior to viewing it last year, I decided to do a quick Google search to read about the Mona Lisa’s history. One interesting tidbit of information that I found was that another version of the Mona Lisa had been recently discovered by a museum in 2012. The owners of this painting previously thought that the […]